Ellie ter Haar: The Leadership Value of Bringing Different Strengths Together 

Some leaders measure progress in targets and outcomes. Others see it in the quality of the relationships that make those outcomes possible. In complex business environments, where strategy often depends on people moving in the same direction, the ability to connect, inspire, and bring different strengths together can be as important as the plan itself. 

That philosophy sits at the heart of Ellie ter Haar’s work as Founder of Conscious-Trader. A strategic leader and global connector, Ellie has experience as an executive member of several joint venture global alliances and brings a leadership style shaped by drive, passion, encouragement, and a genuine belief in the value of the people who share the journey. 

The idea of connection is central to how Ellie views both leadership and life. She describes relationships as threads in a tapestry, with inspiration, creativity, joy, and good people giving the larger picture its meaning. Her strengths include team and task leadership, innovation, flexibility, creativity, discernment, and the ability to translate vision into reality. These qualities come together in a professional approach that gives equal attention to ambition and the human relationships behind it.  

Her work also extends into new business development, where she focuses on generating capital from large-scale investors and moving businesses forward with creativity, compassion, and a sense of adventure. It is this combination of commercial drive and human connection that provides the starting point for understanding the woman behind Conscious-Trader and the perspective she brings to leadership. 

An Early Lesson in Possibility 

Entrepreneurship entered Ellie’s life early. Her mother died when she was six months old, and she spent much of her childhood with her entrepreneurial father. Watching him work taught her that hard work and determination could turn an idea into something real, even when there was very little to begin with. 

That experience continues to influence how she leads. She sees entrepreneurship as a form of alchemy, recognising possibility in something and having the persistence to bring it to life. Resourcefulness, determination, and a belief in what people can create together remain central to her approach. 

Profit with a Purpose 

Conscious-Trader grew from a simple conviction: a business can make a profit while still caring about how that profit is made. Ellie wanted the people producing its products to benefit from the business as well. 

Her work with women in Nepal gave that idea a practical form. They spent hours knitting, lining, and finishing each piece by hand. She wanted customers to understand the quality of the work behind the products and what the income meant to the women and their families. 

To Ellie, the story behind a product is part of its value. Conscious-Trader became a way to bring that story closer to the customer, pay fairly for the work, and create a business she could feel good about. 

From Idea to Everyday Execution 

An interesting idea, in Ellie’s view, only becomes meaningful when there is evidence that someone actually wants it. She begins by speaking with the people she believes the idea could help, often before everything has been worked out. Their questions can reveal gaps she has not considered. 

She then looks at what is required to get started, whether that means finding the first customer, sending the first shipment, or opening the doors. Breaking the work into practical jobs allows her to move forward while bringing in people with expertise in areas she does not know herself. 

Creating something remains enjoyable, but experience has shown her that success depends heavily on everyday details. Costs need to be understood, prices need to work, deliveries must be organised, and paperwork has to be kept up with. Those responsibilities require persistence long after the excitement surrounding an idea has faded. 

Trust Across Borders 

Ellie does not believe in rushing into business before getting to know the person on the other side. In Nepal, that has often meant sitting down for tea and talking. She values the informal conversations because they can reveal things that may never arise in a formal meeting. 

Whether she is working in Nepal, Finland, or New Zealand, she wants to understand who she is working with and what they need from her. Keeping her word matters, as does being open when something goes wrong. 

Years of travel have also made her question assumptions about how things should be done. She has learned to let go of some of those assumptions and to ask when she does not understand another person’s response.  

Knowing When the Business is Ready 

Her experience with investors and venture-backed businesses has taught Ellie that timing can determine whether a good idea succeeds. Believing in something does not necessarily mean the market is ready for it. 

Investors have encouraged her to look more closely at whether the results support her conviction. She wants to see repeat customers, figures that can sustain the business over time, and a team capable of running the operation without requiring her involvement in every decision. Without those foundations, additional money can disappear quickly without addressing the underlying issues. 

She has also learned to examine investors carefully. A high valuation can be attractive, but the relationship continues after the investment. If an investor expects the business to grow faster than it can manage, decisions may be made that would not otherwise have been considered. 

Lessons from Finnish Business Culture 

Ellie’s experience developing a product for a Finnish venture capital firm gave her another perspective on raising capital and communicating technical ideas. Her role involved explaining the technology to people outside the laboratory and helping them understand why it was worth funding. 

She appreciated the Finnish approach to business, where people were direct, avoided exaggeration, and expected claims to be supported. That environment helped the team when raising money. 

Customer conversations were equally important. The team needed to speak with customers while there was still time to make changes. Their difficult questions brought attention to issues that might otherwise have been missed and needed to be addressed before the project progressed too far. 

Staying Valuable to a Community 

Co-founding Hibiscus Coast Medical Centre showed Ellie how deeply a community can come to depend on a local practice. People arrive when they are worried or unwell, and some families remain connected to a practice for decades. That trust has to be earned and continually maintained. 

As the community changed, the practice had to reconsider what people needed and how it could respond. That meant reviewing services, staffing, and systems. Yet patients still valued seeing someone who knew them, listened to them, and remembered what was happening in their lives. 

The responsibility carried by staff was equally important. Some days were difficult, and people needed support, time, and recognition for their work. Ellie understood that how staff are treated ultimately affects the care patients receive. 

Keeping a Team Engaged Through Difficulty 

When circumstances become difficult, Ellie believes people need to know what is happening. She listens to their concerns and works with them to identify what can be done. There may not always be immediate answers, but there is usually a starting point that the team can agree on. 

She also pays attention to individual contributions, particularly when someone has made an extra effort or found a way around a problem. Acknowledging those actions can be easy to overlook when business pressures are high. 

When she continues to believe in the direction of the business, she explains why. Once a few problems are resolved and people begin to see progress, she has found that enthusiasm often starts to return. 

Rethinking the Meaning of Impact 

Ellie’s humanitarian work in Nepal changed her understanding of what meaningful impact can look like. She initially arrived thinking about what she could help build or organise, whether a school, water system, or programme. Working closely with women in Nepal changed that perspective. 

She needed to know them, understand their circumstances, and learn what they wanted for themselves and their families. Earning their own income gave them greater say in their lives and helped them keep their children in school. That experience led her to want Heavenly Himalayan to operate as a business that created regular, paid work around their skills. 

Her focus also shifted away from counting how many people had been reached. What mattered more was knowing the women, paying them fairly, and continuing to work together over time. Those relationships, she says, changed her as well. 

What Travel Has Taught Her 

Travelling through dozens of countries has made Ellie question many assumptions she once took for granted. Business practices differ across cultures, often because they are shaped by local ways of living and working. 

Her response has been to understand how things work locally before deciding how they should work. In Nepal, this has meant spending time with the people involved and discovering what is practical for them. Something that appears straightforward from a first-world country can become considerably more complicated on the ground. 

Travel has also changed the way she views her own difficulties. Seeing how other people live has put her challenges into perspective. She still needs to make a business work, but she thinks more carefully about what the business will mean for the people involved. 

Persistence, Patience and Knowing When to Change 

Ellie describes herself as persistent, and for many years her instinct when facing a problem was simply to work harder. Experience has taught her that additional effort cannot always solve an underlying problem. 

With Heavenly Himalayan, manufacturing in Nepal, exporting, paying tariffs, and maintaining stock in the United States required considerable work. Eventually, she began considering whether she could do more for children’s education by working directly with benefactors. She still cared about the same people, but she needed to reconsider the way she was helping them. 

That experience taught her to give things time while also recognising when she may be holding on because she has already invested so much. She has learned to step away and rest before making difficult decisions. Fatigue, she knows, can make it harder to see the available options.  

A New Chapter of Contribution 

Ellie is now writing a memoir, The Field of Aliveness, drawing on years of travel and what those journeys have taught her about herself and the wider world. Another recent milestone came with recognition at the Women Changing the World awards in Paris, where she received two Gold awards in Social Enterprise and Sustainability and a Silver award in the Humanitarian categories. The recognition has also opened opportunities to connect with high-impact people and explore more programmes in Kathmandu, Nepal, aimed at helping disadvantaged children access better schools. 

Recent mudslides in the Himalayan region have added urgency to that work. At the same time, Ellie is looking closely at another force reshaping everyday life. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into how people live and work, she is interested in what it may change about the way people think, work, and relate to one another.