sharing great design with the world
“Of perhaps the ten people in the world I’d hire for anything, my number one choice would be Ilene Shaw. I mean it.
While I might consider myself a creative thinker, she’s creative, and then some. She not only takes an idea and builds on it, she makes it explode in a great way — adding smart strategy, a fresh approach, an attention-getting touch and a dash of something new!
She pulls the best from people with a warm smile and leadership qualities second to none.
I’m impressed with Ilene’s vast network across the spectrum, whether it be art, design, fashion, architecture, and home wares. She’s not a ‘six degrees of separation’ person, but more like ‘one degree’ from someone who is also someone.”
“Ilene Shaw has the rare combination of technical and creative thinking with her work. It stems from a passion and belief, and her level of standards are extremely high. Ilene has great integrity and respects others. She is able to enlist support for her work from CEO’s to junior coordinators. She is always the first to volunteer to lead a project and she consistently comes up with new ideas to support an organization’s mission.
In the course of my career, I have had the responsibility of board development, hiring senior staff, engaging expert consultants and arranging seasoned mentors for those in the early stages of their careers. In making those decisions, I always look for the person who most resembles Ilene. She is a true leader and innovator and I am proud to have worked with her and to call her a friend.”
“A most wonderful person!
Ilene is a true leader who inspires others through action, trust, respect and collaboration. She is also talented in many ways in the creative world, as well as insightful as to trends and future opportunities. She has excellent managerial skills, is able to delegate, and run wide-scale projects that take time, thinking and planning!
I have known Ilene for over 30 years (and we are still so young). I have worked with her all these years in various situations and projects. She has never disappointed me. She is diligent, conscientious and ‘compulsive’ to get things done... my favorite trait. Ilene is a person of great integrity, intelligence and ability to make sound judgements. She is warm, loving, conscientious, and giving.”
“I’ve known Ilene Shaw since 1996 when she accepted the position of Executive Director of the Worldesign Foundation; a 501c3 originated by the Industrial Designers Society of America, for which I was a long-standing member of the Executive Committee of Worldesign Board of Trustees.
She brought art and design industry dignitaries together and organized fundraising via stellar gala events that grew in size each year. She directed the Foundation and assisted the Board with ease. Her good nature and diligence successfully negotiated us through many tough spots with calm and grace; her passion and energy are contagious. Working with Ilene has been inspiring and delightful.
An important product of Ilene’s tenure was the successful execution of the Worldesign Summit on Education, built in coordination with the Kenan Foundation, a conference of over 150 international teaching professionals representing influential teacher education programs and policymakers.
In 2001, with Ilene’s insight and direction, Worldesign Foundation transferred its governance to the American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA), which now holds it in trust.”
“For over twenty-five years, I personally, and the organization to which I have been committed for over thirty years, have been the beneficiary of Ilene Shaw’s creativity, intuitive and ‘out-of-the-box forward thinking. The results being personally inspiring and bottom-line beneficial to the foundation’s goals and the pursuit of its challenging mission.
Ilene has accomplished all of the above with intelligence, patience, grace, integrity, impressive communication skills and a talent for understanding the need to always be flexible. After years of working together, I continue to find Ilene to be one of the most enterprising and gifted people I know.
She never loses sight of the desired result needed to commit, in many cases, limited resources to achieve the win-win needed and expected from DIFFA’s multi-faceted collaborations. Ilene has always been both generous and willing to, not only share her valuable connections, but make the connections. She pursues her commitments with passion and warmth combined with impressive organizational skills which has earned her the respect of all who work with her.”
“Ilene Shaw is the consummate professional. Over the years, we have worked together in a variety of capacities. Most recently, Ilene has served as a Senior Advisor to my company in the development of the CODAawards: Collaboration of Design+Art. In this capacity, she has helped us conceptualize and plan the awards program, created a list of jurors who are leaders in the design world, and connected us to a leading publication that has agreed to serve as the National Media Sponsor for the awards. Ilene's knowledge of and strong connections to artists and design professionals have been critical to us in the first year of this program. Her intelligence and creativity came through at every stage of development.
In 2007, she planned, organized, and produced The Artful Home Show for my company, The Guild, in which we filled the Puck Building in New York with room settings and vignettes featuring the products of artists available for sale.
Upon completion of this very large project, I wrote to her:
‘I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the absolutely amazing job you did for us in the planning, implementation and launch of our inaugural Artful Home Show. You continue to impress me, over and over again, with your abundant talent, organizational skills, good sense, diplomacy and fantastic design aesthetic.’ ”
“I have known Ilene for well over twenty years, and have always been impressed with her creativity, and intelligence, and her passion for design and all its related projects and opportunities. She has approached every project I know of with the highest integrity; she is organized and disciplined and completely collaborative.
Her personality and administrative skills inspire trust and respect and she leads by example. She sees the end picture and is results driven... all skill sets and ways of working that inspire colleagues, co-workers and subordinate staff.”
“Ilene Shaw’s most notable contribution was collaboration on the creation of Accent on Design … which became an important and differentiating element of the New York International Gift Fair.
Ilene’s design sense has been the inspirational source for all of her involvement with GLM company projects. She is creative and always maintains her good humor even in the most difficult circumstances. All of GLM staff members who work with Ilene enjoy the association with her and feel they learn from her wide-ranging consumer goods marketing expertise. We value our long association with Ilene very highly.”
“For the record, the latest Biogen success is the fourth of the Ilene Shaw extravaganzas that we have collaborated on with her and her team. I know that clients – MedLecture, E-Media and Covansys – were likewise very happy with the great work and results Shaw & Co! Productions delivers. Her enthusiasm, creativity and ability to produce awesome productions on time and on budget is a testimony to her and her people and she is ever the diplomat, always keeping a cool head and making all feel special and part of a winning team.”