Ilena Parker

Ilena wandered into the Fahrenheit 212 offices with no expectations, and instantly felt profoundly at home.

After graduating in 2005 from the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in English, Ilena had only the loosest notion of what she wanted to do, so she decided to focus her decision on where she wanted to be, and promptly signed a lease for a flat in London. She spent the next three years living out an expatriate’s fantasy, while completing a Master’s degree in English literature at King’s College.

She then tackled the problem of cultural understanding in the workplace when she discovered that the English also have different names for office supplies, while working in administration and finance for a full-service theater marketing agency in London’s West End. Working with the Managing Director of this agency during a period of explosive growth gave her a unique opportunity to explore the challenges that a company faces as its business exponentially increases and the kind of support a company needs to face these challenges.

Ilena moved back to New York in the spring of 2008, expecting a difficult transition, but found a smoother course at Fahrenheit, where her unintentional (she swears) faux-English Madonna-like accent goes largely unnoticed. She is delighted to be starting her career at this cutting edge company where the creative energy and intellectual curiosity fall in line with her own interests, and is absolutely inspired by this space and the people who occupy it.