Ilene Marcus is not only a quirky, charismatic, dynamic speaker – she is a MOTIVATOR. For decades she spoke to CEOs and corporate teams because she can relate to them; she has 32 years of executive experience managing high-stakes teams and multi-million-dollar organizations. She is also the boss lady behind Aligned Workplace and works with Founders and helps early-stage entrepreneurs scale their efforts at Techstars.
The author of Managing Annoying People: 7 Proven Tactics to Maximize Team Performance, Ilene has been featured in Glamour, Fast Company, Readers Digest, Huffpost, Yahoo, and Entrepreneur.
After all that, Ilene has found her niche as a contributing author for Sixty and Me.
After years working with Team Leaders who wonder why they are so busy and yet still nothing is getting done. Ilene worked with them to see what is going on under the surface. Something is not aligned. Then she realized what she figured out for them, she doesn’t do for herself.
Now Ilene speaks to women’s groups, high schoolers, college students, civic associations, community groups, and new managers to get them motivated, moving, and out of their own way by facilitating conversations for action. She inspires audiences through keynotes and workshops, showing them how to use pragmatic strategies and emotional intelligence to overcome obstacles in the workplace (and in life).
Ilene’s mission is to transform negative environments with laughter and grace. No toxic positivity here – she shows audiences how they can face pain, hardship, and obstacles and come out on the other side smiling.
speaker reel
passion
It’s my calling to help others find joy. I grew up in a serious household, where life’s challenges often stifled my potential. I've dedicated my life to uncovering joy in every situation and helping others do the same. Having lived through more than six decades of experiences, I’ve learned that my purpose is to lift people up. By sharing my own hard-won lessons and fresh perspectives, I aim to help you see yourself as others do—giving you a powerful tool to transform your outlook, no matter where you are in life. Let's find the laughter, the silver lining, and the joy together.
origin story
Two weeks before my fifty-fourth birthday, I was fired. Yes, my name appeared on A-1 of the NY Times, the post and the Daily News. My boss, the CEO of an influential NYC non-profit, was caught embezzling and eventually sent to prison.
After thirty-two years of successfully managing high-stakes teams, I was collateral damage.
I had a daughter with another year of college expenses, a second home, and car payments. I was inching closer to retirement without enough savings. After facing cancer in my late thirties, I thought I was bulletproof. Now faced with the loss of my professional persona, my income, my daughter’s respect, facing cancer at 39 seemed docile. I had to dig down deep and think about who I was and what I had been through, and if there were any lessons or silver linings that I could cling to.