NEWH - Summer 2024 - 8

NEWS
Industry Luminaries Light Up the 2024 NEWH
Leadership Conference
Cheers to 2024 NEWH Pinnacle Award Honoree Anita Degen
The NEWH Pinnacle Award is given to a member who has contributed extraordinary time and effort to NEWH,
has been an NEWH member for a minimum of 15 years, has held an NEWH, Inc. International Board position for
at least one term, and has mentored four people in the industry, at least two of whom are women.
As cofounder and principal interior designer of Degen & Degen architecture and interior design, Anita Degen
and life/business partner Jeff Degen have focused their design practice on bringing creative solutions and
design excellence to all types of hospitality and resort projects worldwide.
Degan's career is built on diverse experience, including a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, corporate
experience working for Marriott, and major international design firms and boutique design while working in
Berlin, Germany. For 19 years she has been co-leading her Seattle-based team of stellar design talent.
Active in numerous organizations such as IIDA and the WA Lodging Association, Anita is most committed
to education in hospitality. She believes it is the key to the development and future of hospitality design,
evidenced by her years serving the NEWH, Inc. International Board of Directors, including her current position
as Executive Advisor.
Thank You to Keynote Speaker Clodagh
Irish-born, New York-based designer Clodagh delivered an inspirational keynote talk on Saturday, February 17th
at the NEWH Leadership Conference in Nashville. The famed multiple award-winning designer took attendees
through her life growing up in rural Ireland to becoming a couture fashion designer in Dublin, to seven years as
an interior designer in Spain, and finally launching her own design business in New York City.
Her multi-disciplinary international design company now includes important global hospitality and
residential projects, and she also has her own art consulting division and designs rugs, furniture, accessories,
wallcoverings, fabrics, lighting, and much more for her 20 licensees. Clodagh is best known for her " wellness
by design " eco-friendly tenets that began organically as far back as her childhood, when her parents raised
horses and other animals, grew vegetables and provided natural foods to the family, and to her couture fashion
days when she selected all natural and mostly Irish fabrics. Thank you, Clodagh, for enriching the lives of our
scholarship winners and hospitality leaders, who enjoyed your heartfelt and entertaining talk about how to
succeed and attain a life in balance!
Congratulations to the 2024 NEWH College of Fellow Inductees
Fellowship is bestowed on NEWH members who have made notable contributions to the hospitality industry, not only through their work but through their
demonstrated commitment to NEWH. Read more about this year's inductees at newh.org.
Anita Degen
Degen & Degen
architecture and interior design
8 newh.org
Ron McDaniel
Paravars
Leigh Mitchell
LHDS
Hope Quintanar-Case
Couristan Contract/Hospitality
David Tracz
//3877
http://www.newh.org http://www.newh.org
NEWH - Summer 2024

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