Our People » Irwin J. Jaeger
Irwin J. Jaeger has been in the field of business management for four decades. He has helped a wide variety of businesses understand changes that impact their markets, and has provided solutions to numerous problems. A case study published and used by the Harvard Graduate School of Business, as an example of solutions employed by a company to overcome problems in marketing and finance, was designed based on Mr. Jaeger’s consulting work with major retail client.
Complementing his business management endeavors, Mr. Jaeger’s real estate development companies have acquired and developed commercial and industrial properties well over $150 million since 1982. Through innovative marketing techniques and effective management each of these properties enjoys substantial operating returns, as well as a large increase in market values.
Mr. Jaeger received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Administration from the University of Cincinnati, where he was awarded several honors for academic and leadership achievement. His MBA is from New York University where he graduated first in his class.
An active patron of the arts, Mr. Jaeger and has offered his services to a number of charitable organizations since the 1960’s. He has served as Chairman of the Southern California Counseling Center and the Far Eastern Art Council of the Los Angeles County Museum, as well as president of Big Brothers. Mr. Jaeger’s love of the arts and his desire to unite California’s different cultural groups though its children led him to co-found Inner City Arts in 1989. The non-profit art center uses the arts to bridge cultural, ethnic and language barriers and to develop the creative arts potential of inner city children which, in turn, builds their self-esteem and enhances their quality of life.
Starting in a second story loft in 1989 and concentrating mostly on the visual arts such as ceramics, ICA’s first studio served 550 children in industrial downtown Los Angeles. In 1994, ICA completed a $2.5 million capital campaign and opened a new building where today over 11,000 inner city children participate in numerous programs including Drama, Dance, Music, Painting, Drawing, Ceramics, Media and Language Arts.
ICA recently bought two new buildings and successfully underwent an expansion plan that has more than doubled its size, enabling it to serve more children in greater depth. These new buildings have been joined to form one spectacular building that rises from the downtown industrial area like a cultural oasis for the inner city children. The school is now in its final construction phase of the new children’s theater.
ICA’s innovative programs are widely recognized in American arts, education, business and philanthropic communities. In fact, since its inception, ICA has grown to become a vital force in the lives of thousands of children and a source of revitalization in the surrounding “Skid Row” area of downtown Los Angeles.
The underlying principle to Irwin Jaeger’s philosophy can be described by a single word – perseverance. He has always contended that success is not solely a function of luck, education or skill. Rather, success results from the willingness of an individual to apply all of these in the persistent pursuit of excellence.