Strategic thinker.
Creative content mentor.
Mid-century modern collector.
Shane’s navigated the landmines of campus politics, launched new projects nobody thought could happen, helped institutions discover distinctive voices, dragged slow-moving projects across the finish line and helped push enrollments to record levels. He loves seeing the twinkle in clients’ eyes that says, “We are going to make this brand rock.”
At Zehno, he’s the bridge between the strategy and creative concept. He lobbies for bold projects that make competitor schools jealous and get clients noticed beyond our creative work, like TCU’s rise in the MBA rankings — an indirect benefit that resulted from everyone on campus living out the “stand and deliver” creative concept. At Kansas State University, he worked in-house with units across campus and basked in the glow of knocking Stanford off Newsweek’s “10 coolest schools” list when K-State launched a new admissions campaign that looked like none other in middle America.
Now Shane is back at K-State leading as the foundation’s senior creative director.
Through conferences for CASE, UCDA and AMA, he’s coached hundreds of institutions on how to improve their brands, publications, websites and marketing strategies, and received the CASE Crystal Apple award for outstanding teaching. His work has won 150+ regional and national awards from CASE, UCDA, Higher Education Marketing Report and Educational Advertising Awards.
His freelance work includes covering Sarah Palin’s hometown for the Times of London, writing celebrity gossip for Britain’s #1 teen magazine and editing a state bar association magazine (for lawyers, not drunks). You can find him at night sitting in an Eames chair, eating on Russel Wright dishes and marveling at his vintage Soviet posters. Think Mad Men — minus the cool wardrobe and chronic alcoholism.
Education
Postgraduate D.J.S., magazine journalism, University of Wales at Cardiff: Rotary Foundation scholar
B.A., journalism and mass communications, Baker University