Joan Chen
Category: Entertainer
Industry: Actress
What Makes Her Haute: Her film awards are many and the fact that she calls San Francisco home serves as a testament to our city. We first fell in love with Joan Chen back in 1987 when she sprang onto the American scene in the Academy Award-winning film The Last Emperor. She continued to make her presence known with projects like Heaven and Earth, Temptation of a Monk, Lust, Caution, The Home Song Stories, and The Sun Also Rises.
Ann Colgin
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Colgin Cellars
Industry: Wine
What Makes Her Haute: Ann Barry Colgin is a triple threat in Napa Valley. Not only is she a revered vintner, she is also a serious art collector and an avid philanthropist, and finds that all three play off of each other. Colgin Cellars, founded in 1992, produces ultra-premium reds that are some of the most expensive and hard-to-get cult wines. Colgin is also active with Sotheby’s Wine Department, volunteering her time and wit to head top nationwide charity auctions. Her powerhouse as a fundraiser is so renowned that New York-Presbyterian Hospital created the “Ann Colgin Award for Corporate Philanthropy.”
Ron Conway
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: SV Angels
Industry: Venture Capitalism
What Makes Him Haute: This prolific angel investor who took an early interest in Google has put his faith and his funds in more than 500 companies over the years. Some of the big name businesses that have counted Conway as a guardian angel include Ask Jeeves and PayPal, along with some of his more current charges like Digg, Facebook, Twitter, and Associated Content, Inc. No wonder the world knows him as the “Godfather of Silicon Valley.”
Phoebe Hearst Cooke
Category: Billionaires
Company: Hearst
Industry: Media
What Makes Her Haute: From the East Coast to the West Coast, the Hearst name needs little introduction, but the legacy of both George and William Randolph Hearst looms particularly large here in the hometown of the newspaper the family took control of in 1880. Phoebe Hearst Cooke, the 81-year-old granddaughter of the media mogul, has made a name for herself in her own right as a noted horsewoman and philanthropist. She is a staple on the Forbes list with her estimated net worth at one point totaling $2.1 billion. In 2009, the family went to court to have a judge appoint her twin brother and her son to act as conservators of her estate.
Francis Ford Coppola
Category: Creators
Company: Francis Ford Coppola Presents
Industry: Film
What Makes Him Haute: This Haute Living cover subject is considered by many to be one of the greatest American film directors of all time, with works like The Godfather films, Apocalypse Now, and The Outsiders under his belt. In the past 20 years, the five-time Oscar-winning director, writer, and producer’s résumé has expanded to include accomplished vintner, hotelier, restaurateur, magazine publisher, and cigar maker—an impressive array of fields that, he says, all come down to entertainment.
James Coulter
Category: Billionaire
Company: TPG Capital
Industry: Private Equity
What Makes Him Haute: James Coulter is one of the giants in private equity and is known for loving the art of the multibillion-dollar deal. He co-founded TPG Capital (formerly Texas Pacific Group) with the San Francisco headquarters under his leadership. Familiar company names that have Coulter’s fingerprints all over their financial accounts include Burger King, J. Crew, Petco, and Del Monte Foods. Most recently his group collaborated with CPP Investment Board for a $5 billion takeover of IMS Health, a health care research company.
David de Rothschild
Category: Thinkers
Company: Adventure Ecology
Industry: Environmental
What Makes Him Haute: It won’t be long now before this noted environmentalist (of the famous British Rothschild banking family) and his organization, Adventure Ecology, along with a crew of experts, scientists, and creatives, will sail from the San Francisco Bay to Australia on a 60-foot catamaran, dubbed Plastiki, made entirely of plastic bottles and recycled waste products.
L. John Doerr
Category: Billionaires
Company: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Industry: Venture Capitalism
What Makes Him Haute: 2009 was a big year for venture capitalist L. John Doerr. Not only was the billionaire investor named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, but he also was appointed to the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. His role? Provide advice to the president and his administration on the best strategy for returning America to its glory days of prosperity once again. With the Silicon Valley company Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, he has invested in Netscape, Google, and Amazon, and is a board member for the latter two.
Ray Dolby
Category: Billionaires
Company: Dolby Laboratories
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: His genius mind is what makes Ray Dolby haute. It’s one thing to be able to wheel and deal or use street smarts to make millions, but when one can parlay a scientific mind into a windfall of fortune while simultaneously transforming the way Americans experience sound, then they’re definitely haute enough for us. No. 296 on Forbes’ list of billionaires in 2009, Dolby was the inventor of the noise reduction system known as Dolby NR, who went on to co-invent audio and video tape recording. In 1965, he founded Dolby Laboratories to umbrella all of his future electronic inventions.
Clint Eastwood
Category: Entertainers
Industry: Film
What Makes Him Haute: While he’s best known for appearing on the Silver Screen, Eastwood also owns the extremely private, invitation-only Tehama Golf Club in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and is an investor in the Pebble Beach Golf Links.
