Ryan Kavanaugh
Category: Thinkers
Industry: Entertainment
Company: Relativity Media
What Makes Him Haute: He’s the founder and CEO of Relativity Media, and a relative newcomer in the entertainment industry (he started the Company: in 2004). The company is known for financing and distributing some of the most popular projects in Hollywood and most recently announced a groundbreaking partnership with Netflix that will allow subscribers exclusive access to the company’s films only months after their DVD release dates.
Kirk Kerkorian
Category: Billionaires
Industry: Real Estate
Company: MGM
What Makes Him Haute: With only a high school diploma, Kerkorian is arguably one of the greatest business visionaries in the world. After serving as a fighter pilot in WWII he went on to buy and sell hotels, an airline, and sold and bought MGM studios three times. MGM Mirage owns more than half the hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip today, and last December, the 92-year-old invested in the $8.5 billion CityCenter in Las Vegas, a hub for shops, restaurants, residences, hotels, and spas.
Arnold and Anne Kopelson
Category: Power Couples
Industry: Film
Company: Kopelson Entertainment
What Makes Them Haute: The husband-and-wife business team boasts producing credits that read like a “Best Of Twentieth Century” films list. The Kopelsons are responsible for such historical films like Platoon, The Fugitive, and Outbreak, with a dozen or so other projects currently in the works.
Brad Korzen & Kelly Wearstler
Category: Power Couples
Industry: Development/ Design
Company: Kor Group/ KWIC
What Makes Them Haute: He’s the founder of Kor Realty Group and has of resorts, hotels, and commercial investment properties, including Viceroy Palm Springs and Viceroy Santa Monica, and Beverly Hills’ Avalon Hotel and Maison 140. His wife Kelly is a famed interior designer and appeared as a judge on Bravo’s Top Design. She is behind the award-winning interiors of her husband’s hotels, infusing the properties with her signature classic minimalist lines and old Hollywood glamour. She also has a line at Bergdorf Goodman, and for Groundworks at Lee Jofa and The Rug Company.
John Lasseter
Category: Thinkers
Industry: Film
Company: Walt Disney
What Makes Him Haute: The Academy Award-winning animator and chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney animation studios directs and produces. He is also the principal creative advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering where he works with a team developing ideas for Disney theme park attractions.
Tim Leiweke
Category: Thinkers
Industry: Entertainment
Company: AEG
What Makes Him Haute: Hailed as one of the most influential men in sports, the CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group was responsible for bringing David Beckham to the Los Angeles Galaxy, and the $2.5 billion L.A. Live entertainment complex to the heart of downtown Los Angeles.
Harvey Levin
Category: Thinkers
Industry: Entertainment
Company: TMZ
What Makes Him Haute: He’s the creator and managing editor of TMZ.com, one of the most famous celebrity news and gossip sites on the Internet and one of the most-cited entertainment news sources. Levin also produces and hosts the popular show, TMZ on TV, which features paparazzi videos from the day’s footage. Despite the website’s often disregard for celebrity privacy, Levin’s managed to create a reputable name for himself in the world of media.
Richard Lovett
Category: Thinkers
Industry: Entertainment
Company: Creative Artists Agency
What Makes Him Haute: As president of CAA, Lovett is responsible for adding a sports division to the company as well as earning it a reputation as one of the best (if not the best) talent agencies. Lovett himself represents some of Hollywood’s top earning talents including Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Steven Spielberg. It is reported that he recently signed 2010’s most bankable star, Shia LaBeouf.
Lee Maen
Category: Entrepreneurs
Industry: Restaurant
Company: Innovative Dining Group
What Makes Him Haute: He’s the founding partner of Innovative Dining Group, the restaurant group responsible for Katana, Sushi Roku, and Boa Steakhouse. The ever-expanding company just recently opened the newest Hollywood hotspot, Delphine, a French brasserie, and The Living Room and Station Hollywood bars at the new W Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard.
Nobu Matsuhisa
Category: Entrepreneurs
Industry: Hospitality
Company: Matsuhisa and Nobu Restaurants
What Makes Him Haute: The celebrity chef and restaurateur is known for his Japanese fusion cuisine that is the genius behind the Nobu, Matsuhisa, and Ubon restaurants, which can be found around the globe.
Gary Michelson
Category: Billionaires
Industry: Medicine
Company: Found Animals
What Makes Him Haute: Michelson found his fortune by licensing tools that are often integral to the completion of complicated back surgery. He then enforced his patents in two legal cases, one of which resulted in $1.35 billion settlement. He now uses his fortune for charities and is working on a solution for the large number of unwanted pets in the U.S., focusing on the Los Angeles area.
Michael Milken
Category: Billionaires
Industry: Finance/Philanthropy
Company: Milken Family Foundation /Milken Institute / Melanoma Research Alliance
What Makes Him Haute: Responsible for creating the market for junk bonds during the 1970s and 1980s, this financier spent a brief stint in prison for finance-related charges, and since his release has donated more than $1 billion to medical research. He currently has a net worth of $2 billion.
Leslie Moonves
Category: Thinkers
Industry: Entertainment
Company: CBS Corporation
What Makes Him Haute: As president and CEO of CBS, Moonves is in charge of overseeing all divisions of the company including CBS network, CBS Studios, Showtime, the CW, CBS Radio, CBS Home Entertainment, and more. Under Moonves’ leadership, CBS has continued to be the No. 1 network in the U.S. and launched several prime time hit shows like The Big Bang Theory. For 2009, he was awarded a total compensation package from CBS for $43.2 million, which is double of what he received in 2008.
Arte Moreno
Category: Entrepreneurs
Industry: Sports
Company: Anaheim Angels
What Makes Him Haute: When he purchased the Angels in 2003 from the Walt Disney Company (for a whopping $180 million), Moreno was the first Hispanic ever to own a major league team in the U.S. He’s signed star players like Vladimir Guerrero and taken the team to win American League West Division Championships in ’04, ’05, ’07, ‘08, and ’09. He’s increased the value of the Angels to at least twice of what he originally paid.
Doug Morris
Category: Entrepreneurs
Industry: Music
Company: Universal Music Group
What Makes Him Haute: The chairman and CEO of Universal is responsible for guiding the overall global activities of the world’s largest music company. He’s worked with some of the most popular and influential artists of the past four decades, including Bette Midler, Led Zeppelin, Mariah Carey, and The Rolling Stones. Morris serves on the board of directors of The Robin Hood Foundation and The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and is also a director of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Peter Morton
Category: Entrepreneurs
Industry: Hospitality
Company: Hard Rock Cafe
What Makes Him Haute: He’s the co-founder of the Hard Rock Cafe and sold the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel to New York-based Morgans Hotel Group for $770 million. His father is the founder of Morton’s, The Steakhouse, and his son, Harry, is behind the interestingly named Pink Taco chain.
Rick Mueller
Category: Entrepreneurs
Industry: Entertainment
Company: Live Nation
What Makes Him Haute: He is the president of Live Nation California, the largest producer of live concerts in the world, overseeing the company’s entire booking and marketing team in California. In SoCal, Live Nation owns and/or operates the Hollywood Palladium, House of Blues on Sunset, Wiltern Theatre, the Gibson Amphitheater, the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, and Hyundai Pavilion in San Bernardino.
David Murdock
Category: Billionaires
Industry: Investment/Real Estate
Company: Dole Food Company, Inc./Castle & Cook
What Makes Him Haute: This high school dropout made a tidy fortune in the real estate industry. Then he bought portions of Dole Food Company, Inc. and Castle & Cook. The two combined companies result in one of the largest privately held entities in the U.S., with 63,000 employees in more than 90 countries. Its portfolio includes development and ownership of real estate, leasing of transportation equipment, manufacture of brick and building materials, oil and gas holdings, aviation services, and ownership of public warehouses. In Hawaii the company also owns a significant portion of the 90,000-acre island of Lana’i and two award-winning Four Seasons Hotels.
