Haute 100: John Arrillaga, Isha & Asim Abdullah, Nancy Bechtle, Carl Berg and more

We launched Haute Living San Francisco in January 2009, and, since that time, we have been compiling our Haute 100 list for the Bay Area. We are proud to release this ranking to our readers. These are our picks for the region’s most important entrepreneurs, thinkers, entertainers, creators, philanthropists, socialites, power couples, and, of course, billionaires. See if you made the cut; if not, there is always next year, when we will revise the list with the biggest names of 2011.

Isha & Asim Abdullah
Category: Power Couples
Company: Emanuel Ungaro
Industry: Fashion
What Makes Them Haute: He is a former Silicon Valley tech titan who now owns Ungaro, which has been honored as one of the 10 official haute couture houses in the past, and she is an M.D., nephrologist, and philanthropist. Together, they are one of the Bay Area’s most prominent and stylish couples.

John Arrillaga
Category: Billionaires
Company: Peery-Arrillaga
Industry: Real Estate
What Makes Him Haute: He is one of the biggest real estate power players in the history of Silicon Valley. He and his partner Richard Peery made office space out of farmlands back in the 60s and gave birth to entire cities like Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Today, tech titans at Google have him and Peery to thank for the headquarters (aka Googleplex) that hundreds of staff members so famously call home. In 2006, Peery-Arrillaga sold 119 Silicon Valley buildings for $1.1 billion to RREEF, owned by Deutsche Bank. He is also one of Stanford’s major benefactors.

Carol Bartz
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Yahoo!
Industry: Technology
What Makes Her Haute: She’s been serving as the CEO and director of Yahoo! since 2006. Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, Yahoo! is one of the most enduring brands to come out of Silicon Valley. Bartz is focused on small acquisitions and opportunities for Yahoo! to open up to new demographics.

Steve Jr. & Riley Bechtel
Category: Billionaires
Company: Bechtel Corp
Industry: Engineering
What Makes Them Haute: The Bechtel family name can be linked to some of the greatest man-made projects of the century. (Think the Hoover Dam, the largest civil engineering project in U.S. history.) Currently, Riley is leading the multibillion-dollar corporation as the chief executive, while his father, Steve Jr. serves as the chairman emeritus, a partnership tradition established a generation before between Steve Sr. and son. Notable projects that have the Bechtel stamp include the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, a project that set new standards for commuter rail systems; the Channel Tunnel, connecting England and France beneath the English Channel; and the Hong Kong International Airport.

Nancy Bechtle
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation
Industry: Finance
What Makes Her Haute: She is a giant among men in the arts and financial industries in San Francisco. In the business world, she made her name known at the Charles Schwab Corporation, but her official titles and responsibilities have been many, including CEO of Sugar Bowl Ski Resort; president and CEO of the San Francisco Symphony; CEO of J. R. Bechtle & Co.; vice chairman of Charles and Helen Schwab Family Foundation; and vice chairman of the National Park Foundation.

Carl Berg
Category: Billionaires
Company: Mission West Properties
Industry: Real Estate
What Makes Him Haute: Berg, chairman and CEO of Mission West Properties, bought the real estate investment trust in 1997, which now manages 8 million square feet across 100 properties. He unsuccessfully tried to sell in 2007 for $1.8 billion before the real estate market collapsed. He is also a venture capitalist, one of the billionaire principals of Berg & Berg Enterprises and Berg & Berg Developers, and his résumé of tech industry investments includes names like MoSys, Inc, Valence Technologies, Focus Enhancements, LynuxWorks, Hancock Fabrics, Inc.

Gina Bianchini
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Ning
Industry: Technology
What Makes Her Haute: Bianchini is CEO of Ning, an online platform for people to create their own social networks. Today, Ning houses more than 1.5 million networks, with 4,500 new ones created everyday. Bianchini also co-founded Harmonic Communications and worked as director of business development and investor relations at CKS Group. Early in her career, she served as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Willie Brown
Category: Thinkers
Company: Willie Brown Jr. Institute on
Politics & Public Service
Industry: Politics
What Makes Him Haute He was the first person to grace the cover of Haute Living San Francisco. The New York Times once dubbed Willie Brown—one of the city’s most notable mayors and a member of the state assembly for more than 30 years—one of the country’s most powerful state legislators. No politician dominated California longer or more completely than Willie. No politician was more flamboyant. And if you measure a man by the enormity of his progressive impact on the world, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown is undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary men in the City by the Bay.

John Buchanan Jr.
Category: Thinkers
Company: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Industry: Art
What Makes Him Haute: As director of the FAMSF, Buchanan oversees both the de Young Museum and the Legion of Honor, which comprise the largest public arts institution in the city and one of the largest art museums in the United States.

John T. Chambers
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Cisco Systems
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: Chambers is the proud CEO and chairman of Cisco Systems. What does he have to be so proud about? How about the financial growth that he has helmed since 1991 when the company was valued at $70 million. In early February, the Wall Street Journal reported that for the second fiscal quarter, Cisco’s profit was up from 2009, ringing in at $1.85 billion. But it’s not just his ability to bring in the green that makes Chambers haute. His deep commitment to philanthropy has been nationally recognized. He was the first recipient of the Clinton Global Citizen Award, received the top corporate social responsibility award from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship, and the Excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Award, from C-level peers.

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.

Roberta Economidis
Category: Thinkers
Company: Georgopoulos & Economidis
Industry: Law
What Makes Her Haute: Economidis has been a fixture in California law since the early 1990s. Today she is a partner in the law firm Georgopoulos & Economidis specializing in corporate, business, and criminal law. In addition to her stellar professional career, Roberta is active in the San Fran community with former and current titles like chair of the Board of Governors of the City Club of San Francisco, chair of the San Francisco—Thessaloniki Sister City Committee, and chair of the Advisory Council of Symphonix

Larry Ellison
Category: Billionaires
Company: Oracle
Industry: Software
What Makes Him Haute: We can sum up his haute factor in one word: Oracle. The billionaire entrepreneur is CEO of the software company and counts the likes of Steve Jobs as a weekend pal. Another way to impart the magnitude of Ellison’s hauteness: he ranked No. 4 on Forbes’ list of world billionaires in 2009 with an estimated net worth of $22.5 billion. He is also an avid yachting enthusiast and the owner of a 453-foot superyacht called the Rising Sun as well as a 90-foot trimaran. His BMW Oracle Racing team, representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club, brought the America’s Cup back to the states in February 2010.

Archie Aldis “Red” Emmerson
Category: Billionaires
Company: Sierra Pacific
Industry: Lumber
What Makes Him Haute: He might be one of the most dressed-down billionaires on our list, possibly because he is in the business of cutting down trees. Time spent in the woods can do that to a person. As of 2009, his company, Sierra Pacific, owned 1.7 million acres of forestland in California and Washington, holdings that allowed it to take the title as the second-largest producer of lumber by volume in the U.S.

Caterina Fake & Stewart Butterfield
Category: Power Couples
Company: Flickr
Industry: Technology
What Makes Them Haute: Fake is an art director; Butterfield is a Web designer. The two of them are hailed as Web 2.0 geniuses, thanks to their photo-sharing site Flickr, which they launched in 2004 without a dime of investments from venture capitalists. Just 16 months later, Yahoo! wrote a check to the power couple to the tune of $30 million. More recently, gamers are holding their breaths in anticipation of Glitch, Butterfield’s collaboration for a new online game, and Fake launched Hunch.com, a site that will offer a recommendation to a dilemma after the user answers 10 questions or less. Is that haute? Yes.

Maria Manetti Farrow
Category: Socialites
Industry: Fashion
What Makes Her Haute: The Italian sophisticate has an eye for what is haute, so much so that when she arrived in the U.S., Aldo Gucci offered Maria the marketing division of Gucci small accessories collections throughout North America, which she ran for 10 years, before moving on to Fendi and Mark Cross. She has been involved with the San Francisco Opera since the early 1980s, and her Russian Hill co-op served as the setting for an event a few days before the 2009 Opening Night Gala, where lucky women were able to get a peek at the exclusive collection of Boucheron, one of the Opera Gala’s sponsors.

David Filo
Category: Billionaires
Company: Yahoo!
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: Co-founder of Yahoo! should be enough to sum it up. New adventures are on the horizon for this Haute 100 member, though, as reports in early February indicated that David Filo has intentions of selling up to two million shares of common stock over the course of a year on the open market starting in May 2010.

Doris Fisher
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: The Gap
Industry: Retail & Art
What Makes Her Haute: Along with her late-husband Donald, Doris opened up the first Gap store in 1969 in San Francisco. She later went on to expand her brand to include Old Navy, Baby Gap, and Banana Republic. She and Donald amassed quite the modern and contemporary art collection, and she is working with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on securing a museum space to showcase the works to the public.

John J., Robert, & William Fisher
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: The Gap
Industry: Retail
What Makes Them Haute: These three brothers are the heirs to the Gap fortune. Their parents, the aforementioned Doris and her late husband Donald, founded the denim company in 1969 in San Francisco, and passed 50 percent control over to the sons in 2004. The empire includes Banana Republic, Gap, Gap Kids, Old Navy, and has afforded the sons the wealth for each of them to be listed separately on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, but no longer in the billionaire category. John also owns a minority stake in Oakland A’s baseball team.

Kenneth Fisher
Category: Thinkers
Company: Fisher Investments
Industry: Finance
What Makes Him Haute: Founder, chairman, and CEO of Fisher Investments, a multibillion-dollar money management firm headquartered in Woodside, Fisher is obviously an expert on finances. So it makes sense that he has been a columnist for Forbes for nearing three decades. He’s also the author of six books, including the New York Times bestseller How To Smell a Rat. Fisher has written dozens of research papers in the field of behavioral finance, and his theoretical work identifying and testing price-to-sales ratios made groundbreaking strides in defining and using PSRs as a financial forecasting tool.

Stanlee Gatti
Category: Creators
Company: Stanlee R. Gatti Designs
Industry: Event Designs
What Makes Him Haute: We first introduced readers to Stanlee Gatti for our inaugural issue in January 2009, but he has been such a staple of high-society events in San Francisco that he needed little introduction. He is the premier event designer in town. His resume is chock-full of some of the most well-respected names and brands the world over that have called on him for their grand-scale fetes, including Mikhail Gorbachev, Armani, Arista Records, Elton John, Gordon Getty, and all of the San Francisco cultural institutions.

Gordon Getty
Category: Billionaires
Company: Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation.
Industry: Venture Capitalism
What Makes Him Haute: This Haute Living San Francisco cover feature is the son of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. Among a variety of professions, Getty is a classical music composer. His unmatched eye for sound investments ultimately led to the creation of one of the region’s most celebrated wine brands—PlumpJack, whose latest venture is CADE Winery. The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, which he runs with his wife, gives generously to music programs (underwriting programs of the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Symphony), and Gordon is noted as one of the nation’s most generous philanthropists.

Vanessa Getty
Category: Socialites
Industry: Philanthropy
What Makes Her Haute: She married into the Getty family fame with her 1999 nuptials to Bill Getty in Napa Valley. Vanessa Getty is beautiful and sophisticated and for many years was hailed as the queen of San Francisco’s charity circuit. She still is a leader in high society, only now she shares her throne with other San Francisco socialites. For a glimpse of how high her reach extends, she co-chaired the highly anticipated re-opening of the Chanel boutique on Maiden Lane last November, an event that had connoisseurs of the luxury lifestyle coming out in droves.

Richard Goldman
Category: Philanthropists
Company: Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund
Industry: Philanthropy
What Makes Him Haute: Amassing wealth and then using it to save the world is what makes Richard Goldman one haute philanthropist. 2009 marked the 20th anniversary of the Goldman Environmental Prize, and Al Gore came to San Francisco on Earth Day to award the six recipients with this top honor that recognizes activists for significant efforts to protect the environment, often at great personal risk. Each winner receives an award of $150,000, the largest award in the world for grassroots environmentalists.

Denise Hale
Category: Socialites
What Makes Her Haute: Born as Danica (Dusica) Radosavljevic in Serbia, Hale has been one of the Grande Dames of society since long before today’s leading ladies were fantasizing about the designs of their debutante gowns. In fact, she may have taught today’s charity circuit queens a thing or two about how to rule. Ann Getty, Nancy Pelosi, and Michael Tilson Thomas are at the top of her list of favorite friends, while her husbands have included a wealthy Italian businessman, film director Vincente Minnelli, and Prentis Cobb Hale, the department-store mogul and a staple of San Francisco high society in his own right. She has an art collection that belongs in museums, and a wardrobe that does as well—she is often included on international best-dressed lists.

Alexandra & Brian Hall
Category: Power Couples
Company: Airship Ventures
Industry: Aerospace
What Makes Them Haute: The Halls founded Airship Ventures, the first firm to offer public blimp rides (for around $500 per hour) in 2008 with $8 million in funding. Their customers can experience the Bay Area from a few hundred feet up in a quiet, luxury environment.

H. William Harlan
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Harlan Estate, Meadowood Napa Valley, BOND Estates
Industry: Wine and Hospitality
What Makes Him Haute: He is one of the most respected men in Napa Valley. The former real estate developer came to Napa Valley in search of the ideal land to create a world-class wine, and discovered Meadowood, which was founded in 1964 as a private club. While it wasn’t what he was looking for in a winery, he saw potential for the property to become a center for life in Napa Valley, which he created. He continued his quest for the perfect plot for his winery and found it in a hillside estate in Oakville, now home to Harlan Estate, which has never produced more than 2,000 cases in a year, making it a cult classic. His latest venture, BOND Estates, is a portfolio of wines from various vineyard sites across Napa Valley that represent the very best of Napa Valley, as does Harlan himself.

William Randolph Hearst III
Category: Billionaires
Company: Hearst Corporation
Industry: Media
What Makes Him Haute: There is little that can be said about the background of William Randolph Hearst—the first, second, and third—that has not been covered countless time already. William III is haute because the Hearst family name is an undying part of American history books. His grandfather was a publishing legend and his father was a U.S. Senator who became owner of the San Francisco Examiner thanks to a lucky hand of poker. He is one of the anointed few that are affiliated with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which he joined in 1995. For the decade before that, he spent his days as the editor and publisher of the Examiner.

John Hummer
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Industry: Venture Capitalism
What Makes Him Haute: A six-year stint in the NBA put John Hummer in the spotlight at an early age. After retiring from the Seattle Supersonics in 1976, he did not shy away from the splendors of success. In 1982, he found his next profession: venture capitalism. In 1989, he partnered with Ann Winblad and Mark Gorenberg to start up Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, which invests solely in software companies.

Sallie Huntting
Category: Socialites
Company: Academy of Art University
Industry: Public Relations
What Makes Her Haute: She has worn many hats throughout her lifetime, all of them from luxury labels, we’re sure. Huntting, daughter of one of IBM’s original engineers, has modeled, produced fashion events, and taught at the Academy of Art University before moving on to work as its executive vice president of public relations, at the request of Dr. Elisa Stephens. Oh, and don’t forget about her philanthropic efforts, chairing more than 45 fundraising events like Opera Ball and the Junior League Fashion Show.

Jess Jackson
Category: Billionaires
Company: Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates
Industry: Wine
What Makes Him Haute: Jess Jackson, of the Sonoma County wine label, released his first wine in 1982 and forged a path of success that resulted in a billion-dollar business, with sales of the Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay racking up to two million cases annually. Stealing Jackson’s attention as of late has been his award-winning racehorse Rachel Alexandra, the “Reigning Horse of the Year.” She is scheduled to square off against Zenyatta, an undefeated mare, for a $5 million purse.

Steve Jobs
Category: Billionaires
Company: Apple
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: You don’t need us to tell you the background about why he’s haute. What he’s been up to in 2010 to keep his haute factor relevant is the ongoing teasers, official announcements, and updates regarding Apple’s new iPad, with the WiFi model going on sale April 3, 2010 and the 3G version not far behind it. Only time will tell if Apple can once again deliver on its hype.

Charles Johnson
Category: Billionaires
Company: Franklin Resources
Industry: Finance
What Makes Him Haute: Charles Johnson is the chairman of Franklin Resources, which he runs with his half-brother Rupert, who serves as the vice chairman. The 2009 Forbes list ranked the Yale grad at No. 261 of the world’s billionaires, with a net worth of $2.5 billion.

Rupert Johnson Jr.
Category: Billionaires
Company: Franklin Resources
Industry: Finance
What Makes Him Haute: Well, pretty much the same things as his brother, except for Forbes’ estimates Rupert’s net worth at $2.1 billion.

Pamela Joyner
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Avid Partners, LLC.
Industry: Investment Banking
What Makes Her Haute: She put her hard-earned degrees from Dartmouth and Harvard to good use with a 25-year career as a money manager. But it’s not just her business smarts that keep Joyner in the Bay Area headlines. She is also a fixture on the social scene, hosting exclusive events for labels like Dior at her estate in Presido Heights. Some of her career achievements include serving as a founding partner of Avid Partners and senior advisor at Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.

Philip Kaufman
Category: Thinkers
Company: Walrus and Associates
Industry: Film
What Makes Him Haute: Kaufman is an American film director and screenwriter. His greatest blockbuster success was a film called The Right Stuff, a screenplay he wrote and directed. Although he is not widely recognized for directing a large number of films, the films he has worked on have received recognizable praise for exuding intelligence and independence. Many have considered the San Francisco-based Kaufman a risk taker, and the eclectic subjects he portrays in his films often incorporate satire and subtle humor that are synonymous with his artistic signature style.

Arturo Keller
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Keller Estate Winery and Vineyard
Industry: Wine
What Makes Him Haute: This noted Mexican antique auto collector first purchased a plot of land in Sonoma to build a large showroom for his vintage and classic racecars. At the suggestion of some neighbors, he planted a vineyard for aesthetic sake, and founded Keller Estate Winery and Vineyards. His passion for cars continues, though, and his collection of pristine prewar Mercedes-Benzes has received numerous accolades at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

Thomas Keller
Category: Creators
Company: Thomas Keller Restaurant Group
Industry: Restaurant
What Makes Him Haute: The James Beard Foundation named Thomas Keller Best California Chef in 1996 and Best Chef in America in 1997. In 2005, his New York restaurant Per Se received three Michelin stars. In 2006, The French Laundry in Napa Valley became the first restaurant in the Bay Area to receive three Michelin stars. That made Keller the only American chef (and one of two in the world) to hold two Michelin three-star ratings simultaneously. And don’t forget about Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, and Ad Hoc.

Vinod Khosla
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Khosla Ventures
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: Silicon Valley’s preeminent eco investor—named No. 1 venture capitalist by both Fortune and Forbes—Khosla invested more than $300 million of his personal fortune into start-up green technologies. Khosla was formerly a general partner at Kleiner Perkins and founder of Sun Microsystems. He created venture capital firm Khosla Ventures in 2004 to build businesses for the Internet, and the computing, mobile, silicon, and green technology arenas. In 2009, he announced that the Khosla Fund, one of the largest green tech funds, had raised $1 billion, and in January, luminary Bill Gates became an investor.

Michael Kim
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Cendana Capital
Industry: Venture Capitalism
What Makes Him Haute: Another mogul with a passion and a talent for the art of the deal, Kim has built a career and reputation in private equity investing. Rustic Canyon Partners is where he built fame and fortune, before forming Cendana Capital in December 2009. It is a next generation fund-of-funds investing in private equity, and Kim is serving as its advisory partner.

Omid Kordestani
Category: Billionaires
Company: Google
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: Another billionaire who has Google to thank for the bottom line of his bank account, Kordestani semi-retired as the senior vice president of global sales and business development. Some might argue it is Google who should be thanking him, considering that he brought in more than $10 billion in revenue in 2006. Today he is advising the execs and powers that be; he is listed on the Google management site as senior advisor, office of the CEO and Founders, which officially means that he is searching out new revenue sources.

Pat Kuleto
Category: Creators
Company: Pat Kuleto Restaurants
Industry: Restaurant/Design
What Makes Him Haute: Restaurateur Pat Kuleto is responsible for the design of more than 190 restaurants throughout the span of his career, including some San Francisco landmarks like Boulevard and Farallon. His latest projects—Epic Roasthouse, Waterbar, and Nick’s Cove—are the culmination of years of inspiration and dedication that redefine waterfront dining in San Francisco and waterfront hospitality on Tomales Bay.

George Lucas
Category: Billionaires
Company: Lucasfilm
Industry: Film
What Makes Him Haute: Based on the classic story of a young man’s battle with the forces of evil, Lucas’ Star Wars introduced a modern myth to a new generation. It also revolutionized special effects, forged new frontiers in sound design, and brought audiences to movie theaters in record numbers. In the late 70s, he established Lucas Films Ltd. in Marin County, a 2,700-acre production center and think tank. Here, at Skywalker Ranch, he presides over a vast entertainment empire (which includes THX, Skywalker Sound, and Industrial Light and Magic) that continuously expands visual and technological possibilities.

Nicola Luisotti
Category: Entertainers
Company: San Francisco Opera
Industry: Music
What Makes Him Haute: The Tuscan-born Luisotti began his tenure as the new music director of the San Francisco Opera in September 2009, and conducted four operas in his inaugural season. When he arrived in San Francisco last year, he was welcomed with open arms. He served as Civic Grand Marshal of the 141st annual Italian Heritage Parade, the oldest civic event of its kind in the United States, and performed for audiences numbering more than 40,000 in a free concert in Golden Gate Park and a free live simulcast of Il Trovatore at AT&T Park.

Anne Marie Massocca
Category: Socialites
Company: San Francisco Opera Guild
Industry: Fundraising
What Makes Her Haute: Massocca is the vice president of development on the Executive Committee for the San Francisco Opera Guild. Her reach in San Francisco’s high society extends well beyond that, with posts as the fashion advisor for the Junior League’s highly anticipated annual fashion show, which will be celebrating its 84th anniversary this year, and a myriad of other philanthropic instutitions throughout the city.

Marissa Mayer
Category: Thinkers
Company: Google
Industry: Technology
What Makes Her Haute: Mayer joined Google in 1999 as the company’s first female engineer, where she was one of the first dozen or so engineers in the entire company. She has worked on designing and developing Google’s search interface, defining Google News, Gmail, and Orkut, and launching more than 100 features and products on Google.com. Google has filed several patents based on her work in artificial intelligence and interface design. Mayer has also taught introductory computer programming at Stanford to more than 3,000 students, and she has received the Centennial Teaching Award and the Forsythe Award for her contribution to undergraduate education.

Patrick & Lore Harp McGovern
Category: Power Couples
Company: IDG
Industry: Technology
What Makes Them Haute: Lore Harp could be considered nothing short of a driven genius. She serves as the chairman of the Board of Associates for MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and serves on the board of advisors for a slew of other entities. As if that weren’t daunting and impressive enough, she is also a strategic advisor for various tech companies and is a director at filmsOn.com. Her husband, Pat, is equally as driven and successful and is considered the heavyweight champion of tech media execs. As chairman of International Data Group, he oversees a multibillion-dollar global empire that spans 90 countries and reaches more than 200 million people.

Teresa Medearis
Category: Philanthropists
Company: San Francisco Opera Guild
Industry: Philanthropy
What Makes Her Haute: Opera Guild director and third-generation San Franciscan, Medearis is armed with her masters in engineering management from Stanford, and she has held management positions at Hewlett-Packard and Price Waterhouse. She is active on a number of boards and committees throughout the Bay Area, and served as co-chair for the opening night gala of Macy’s Passport in 2003. Her two-year tenure as president of the Opera Guild ended last year, at which time she was asked to co-chair Opera Ball 2009, along with Adrianna Pope Sullivan.

Margrit Mondavi
Category: Creators
Company: Robert Mondavi Winery
Industry: Wine
What Makes Her Haute: The legendary Robert Mondavi transformed the once-dormant Napa Valley into the epicenter of American wine culture. But without the steadfast determination and devotion of his wife Margrit, the rest of the world would never have known. Margrit, who appeared on our cover in 2009, had a life-long goal of uniting wine with fine arts, music, and culinary artistry. When she began working at Robert Mondavi Winery just two years after its founding, it was in a position that today would be referred to as public relations, something that Napa Valley desperately needed.

Joe Montana
Category: Athletes
Industry: Football
What Makes Him Haute: Think of the San Francisco 49ers and undoubtedly the name Joe Montana comes to mind. Even some 14 years after his retirement, his impact on the game of football is still felt. Widely considered the greatest quarterback of all time, Montana was the soul of the San Francisco team for almost two decades, leading the 49ers to four Super Bowl games—and winning each one. These days, he is making headlines—and gracing covers of Haute Living San Francisco—thanks to his wine country estate, which first hit the market at $49 million.

Gordon Moore
Category: Billionaires
Company: Intel
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: Moore is the co-founder of the Intel Corporation, and ,since 1997, he has served as the Chairman Emeritus. In 2001, Moore and his wife donated $600 million to Caltech, the largest monetary gift ever given to an institution of higher learning. The library Center for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge is named after the tech titan, as is the Moore Laboratories building at Caltech. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, established in 2000, focuses on environmental conservation, science, and the San Francisco Bay Area with a goal of improving life for future generations.

John Morgridge
Category: Billionaires
Company: Cisco Systems
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: John Morgridge joined Cisco Systems, Inc. in 1988 as president and CEO (today he is chairman emeritus) and grew the company from $5 million in sales to more than $1 billion, and from 34 employees to more than 2,250. During his tenure, Cisco became the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, with more than $25 billion in revenues and some 47,000 employees in 77 countries.

Craig Newmark
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Craigslist.org
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: He’s the founder of the free Internet bulletin board site that played a big part in making newspaper classifieds a thing of the past. Last year, a report from a consulting firm that counted paid ads on Newmark’s network of sites estimated that the company could generate some $100 million in 2009 alone.

Jennifer Siebel & Mayor Gavin Newsom
Category: Power Couples
Company: City of San Francisco
Industry: Politics
What Makes Them Haute: When Newsom was elected to his current position as Mayor of San Francisco in 2003 at the age of 36, he was the youngest man to take on that role in more than 100 years, and he quickly made national headlines when he granted marriage licenses to same-sex couples after only 36 days in the office. He and his beautiful wife Jennifer, a former actress, welcomed their first child, a baby girl, in September of 2009. The First Lady of San Francisco supports a number of local philanthropies and institutions, and the couple can often be found attending the city’s highest profile events.

Beth Nickel
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Nickel & Nickel
Industry: Wine
What Makes Her Haute: Nickel is the woman behind four of Napa’s most celebrated wineries: Nickel & Nickel, Far Niente, Dolce, and En Route. She and her late husband Gil moved to Napa Valley in 1976 and began searching for the perfect properties to make world-class wines when they discovered a crumbling old stone building in Oakville, which they lovingly transformed into the current home of Far Niente, the most revered of the portfolio.

Larry Page
Category: Billionaires
Company: Google
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: Page has racked up a multibillion-dollar net worth since launching Google with Sergey Brin in 1998. He grew the company to about 200 employees before moving himself to the president of products in 2001. While the recent economic slip has reduced his overall worth by a couple of billion, Google is still the undisputed dominating force in the tech world.

Ken Paige
Category: Creators
Company: Paige Glass Company
Industry: Design
What Makes Him Haute: On a list dominated by tech titans and venture capitalists, Paige can read like a breath of fresh air. His eye for beauty translates into various categories, including art, design, and fashion. He is a well-known philanthropist, art collector, and CEO of Paige Glass Co., which has been in his family for three generations. In November 2009, Paige and his wife organized Millennium Towers’ “Icons Of Design,” the showcase of the four condos that make up the 10,000-square-foot 52nd floor of the skyscraper, in an effort to promote the building, San Francisco’s interior designers, and five Bay Area charities.

Paul & Nancy Pelosi
Category: Power Couples
Company: The United States of America
Industry: Politics
What Makes Them Haute: The Pelosis were on the San Francisco scene long before the 21st century when Nancy Pelosi was catapulted to a national stage, as she became the first female elected speaker of the House of Representatives in 2007. But she is only one-half of the haute equation here, as Paul Pelosi has made his own mark on the world, albeit in a different arena. In addition to family money, his career in the Bay Area as a financier and businessman brought more fortune to the Pelosi name. At the time of her historic appointment, the couple claimed a net worth that made her the ninth-wealthiest member out of 435 House representatives.

Tom Perkins
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Industry: Venture Capitalism
What Makes Him Haute: One of Silicon Valley’s pioneers, Perkins’ venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, was an early backer of Genentech, Netscape, and Google. He is now, or has been, a director of the following firms: Acuson, Applied Materials, Compaq, CorningWorks, Genentech, Hewlett Packard, Hybritech, LSI Logic, News Corporation, Philips Electronics NV, Spectra-Physics, Symantec, and Tandem Computers. Not one to slow down, when he turned 70 several years ago, he decided to build the biggest, fastest, most technologically advanced, single-hulled sailing megayacht in the world, the 289-foot Maltese Falcon, which he sold in 2009 for around $90 million.

John Pritzker
Category: Billionaires
Company: Hyatt Hotels
Industry: Hospitality
What Makes Him Haute: This heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune was a founding board member of Ticketmaster and Chemdex/Ventro Corporation. He also is a founding partner and director of Geolo Capital, a private equity investment firm with a focus on hospitality (Hyatt, Carmel Valley Ranch), entertainment (Local TV llc, Ticketmaster), health and wellness (Western Athletic Clubs, ClubCorp), and consumer products (Aidells).

Jerry Rice
Category: Athletes
Company: 127 Foundation
Industry: Football
What Makes Him Haute: Rice is the No. 1 wide receiver in NFL history. During his career, he won three Super Bowls, was elected to the Pro Bowl 13 times, and will soon be inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He’s got some moves off the field too, which he proved during his stint on ABC’s hit show, Dancing with the Stars. He recently put his family home in Atherton on the market (a different article in this edition profiles the property). His 127 Foundation, designed to support various children’s programs in the Bay Area, was re-launched in 2009.

George Roberts
Category: Billionaires
Company: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Industry: Finance
What Makes Him Haute: Roberts is one of the three original partners of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Company, where he amassed a net worth that ranks him amongst the wealthiest in the world. In 1989, Roberts led one of the most famous leverage buyouts in the takeover of RJR Nabisco. His involvement in the deal was profiled in the novel and movie Barbarians at the Gate.

Diane Rubin
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Novogradac & Co.
Industry: Accounting
What Makes Her Haute: She’s tireless. Not only is she the only female partner in the San Francisco office of her firm, she has been named one of the top 100 most influential accountants in America. The devoted wife and mother runs marathons and hikes mountains for kicks, and she also donates her time to worthy institutions, such as the Opera Guild, where she serves as the director of the Executive Committee.

Chris Sacca
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Lowercase Capital
Industry: Venture Capitalism
What Makes Him Haute: He was one of the first investors in Twitter. He also had a pretty nice role at Google as head of special initiatives, where he oversaw projects like creating citywide WiFi access in Mountain View, California. He left Google to launch his venture capital firm, and, based on his first bet in Twitter, he has the ability to back some winners.

Sheryl Sandberg
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Facebook
Industry: Technology
What Makes Her Haute: Sandberg is COO of Facebook, where she works tirelessly to help the free social networking site turn a hefty profit. She has the experience to do so; prior to her current position, she was at Google, where she built the AdWords program. She also helped launch Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org.

Jerry Sanders III
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Advanced Micro Devices
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: A champion of competition, Sanders, as co-founder and CEO of semiconductor manufacturer AMD, created the only real competitor to Intel. Before he stepped aside in 2002, for three-plus decades, he refused to back down despite odds and market share being stacked against him, allowing AMD to thrive while thousands of firms ended up in the tech graveyard. When IBM decided to not market desktops based on its own processors for Windows, AMD stayed. When Compaq and HP stopped making processors, AMD kept plugging away. While Motorola at times seems unsure in its commitment to desktop and server platforms, it was never a question for AMD. During the dot-com boom, when Intel suffered from supply problems, AMD grew market share from single digits to almost 20 percent.

Carlos Santana
Category: Entertainers
Company: Milagro Foundation
Industry: Music
What Makes Him Haute: He is an enduring musical legend with a career than spans decades. He got his start in San Francisco, and, while he is currently holding residency at the new Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, his Milagro Foundation, dedicated to making a difference in the lives of children, is based in San Rafael.

Eric Schmidt
Category: Billionaires
Company: Google
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: Schmidt was brought on board at Google in 2001, and he took the company public in 2004. The Google tri-chief oversees an agenda that continues to wield influence in the tech industry and rake in the dough. It’s moved into new markets (and into more direct competition with Microsoft) with the launch of a mobile phone operating system and an open source web browser. Schmidt’s also been busy integrating acquisitions into Google, such as YouTube. He currently sits on the board of trustees for Carnegie Mellon University and Princeton University, and is a member President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Charles Schwab
Category: Billionaires
Company: Charles Schwab
Industry: Finance
What Makes Him Haute: The man who famously brought Wall Street back to Main Street by undercutting the big brokerage houses in the late 1970s was also one of the first to bring investing online (on CompuServe, well before the 90s Internet trading frenzy). Today, Charles Schwab & Co. holds close to $1.2 trillion of client assets (the figure fluctuates as wildly as the market) and a $25 billion bank that stayed clear of the toxic debt that has choke-slammed so many other financial institutions, and Chuck himself is a multibillionaire.

Gary Shansby
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Partida Tequila
Industry: Venture Capitalists
What Makes Him Haute: He’s a private-equity-firm investor turned tequila entrepreneur who happens to have the priciest home on the market in Sonoma—a 362-acre spread that features a stunning 11,600-square-foot, Tuscan-style villa on a hilltop. He bought the completely undeveloped property in 1990 for a little more than $5 million, and transformed it into a lavish estate that boasts a pool, spa, a 10-acre vineyard with Syrah grapes, a two-bedroom guesthouse, and horse stables. It all can be yours for a mere $35 million.

Walter Shorenstein
Category: Billionaires
Company: Shorenstein
Industry: Real Estate
What Makes Him Haute: The self-made billionaire got his start in the real estate industry by buying properties in San Francisco after he was discharged from the military back in the 1940s. It was a sound investment; at one point, he owned around a quarter of all of the office space in the city. Today, he has some 29 million square feet of space around the country. He often makes national headlines for his astronomical deals, such as his $990 million purchase of two Manhattan office buildings in 2008. Last year, the entrepreneur, now in his 10th decade on earth, told his personal story as part of an oral history project conducted by UC Berkley. The lessons he imparts: keep your personal interest separate from your business; avoid get-rich-quick schemes; classroom learning can never replace real-world experience; be careful with credit; and be prepared. Always have a Plan B…and a Plan C.

Kavitark Ram Shriram
Category: Billionaires
Company: Sherpalo Ventures
Industry: Venture Capitalism
What Makes Him Haute: He’s called the Sherpa of Google not just because he wrote a six-figure check for its growth, but also because he was involved in the formation of the DNA of the company (he still sits on the board). The self-made billionaire started at Netscape, launched shopping site Junglee (sold to Amazon in 98), and then founded Sherpalo in 2000. Besides Google, he’s gone on to back Yodlee, Zazzle.com, and currently backs Indian and American outfits like Inkling and 24/7 Customer.

Charlotte Mailliard Shultz
Category: Socialites
Company: State of California
Industry: Politics
What Makes Her Haute: Shultz has served seven San Francisco mayors as chief of protocol and director of special events for the City and County of San Francisco. She’s so entrenched in the social scene that in 2004 California Governor Schwarzenegger appointed her as the chief of protocol. Her main duties are hosting foreign dignitaries, and promoting international trade and business as well as cross-cultural understanding.

Thomas Siebel
Category: Billionaires
Company: Siebel Systems
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: The self-made tech billionaire got his start in the industry as a salesman for Larry Ellison’s Oracle. But when Ellison opted against Siebel’s sales-tracking software, Siebel launched his own company. Siebel Systems went public in 1996 and eventually was sold to Oracle in 2005 for the astounding price of $5.9 billion, securing Siebel a personal $500 million. Today, Siebel is chairman of holding company First Virtual Group, which has interests in real estate, agribusiness, philanthropy and asset management. Siebel is also the founder of the Siebel Foundation, which vehemently supports education, health, stem cell research, and methamphetamine prevention.

John A. Sobrato
Category: Billionaires
Company: The Sobrato Organization
Industry: Real Estate
What Makes Him Haute: Sobrato’s Cupertino-based development firm specialized in commercial real estate. His company’s holdings include more than 11 million square feet of commercial space in more than 110 buildings and 7,500 residential units. He is a philanthropist in the Bay area, and, together with his family, he created the Sobrato Family Foundation.

Danielle Steel
Category: Thinkers
Company: Random House
Industry: Novels
What Makes Her Haute: There are more than 580 million copies of her novels in print, and each of her books is a bestseller.

Dr. Elisa Stephens
Category: Thinkers
Company: Academy of Art University
Industry: Education
What Makes Her Haute: Stephens’ grandfather started the Academy of Art University in 1929. Today, it is considered to be the largest landowner in San Francisco. Dr. Stephens is currently the University’s President. She has dedicated her career to expanding the school’s curriculum and making it more visible in San Francisco. She is working toward doubling University enrollment in the next 10 years.

Thomas Steyer
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Farallon Capital Management
Industry: Finance
What Makes Him Haute: Steyer is co-managing partner of Farallon Capital Management, LLC, which manages the wealth of a number of other high-profile and high-net-worth individuals on our list. It’s a position he has held since founding the company in 1986. The former billionaire (he fell off of Forbes list in 2009) got his start in the Risk Arbitrage Department of Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Norah and Norman Stone
Category: Power Couples
Company: Stonescape Wine
Industry: Philanthropy and Art
What Makes Them Haute: Pretty much everything. Norman and Norah may have one of the most impressive collections of artworks by Modern Masters like Koons, Warhol, and Prince adorning their Beaux-Art-style mansion in San Francisco and their white farm house tucked at the base of Diamond Mountain in the Napa Valley (where they operate Stonescape Wine). Recently the Stone’s built a museum-sized cave on their Napa Valley property and transformed it into one of the most impressive private art museums in the world. They are also dedicated philanthropists.

Adrianna Pope Sullivan
Category: Philanthropists
Company: El Peco Ranch
Industry: Philanthropist
What Makes Her Haute: In addition to her role as co-chair of Opera Ball 2009, Sullivan is an associate director of the Opera Guild. She brings excellent experience to the role; professionally, she is involved in her family’s farming business in San Joaquin Valley, as well as with the Carlisle Collection, a women’s fashion company based in New York. In addition to co-producing “Classical Action,” which raised more than $1 million for local AIDS charities, she is a vice president of Madera County for the Society of Pioneers.

Amy Tan
Category: Thinkers
Industry: Publishing/Writing
What Makes Her Haute: This Oakland-native’s first book, The Joy Luck Club, earned Tan the National Book Award and the L.A. Times Book Award in 1989. She followed up with a number of bestsellers, including The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, and Saving Fish From Drowning.

Peter Thiel
Category: Billionaires
Company: Clarium Capital
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: Thiel is currently president and the chairman of Clarium Capital’s investment committee, which oversees the firm’s research, investment, and trading strategies. He’s also managing partner at The Founders Fund. Before starting and Clarium, Thiel was chairman and CEO of PayPal, which he co-founded in December of 1998; four years later, it was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion.

Michael Tilson Thomas
Category: Thinkers
Company: San Francisco Symphony
Industry: Music
What Makes Him Haute: Thomas is Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, founder and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, and Principle Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Starting in 2004, Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony have embarked on a multi-tiered media project known as Keeping Score, which was designed to make classical music more accessible to a new, and youthful, audience.

Maxx & Trevor Traina
Category: Entrepreneurs
Industry: Technology
What Makes Them Haute: His official bio on HuffingtonPost.com, where he contributes as a guest columnist, credits Trevor Traina as a San Francisco-based technology entrepreneur, but he is also quite a fixture of high society in the Bay Area. He’d have to be, with someone like Dede Wilsey for a mother. And then there’s his half-brother Maxx Traina, the son of Danielle Steel and vintner John Traina. Maybe not quite as boldfaced on the social pages, but still a respected member of San Francisco’s elite.

Dede Wilsey
Category: Philanthropists
Company: Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco
Industry: Art & Culture
What Makes Her Haute: Her great grandfather, Herbert Henry Dow, was the founder of Dow Chemical. Her father was U.S. ambassador to Luxemburg and Austria, as well as White House Chief of Protocol under Dwight Eisenhower. Today, she is a prominent figure in the art and culture spheres of San Francisco, having spearheaded the rebuilding of the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. She currently sits on the boards of the San Francisco Ballet and the San Francisco Opera and is the president of the board of trustees of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Ann Winblad
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Industry: Venture Capitalism
What Makes Her Haute: The firm she co-founded was the first venture capital fund to invest exclusively in software companies. She’s been involved in entrepreneurship in the software industry for more than 30 years; in 1976, she co-founded Open Systems, an accounting software maker, with a $500 investment, which she sold six years later for some $15 million. She’s been consulted by some of the biggest names in tech, and serves as a director for Voltage Security, Krillion, Mulesource, and Star Analytics.

Anne Wojcicki & Sergey Brin
Category: Power Couples
Company: 23andMe & Google
Industry: Personal Genetics & Technology
What Makes Them Haute: He’s a co-founder of Google—need we say more? She partnered with Linda Avery to found 23andMe, a company that profiles personal genetics to help determine the role that genes play in everyone’s lives, with a goal of creating personalized medicine. Google provided a bit of the start-up capital for this venture.

Jessa Wu
Category: Philanthropists
Company: San Francisco Symphony
Industry: Philanthropy
What Makes Her Haute: Just before the start of the social season in San Francisco, we caught up with Jessa Wu for the September/October issue. 2009 was her year to shine as she chaired the San Francisco Symphony’s most important annual event—the Opening Night Gala. Her passion for classical music and penchant for fundraising events ensured the night was a smashing success. The Hong Kong native has called the City by the Bay home for almost 20 years and cut her teeth in the gala-planning process when she first became involved as an honorary chairperson of the Chinese New Year Celebration Concert in 2004.

Jed York
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: San Francisco 49ers
Industry: Football
What Makes Him Haute: At only 29 years old, he is the owner and president of one of the most storied and celebrated football franchises in all of the NFL—the San Francisco 49ers. (And also our youngest cover subject.) Since 2000, the team had been run by Jed’s parents, John and Denise DeBartolo York, who took over after the retirement of Denise’s brother, Edward J. DeBartolo Jr. The 49ers first entered the family by way of Jed’s grandfather Edward J. DeBartolo Sr., who purchased the franchise in 1977. Under the eldest DeBartolo’s watch, the team flourished into an NFL dynasty, and his son Eddie continued the trend during his tenure as president and owner. “The Team of the ’80s” won five Super Bowl championships during the decade and the early part of the following. Jed’s goal is to return the team to its former glory.

Mark Zuckerberg
Category: Billionaires
Company: Facebook
Industry: Technology
What Makes Him Haute: The Web 2.0 wunderkind designed the perfect vessel to make social networking appeal to the increasingly addicted masses; he actually made it useful for everyone, whether young or old, hip or geeky. At 26 years old, Zuckerberg represents tech’s next generation of connected users. It also helps that in 2007, Microsoft bought a stake in the company, valuing it at $15 billion, making Zuckerberg the youngest member of Forbes’ billionaires list in 2008, although he fell below the billion mark in 2009.

Andrea Zurek
Category: Entrepreneurs
Company: XG Ventures
Industry: Venture Capitalism
What Makes Her Haute: Once the first sales manager at Google, Zurek is a founding partner in XG Ventures, which provides capital for Internet startups. Even more haute: she’s a professional auto racer.