Moët Hennessy and Financial Times Club Dinner in San Francisco

Lionel Barber, Gavin Newsom and John Ridding

One of the most prestigious events to be invited to is The Moët Hennessy & Financial Times Club Dinner which has been held annually since 2002 in London, Paris and New York. Only 50 to 60 people are ever invited, with the guest list largely restricted to C-level executives from the most important companies in the world, usually in the business, finance, luxury and media industries.

This year, the first such dinner was held in San Francisco. One of the City’s best restaurants, Quince, was taken over for the June 10, 2010 event, joining an elite group of restaurants (Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris, the George V in Paris, and the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York are some of the others chosen for the august setting.)

Guests included Gavin Newsom (Mayor, San Francisco), Marissa Mayer (Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, Google), Mark Pincus (Founder, Zynga), Ali Pincus (Co-Founder of One Kings Lane), Hilary Valentine (Executive Committee, Room to Read), Don Valentine (founder of Sequoia Capital), Ron Conway (Managing Partner, Portola), Ali Rowghani (Chief Financial Officer, Twitter), Matt Cohler (Partner, Benchmark Capital), Jeremy Stoppleman (Founder, YELP), Bill Brady (Managing Director, Credit Suisse), David Sacks (Chief Executive Officer, Yammer) and Shelby Bonnie (Chief Executive Officer, Whiskey Media).

Mark Cornell, Carol Bartz and John Ridding

The evening was co-hosted by Financial Times CEO John Ridding and Mark Cornell, President and CEO of Moet Hennessy USA. Each dinner includes a star speaker, and this year it was Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo, who engaged in a lively interview with Lionel Barber, FT’s editor.

Carol Bartz and Lionel Barber

Previous speakers included Nicolas Sarkozy, Monsieur Yves-Thibault de Silguy (Presidents de Vincy), Sir Rocco Forte, (Chairman and CEO of Rocco Forte hotels), Rod Eddington (British Airways), Pascal Lamy (World Trade Organization), Willie Walsh (CEO, British Airways), Christine Lagarde (Finance Minister, France), Peter Peterson (Senior Chairman and Co-Founder, The Blackstone Group), and Jeff Bewkes (Chairman and CEO, Time Warner.)

Mark Pincus and Marissa Mayer

Ron Conway, Mark Pincus, Gavin Newsom

Jeremy Stoppleman, Trevor Traina and David Gelles

Ali Rowghani, John Ridding, Ron Conway and Don Valentine

Matt Cohler, Noah Kerner and Allison Speer

Shelby Bonnie, Richard Waters and Roger Barnett

Don Valentine, Ron Conway, Mark Pincus and Carol Bartz

Mark Pincus, Carol Bartz, Judy Flores and Ron Conway

Peter Svennilson, Fred Moll and Alexandria Albers

Ron Conway, Hilary Valentine and Don Valentine

David Gelles, Jeremy Stoppleman and Sloan Barnett