Haute 100: New York City

The most influential people in the world’s most powerful city

Steven Cohen
CATEGORY: Billionaires
COMPANY: SAC Capital Advisors
INDUSTRY: Finance
What Makes Him HAUTE: Cohen’s hedge fund, SAC Capital, has 700 employees and manages $14 billion in equity. He’s come under tight scrutiny in the past few weeks due to the government’s recent insider-trading crackdown. Regardless, Forbes still ranks Cohen #32 in their list of richest Americans, with his estimated net worth at 7.3 billion.

Andrew Cuomo
CATEGORY: Thinkers
COMPANY: State of New York
INDUSTRY: Politics
What Makes Him HAUTE: On Jan. 1, Andrew Cuomo will be sworn in as the 56th Governor of New York. The Queens native is no stranger to NY politics. His father, Mario Cuomo was also Governor of New York and Andrew previously served as New York Attorney General. He currently has a five-point plan to build a “new” New York that will include stabilizing the financial problems, increasing jobs, and “restoring honor and integrity to the state government.”

Clive Davis
CATEGORY: Entrepreneurs
COMPANY: Sony Music Entertainment Worldwide
INDUSTRY: Music
What Makes Him HAUTE: With such titles as former president of Columbia Records, founder and president of Arista Records, chairman and CEO of the RCA Music Group, and chairman and CEO of BMG North America, Clive Davis certainly knows music. Currently CEO of Sony Music Entertainment Worldwide, Davis is credited with signing such classic greats as Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, and the Grateful Dead. After four decades, he still knows what it takes to make a hit. Sony has signed some of today’s hottest artists including Ke$ha, Adam Lambert, and the cast of “Glee.”

Alicia Keys and Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean
CATEGORY: Power Couples
INDUSTRY: Music
What Makes Them HAUTE: This musical power couple were married back in July, and welcomed their first child together, son Egypt, in mid October. She became famous for her gorgeous looks and standout voice, but her recent recognition has come with her charitable work, particularly her Keep a Child Alive foundation that provides help to families with HIV/AIDS in Africa. Swizz was nominated for three Grammy Awards in 2010 for producing, and just last month, was named NYU’s first Producer-in-Residence at the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at the Tisch School of the Arts. As NYU’s newest professor, he will help students in one-on-one sessions, group lectures, and songwriting critique. Swizz has plans to release his next album in 2011, which is fittingly entitled “Haute Living.”

Annette & Oscar De la Renta
CATEGORY: Power Couples
COMPANY: Oscar de la Renta
INDUSTRY: Fashion
What Makes Them HAUTE: He’s inarguably one of the world’s leading fashion designers. He received the CFDA lifetime achievement award in 1990, and twenty years later, he’s still going strong. His wife Annette is actively involved in various philanthropies and organizations within the community; she serves on the board of the Met, the New York Public Library, the Morgan Library, the Animal Medical Center, and the Engelhard Foundation.

Robert De Niro
CATEGORY: Entertainers
COMPANY: Tribeca Productions
INDUSTRY: Film
What Makes Him HAUTE: Arguably the finest actor of his generation, De Niro continues to release blockbuster hits, now acting as producer in many of the films he stars in. He has teamed up with fellow Haute 100 member director Martin Scorsese for the upcoming flick “The Irishman.” De Niro is also a force in Tribeca real estate and dining, owning such fixtures as the Greenwich Hotel, and the restaurant inside it, Locanda Verde.

Nick Denton
CATEGORY: Originators
COMPANY: Gawker Media
INDUSTRY: Media
What Makes Him HAUTE: He’s the founder of Gawker Media, which currently is the parent company to nine prominent blogs including the ever-popular NY-based Gawker.com. Other websites in this vast network include Gizmodo, Jezebel, Lifehacker, and Cityfile. The blogs in total reel in approximately to 17.5 million U.S. Visitors each month, which is more than even nytimes.com. In 2009, the company was estimated to be worth approximately $300 million, though that number is likely to increase in the coming decade.

Diane Von Furstenberg and Barry Diller
CATEGORY: Power Couples
COMPANY: Diane Von Furstenberg / InterActiveCorp.
INDUSTRY: Fashion / Media
What Makes Them HAUTE: She’s the president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and arguably one of the top fashion designers in the world. Von Furstenberg even has one of her famous wrap dresses displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Diller is a media mogul who currently holds the position of chairman of Expedia and InterActiveCorp, which is the parent of internet powerhouses like Match.com, Citysearch, and Ask.com. As of April 2010, their net worth was an estimated $1.2 billion.

Jamie Dimon
CATEGORY: Entrepreneurs
COMPANY: JPMorgan Chase & Co.
INDUSTRY: Finance
What Makes Him HAUTE: He is the CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase, whom the New York Times recently named “America’s Least Hated Banker.” Since the financial crisis, Dimon has been fervently trying to rebuild and revolutionize the banking system, using the opportunity to acquire Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. His hard work has paid off; JPMorgan Chase has just clinched the top spot in revenue earned from investment banking, beating out both Bank of America and Goldman Sachs for its second year in a row.

Charles and James Dolan
CATEGORY: Entrepreneurs
COMPANY: Cablevision, Madison Square Garden Inc.
INDUSTRY: Entertainment
What Makes Them HAUTE: Charles is the founder of Cablevision Systems Corporation, the 8th largest cable provider in the United States. Cablevision purchased Madison Square Garden back in 1994, and eventually spun off into a new company in Feb. 2010, under the name Madison Square Garden, Inc. The company currently has control over the Madison Square Garden arena and the three teams that play there (Knicks, Rangers, and New York Liberty.) Although the companies are separate, Charles’ son, James, remains the chairman of both companies.