Isha and 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 THEM HAUTE?
This Silicon Valley real estate mogul and his partner Richard Peery turned farmland into office spaces in the ‘60s, the current site of cities like Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Today, their firm oversees just less than 3 million square feet of office space, with high-powered tenants like Google. He is also one of his alma mater Stanford’s major benefactors. Arrillaga is worth an estimated $1.8 billion, according to Forbes, and ranks No. 242 on the Forbes 400.
Katherine August-deWilde
CATEGORY: Entrepreneurs
COMPANY: First Republic Bank
INDUSTRY: Finance
WHAT MAKES THEM HAUTE: She is the President and Chief Operating Officer of First Republic Bank. She is a member of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Advisory Council and the Stanford Center on Longevity’s Advisory Council. She is also a trustee of the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco.
Carol Bartz
CATEGORY: Thinkers
COMPANY: Former CEO of Yahoo
INDUSTRY: Technology
WHAT MAKES THEM HAUTE: Bartz, a powerful business executive, is the former CEO of Internet giant Yahoo and former chairman, president, and CEO of architectural and engineering design software company Autodesk. Both companies prospered under her leadership with her unique business strategies. She has also served on multiple boards of directors for notable companies such as Intel, Cisco Systems and Network Appliance. Her successful career has proven that women can dominate the business world.
Steve Jr. and 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, such as 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 Bechtel, Jr. serves as the chairman emeritus. 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: Business
COMPANY: Sugar Bowl Ski Corporation, J.R. Bechtle & Co., Presidio Trust
INDUSTRY: Business
WHAT MAKES THEM HAUTE: This is one busy haute lister. Nancy Bechtle was President and CEO of the San Francisco Symphony from 1987-2001 and was on its Board of Governors since 1984. She was the director and CFO of J.R. Bechtle & Co. from 1979-1998. She has sat on the Charles Schwab Board of Directors since 1992 and has been the director of Sugar Bowl Ski Corporation since 1998. Bechtle became a director of the Presidio Trust in 2008 and is currently the Chairman.
Carl Berg
CATEGORY: Billionaires
COMPANY: Mission West Properties
INDUSTRY: Real Estate
WHAT MAKES THEM 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 THEM HAUTE?
Former Ning CEO Gina Bianchini is one haute lister to watch. While she has since left the online networking platform Ning, it houses more than 1.5 million networks, with 4,500 created each day. 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. She is currently head of MightyBell, a social networking app that helps people get things done by breaking tasks down into steps.
Anne Wojcicki and 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. Google provided a bit of the start-up capital for this venture. Brin, who was president of technology at Google from 2001-2011, now directs special products. Google now boasts more than 30,000 employees across the globe.
Willie Brown
CATEGORY: Thinkers
COMPANY: The Willie Brown Jr. Institute on
Politics & Public Service
INDUSTRY: Politics
WHAT MAKES THEM 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 Brown. 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.
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