C-Suite Quarterly

VISIONARIES

Neil Jacobson Bruno Maglione Norman Pearlstine Joanna Popper Christine Simmons

HOME IS WHERE WE ALL ARE

The greatest upgrades for your kitchen and bedroom—plus retreats outside the city C-SUITE QUARTERLY LOS ANGELES | NEW YORK SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT Q3 2020

PLUS: An insider’s look at the reopen­ ing of exotic resorts; a guide to California’s tucked away wine country; the life and style of night­ life trailblazer Rande Gerber; the Hudson Valley’s latest chic retreat; a tour of a $324M yacht

OUR C-SUITE ADVISORS™: Why now is a good time to borrow; the uncertain financial futures of athletes and enter­ OP-ED Charles Schwab’s son, Michael, tainers; 12 reasons owner tran­ sactions are not successful; and on investing in his passion: a look at artificial intelligence adventure sports

Visionaries of the Year

MICHAEL LOEB & RICH VOGEL

Cover

Michael Loeb and Rich Vogel are a rarity: longtime business partners who still like each other. From their sale of Synapse Group to Time Inc. in a deal valued at more than $500M, to their work at Loeb.nyc, where they oversee 18 direct investments, this team is ahead of the curve

Burgess

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Features Q3 2020: Vol. 12 No. 3 Los Angeles and New York Sports, Media & Entertainment

OP-ED

VISIONARIES Los Angeles and New York 50 NEIL JACOBSON After leaving Geffen Records, Neil Jacobson is looking to rise to even greater heights with the launch of Hallwood, his own company dedicated to managing music writers and producers.

54 NORMAN PEARLSTINE Norman Pearlstine, whose distinguished five-decade publishing career includes top editorial posts at Time Inc., Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes, has led the Los Angeles Times into a new era.

40 ADVENTURE CAPITALISM At age 36, I took my father’s advice and started investing in what I love: surfing and adventure sports.

By Michael Schwab Founder and Managing Director, Big Sky Partners

52 JOANNA POPPER Joanna Popper is a virtual reality pioneer with an even bigger mission ahead.

VISIONARIES OF THE YEAR

60 58 56

TOC - Visionaries

CHRISTINE SIMMONS Christine Simmons says the best is yet to come in sports and entertainment when rooted in inclusion, pivoted in purpose, and built by the collective.

MICHAEL LOEB AND RICH VOGEL are a true rarity in the

06

media world: longtime business partners who still like each other.

BRUNO MAGLIONE IMG’s chief of licensing has arranged innovation deals for clients from Armor All to Queer Eye.

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Departments

17

DESIRABLES 18 Tech and Gadgets The best upgrades for the most important spaces in your home.

19 Cigars A selection of cigars favored by athletes and actors.

20 Wine Christian Navarro, president and principal of Wally’s, shares his top wines from his favorite wineries in Paso Robles, the bur­ geoning wine community just three hours north of Los Angeles.

22 Spirits A youthful spirits brand is posed to lead customers—and the extra­añejo tequila category— into a future of new possibilities.

24 Water This transcendent superyacht, which recently was listed for sale even before it was sched­ uled for delivery, represents a rare opportunity to acquire a Benetti masterpiece without the requisite five­year wait.

29

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT 25 Air In a year when traditional air travel has been drastically impacted, private aviation con­ tinues to grow stronger, safer, and more attractive to a broad­ ening segment of customers.

38

26 Watches Five exceptional, independent watchmakers who are revered the world over—but not based in Switzerland.

28 Land As McLaren Automotive cele­ brates its 10th anniversary, the British sports car and supercar manufacturer is disrupting the GT market with a new two­ door sports car that merges grand­touring comfort with track­conquering performance.

TOC - Desirables

29 Furnishings At 20, Resource Furniture is still making the chicest, clev­ erest, multifunctional pieces you didn’t know you needed.

30 Private Clubs—West Coast The addition of a second 25­yard swimming pool makes the Griffin Club a coveted membership for those seeking private out­ door spaces to socialize.

31 Private Clubs—East Coast South Beach’s hottest private members club, Casa Tua, shines brighter than ever this season, while its sister club in Aspen is the coolest place off the slopes.

08

33

34 Visionary Alumni in Sports, Media & Entertainment

36 Of Note Briefings, Updates, and Analysis 38 Innovative Office—West Coast This sprawling 2.5­acre property sports everything from a tennis court, swimming pool, and media room to a home office with a pri­ vate balcony and ocean views.

39 Innovative Office—East Coast A stunning 10,754­square­ foot home on a private island in Miami with two docks and a home office designed for two.

42 Sports, Media & Entertainment NG 12 When 2020 gives you lemons, make the NextGen 10 the NextGen 12.

30 In Every Issue 10 12 14 86 102 113 118 120

Masthead Founder’s Note Contributors C­Suite Advisors C­Suite Advisors Index The Network Advertiser Directory C­Suite Quoted

67 105

This edition’s lineup of C-Suite Advisors™

C-SUITE ADVISORS™

DESTINATIONS

88 Is Artificial Intelligence Artificial Enough?

Edward C. Wilson-Smythe NTT DATA Services

68 Health The secrets to a longer, better, healthier life might be found on one of Asia’s most beautiful beaches.

90 Is Talent Management Still Relevant?

Vlad Vaiman California Lutheran University School of Management 92 Why Is Now a Good Time to Borrow?

Ryan Bristol J.P. Morgan Private Bank 94 Value Acceleration and Exit Planning Andrew Horowitz Rockefeller Capital Management 96 The Uncertain Financial Futures of Athletes and Entertainers Demand Training and Discipline Brian Werdesheim The Summa Group of Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. 98 Expect a Post-COVID-19 Tsunami of Financial Elder Abuse Cases Scott Rahn RMO LLP

69 The Getaway LA Just three hours north of Los Angeles sits Paso Robles, a scenic nook abounding with olive groves, welcoming winemakers, and surfing cowboys.

70 The Journey LA Inside the reopening of exotic resorts in remote locales.

CULTURE & TASTE 78 Meetings & Retreats Our guide to the pros and cons of virtual networking platforms, and how to make this the year you step up your power as a developed and innovative leader in your field with virtual learning.

82 Golf Getaway In the shadow of the worldfamous Stadium Course, the second layout at TPC Sawgrass offers a perspective all its own.

83 Golf Top 5 With the states in the Southeast some of the quickest to reopen after COVID-19 quarantine restrictions, many courses are open for social-distanced play.

Bonus: Each offers an option for second-home ownership, perfect for a continued break from urban life.

TOC - CSA

74 The Getaway NY A new boutique hotel in historic Hudson celebrates upstate New York’s creative community, exuding a passion for art and craft.

76 The Journey NY A behind-the-scenes look at Inspirato’s new members-only travel service that offers a subscription and peace of mind.

84 Breaking Ground New developments launching around the world.

106 Exhibits and Performances Art shows this season in Los Angeles and New York.

107 Required Reading Brain coach Jim Kwik shares his tools for maximizing your mind’s function.

108 Proprietor’s Profile Rande Gerber was working in commercial real estate when an assignment from boutique hotel magnate Ian Schrager kicked off his trajectory into international success and formation of Midnight Oil and the Gerber Group.

110 Philanthropy How the creative community has caught the attention of donors devoted to making a difference.

112 Social Responsibility The exquisite Oil Nut Bay is in the business of changing people’s lives.

84

100 C3: COVID, Cannabis, and Crypto Sander C. Zagzebski Greenspoon Marder LLP

CSQ Q3 2020

09

On the Cover Michael Loeb and Rich Vogel Location New York Photo Alphonse Telymonde C-SUITE QUARTERLY

CSQ.COM

Founder and Publisher David L. Wurth

C-SUITE ADVISORS™

ADVERTISING AND MARKETING

INQUIRIES

Ryan Bristol Andrew Horowitz Scott Rahn Vlad Vaiman Brian Werdesheim Edward Wilson-Smythe Sander Zagzebski

VP Sales, Marketing, and Retention Tore Erickson

Advertising advertising@csq.com

CONTENT Editor in Chief Samantha Brooks Art Director Dima Kuzmichev Designer Olesya Plugovenko Content and Community Coordinator Sheean Hanlan Copy Editor Dora Dalton Senior Editorial Advisor Matt Pressberg Photo Editor Lauren Schumacher Contributors Ben Bloch Martine Bury Andrew Dalton Jason Dean Carole Dixon James Faris Jessica Ferguson Carolyn Meers Christian Navarro Irene Rawlings Michael Schwab Shaun Tolson David R. Weiss

Associate Publisher Ian Tenenbaum Marketing Director Gioia Giacomelli

Masthead

C-SUITE MEDIA ADVISORY BOARD

Larry Braun Diana Derycz-Kessler Jim Freedman Paul Kessler Steve Lehman Robin Richards James Segil Drew Sheinman Irv Zuckerman

Marketing and Customer Success Manager Sarah Poor Sales and Marketing Coordinator Adriana Mejia Marketing Partner Hawke Media

OPERATIONS Director of Community Operations Linda Weg Accounting Stan Arutti Legal Scott Barlow Steven C. Sereboff Distribution Right-Way Distribution

C-Suite Advisors™ advisory@csq.com Editorial editorial@csq.com Events events@csq.com Reprints reprints@csq.com Subscriptions subscriptions@csq.com

CSQ / C-Suite Quarterly is published

by C-SUITE MEDIA, INC. It is mailed to C-level executives, business owners, and ultra-high-net-worth residential communities and distributed in the upscale locations throughout Los Angeles and New York.

LOS ANGELES C-SUITE MEDIA, INC., P.O. Box 8696 Calabasas, CA 91372 | 818.225.8168 NEW YORK C-SUITE MEDIA, INC., 1185 Avenue of the Americas 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10036 All rights reserved. CSQ, C-Suite Advisors™, C-Suite Advisory™, and C-Suite Quarterly are registered trademarks of C-SUITE MEDIA, INC. No articles, illustrations, photographs, or any other editorial matter or advertisement herein may be reproduced without permission of copyright owner. C-Suite Quarterly and C-Suite Media, Inc. does not take responsibility for the claims provided herein.

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FOUNDER’S NOTE

David Wurth, publisher of CSQ, shares his thoughts on sports, media, and entertainment in a year like no other

David L. Wurth (left) at the CSQ’s Inside the C-Suite event with James Worthy and Jeanie Buss, CSQ Visionary Alumni and owner of the LA Lakers, who just celebrated their 17th Championship win.

Founder’s Note

Last year, we could never have foreseen a future with empty stadiums, closed movie theaters, and Zoom worship services. But as the innovators highlighted in this issue know, if you are expecting business as usual in the world of sports, media, and entertainment—you’re falling behind.

This has been a challenging year, but also one with hopeful stories—and successes (as this issue goes to bed, not only did the Los Angles Lakers win their 17th Championship, but the Dodgers also claimed victory in the World Series). Truly dynamic leaders and companies have taken action to solve real problems—or simply to create great entertainment to help all of us cope. At a time when so much has changed, I am honored to feature this distinguished collection of individuals who remind us of one thing that has always held true: the value of leadership. Each of them has taken real risks when they had a safe alternative, and it has paid off many times over. That is exactly the message we all need in 2020.

Our Visionaries of the Year, Michael Loeb and Rich Vogel of Loeb.nyc, are the rare partners who have not just thrived but excelled across multiple disciplines. From their start in the circulation department at Time Inc., the two entrepreneurs have managed to stay ahead of every trend in the media industry, building an empire by realizing credit cards were going to be the future of magazine subscriptions. From there, the two went off to form an investment company that has taken a holistic, hands-on approach, in support of dozens of entrepreneurs—with great success.

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Norman Pearlstine, executive editor of the Los Angeles Times, is another longtime media mogul who has stayed on top. Brought in by billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong to right a wobbly ship that had suffered from a real leadership deficit in previous years, Pearlstine was instrumental in providing a steady hand and the guidance to position the iconic newspaper as L.A.’s “window on the future.”

The future is also likely to be viewed through virtual reality headsets. Joanna Popper, another Visionary, runs location-based VR for computing giant HP, and is one of the highest-ranking female executives in that burgeoning industry. The former television executive has made it her personal mission to elevate other women and underrepresented groups in VR, and is active on social media promoting jobs and helping promote VR to her audience as a viable—and lucrative—career path.

And Neil Jacobson has carved out his own niche in Hollywood—with Hallwood, a company that manages songwriters and music producers. A former Interscope and Geffen exec, Jacobson saw an opportunity and moved to capitalize on it.

In a year like no other for sports, media, and technology, these Visionaries, NextGens, and C-Suite Advisors show us the value of adaptability and thinking ahead. I hope you enjoy this special issue.

David L. Wurth Founder and Publisher david@csq .com

By Frederick J. Ryan, Jr.

White House Historical

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Contributors

BEN BLOCH

MARTINE BURY

ANDREW DALTON

Ben Bloch is an executive strategist for Fortune 1000 companies and high-growth startups. After 12 years with Fortune 500 and 1000 companies such as IBM, Bloch co-founded clean-tech company Econation and took it to acquisition, then helped two other L.A.-area technology startups get acquired. He now helps other startup CEOs develop new strategies to improve their businesses and increase growth, while running two strategy and communications firms. Along with his day jobs, Bloch has written for business, tech, and lifestyle publications for over 20 years.

Journalist, strategist, and storyteller, Martine Bury kicked off her career as a staffer at Travel +Leisure and has served as a lead editor for national, regional, and custom media brands. Most recently, she helmed design magazine Surface. Her work has appeared in Sunset, C Magazine, LALA, Vogue, and New York. Although her globetrotting adventures regularly take her across the U.S., Mexico, Europe, and Africa, she’s equally content meditating in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Andrew Dalton has been a journalist for 20 years, most of them with the Associated Press in Los Angeles, covering wildfires, earthquakes, elections, sports, and entertainment. He specializes in writing obituaries, and has penned obits for Leonard Cohen, Hugh Hefner, Gore Vidal, and many other major figures in arts and entertainment. He Lives in South Pasadena, Calif., with his wife and three kids.

Back to School: 10 Great Places for Executives to Level Up Online, p. 80

Better Living Through Design, p. 29 The Maker’s Mark, p. 74

Sound Work, p. 50

CAROLYN MEERS

IRENE RAWLINGS

SHAUN TOLSON

Carolyn Meers is a writer and editor based in Santa Monica, Calif. She has contributed to various regional and national lifestyle publications—including Robb Report, 805 Living, C Magazine, and The Knot— with a focus on design, jewelry, and health and wellness.

Irene Rawlings’ articles have been published in Robb Report, Luxury Magazine, Saturday Evening Post, The Wall Street Journal, Art & Antiques, National Geographic Traveler, and many inflight magazines. Rawlings is the author of four books, including Sisters on the Fly, about women, fly-fishing, vintage campers, and the joys of the open road. She also hosts an award-winning radio show on iHeart stations. She divides her time between her home in Colorado, a small vineyard in California, and an extremely small windmill in Greece.

Throughout his journalism career, Shaun Tolson has traveled to five continents, tackling a diverse set of assignments—from desert trekking through Jordan, fly-fishing and white-water rafting in Patagonia, and sipping single-malt whiskies with revered master distillers in Scotland. Whenever possible, he tries to emphasize the people at the center of those stories, whose ambitions, experiences, and personal journeys bring life and meaning to the pieces that he writes.

Luxury Travel, On-Demand, p. 76

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Contributors

In the Zone, p. 70 Sustainable Development Gives Back, p. 112

Making Waves, p. 24 Everyday Excitement, p. 28 Hills and Valleys, p. 82

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18 Tech and Gadgets 19 Cigars 20 Wine 22 Spirits 24 Water 25 Air 26 Watches 28 Land 29 Furnishings 30 Private Clubs

Desirables

Part 1

Desirables - Cover A watch from Japanbased maker Hajime Asaoka, one of five non-Swiss watchmakers profiled on page 26.

CSQ Q3 2020

17

TECH & GADGETS

Home Improvement

THE GOOD SHEET For more than 40 years, Portuguese craftsmen have been creating bedding for Celso de Lemos from the finest cotton, silk, and linen sourced from across the world. Subtle in design, decadent to the touch, even the simplest white bedding from the

GAINING STEAM Germany-based Miele has long been known for crafting some of the most elite appliances in the world, praised for high-performance engineering and architectural design. Its Combi-Steam Oven launched in 2013 and was a game changer for novice and professional chefs alike, allowing

The best upgrades for the most important spaces in your home.

With more time spent at home, we’re all looking for ways to make our living environments better—especially when it comes to cooking and sleeping. Here, a handful of high-end upgrades to elevate your daily routine. By Samantha Brooks

brand oozes luxury from the moment you touch it. Beyond thread counts, which range from 700 to 1,400, what sets the brand’s bedding apart are the long and thin fibers that are also strong, yet silky to the touch. Celso de Lemos crafts custom collections for clients, but even the subdued monochromatic collections are

the ultimate in crisp, cool sheeting—but you can’t experience it online. They’re only available in a handful of boutiques, including its flagship in New York on the Upper West Side.

From about $1,000 for a king-size set; celsodelemos.com

ONE-STOP SHOP

for both MultiSteam technology that allows food to be crispy outside and succulent inside, and MTouch controls for perfect results at the touch of just a few buttons. Plus, there’s a roast probe to monitor when meat hits the perfect temperature; the combination of steam and convection means fast and even heat and steam distribution; and users can cook foods as dynamic as salmon, potatoes, and chocolate souffle all at once, without flavor contamination. Now, the brand has improved the oven even more, creating an XXL version that allows for even more interior space, able to cook enough food to feed ten people.

Desirables - Tech

When it comes to upgrading your kitchen, the new L’Atelier Paris showroom in West Hollywood is your one-stop shop (other outposts exist in New York and Miami, with Paris and London opening in 2021). The Europe-brand was originally founded in 1830 but re-imagined in 2019 by current owners Maria and Ricardo Moraes to now offer cabinetry, ranges, and hardware (including knobs, pulls, faucets, and sinks) allowing for fully integrated kitchens that perform as beautifully as they look.

leatelierparis.com

From $4,299; mieleusa.com

SLEEP ON IT At first repose, a Technogel mattress might not scream ultimate comfort. Its simple exterior design exudes sculpted rectangularity, but not necessarily plush comfort. However, it’s what’s inside that counts. In this case, the 13-inch-thick Vive mattress—the brand’s most elite model— features 1.25 inches of Technogel’s signature surface layer, which not only conforms to the body in every direction, but also cools the body by pulling heat away. But don’t confuse Technogel with memory foam. There’s no outgassing from toxic chemicals and no hardening or softening over time, setting the Italian brand apart.

From $10,299 for a king-size mattress; us.technogelworld.com GADGETS GALORE Available in Europe for years, Thermomix has just become available in the U.S., combining an astounding 22 different appliance options in a single device. The Wi-Fi-enabled appliance features more than 50,000 guided recipes that automate most of the work,

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DESIRABLES

from whisking and caramelizing to chopping, steaming, blending, kneading, sous-viding, and more.

It can even save you a trip to the store by allowing you to order groceries directly through its built-in shopping app. $1,499; thermomix.com

CIGARS

Star Smokes

By David R. Weiss, president and owner, Lone Wolf Cigar Company, lonewolfcigars.com

A selection of cigars favored by athletes and actors.

There’s a necessary balance when it comes to being a celebrity, whether on the court or on the silver screen.

A time to relax, reflect, enjoy, recharge, and even be inspired is important for all of us. This may take the form of being in nature, meditating, or simply enjoying a great meal, a bottle of wine or scotch, or, for many performers and athletes, smoking a premium cigar.

Here are the cigar choices of five players from entertainment and sports when they take time out to indulge.

MICHAEL JORDAN He showed his stunning athleticism and talent on the court and is cemented in history as one of the top athletes of all time. He can access and certainly afford the best the cigar world has to offer, and his prime smoke is the Cuban Partagas Lusitania, a luxurious double corona that rewards the smoker who takes their time with a perfect balance of spicy, sweet, and nutty complexity. $45; habanos.com DANNY DEVITO The veteran actor, producer, and director has brought to life some of the most memorable comedic and dramatic roles on the big and small screens. His favorite indulgence is the Partagas Serie D No. 4, a very balanced robusto with a medium-rich body that never overwhelms.

Desirables - Cigars $30; habanos.com MIKE PIAZZA

The MLB hall of famer has the highest hitting average of any catcher in the major leagues. An avid cigar collector, like Michael Jordan, the Partagas Lusitania is among his favorites. But during the day, when Piazza likes to balance out the stronger smoke with something lighter, his preferred smoke is the elegant Davidoff Double R, a refined yet complex Dominican Republic double corona, renowned in the cigar world and on par with the best Cubans. $30; davidoff.com DEMI MOORE With four decades of a successful acting career under her belt, Moore has played it all, from romantic classics like Ghost to the tough-as-nails Navy Seal fighting her way through the torturous training process in G.I. Jane. When lighting up off the set and at times even between takes, she enjoys Montecristo Joyitas, well-balanced panatela cigarillos from one of the most iconic Cuban brands. $170/box; habanos.com LEBRON JAMES After leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to a big win in the 2016 NBA finals, James lit up a cigar to celebrate before he even left the stadium.

His choice? The Yaxel Ortiz YO Torpedo, a rich Nicaraguan cigar with an interesting mix of peppery spice and sweet flavors. Most certainly a bold enough smoke in flavor, strength, and stature to celebrate a championship. $160/box; yaxelcigars.com CSQ Q3 2020

19

WINE

An Expert’s Guide to Paso Robles’ Wineries

Christian Navarro, president and principal of Wally’s (wallywine.com), shares his top wines from his favorite wineries in Paso Robles, the burgeoning wine community just three hours north of Los Angeles.

For more on visiting Paso Robles, please see our guide on page 71.

By Christian Navarro

LINNE CALODO 2014 Linne Calodo “Perfectionist” Rhône Blend

ALEKSANDER 2012 Aleksander Red Blend

A superstar Merlot-led Bordeaux blend crafted

by Sasha Vujajic and his family creates aromas of blackberry, cedar, and cassis, which jump from the glass. It’s incredibly balanced on the palate and provides long, luscious flavors of cocoa, earth, and ripe fruit. Well suited for new-world drinkers due to its inviting nature, it’s equally appealing to old-world drinkers for its complexity and elegance. With seven years of age, it drinks perfectly now, but be sure to save some bottles for years to come! aleksanderwine.com DESIRABLES

Balanced tannins provide structure and complexity that will keep this wine interesting for a very long time. aventurewine.com

Desirables - Wine

Linne Calodo is a pinnacle estate in Paso Robles. Since its inception in 1999, Matt Trevisan and Justin Smith (of Saxum, saxumvineyards. com) have crafted a bounty of interesting, eclectic blends. These wines stand out for their textures and richness as much as their complexity and uniqueness. The 2014 Perfectionist is a classic blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvèdre. Nuanced aromas of raspberries, wet soil, pepper, and herbs pleasantly greet your nose. Flavors of boysenberry, Moroccan spice, and cassis give way to a full-bodied, silky sensation on the palate. It’s hard to resist drinking now, but with some patience, the blend will continue to soar for a decade plus. linnecalodo.com

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DAOU 2017 Daou Soul of a Lion Red Blend

Daou’s iconic Paso Robles red blend seriously impresses with its stellar 2017 vintage. It boasts the perfect combination of richness, elegance, and balance. Complex aromas of licorice, plum, vanilla bean, and currant delight the senses.

The palate is full-bodied and layered, while velvety tannins lead to a long finish. This beautiful red blend truly showcases the majestic power of Daou Mountain. daouvineyards.com JUSTIN 2016 Justin Isosceles

Justin’s signature Isosceles Bordeaux blend from 2016 shines. Alluring aromas of black cherry, smoked meat, cedar, and cinnamon tantalize the senses as you bring the glass closer to your lips. Its ultra-rich, velvety texture leads to fl avors of black fruit, mocha, and savory dried thyme. It has the complexity, finesse, and tannic structure to go the distance. Tuck away in the back of the cellar for a few years and you will be in for a real treat. justinwine.com L’AVENTURE 2017 L’Aventure Estate Cuvee

This is the flagship “Paso Blend” of famed L’Aventure winery. It offers a beautiful bouquet of violets, mocha, and crushed rock. On the palate it is rich, full-bodied, polished, and about as sexy as they come. Penetrating flavors of blueberry, bright cherry, and cassis give way to a long fi nish of floral and spice.

TURLEY 2017 Ueberroth Vineyard Zinfandel

Paso icon Turley has produced some of the region’s most impressive Zinfandels, Cabs, and red blends for decades. This gorgeous Zin comes from the oldest vineyard Turley works with (planted in 1885!) and is elegant and layered on the nose with dark brambly fruit, exotic spice, and cassis. The mouthfeel is silky and luscious, balanced with racy acidity and polished tannins. Medium- to full-bodied, it has flavors of black cherry, pepper, and grilled meats. turleywinecellars.com TABLAS CREEK 2017 Tablas Creek Espirit de Tablas Blanc

It is a given that the Perrin family of Chateau Beaucastel would pick equally incredible terroir in Paso to craft world-class Rhône blends.

Their classic white Rhône blend, Espirit de Tablas Blanc, is one of my favorite wines vintage after vintage. Insanely perfumed and mineral accented, it evokes ripe citrus, peach, brioche, and floral notes. It’s bright, delineated acidity and graceful minerality offer depth and complexity that only special whites can achieve. Vibrant flavors of tangerine, honeysuckle, herb, and pear set the stage for an incredibly long, pleasing fi nish. tablascreek.com

Hunt Club

SPIRITS

A youthful spirits brand is poised to lead consumers—and the extraañejo tequila category—into a future of new possibilities. By Shaun Tolson

Going Platinum For the better part of a decade, consumers have been conditioned to believe that an expertly crafted and significantly aged tequila must carry a price greater than $100 and often greater than $200. Qui Tequila, a youthful brand that came to market only eight years ago, is disproving that notion and rewriting the narrative of extra-añejo tequilas. The brand is also redefi ning enthusiasts’ understanding about what a truly well-aged tequila can be— and what it can taste like.

The brand’s genesis in the late 2000s occurred when a conversation among three entrepreneurial friends of Egyptian descent— Medhat Ibrahim, Pete Girgis, and Mike Keriakos—steered its way to the topic of tequila. Before long the entrepreneurial trio was evaluating the market for opportunities and deliberating about creating their own brand.

The idea was connected to Ibrahim’s background as an investment banker in the 1980s, when he worked predominantly for Mexican clients. On business trips, Ibrahim was frequently invited into his affluent clients’ homes, where he discovered that many

Mexican families have their own barrels of aged tequila that they treat as reverently as fine cognac or reserve wines. “It was poured from crystal decanters,” he recalls of the elegant and mature tequila he was discovering, “and it was sipped and enjoyed in a much different way than I was accustomed to drinking tequila.”

That was Ibrahim’s aha moment. Decades later, after he had transitioned from a career in banking to the hospitality industry, Ibrahim met Keriakos and Girgis, the latter of whom had cut his teeth working for his parents’ retail liquor business on weekends while he earned a law degree from Rutgers University. Leveraging those relationships—high-end bars and restaurants, as well as liquor stores throughout New York and New Jersey—the trio of entrepreneurs established an effective, grassroots platform for product exposure. But they still needed an exceptional liquid.

After many trips to Guadalajara, the three entrepreneurs uncovered a stock of aged tequila at a distillery that they had fallen in love with, and they employed a master distiller to soften its nose and smooth out its fi nish.

The goal, Ibrahim explains, was to create a luscious sipping tequila that could be enjoyed by consumers who were new to the extra-añejo category. “The vision was to create accessible luxury,” he says. “To democratize aged tequilas.”

Softening that fi rst batch of aged tequila (now the brand’s proprietary fi ltration and distillation process), preserved the blue agave fl avors and aromas found in the liquid, but extracted the spirit’s original golden hue. Qui’s founders had already committed to a gradual marketing strategy predicated upon on-premises tastings—a “liquid-to-lips” approach, as Girgis describes it—but the tequila’s appearance, which belies its age, didn’t become an obstacle to its acceptance.

“We found that people would taste the product and then come back for it,” Girgis says. “Once they learned that it was an aged tequila that was clear, why it was softer but had more flavor than a [normal] clear tequila, and once they tasted it, our customers became brand advocates.”

Since launching Qui Platinum, an almost four-year-old tequila aged in American whiskey and Bordeaux wine casks and that retails for $60, the brand has more recently unveiled Qui Rare, a limited-edition, 12-year-old expression aged in those same wine barrels and Tennessee whiskey casks, which carries a heftier price tag of $400. While that price point aligns Qui’s more exclusive offering with other top extra-añejo tequilas in the marketplace, its age far exceeds those competitors. What’s more, the characteristic bright and herbaceous notes from the blue agave still shine through, which proves that, when it’s masterfully done, the long-term aging of tequila can marry the elegant flavors extracted from casks with the distinctive agave notes that define the spirit.

Qui will soon unveil a third expression— a marriage of five-year and seven-year tequilas—that will be competitively priced against other extra-añejo tequilas less than half its age.

And as Qui continues to grow, the brand will invest even more in younger tequilas, which offers Qui’s master distiller Rafael Ayala and his team the ability to experiment and ultimately produce a broader lineup of superlative and revolutionary expressions.

“Nothing stops us from innovating with tequila,” says Ibrahim, who acknowledges that Qui is likely to experiment with aging and fi nishing future expressions in a variety of barrels from around the world. Yet, even as Qui’s lineup inevitably grows wider, its flagship expression will continue to lead the way.

“We believe that more consumers will soon be demanding older aged tequilas,” Ibrahim says, “and Qui Platinum is a gateway to take them into that great adventure.” quitequila.com

Desirables - Spirits

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DESIRABLES

Cardinal du Four

This transcendent superyacht, which recently was listed for sale even before it was scheduled for delivery, represents a rare opportunity to acquire a Benetti masterpiece without the requisite five-year wait.

WATER

Making Waves

By Shaun Tolson

The year hasn’t offered much in the way of good news or general positivity, but for yachting enthusiasts—especially those with affluent means—2020 delivered a 353-foot-long glimmer of hope. The brand-new superyacht Luminosity is on the market. And the term “brand new” isn’t used in a hyperbolic way. The 107-meter vessel was listed for sale only a few weeks before it was scheduled to be delivered to its owner, which means the buyer fortunate enough to acquire this gleaming, technologically advanced, and transcendent superyacht will effectively be acquiring a contemporary Benetti (benettiyachts.it) masterpiece devoid of any fingerprints. What’s more, that astute buyer will also be skipping the five-year wait time typically required when commissioning a new build from the Italian shipbuilder.

Offered through a joint listing with Fraser ( fraseryachts.com) and Burgess Yachts

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(burgessyachts.com), Luminosity carries an asking price of about $265M. It’s a significant investment for sure, but at that price the yacht actually represents a bargain, since it would cost about $324M to commission Benetti to build that same yacht today. (The yacht is not available for sale to US residents while in American waters.)

“The word ‘unique’ gets overused in this industry, but in this case, it’s 100% accurate,” says Dominic Millman, the lead broker at Burgess Yachts. “I’ve been in this business a long time now … and I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like Luminosity.”

Such distinction is rooted in many noteworthy design features. For starters, the yacht boasts more than 8,700 square feet of floor-toceiling glass, which brings the outdoors (and copious amounts of natural light) inside. “You almost expect to feel the breeze in your hair walking through the main saloon,” Millman says.

The yacht spotlights the natural world in technologically advanced ways, as well. It features a 205-square-foot wall of digitally projected Corian flowers, for example, each of which opens and closes as people walk by.

And much of the main deck is equipped with an almost 4,000-square-foot LED video wall that currently displays a forest canopy, though it can be configured to easily display custom content of the owner’s choosing.

Technological advancements are not limited to elements of interior design. Luminosity is powered by advanced diesel-electric hybrid power. Six diesel generators (each capable of churning out more than 1,300 hp) provide power to the vessel’s Azipod propulsion system, which propels the yacht to a top speed of 16 knots and allows it to sail 8,000 nautical miles

when the throttle is set to a more efficient 10knot cruising speed. Luminosity also features the largest hybrid battery drive ever outfitted to a yacht—35 tons of lithium polymer batteries allows the yacht to operate silently while at anchor (with zero emissions) for up to 12 hours.

The vastness of Luminosity’s living spaces is no less impressive. With its aforementioned length, a 17-meter (56-foot) beam, and almost 10-foot-tall ceilings in some living and enter taining areas, the yacht offers more than 5,800 GT of volume. Capable of accommodating 26 guests in 12 suites, Luminosity also features quarters that can accommodate as many as 37 crew members. That crew-to-guest ratio means that passengers can expect to be properly pampered in all living and entertaining areas on board, including a vast beach club equipped with retractable hull doors, which can open the area to the water on three sides.

“Nothing like this has been seen before.

The design and engineering that has gone into this yacht, it’s just extraordinary,” Millman says. “She was designed for multigenerational family use, so she is tailor made for a family that loves spending time together—from grandparents to grandchildren—and exploring the world. But her appeal is universal. She is a yacht designed to be lived in, to be enjoyed regardless of age or ability, and she has the spaces, capacities, and capabilities to meet all modern tastes.”

Desirables - Water

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DESIRABLES

1. The 353-foot-long ship is offered at $265M. 2. The newly built super yacht’s deck.

3. Interiors are sleek and sophisticated.

In a year when traditional air travel has been drastically impacted, private aviation continues to grow stronger, safer, and more attractive to a broadening segment of consumers. By Shaun Tolson

AIR

Privacy, Please

The Only Way to Travel

In no uncertain terms, 2020 is the year to privately charter a jet. “For flexibility, convenience, and safety, there’s never been a more advantageous time to travel privately,” says Shelley Cline, president of TCS World Travel (tcsworldtravel.com).

Cline’s company, which specializes in private-jet expeditions, has recently debuted almost a dozen custom-tailored itineraries to captivating destinations throughout North America—allowing, for the first time, their entire planes and excursions to be dedicated to a single group. From 10-day Alaskan wilderness expeditions with overnights at luxuriously appointed remote lodges to 13 days spent island hopping throughout Hawaii, these journeys introduce discerning travelers to alluring

TCS World Travel

locales through exclusive, guided tours by way of private jet. The all-inclusive getaways start at $29,900 per person, with pricing based on private flights departing from Los Angeles International Airport; however, adjustments can be made to accommodate travelers flying from other areas of the country.

Aerion Supersonic

Full Speed Ahead

Provider Reports

For decades, discerning travelers have lauded private jet travel for its quickness. Over the last several decades, increases in the actual pace of private jet travel, however, have been minimal.

In fact, according to research conducted by Aerion Supersonic (aerionsupersonic.com), the speed of business jets has increased by only 10% in the last half century. Aerion teased private-aviation consumers with the allure of supersonic jet travel when, in 2004, it announced its plan to build a business jet that could fly faster than the speed of sound. The company has remained steadfast in that journey, and recent developments have brought the project a few steps closer to completion.

In July 2020, Aerion announced two new partnerships. The first is with Spirit AeroSystems, a frontrunner in composite aerostructures that will build the forward fuselage of the AS2 Supersonic Business Jet (while also providing additional engineering, production, and certification expertise to the AS2 program).

Aerion also partnered with Carbon Engineering Ltd. (CE), a Direct Air Capture company, which will collaborate on ways to power the AS2 with CE’s synthetic fuel. If the latter collaboration proves successful, the AS2 will not only become the world’s first supersonic commercial aircraft but will also shine for being carbon neutral.

The AS2’s first flights are expected in 2025 with full production anticipated for 2030, and Aerion is making necessary strides to stick to that schedule. As proof, the company plans to break ground on Aerion Park, a new manufacturing campus in Florida, later this year.

As the global pandemic motivates a new group of consumers to enter the private aviation marketplace, flight providers are taking notice, creating new operations and leveraging business relationships to make the jet-charter experience easier and safer than ever before.

Private aviation pioneers Clay Lacy Aviation (claylacy.com) have been offering aircraft cleaning and disinfecting services using bipolar ionization machines to kill surface and airborne pathogens. The process takes about an hour, after which cleaning technicians in Tyvek suits thoroughly clean the aircraft with EPA- and FAA-approved products. The planes are sealed afterward while they stand by for charter. Complete aircraft detailing and cleaning services are offered at their locations in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Seattle, and Oxford, Conn. Additionally, the company has introduced a program to both charter clients and aircraft-management clients to offset 100% of aircraft emissions through the purchase of goldstandard.org carbon credits.

VistaJet (vistajet.com) made use of its partnerships with Philips and MedAire to embed the Tempus IC2 device across its entire global fleet. The device allows crew members to measure and securely transmit clinical data and images, as well as real-time voice and video broadcasts, directly to MedAire’s groundbased medical team at any time of day.

Vista Global (vistaglobal.com), parent company of VistaJet, also recently unveiled XO (flyXO.com), a new brand that introduces a digital marketplace to allow members to request on-demand charter access to more

Desirables - Air

CSQ Q3 2020

Clay Lacy Aviation

than 1,500 private jets (encompassing all cabin sizes) around the world, including reservation of seats on shared charter flights.

Similarly, in August, Directional Aviation (directional.com) unveiled FXAIR (fxair.com), a digital-based, on-demand, app-enabled charter service aimed at being an accessible entry point for prospective consumers who are now drawn to private jet travel. When it launched, FXAIR offered access to super mid-cabin, large cabin, and ultra-long-range aircraft. It also provided access to a network of premium aircraft owned and operated by other respected and safe flight providers in the industry.

Wheels Up (wheelsup.com) has launched Wheels Up Aircraft Sales, a new business unit that offers aircraft brokerage, acquisition, trade, and advisory services. With this expansion, Wheels Up now provides a total aviation solution for both corporate and personal travel.

25

WATCHES

A Global Perspective

Switzerland may be synonymous with exceptional watchmaking, but expert horology has taken root in areas of the world far removed from the Alps. Here, we spotlight five exceptional, independent watchmakers who are revered the world over. By Shaun Tolson

MASTERING THE CRAFT ROGER W. SMITH LTD.

GOING DUTCH GRÖNEFELD

The Isle of Man has long been associated with exquisite, complicated timepieces, given that the late George Daniels, whom many regard as the greatest horologist of the last 250 years, worked and lived on the island (a British Crown dependency) for much of his 60-year career.

Daniels’ protégé, Roger Smith, established his own horological enterprise on the island in 2001 with Roger W. Smith Ltd. The British government honored Smith by declaring him an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, which distinguishes those who have greatly impacted their profession.

Every wristwatch that Smith creates is rare, given that the 50-year-old only makes 10 to 12 pieces per year, but the Series 2 may be the house’s most significant timepiece yet. Smith says it’s the most important watch in his company’s history, since it “became the fi rst production watch made by a British watchmaker in modern times.” The latest generation features a Daniels coaxial escapement with a single wheel, a free-sprung Quadrajust balance, and a raised barrel bridge and balance cock that can be engraved with a choice of classic British floral patterns. Prospective buyers who wish to order a Series 2 in platinum or 18-carat gold (yellow, red, or white) can expect to spend at least $201,000. They’ll also need patience.

A commission typically requires more than three years from order to delivery.

Brothers Bart and Tim Grönefeld represent the third generation of a Dutch family committed to the technical precision of mechanical watchmaking, a familial legacy that their grandfather began when he entered the profession in 1912.

The brothers embrace technical challenges and strive to produce watches with reliable complexity. While they’ve manufactured timepieces with intricate complications—tourbillons and remontoires, for example—one of their most recent models, the 1941 Principia, may be their simplest to date. It also represents their first foray into automatic wristwatches.

Named after their father’s birth year and after studies conducted by Sir Isaac Newton, the Grönefeld brothers’ entry-level, time-only wristwatch is self-winding and showcases expert finishing techniques. Starting at $35,940, the 1941 Principia allows buyers to choose from three case materials (red gold, white gold, or stainless steel), five dial colors, and six strap materials.

rwsmithwatches.com

gronefeld.com

Desirables - Watches

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DESIRABLES

PASSION PROJECTS J. N. SHAPIRO

OVER THE MOON SARPANEVA WATCHES

SELF-MADE SENSATIONS HAJIME ASAOKA

Wearing a J. N. Shapiro wristwatch is akin to being a modern-day version of the boy hawking newspapers, yelling “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” The story that those timepieces share is one of American ingenuity. It spotlights the accomplishments of a man who balances a career in education—Joshua Shapiro works as the principal of a private high school in Los Angeles—with a personal passion for high-quality, precision watchmaking.

After studying through the British Horological Institute’s distance-learning program, Shapiro began specializing in engine turning, a classic technique invented during the 16th century (also known as guilloché), that allows a craftsperson, through the use of specific tools, to cut geometric patterns into metal.

Shapiro’s Infinity Series watches feature an intricate pattern (called the Infinity Weave) inside the seconds sub-dial on the face, which is noteworthy, as Shapiro is the first horologist to successfully implement that pattern, essentially a basketweave inside a basketweave, through engine turning.

Timepieces within Shapiro’s Infinity Series, which combine engine-turned dials made in Los Angeles with movements and cases sourced from Germany, start at $21,000 (for a 40mm wristwatch in stainless steel); however, the 35-year-old watchmaker also accepts bespoke commissions.

Finnish watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva has At their core, all independent watchmakers are craftsmanship in his blood: His great-grandfa- self-made; however, none better epitomizes ther was a blacksmith and his father was a jew- that trait than Hajime Asaoka, who began his elry designer. Sarpaneva acknowledges that he career as a product designer, focusing mostly was surrounded by art and design throughout on furniture and electronic appliances. Over his childhood, though it never evolved into time, Asaoka developed an affinity for luxury an informal education at home. Instead, Sar- timepieces and taught himself the trade by first paneva pursued a career in watchmaking by reading George Daniels’ book, Watchmakfirst attending the Finnish School of Watch- ing, published in 1981. Later, Asoka learned making and later enrolling in the Watchmak- through trial and error, working with watchers of Switzerland Training and Educational making tools that he had acquired, in part, via Program. Following a decade of work at major online auctions. Today, most luxury watch horological houses in Switzerland, the now enthusiasts regard Asaoka as Japan’s greatest 50-year-old horologist founded his own com- independent horologist. pany, Sarpaneva Watches, in Helsinki in 2003.

Asaoka takes inspiration from the Art Sarpaneva’s latest model, Lunations, which Deco movement—his early tourbillon decosts $39,000, is a manual-winding mechanical signs, for example, were inspired by Delage wristwatch that features a 42mm case in either and Delahaye coupes from the 1930s. More stainless steel or 18-carat red gold. More sig- recently, the Japanese watchmaker debutnificantly, it is equipped with the watchmak- ed a chronograph that carried a price tag of er’s first in-house movement, a proprietary, ¥12 million when it debuted in 2017, which integrated, moon-phase caliber that uses an equates to about $113,000 today. The watch, optical fiberglass display to project a rear Su- in its skeletonized approach, showcases the per-LumiNova disc on the front of the caliber. movement’s components on the dial side, inWearers set the moon-phases display by pulling cluding an eye-catching 15 mm balance wheel. the crown out to its first position, but they’ll Asaoka’s modern chronograph also features only need to set it once. The moon-phase com- components that define classic chronographs plication is so precise that it only requires man- from the mid-20th century, such as column ual adjustment for a single day of error every wheels, horizontal clutches with carrying arms, 14,000 years. brake levers, and sliding gears.

jnshapirowatches.com

sarpanevawatches.com

Desirables - Watches

CSQ Q3 2020

hajimeasaoka.com 27

As McLaren Automotive celebrates its 10th anniversary, the British sports car and supercar manufacturer is disrupting the GT market with a new two-door sports car that merges grand-touring comfort with track-conquering performance. By Shaun Tolson

LAND

Everyday Excitement

Desirables - Land

At the peak of summer 2019, the film Hobbs & Shaw—a spinoff of the Fast & Furious franchise—introduced audiences to the McLaren 720S, a svelte supercar with an aggressive stance and more than 700 hp under the hood. Auto enthusiasts likely recognized the marque’s name; after all, McLaren’s backstory includes a successful Formula One racing team that was founded in 1963, not to mention a road car group that formed in the 1980s, creating the iconic F1 three-seater supercar and sprinting to victory during the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995.

Despite McLaren’s racing-circuit success, the production vehicle subsidiary of the brand, McLaren Cars, remained dormant (according to annual reports) during the second half of the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s.

In fact, the company was resuscitated and reborn as McLaren Automotive only a decade ago. As such, the brand is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and its latest vehicle— a superlight GT—is poised to take the British supercar builder into uncharted territory within the North American market. According to Tony Joseph, president of McLaren North America, the GT segment of luxury sports cars is supported by a customer base that’s never had a McLaren model to call its own. What’s more, McLaren’s 28

DESIRABLES

contribution to the segment fills a void for GT customers who have always yearned for a bit more performance within the category.

“They like attributes of a GT, but there may be a performance element that they desire but can’t see it fitting together in one [car],” Joseph explains. “That’s where McLaren’s interpretation of the GT can fit in.”

Recently, Joseph has met passionate McLaren owners who drive their 570S Coupes (the marque’s flagship sport series model) every day, even on mundane shopping trips to Walmart or Costco. That dedicated use proves that a model designed to be more practical as a daily driver will have significant appeal to an even broader audience. “Because of the suspension modes of the car, you can drive it in comfort,” Joseph says. “You have the high performance, but it is a comfortable car. Like every other McLaren, the GT is very much a performance car. But it’s more for the road than it is for the track, there’s no question about that.”

The Senna and Senna GTR, positioned within McLaren’s Ultimate Series—and to a lesser extent the aforementioned 720S headlining the marque’s Super Series—were conceptualized to excel first and foremost on the track.

McLaren’s new GT was designed with every day, open-road motoring in mind. Despite that, it is equipped with a number of architectural

and performance-based features that blur its identity between a traditional grand-touring sportster and track-conquering supercar.

It starts with a 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V8 engine that churns out 612 hp and 465 lb-ft of torque. When that power is paired with the vehicle’s unique MonoCell II-T carbon-fiber structure and aluminum body panels, the resulting power-to-weight ratio produces performance capabilities normally reserved for the world’s elite supercars. We’re talking top speeds north of 200 mph and 0 to 60 mph sprint times that barely exceed three seconds.

Best of all, McLaren’s GT provides more than 20 cubic feet of rear luggage space—enough to easily accommodate a bag of golf clubs—which makes the vehicle ideal if you’re late for your morning tee time.

Unlike some exotic sports car manufacturers, which have explored more polarizing ventures like SUVs, McLaren doesn’t intend to stray from its niche. “We want to be that iconic sports car company,” says Joseph. “We’ve always said that we’re going to concentrate and specialize on what we know best—the two-seat, high-performance sports car. That’s what we’re focusing on. We want to get more creative and bring out incredible, versatile products within that range, but [still always] concentrate on two-seat sports cars.” mclaren.com

FURNISHINGS

Better Living Through Design At 20, Resource Furniture is still making the chicest, cleverest, multifunctional pieces you didn’t know you needed.

By Martine Bury

Population growth. Sustainable architecture.

Working from home. These aren’t the sexiest considerations in furniture design, but they are fertile ground for innovation and the application of new, exciting solutions.

For 20 years, Resource Furniture has evolved into a quietly visionary brand based on good ideas that answer the biggest questions related to how we live and work in the built environment. Long before small-space living and multifunctional furnishings were a thing, the company pivoted from a robust catalog business that sold doors, windows, and interior products to the trade, to a company that designed for a series of challenges.

In 20 06, they took on the design of a 1,400-square-foot apartment in New York City’s Urban Glass House—architect Philip Johnson’s final project—for a client and her family, complete with all furniture, desks and beds for four children, a home office, a guest room that slept three people, and a large but discreet closet system.

Out of projects like these, Resource came up with a signature of luxe Italian fabrication and minimalist furniture pieces that could disappear into walls or multitask for work, play, and rest. “All the advice that we were given from the industry flew in the face, factually, of what was,” says co-founder Ron Barth. “Everybody needed their space to do more.”

Desirables - Furnishing

Ron Barth CSQ Q3 2020

Soon architects, museum directors, urban development leaders, and university professors sought out the company for real-life interiors and high-concept prototypes alike. In 2013, Resource Furniture installed a 325-square-foot micro unit at the Museum of the City of New York that was seen by 150,000 people. In 2017, the company joined forces once more with the Citizens Housing and Planning Council and built a 972-squarefoot, three-bedroom unit that Barth says viewers believed to be 1,500 square feet.

Add to this the furnishings for the Future House installation at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, 100 beds designed for an affordable housing project in Hawaii, a collaboration with Oasys prefab homes for the 2019 Los Angeles Design Festival, and on a 422-room, co-living project in Long Island City, New York.

In April 2020, Resource’s iconic Italian Clei Murphy bed was selected by Brad Pitt for a renovation of his makeup artist’s guest house on HGTV’s Celebrity IOU with the Property Brothers. Architect Graham Hill, of the minimalist lifestyle blog LifeEdited and popular TED Talk, has worked with the furniture innovators on all of his interior projects—from designing for a big life in a 355-square-foot Manhattan apartment to a 1,000-square-foot, four-bedroom family house prototype in Maui.

Goliath Table

“We’re actually into serving everybody at every level,” says Barth. “The furniture is high quality, made in Italy, and has a lifetime warranty. It offers simple, intuitive solutions to make your space work for you.”

There was a time when Resource Furniture was ahead of its time, when critics believed the owners’ commitment to fusing sustainability and lofty design to be a foolhardy endeavor.

As their journey continued, they met the challenges put to them by a discerning clientele.

They also met the moment.

Although unforeseen, Resource Furniture was poised for today’s need for domiciles to function as school, office, and entertainment venue. Sales have increased by over 55%, solidifying the company’s commitment to keeping its eight showrooms open. In its anniversary year, Resource launched its Give 2020 campaign, a yearlong initiative to donate to a selection of 20 charities on behalf of every client.

Wall beds, transforming tables, mirrors that fold out to become desks or dining tables, and styles like the sleek Flex sectional—which spreads into a lavish bed when reconfigured— are not only in high demand. As we optimize our homes to experience life day to day in clean-lined rooms, with scads of storage, and free of visual clutter, these forever pieces are a very good idea. resourcefurniture.com 29

PRIVATE CLUBS

Los Angeles

Double Fun in the Sun

The addition of a second 25-yard swimming pool makes the Griffin Club a coveted membership for those seeking private outdoor spaces to socialize.

By Samantha Brooks

Desirables - Private Club

When the new 25-yard-long pool debuted at dining, exercise, and pool cabanas. Slots are the Griffin Club this summer, it could not have even staggered to allow 30 minutes of cleaning come at a better time. “We were just coming time in between guest usage. Meals can also be out of lockdown, and we weren’t sure how peo- ordered through the app for pick up, and the ple would respond to private clubs,” says John staff receives biweekly COVID tests.

“Our first pool was family oriented, and we Myers, the Griffin Club’s director of membership. “We’re lucky that we have a lot of outdoor built the second one to be more adult focused, space, though, and our demand is as high as but with COVID, and everyone needing more space, we’ve opened it up to families,” says Myit’s ever been.”

Drawn to the safe, private environment, ers, who also points out that the club is the members have long been fans of the club’s only one in Los Angeles to offer two outdoor low-key, inclusive atmosphere, providing eight pools. “We’ve also had a lot of demand for our tennis courts, indoor and outdoor dining, and tennis program, with private lessons and small a range of fitness classes, from yoga and spin groups being the focus.”

Myers also notes that the club’s summer to boot camp.

Post-COVID, the club has tweaked its op- camp was expanded this year, with more erations to accommodate new safety standards. camp counselors to supervise smaller groups Previously, everything was on a first-come, of kids, and no more than nine to a group. first-served basis, but now members can use “With most camps closed, we were able to hire the club’s app to book time-allotted spaces for a great quality of counselors for the program 30

DESIRABLES

to lead arts and crafts and contactless outdoor games. Everyone wore masks and kept to small groups—plus, it was ideal for our members whose families were quarantining in pods anyway,” he says.

The club dates back to 1926, when it was a tennis club that catered to the Hollywood crowd. It now occupies four acres just south of Century City, and in addition to the expansive outdoor spaces, a two-story clubhouse has sports and fitness facilities and locker rooms.

Membership types include tennis, family, and individual, and start at $2,000 for junior members, $5,000 for individuals, and $12,000 for families. griffinclubla.com

PRIVATE CLUBS

New York

Miami Heat When Casa Tua opened its doors on Miami’s South Beach in 2001, it instantly became a hot spot. “There was a ground floor with a kitchen and garden restaurant, then a top floor with a five-bedroom hotel and a lounge on the other side of it,” says founder Miky Grendene. “It was so successful that I didn’t know who to let in.

Ten years later, I created the private members club so that I could select the people I thought were best suited. Our members are very diverse though—it’s not just about catering to the rich and famous.”

The Miami club now boasts an exclusive membership of just 1,000 and has a second location in Aspen—two of the most desirable places for Americans to be this winter season.

(A third club opened in Paris this year, just before the pandemic.)

Currently, Grendene is working on curating a selection of properties that will be invitation only, applying the private club model to villa club membership. “I had been saying for almost three years that we need to change the way we do business and approach life,” he says.

“Now that we’ve all been locked in our homes, we’ve rediscovered what it means to spend quality time together, and the next phases [of the Casa Tua brand] are about experiences, not just consumption.”

From the beginning, though, Casa Tua has always felt like a private home, partly thanks to Florence-based interior designer Michele Bonan. “I brought Michele to the U.S. about 23 years ago. I had seen what he had done at the Lungarno Hotel and loved it. It was close to the aesthetic I like, but what he does with me is different than his other projects,” Grendene says of the man who has designed all of the Casa Tua locations. “His work is so timeless.

Elegance does not have an era. Michele and I will mix in vintage finds from the ’50s and ’60s with African antiques.”

South Beach’s hottest private members club shines brighter than ever this season, while its sister club in Aspen is the coolest place off the slopes.

By Samantha Brooks

Photo Credit: 1–2. Shawn O’Connor

Desirables - Private Club

1

1. The garden restaurant at Casa Tua Miami.

2. Casa Tua Aspen.

2 CSQ Q3 2020

Indeed, while the Miami outpost has a relaxed yet refined beach vibe, with linens and hints of blue, the Aspen location brings in the mountain environs. Within a barn-line structure in the heart of town, the restaurant and private club feature warm wood tones with dark grays and punches of red, while leather accents and plush sofas anchor the lounge spaces and provide a cozy feel.

Grendene shares that the next wave of the brand and its real estate–focused offerings will come in the following years, but for now the Casa Tua flagships in Aspen and Miami are the ultimate homes away from home, especially in the tricky era of COVID. “Our multiple locations create synergy. The secret behind our success is that we put our heart and soul behind everything we do,” he says. “Our longevity is in creating an environment that truly feels like a home.” casatualife.com 31

DEMYSTIFYING DC:

WHAT EVERY CEO SHOULD KNOW Unlocking the Power of DC For Your Organization November 12, 2020 2pm PST/ 5pm EST Private Event 30 min. panel + 30 min. Q&A MODERATOR JANET CLAYTON

Senior Strategist at Vectis DC & Editor of two Pulitzer Prize-winning series at the Los Angeles Times

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HON. TONY COELHO Former House Majority Whip & 2020 DNC Convention Vice-Chair

VIRGINIA GREBBIEN Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Parsons Corporation

REQUEST RSVP

https://community.csq.com/en/rsvp-dc

Presented by

DON POLESE

Managing Partner of Vectis DC with over 30 years of Capitol Hill experience

34 Visionary Alumni 36 Of Note OP-ED 40 Michael Schwab INNOVATIVE OFFICES 38 Home for Sale in SB 39 Home for sale in FL LISTS 42 NextGen 12 VISIONARIES 50 Neil Jacobson 52 Joanna Popper 54 Norman Pearlstine 56 Bruno Maglione 58 Christine Simmons VISIONARIES OF THE YEAR 60 Michael Loeb Rich Vogel

Sports, Media & Entertainment

Part 2

Visionaries - Cover Michael Schwab, shown here (right) surfing with his father, Charles, shares how he got into investing in adventure sports on page 40.

CSQ Q3 2020

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Visionaries in Sports, Media & Entertainment

CSQ ALUMNI COMMUNITY AND UPDATES:

VISIONARIES OF THE YEAR

2019

2017

2014

BYRON ALLEN Chairman, Founder, and CEO, Entertainment Studios

ALLYSON FELIX Athletes’ Advisory Commission, LA 2028

DANA WALDEN Chairman, Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment

2018

2016

2013

Visionaries - Alumni BRIAN GRAZER Co-Founder and Producer, Imagine Entertainment

TROY CARTER Founder and CEO, Atom Factory

CLIVE DAVIS CCO, Sony Music Entertainment

2017

2015

2012

JANET EVANS Vice Chair and Director of Athlete Relations, LA 2028

DAN BECKERMAN President and CEO, AEG

PAUL KESSLER AND DIANA DERYCZ-KESSLER Founders, Bristol Capital Advisors

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

VISIONARIES

LAILA ALI Former Boxer and TV Personality BONIN BOUGH Founder and Chief Growth Officer, Bonin Ventures KEITH BRACKPOOL CEO, Santa Anita Park JEANIE BUSS CEO and Managing Owner, Los Angeles Lakers MELISSA CARBONE Founder and CEO, Ten Thirty One Productions BRYAN CLAY Olympic Decalthete RICK EISERMAN CEO, Trailer Park Group

On June 13, Eiserman and over 200 staff members of Trailer Park Group lead the charge to paint “All Black Lives Matter,” on Hollywood Boulevard. The street mural is now a designated historic landmark and a permanent art installation.

CHRISTINA M. FRANCIS President, Magic Johnson Enterprises ROB FRIEDMAN Former Co-Chairman, Lionsgate; Former Chairman and CEO, TMP Entertainment PETER GUBER Chairman and CEO, Mandalay Entertainment DARIN HARVEY Founder and CEO, Fight Tribe Management LISA HENSON CEO and President, The Jim Henson Company CHERYL BOONE ISAACS Former President, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences CAITLYN JENNER Olympic Decathlete and TV Personality STAN KASTEN President and CEO, Los Angeles Dodgers

CSQ Q3 2020

JON KIRCHNER CEO, Markel Corporation STEVE LEHMAN Founder and Chairman, Business Rockstars JEFF LEVICK CEO, The Players’ Tribune JOHN MAIER CEO, Blue Microphones

After 11 years serving as the CEO and President of Blue Microphones, Maier announced that he has step­ ped down. He launched Verb Consultants, a company that will help small companies in mainly con sumer electronics and musical instrument navi­ gate growth. Currently, he serves as an operating partner for Transom Capial Group.

SELEMA MASEKELA Host and Executive Producer, Vice World of Sports

has devoted his time to investing in and founding new companies in technology, consumer goods, and finance.

In his leisure, he travels, golfs, and spends time with those he loves.

RICHARD RADDON Co-Founder and Co-CEO, ZEFR RYAN RADDON, AKA KASKADE Musician and Producer DAVID RENZER Former Chairman and CEO, Spirit Music Group ANGELA RUGGIERO Co-Founder and CEO, Sports Innovation Lab KEN RUTKOWSKI Co-Founder, Business Rockstars JAY SAMIT Executive Chairman, Greenfield Robotics

Visionaries - Alumni PATRICK MCCLENAHAN CEO and President, Goodwill Southern California MITCHELL MODELL President and CEO, Modell’s Sporting Goods

Modell currently works with Fortune 500 compa­ nies to help them save money in utilities and telecom­ munications with Bottom Line Savings and CrosStar Network Solutions.

WALTER O’BRIEN Founder and CEO, Scorpion Computer Services

Scorpion Studios was credited as the technical advisor of Venom, the 2018 Spiderman film series featuring Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, and Marcella Bragio. Scorpion was also awarded a military contract to apply its AI engine to army drone fleet.

ROHAN OZA Co-Founder, CAVU Ventures ILYA POZIN Co-Founder, Pluto TV

After the $340M acquisition of Pluto TV by Viacom, Pozin

GENE SIMMONS Musician (KISS) and CoFounder, Rock & Brews RENATA SIMRIL President and CEO, LA84 Foundation

Upon launching the Play Equity Fund to support youth of color, Simril has overseen partnerships and collaborations such as The Alliance in Los Angeles, a five year commitment uniting the 11 pro sports organizations of Greater Los Angeles to address racial injustice, build educational opportunities, and support other issues facing black communities.

The LA84 Foundation and the Play Equity Fund have also collaborated with Angel City, a majority woman­ founded ownership group which was recently awarded expansion team rights to Los Angeles by the National Women’s Soccer League.

The LA84 Foundation is Angel City’s social impact partner, and Angel City is also a formal supporter of the Play Equity Fund.

A.G. SPANOS President of Business Operations, Los Angeles Chargers JOHN SPANOS President of Football Operations, Los Angeles Chargers DAVID STERNBERG Managing Partner, Claygate Advisors LLC

The sports media consulting firm recently celebrated its fifth anniversary by winning a new client and renewing two long­standing engage­ ments for another year.

Sternberg and his business partner, Dan Granik, advise sports rights holders on the distribution of their content via both traditional television networks and emerging digital media platforms. Clients have included U.S. professional sports leagues, international sports governing bodies, Euro­ pean football (soccer) clubs and fight sports promoters.

JOHN TERZIAN AND BRIAN TOLL Co-Founders, The h.wood Group MIKE TOLLIN Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Mandalay Sports Media PETER UEBERROTH Former Chairman, U.S. Olympic Committee; Former Commissioner of Baseball; Co-Owner, Pebble Beach Company JOHN WELSH President, Film Independent GILLIAN ZUCKER President of Business Operations, Los Angeles Clippers

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Visionaries - Of Note OF NOTE

Briefings, Updates & Analysis

By James Faris

BOND’S MALIBU MANOR ON THE MARKET Pierce Brosnan, who starred as James Bond in four movies from 1995 to 2002, is asking $100M for his recently listed Malibu beach house. Records show Brosnan landed the location in 2000 for two transactions totaling $7.35M. It now features a Thai-inspired home with five bedrooms and 14

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bathrooms. The gated retreat encapsulates palm trees, a breathtaking pool and patio, a spa with two saunas, a recording studio, and 117 feet of beach. It’s currently the eighth-most expensive home on the market in L.A. County, according to the Los Angeles Times, and the Golden Globe-nominated actor hopes to be nine-figures richer when the deal closes.

chriscortazzo.com

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

AMERICA’S LATEST BLACK BILLIONAIRE Madea’s made it—as a billionaire. Tyler Perry, the actor best known for his role in 11 films as a tough, elderly Black woman named Madea, is a billionaire, as of September 2020. Forbes caught up with Perry for a magazine feature and learned how the Hollywood star makes and spends his fortune. Perry is no one-hit-wonder; he gained acclaim through the Madea franchise and leveraged that notoriety to launch Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. The multihyphenate has written, acted, and directed films that have grossed more than $1B in ticket sales, and he’s recently placed a bet on BET+, a video-on-demand service that celebrated its one-year anniversary in September. tylerperry.com

EPIC’S BIG MOVES

PASSING TO THE ROCK The XFL, an upstart professional football league, has swapped hands from one former wrestling star to another. A group including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson paid $15M to acquire the nascent league from Vince McMahon, a former professional wrestler who’s now CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, after the league filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-April. The pandemic derailed what was largely seen as a suc-

cessful showing for the hopeful NFL competitor, which introduced creative new rules to spark interest and capture football fans’ attention. RedBird Capital Partners joined Johnson and his longtime business partner, Dany Garcia, in landing the league, which branded itself as made for TV. A U.S. district judge allowed the sale in a Delaware bankruptcy court in early August 2020, and Johnson tweeted in early October that the league won’t play next year but plans to resume in 2022. xfl .com

Epic Games, maker of the uberpopular online video game Fortnite, acquired SuperAwesome, a platform that helps developers and brands like Lego and Hasbro ensure online experiences and advertisements are kid friendly.

In an age when many children master iPads before talking or walking, this move builds upon Epic’s strategy to connect with the next generation, though the gaming giant said it has no plans to put ads in Fortnite. About 53% of Fortnite’s 350 million players are ages 10 to 25, according to a July 2020 survey by gaming research firm Newzoo. SuperAwesome has raised over $35M since launching in 2013 and counts Microsoft as an investor. The deal comes after Epic invested $15M in game-development platform Manticore, though it continues to battle Apple in an antitrust lawsuit regarding in-app purchasing methods on its iOS platform.

Visionaries - Of Note

epicgames.com

TITLES TO TINSELTOWN

Photo Credit: The Los Angeles Lakers — Douglas P. DeFelice

The Los Angeles Lakers tied the Boston Celtics for an NBA-high 17 titles as LeBron James led the team to victory in six games over his former team, the Miami Heat.

James and co-star Anthony Davis emerged victorious in a tumultuous season that saw the untimely death of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, the postponement of the NBA season because of the pandemic, and its subsequent resumption in a flawlessly executed bubble in Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando. James and Davis both solidified their legacies, with the former capturing his fourth title and moving one step closer to Michael Jordan’s infamous six rings.

Owner Jeanie Buss, a former CSQ Visionary, celebrated the title in honor of her father, the late, great Jerry Buss. nba.com/lakers

CSQ Q3 2020

37

INNOVATIVE OFFICE

While most of the country continues to work from home indefinitely, people from coast to coast are rethinking their living environments. For many, that has meant moving out of the city and into more suburban environments. Here, we profile move-in-ready properties on each coast that function as allyou-need compounds, complete with not only stunning home offices, but—in the spirit of our Sports, Media & Entertainment issue—amenities for an array of activities.

Just 90 miles north of Los Angeles, the storied city of Santa Barbara offers a small-town feel with big-time charm. Within the city, the tony enclave of Montecito has long been attracting Angelenos—and most recently, members of the British royal family, who have decided to make the region their new home.

This 2.5-acre property offers stunning ocean views and Mediterranean architecture.

West Coast

Santa Barbara

By Samantha Brooks

Location Montecito, Calif.

Scope 7,491 square feet, plus a 1,225-square-foot guest house, on 2.5 acres Design Don Nulty and Christina Rottman Inquiries 956 Mariposa Lane, offered at $9.95M. Riskin Partners, Village Properties,

riskinpartners.com

Notable Features • Built in 2002 with an extensive remodel in 2012, the property combines authentic Spanish-style architecture with modern amenities.

• Native oaks, olive trees, and a waterfall greet visitors at the entrance, while the rest of the property is landscaped with swaths of greenery, manicured lawns, and palm trees, as well as a tennis court and swimming pool.

• Ample terraces, balconies, and outfitted outdoor spaces are ideal for social-distanced entertaining.

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Visionaries - Office LA 2

1. The property is located on 2.5 acres. The entrance greets guests with clean architecture, inspired by the city’s Spanish-style roots.

3

5

2. The Moorish-inspired sitting room in the master suite.

3. The private office space within the master has stunning views.

4. Numerous outdoor spaces offer a variety of intimate and grand settings for entertaining.

5. The ground-floor master suite has its own private patio, as well as sitting area and office.

6. The pool area feels like a resort.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

4

6

INNOVATIVE OFFICE

Tax advantages, endless sunshine, sandy beaches, and seriously, the tax advantages.

Florida has become an increasingly enticing option for New Yorkers to flee an array of inconveniences.

While the allure of being in any of the stunning high-rises from South Beach to Sunny Isles has appeal, there’s no denying that Miami’s bayfront homes on private islands are more sought after than ever.

This 10,754-square-foot home on .48 acres on Hibiscus Island not only has 122 feet of water frontage with its own dock, but also lush landscaping, two pools, and a rooftop with 360-degree views of the bay and downtown Miami skyline.

East Coast

Miami Beach

By Samantha Brooks

Location Hibiscus Island, Miami Beach, Fla. Scope 10,754 square feet on .48 acres Design Architecture by Reinaldo Borges, with landscape architecture from Raymond Jungles.

Inquiries 370 S. Hibiscus Drive, offered at $27.99M. Mariana Niro, Douglass Elliman, elliman.com Notable Features • Built in 2016 by Reinaldo Borges, known for his beach homes from Miami to the Hamptons, as well as The Webster and Brickell Plaza, and Raymond Jungles, one of the most preeminent landscape architects in the Southeast.

• The five-bedroom home offers a variety of recreational spaces, including two docks along 122 feet of waterfront; a mosaic-tiled outdoor swimming pool and indoor pool; an outdoor kitchen; and a rooftop area with green space and deck.

• An expansive master suite features a sitting area, spa-like bathroom, and light-filled home office with room for two executive desks.

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Visionaries - Office NY 2

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4

5

6

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1. The rooftop deck adds a third level to the area, with refreshing outdoor breezes and stunning views.

2. The outdoor kitchen and entertaining area is ideal for small gatherings.

3. The home is located on Hibiscus Island, a 70-acre, private, man-made island within Biscayne Bay. The home features two dock spaces along 122 feet of waterfront.

4. The media room features Bowers & Wilkins speakers.

5.The home office is located within the master suite, allowing for a pair of executive desks.

6. Mosaic tiles line the pool.

7. Light fills the home through expanses of floor-to-ceiling windows.

CSQ Q3 2020

39

At age 36, I took my father’s advice and started investing in what I love: surfing and adventure sports.

By Michael Schwab

OP-ED

Adventure Capitalism

My father, Charles Schwab, started his company the year before I was born, so my earliest recollection of him is as a hardworking guy with a tiny company.

He believed in himself and spent a lot of time working hard to grow the company. He insisted I work during the summers— my first job was a paperboy. His consistent guidance to me was, “I don’t care what you do in life, as long as you are a contributing member of society. Even if that is driving a bus.”

When I was around 14, I began accompanying him on his drives to work in San Francisco. He would go upstairs and I would go work in the mailroom.

I credit my father for my desire to create something new and for having respect for everyone who works hard to achieve their goals.

However, I was not a great student. I was diagnosed with dyslexia and a healthy dose of ADD. When I was tested at age 11, my dad quickly realized he was also dyslexic. I loved math, science, and arts, but reading and writing were difficult. Rote memorization was nearly impossible. From ages 12–14, I attended a boarding school on the East Coast for smaller class sizes and individualized attention. I later attended USC for college but dropped out after three years. I studied political science mainly because I figured it was the easiest route to go. I now realize that I was too young. I should have taken a few years off to travel and figure out what I wanted to do, instead of just following friends to college.

By the time I left USC, I actually had a two-anda-half-page résumé with experience ranging from working in a mailroom and construction work to valet attendant and assistant on a trading floor. For my first job after USC, I chose to work at a nonprofit

Visionaries - OpEd

Michael B. Schwab Founder and managing director, Big Sky Partners Michael B. Schwab, founder and managing director of Big Sky Partners, is an active and engaged investment professional with nearly two decades of experience investing in and mentoring companies through every stage of growth and technology/product development. Since founding Big Sky in 1999, Schwab has remained disciplined in his investment approach across all portfolio company investments, highlighting the firm’s primary focus on people first. More recently, as founder and managing director of Big Sky Wave Developments, Schwab is developing exclusive wave-zone resorts surrounding wave basins and natural surf breaks in untapped areas around the globe.

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where I was responsible for product procurement for homeless housing and substance abuse centers. In 1998 I went to work in the tech world doing business development for a startup called Creditland. That is where I fell in love with technology and started investing in companies that I was passionate about and that had great leaders.

In 1999 I decided to help open a restaurant in San Francisco called Charlie’s. Th at was my fi rst experience raising capital and operating a business.

It was a great and fun experience overall, but it ended up a being a serious education on the difficulty of the restaurant business. Notably, you must be there 24/7 to truly control it.

In hindsight, over the last 25 years, starting in business development, then moving to early-stage tech investing and emerging market real estate, and now developing a next-generation sports and wellness resort community, I feel like I have stuck with my basic beliefs and visions since day one: Th ings take a lot longer than you expect, but if you keep at it, your dreams will come true.

For instance, back in 2002, I fi rst invested in TAE Technologies as an idea to change the world with clean and abundant nuclear fusion. Now, almost 19 years and 16 direct investments later, I believe we are on the cusp of achieving net energy production via nuclear fusion.

My personal interests have since also taken me in another direction. Around 10 years ago, my father mentioned to me that I should really consider investing in what I am passionate about, which kind of took me by surprise. Although I do love technology, and making the world a better place through it,

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

I was falling in love with surfi ng, and that was becoming my real passion in life. My first reaction was, “Hey Dad, do you realize my real passion is surfing?”

He said, “Yes, I know.”

To put it into context, my father at the time was 76 years old, and back when he was a kid, surfers were not exactly the most significant contributors to society. So I was surprised, but then realized he was onto something.

My first shift into investing into my passion was shortly after that, when I invested in a small surf resort in southeastern Indonesia called Boa on the island of Roti, which happens to be finally ramping up after all these years. “Island time” is what they call the slow pace of development. I had an old friend from USC who moved to Indonesia and really immersed himself, and we actually found the project together as I was out surfing the remote corners of the country.

The next move I made was in 2012 after visiting Martin Daly, from Indies Trader Marine Adventures, out on his remote Island called Beran (berenisland .com), in the Marshall Islands, where he had pioneered a little island that was extremely remote, but had empty surf around it. I invested with Martin, and now we have a fully functioning resort that is amazing.

Then in 2013, I was invited to invest with Kelly Slater into the Kelly Slater Wave Company (kswaveco .com). It was kind of a selfish investment, at the time, to help myself become a better surfer, since I had not grown up surfing. I figured if I had a perfect wave that I could practice on over and over, I could get better.

Cut to today, it totally worked to improve my surfing, starting at age 40, which is kind of unheard of.

The shift to investing in sports-related startups

is unique because not a lot of large funds have touched it to date. It’s been kind of a fringe idea that has been looked at as dangerous or unapproachable, and I want to make it more mainstream. If you asked most people if they are into action/adventure sports, they would say no. I want to change that. I call what I am doing adventure capitalism. But, like any business, the risk is failure and loss of capital. I am investing alongside friends and family, and we are all passionate about the work and believe in the future of surfing, wellness, and adventure sports.

My latest project is with my partner, Meriwether Companies, to build a next-generation sports and wellness resort community centered around a Kelly Slater Wave Company basin in La Quinta, Calif., called Coral Mountain. It will also feature a bike park with pump tracks for skateboarding, BMX, and mountain bikes; a skateboarding street course; lakes for e-foiling and standup paddleboarding; a full spa and fitness center including a biohacking facility; farm-to-table dining where we grow as much as possible on property; rock climbing; sports courts; kids’ camps; and indoor golf simulation bays; and other amenities.

The other action-sports venture I recently invested in is called Natural Selection Tour (naturalselectiontour.com) founded by Travis Rice, the GOAT of backcountry snowboarding. The NST will start in 2021 with three events, first in Jackson Hole, then to Baldface Lodge in British Columbia, and will end in Alaska at the Tordrillo Mountain Lodge. I believe this will be the next version of the X Games, focused on backcountry snowboarding, captured and broadcast by drones, and will blow the minds of spectators. END

The future site of Coral Mountain.

Visionaries - OpEd

CSQ Q3 2020

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NEXTGEN 12

ARI AVISHAY

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

When 2020 gives you lemons, make the NextGen 10 the NextGen 12. This edition, we’re celebrating 12 under-40 leaders who are cleaning up the mess left by 2020. They’re taking into consideration the shifting landscapes of sports, media, and entertainment to innovate new paths that push a socially distant, digitally dependent world forward. These Los Angeles and New York–based innovators are championing diversity and inclusion in entertainment, getting people to vote, combating misinformation in journalism, and giving everyone something to watch, read, drink, and do during downtime.

Several members of this quarter’s NextGen class work at some of the world’s most influential companies in media and entertainment, including Netflix, YouTube, The New York Times, Hulu, WarnerMedia, and NBCUniversal, while others are taking the reins at soon-to-be household names like the Museum of Ice Cream, Recover Lifestyle Brands, ColorCreative, Attn:, Unanimous Media, and Fintech Today.

We honor them by sharing their stories, which we hope will inspire and educate leaders of the future. By Sheean Hanlan

HEAD OF ORIGINALS MARKETING, HULU Age: 38 About: I am a full-time student of popular culture, building brands through entertainment, media, and technology.

At Hulu, I lead a team of people who develop strategies, creative executions, and cultural campaigns that launch all forms of streaming content.

Company: Hulu is a leading, premium streaming service offering live and on-demand TV and movies.

Residence: Los Angeles Company HQ: Los Angeles Education: BS, kinesiology and marketing, Indiana University Bloomington.

Industry: Entertainment Awards: Received recognition from Cannes Lions, Clios, Webbys, Streamys, and Emmys. Named to Billboard’s 2018 Top Branding Power Players list. Member of CAA’s Global Fellowship and Chevrolet’s Global Music Advisory Council.

Notable projects: Oversaw the marketing launch of Solar Opposites, Hulu’s most watched comedy series, and Palm Springs, Hulu’s most watched film to date. At Lyft, I launched Lyft Entertainment, the creative-development division of Lyft. Lyft Entertainment

has co-produced award-winning films and TV and digital series distributed across Starz, Facebook Watch, YouTube, Funny or Die, Toronto International Film Festival, and SXSW Film Festival.

Architected creative partnerships with cultural icons like Paul McCartney, Issa Rae, Kevin Hart, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which elevated Lyft’s brand in the lead-up to the company’s IPO. Received an Emmy nomination for Lyft Entertainment’s role in the revival of Billy on the Street.

Advice: The best way to get your partners to think that you care about them is to actually care about them.

Success: When you are doing what you love and making a difference.

Mentors: David Messinger (CMO, Activision), Lori Tabb (CEO, ShiftAffect), Barbara Avishay (mom).

Local companies you admire: Creative Artists Agency, Lyft, The Walt Disney Company.

First job: In-N-Out Burger, which was the hardest job I’ve ever had!

Guilty pleasure: Restaurants with drive-throughs.

In the morning: Check the Nasdaq ticker.

Before bed: Watch The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

What keeps you up: Writing mental emails Year ahead: Continue to work on my MIS (“Master’s in Streaming”).

Visionaries - NG12

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NEXTGEN 12

MARYELLIS BUNN

FOUNDER AND CEO, MUSEUM OF ICE CREAM Age: 28 About: I grew the Museum of Ice Cream from a small temporary installation in New York City into a nationwide sensation, complete with its own brand of ice cream.

We have five locations and counting that have welcomed over a million international visitors. I love designing and constructing socially squared spaces created to provoke inspiration, foster community, and celebrate the power of imagination.

Company: The Museum of Ice Cream transforms concepts and dreams into spaces that provoke imagination and creativity. The museum is designed to be a culturally inclusive environment and community, inspiring human connection through the universal power of ice cream.

The Museum of Ice Cream is a Figure8 brand.

Residence: New York Company HQ: New York Education: BBA, business and design, Parsons School of Design.

Industry: Entertainment Awards: Forbes 30 Under 30 and Ad Age’s 50 Most Influential Creative Figures.

In 2018, the Museum of Ice Cream was honored as one of Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Live Events.

Notable projects: Opening our NYC flagship museum.

Before the Museum of Ice Cream, I worked as the head of innovation at Time Inc. and as a creative consultant and design strategist for Facebook, Instagram, and Staples.

Advice: Fail fast Success: At the employee closing party for the first Museum of Ice Cream NYC pop-up. After 45 days, half the room was in tears because we had become a team and a family and wanted to show to go on!

Local companies you admire: Warby Parker and Té Company in the West Village.

First job: Selling rocks on the beach.

Guilty pleasure: Ice cream with a side of ice cream.

In the morning: A five-minute dance party and matcha.

Before bed: Reading What keeps you up: My cell phone and social media. How we will function in a society addicted to a technology designed to keep us disconnected and conflicting with each other.

Year ahead: To contribute to the reimagining of communities, cities, and towns to make connections and gatherings stronger and safer.

DENIESE DAVIS

COO, COLORCREATIVE Age: 32 About: I produce stories created by underrepresented writers and filmmakers and develop content for Hoorae Media, formerly known as Issa Rae Productions.

Company: ColorCreative’s mission is to change the landscape of media by creating a direct-to-industry pipeline for women and minority writers.

The company champions diverse voices by building creative business brands, facilitating network partnerships, and hosting live events that foster community-building.

Our management slate prioritizes multi-hyphenates who specialize in authentic storytelling with a unique cultural POV. Residence: Los Angeles Company HQ: Los Angeles Education: BA, film production, CUNY Brooklyn College; MFA, producing, American Film Institute.

Industry: Entertainment Awards: The Debra Hill Fellowship from the Producers Guild of America. In 2020, Issa Rae Productions received eight Emmy nominations for the HBO comedy series Insecure and three Emmy nominations for the HBO sketch series A Black Lady Sketch Show. Color of Change

Visionaries - NG12

CSQ Q3 2020

honored ColorCreative in 2019 for its commitment to telling black stories.

Notable projects: The BET and ColorCreative script-toscreen contest and the recent transition of ColorCreative into management.

Advice: First, there is always a solution. Second, my mom instilled in me that there is nothing a woman can’t do.

Success: I realized early on in my career that recognition for achievements doesn’t equal success. I feel most successful when I am able to complete something that I set out to do, no matter how long it takes.

Mentors: Despite our different professional backgrounds, my close friends are who I turn to when I need advice or an extra push.

Local companies you admire: Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen, Macro, Raedio, The Ringer.

First job: Selling Sunday newspapers at age 14 for commission.

Guilty pleasure: Kit Kats and whiskey.

In the morning: Coffee while catching up on national, local, and industry news.

Before bed: Creating my to-do list for the next day and going over what’s on my calendar.

What keeps you up: Wondering if I’m doing enough.

Year ahead: To continue expanding ColorCreative’s brand and management division and finalize our funding plans.

43

TAHIRAH GOODEN

MANAGER OF ORIGINAL FILMS, NETFLIX Age: 37 About: I help create films that not only entertain, but expand thinking and explain the world we live in.

Company: Netflix is the world’s leading streaming entertainment service with 193M paid memberships in over 190 countries, with TV series, documentaries, and feature films across a variety of genres and languages.

Residence: Los Angeles Company HQ: Los Gatos, Calif.

Education: BA, media studies and psychology, University of Virginia; MFA, film pro­ ducing, Peter Stark Produ­ cing Program, University of Southern California.

Industry: Entertainment Notable projects: Overseeing Netflix’s The Old Guard, which was directed by Gina Prince­ Bythewood and stars Charlize Theron and Kiki Layne.

Advice: My mother would say, “Do what you got to do now.”

Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, so whatever goals or ambitions you have for yourself, don’t wait to act upon them.

Success: I am always striving to top myself on each project.

That said, I define success on a project­by­project basis,

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NEXTGEN 12

measured by the perceived impact each of my films has on the culture. The more impact the better.

Mentors: I don’t have a true “business” mentor, but I lean on a strong familial foundation for strength and advice.

Local companies you admire: A Beautiful Life Jamaican Cafe and Natraliart Jamaican Res­ taurant — my go­to restaurants for authentic Jamaican food.

First job: When I was 15, I was a summer teaching assistant at an elementary school.

My first job in entertainment was interning in the story department at New Regency Productions.

Guilty pleasure: Cheesy romance novels In the morning: Unfortunately, I fall into the habit of check­ ing my phone for emails and messages.

Before bed: I usually fall asleep listening to an audio­ book. I’m currently listening to Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.

What keeps you up: The insid­ iousness of white supremacist thinking and worrying if I am doing enough to break the cycle and advance opportu­ nities for underrepresented individuals both in front of and behind the camera.

Year ahead: Become a kind­ er and more empathetic person. Find a property for film adaptation that is as layered as Lord of the Rings, as immersive as Star Wars, and as magical as Harry Potter but from a non­white­male Western perspective. Continue to break new ground in terms of representation in film.

JANIS HUANG

VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKE­ TING AND MEDIA STRATEGY, THE NEW YORK TIMES Age: 32 About: I’m responsible for bringing our brand and mar­ keting to life in the real world.

I’m focused on convincing people that quality, indepen­ dent journalism is critical and worth supporting. I lead a team of super­talented strategists, data scientists, and engineers to shape our practice and develop our program and capabilities in service of our journalism and the role it plays in society.

Company: The New York Times is dedicated to help­ ing people understand the world through on­the­ground, expert, and deeply reported independent journalism. This mission is rooted in our belief that great journalism has the power to make each reader’s life richer and more fulfilling, and all of society stronger and more just.

Residence: New York Company HQ: New York Education: BS, business administration, University of Southern California.

Industry: Online media Awards: Multiple Cannes Lions, including five Grand Prix. Named Marketer of the

Year by Ad Age, a 40 Under 40 marketer by Brand Innovators, and a Top Programmatic Advertiser and Agency

by AdExchanger.

Notable projects: Helping The Times achieve its sub­ scription growth goals a year early — a milestone that feels more important than ever when trustworthy journalism is under attack. When The Times covered allega­ tions of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein, sparking the #MeToo movement and social justice reform in the work­ place, I developed a campaign to communicate how our jour­ nalism uncovers the truth and holds the power to account.

Advice: Never underestimate the restorative power of find­ ing balance. Carving out dedi­ cated time to feed the various dimensions that shape me make me a better person, lead­ er, colleague, friend, and wife.

Success: Moving toward a vision and solving problems along the way give me a sense of accomplishment, but the ball is always moving forward.

That’s what keeps things interesting—constant change and progress.

Mentors: A few badass people in my life that I consider my personal board of directors give it to me real and lift me up out of moments of fear and self­doubt. And then there’s my grandmother, who insists that if it doesn’t sparkle it’s not worth wearing.

Local companies you admire: The local NYC restaurants that have converted their spaces into pantries offering nutritious food and cooked meals to displaced workers and hungry families. It reminds me how much good there still is in this community during a time when we need it most.

First job: A headhunter, as a summer job in high school. I had to look up and call executives using a com­ bination of Netscape Navi­ gator and a glorified phone book to try to convince them

Visionaries - NG12

to switch to jobs I didn’t know very much about, and definitely was not qualified to answer any questions about.

I quit after three days.

Guilty pleasure: Browsing real estate listings, especially old farms and barns.

In the morning: Drinking a tall glass of water. I reach for it every morning, first thing, sometimes with my eyes still closed in bed.

Before bed: Making sure my phone is on silent. I’m a light sleeper so I need the best conditions I can get.

What keeps you up: Thinking about how I can contribute to securing a future with greater diversity in leadership.

Statistics show that people who look like me are less likely to be at the table in board rooms across the country.

That’s a problem that I don’t want the next generation of leaders to need to be concerned with.

Year ahead: To survive this wildly unpredictable and borderline unbelievable year mentally and physically healthy, and to support as many people as I can to do the same.

Age: 35 About: I am an ex-McKinsey consultant and entertainment leader with 10+ years of global experience across strategy, business development, product, operations, and finance.

Company: WarnerMedia creates and distributes premium and popular content from a diverse array of talented storytellers and journalists to global audiences.

Residence: Los Angeles Company HQ: New York Education: BSE, industrial and operations engineering, University of Michigan; MBA, Harvard Business School.

Industry: Entertainment Notable projects: Leading the global digital distribution of Warner Bros., HBO, and Turner content. Developing market strategies, managing partnerships, creating nextgen interactive products and experiences in the AR/VR, audio, IoT, and 5G spaces.

Advice: If we ask the right questions, the answers generally are easy to get.

Success: When I feel excited to go to work every morning.

Mentors: My father, husband, and kids.

Local companies you admire: Pinkfong, Yamibuy, Rael First job: Working at an ice cream store.

Guilty pleasure: Baking desserts In the morning: Give my family morning kisses.

Before bed: Review tomorrow’s calendar.

What keeps you up: I don’t take my worries to bed.

Year ahead: Keep healthy and keep growing.

IAN KAR

CEO, FINTECH TODAY Age: 28 About: After a career in finance and a fintech journalism stint at Quartz, I wanted to help build the products I was writing about. In 2019, I took the plunge, and used my background in product management from working at Acorns and Tasting Room to found my own fintech company. Fast-forward a year later and we have readers who are founders and executives from top tier VCs and fintech firms, like Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, QED, Visa, Plaid, Credit Karma, Chime, and Stripe.

Company: Fintech Today is a subscription media firm focused on research for fintech operators. We produce a free weekly newsletter, a premium newsletter for industry leaders, and a private, invite-only community for industry executives.

Residence: New York Company HQ: New York Education: Economics and politics, Franklin and Marshall College, 2013.

Industry: Marketing and advertising Notable projects: As a reporter I broke news on companies like Apple, PayPal, Venmo,

Visionaries - NG12

FEIFEI HU

VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, WARNERMEDIA

CSQ Q3 2020

and Uber, and interviewed leaders like U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers.

With Fintech Today, we’re building a research firm and community that has already enabled dozens of investments, partnerships, and hires in the first year.

Advice: Take your time.

I’m naturally an impatient person, so I feel unproductive if I’m not moving forward.

But now I take my time rather than forcing and pushing things a certain way.

Success: I try not to think about if I’m successful or not. Success is unattainable.

I always try to work on things that I feel fulfilled by and that make me happy. If I’m doing that, then I feel successful.

Mentors: My parents and my brother have all been supportive of my career and have guided me tremendously.

I’m also lucky to have mentors who have helped me with Fintech Today.

Local companies you admire: Ramp Financial, a corporate credit card that helps you manage spending. Privacy. com, a company that helps users have more control over who has access to their spending. Bloom Credit, a company that makes it easier to work with credit bureaus.

I’m also a big fan of health care tech companies like Ro and Capsule.

First job: I worked part time as a UPS store clerk when I was 16. My first full-time job was as an analyst at a hedge fund.

Guilty pleasure: I love music— rap and house especially— and going to concerts.

In the morning: Check Twitter Before bed: Meditate and read What keeps you up: Why there are 40M underbanked Americans without access to traditional financial services.

Year ahead: Continuing to add value to people in my community. Connecting people and enabling professional development fulfill me, so I’m excited to lean into that.

45

AMIT PATEL

VICE PRESIDENT OF MAR­ KETING PARTNERSHIPS, PEACOCK (NBCUNIVERSAL) Age: 39 About: At Peacock, I manage brand partnerships and market­ ing strategy across distribution platforms, including streaming media devices, game consoles, and connected TVs. Prior to joining Peacock, I over­ saw Amazon’s product and partnerships team responsible for driving worldwide mem­ ber growth for Amazon Prime through strategic partnerships with major mobile operators.

Company: Peacock is NBC­ Universal’s new streaming service, a slate of exclusive originals, on­demand libraries of hit TV shows, and critical­ ly acclaimed films from the vaults of Universal Pictures, Focus Features, DreamWorks Animation, Illumination, and Hollywood’s biggest studios.

Peacock taps into NBCUniver­ sal’s unmatched ability to deliv­ er a broad range of compelling topical content across news, sports, late night, Spanish language, and reality.

Residence: New York Company HQ: New York Education: BS, business administration, University of California, Riverside; MBA, Booth School of Business,

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NEXTGEN 12

University of Chicago.

Industry: Entertainment Awards: DirectTV’s Founder Mentality Award nominee; won AT&T’s highest honor—First Annual Golden Boy: The Spirit of Communication Award.

Notable projects: Helping to build Peacock from the ground up and be part of a leadership team respon­ sible for driving over 10M subscribers in less than five months from launch. Manag­ ing AT&T’s joint venture with The Chernin Group, where I led the distribution strategy for digital­first content and streaming services targeted toward millennials. Running DirectTV’s first digital stream­ ing service targeted toward the U.S. Hispanic market, lead­ ing business development for Western Digital’s $2B connect­ ed home division. Launching Sony Picture Digital’s mobile products business.

Advice: Nothing is gained by taking life too seriously.

You will never get out of it alive, so remember to have fun and be true to yourself.

Success: It is when my time is focused on work that is fulfilling to me and keeps me challenged, and I am mak­ ing a material impact on other people’s lives, guiding them in their career journey, and helping to build the next class of leaders.

Mentors: Jon Molod, senior vice president of strategy and planning of Xfinity Consumer Services at Comcast, former DirecTV executive Peter Sar­ gent, and former Comcast executive Naishad Patel.

Local companies you admire: Peloton and One Medical have both made health and wellness more accessible and easier to incorporate into consum­ ers’ daily lives.

First job: Executive admin for the senior vice president of Sony Pictures Digital, where I was a part of Sony’s transformation to adapt to a digital era that pro­ vides consumers content

on demand over the internet.

Guilty pleasure: Binging The Office.

In the morning: Write in my notebook the three tasks I am going to complete that day.

Before bed: YouTubing new skills that I’ve been wanting to develop.

What keeps you up: How Peacock can continue to drive value for our subscrib­ ers, what our competitors are doing next, and how I can continue to build upon our amazing company and team culture in order to attract incredible and diverse talent.

Year ahead: To keep build­ ing a team and culture that challenges the power norms at traditional companies by setting up a workplace that is open and welcoming, encouraging diversity and inclusion, empowering my team to challenge the status quo, and directly own con­ tributions. I also want to en­ sure that team members are making time for self­care and focusing on both their mental and physical health while balancing their day­to­day work responsibilities.

Age: 31 About: A storyteller and brand builder, I lead co­marketing and distribution partnerships for YouTube Kids and all of You­ Tube’s subscription products (YouTube TV, YouTube Music, and YouTube Premium). I also set the global marketing vision, priorities, and strategy for the business. Prior to this role, I led the YouTube Originals Product Marketing team, where I cre­ ated the strategy and brand identity for YouTube original shows and series with creative talent such as Demi Lovato, Kevin Hart, and Katy Perry.

Company: YouTube is an online video­sharing platform with a mission to give everyone a voice and to show them the world.

Residence: New York Company HQ: San Bruno, Calif.

Education: BS, science, technology, and socie­ ty with a concentration in industrial engineering, Stanford University.

Industry: Marketing and advertising Awards: Forbes 30 under 30 and Ad Age’s 40 under 40 in 2018 and 2019.

Notable projects: Spear­ heading YouTube’s efforts around racial justice by help­ ing to drive its recent $100M content investment to amplify the voices of Black creators and artists on YouTube. Driving YouTube’s marketing response to COVID­19 by highlighting information from authoritative sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Pre­ vention, promoting livestreams and working with the brand team to stand up a #WITHME campaign to encourage people to stay home together.

This work garnered 228B+ impressions 1,600+ press mentions, 6.1B+ social impres­ sions, and 700+ creator and artist PSAs. Led partnerships with Amazon, Samsung, and Verizon to make YouTube and YouTubeTV available on over 35M Fire TV devices.

Visionaries - NG12 ALANDHA SCOTT

GLOBAL HEAD OF PARTNER, STRATEGY, AND OPERATI­ ONS MARKETING, YOUTUBE

Advice: Show up fully.

Don’t dwell on the past, and don’t spend too much time daydreaming or worrying about the future. Concentrate on showing up fully in the present moment. The present is what you have.

Success: Being happy with who I am and the impact I’m having on those around me.

Mentors: I find mentors all around me in people I admire, can learn from, and have as advisors.

Local companies you admire: Le Bon Pain Haitian Bakery.

First job: Working at a miniature golf course in my childhood town. My first professional job was interning on the recruiting team for Turner Broadcasting.

Guilty pleasure: Chocolate-covered raisins and Viking shows (e.g., Vikings and The Last Kingdom).

In the morning: I live in New York but work West Coast hours. I treasure my quiet mornings before emails start coming in and I try to start my day by walking or doing yoga.

Before bed: Spending a few minutes reflecting on what I’m grateful for in my life.

What keeps you up: The safety and health of my friends and family.

Year ahead: In a year of so much uncertainty, unrest, and tragedy, my goal is to remain centered and focused on being a part of the change I want to see in the world.

MATTHEW SEGAL

CO-FOUNDER, ATTN: Age: 35 About: Since launching Attn: in 2014, I’ve built the company’s content operation into an award-winning, global media brand and spearheaded partnerships with ABC News, Quibi, Facebook, Instagram, Apple, and HBO to launch premium video in a variety of original formats. I am also a regular commentator for MSNBC and ABC News, and shows like Today and Real Time with Bill Maher.

Company: Attn: is a media company that bridges entertainment with topical issues to explain the world around us.

We are leaders when it comes to reaching people who want context on the issues and conversations that matter to them.

Residence: Los Angeles Company HQ: Los Angeles Education: Kenyon College Industry: Media production Awards: The Hollywood Reporter 35 Under 35 2017 and USC Iovine and Young Academy’s 2019 Commencement Speaker.

Notable projects: A seasoned interviewer, I have sat down for exclusives with political leaders including Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, House

Leader Nancy Pelosi, and music legends such as Bono, Keith Richards, and Patti Smith. Previously, I was the co-founder and president of OurTime.org, one of the nation’s largest nonprofits committed to increasing voter participation among young Americans.

Advice: Pick people you admire and ask them to be your mentors. Foster these relationships and ask them for advice often.

Success: When Attn:’s videos really started gaining traction in 2014 and 2015, we knew we were on to something, but the notion that you have already achieved success is a tricky one. I am always thinking we are on the brink. That keeps me motivated.

Mentors: Tom Werner and Valerie Jarrett, with whom Attn: produced a TV special.

Both are indefatigable and have taught me to be bold and relentless in picking up the phone on behalf of a cause.

Local companies you admire: Sweetgreen, not only for its delicious salads, but for its commitment to brand purpose.

First job: Scooping ice cream Guilty pleasure: Golf In the morning: Coffee and the news.

Before bed: The news What keeps you up: A weak bladder Year ahead: Get people to vote.

Visionaries - NG12

CSQ Q3 2020

JERON SMITH

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, UNANIMOUS MEDIA AND INCUBATION LAB AT SONY Age: 35 About: I founded Unanimous Media with my business partner Stephen Curry to develop and produce television, film, and digital content. I have produced documentaries such as Jump Shot (iTunes) and Emanuel (Starz), and shows such as Holey Moley (ABC) and Stephen vs. The Game (Facebook Watch). I also founded the Sony Incubation Lab, designed to break barriers that exist for nontraditional storytellers both in front of and behind the camera, and to create pathways for athletes, musicians, designers, artists, and other recognizable names in culture to create and develop content. I spearheaded the launch of Stephen Curry 30 Inc., where I developed a benchmark formula for player marketing and engineered unprecedented partnership deals with Facebook, Sony, YouTube, Rakuten, and Tencent.

Company: Unanimous Media is a multimedia company that produces television, film, and digital content centered around family, faith, and sports storytelling. Unanimous

47

Media works in tandem with Sony Studios to create and disseminate inspirational and authentic stories to the world.

In April 2018, the company partnered with Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Residence: Los Angeles Company HQ: Los Angeles Education: Economics, UCLA; BBA, business administration, Howard University; MS, strategic marketing and sports management, Georgetown University; MS, information and digital resource management, Columbia University.

Industry: Media production Awards: Forbes 30 under 30, Ad Age’s 40 under 40, 2019 Webby winner, HUBS Exemplar Award, and Nice Kicks Future 50.

Notable projects: Highlighting the power of forgiveness and how a tragedy can bring a community together, in Emanuel. Prior to teaming up with Stephen Curry, I worked at the White House Office of Digital Strategy under President Obama, where I developed a digital strategy for the Executive Office of the President, including whitehouse.gov and the White House and POTUS social media channels for specific policy initiatives. At Nike, I launched and led disruptive marketing campaigns such as the Basketball Never Stops campaign, the Nike+ digitally connected footwear proposition in Europe and Asia, the inaugural Jordan Brand Space in Los Angeles, and the first Take Fight Vegas activation.

Advice: There is no formula for success, but the most successful people in the world have an uncanny ability to navigate the gray area. Also, attention is a finite resource that must be delegated, so put your smartphone down.

Success: When consistently choosing purpose over profit doesn’t put the health of the business in jeopardy.

Mentors: I haven’t had the honor of developing that type

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of relationship with someone that was willing to help guide and advise me in my career development. Because of this, I have been very intentional about making myself available to individuals looking for mentorship and guidance.

Local companies you admire: United Leather is a local company that sells a myriad of leathers and fabrics. I like to customize my clothing with their disparate assortment of leathers and suedes.

First job: I had my own trash can business from age 9 to 14 with over 30 clients. I’d roll trash cans out on Sunday and back in on Monday for $1.50 per home. I had three employees, whom I recruited by buying them whatever they wanted from the ice cream truck and telling them they could buy their own ice cream sandwiches if they worked for me.

Guilty pleasure: Organized battle rap.

In the morning: Pray Before bed: Brush and floss my teeth.

What keeps you up: Allowing fatigue to conquer my mental fortitude.

Year ahead: Win forever.

JOHN STOUT

VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, RECOVER LIFE BRANDS LLC Age: 30 About: My love for all outdoor activities, from fly-fishing to mountain biking, created a need for a better-for-you sports drink, which is why I was so attracted to the opportunity to help create Recover 180.

Company: Recover 180 is a premium hydration beverage with three times the electrolytes, half the calories, and one-third of the sugar compared to traditional sports drinks. Recover comes in three flavors: citrus, blood orange, and acai berry.

Residence: Los Angeles Company HQ: Scottsdale Education: BS, business administration, University of Alabama.

Industry: Food and beverage Notable projects: Developing the original beverage formula, expanding the distribution, and creating the brand’s e-commerce business.

Advice: Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.

Success: Recover 180 being established as a national brand and a must-have household item. If I can drive across the

country and know that I can pull off anywhere on the trip and be able to easily find Recover 180, that will be a major milestone.

Mentors: Mike Meldman and Schuyler Joyner, who are partners in this company.

Local companies you admire: Gloveworx, a franchise fitness business that started from nothing and has been successful in such a crowded space.

First job: Startup hydration powder company.

Guilty pleasure: Video games In the morning: Checking email, a quick workout, and coffee and Recover 180 to start the day.

Before bed: Unwinding by finding a new movie or series on Netflix.

What keeps you up: New opportunities for the business that I know we can capitalize on but are not ready for yet.

Year ahead: We have a lot of momentum with the brand and want to take it to the next level in 2021.

Visionaries - NG12

NEXTGEN ALUMNI UPDATES ASHLEY CROWDER CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, VNTANA In February 2020, VNTANA launched the world’s first 3D content management system.

The new software automatically optimizes, converts, and distributes 3D, proven to double online sales and reduce returns by 40% while providing collaboration tools for global teams. VNTANA’s software has grown an average of 19% month over month since May 2020, and has helped brands improve their digital channels during in-store shutdowns.

for musician Madison Beer with cosmetics company Morphe and is now leading a Sony Music Group voting initiative, challenging the label’s artists to encourage people to vote.

Music Unites is launching Musicversity, an online mentorship program aiming to connect high school students with UTA music agents in Los Angeles, New York, and Nashville.

JACOB FENTON PARTNER, UTA Fenton was promoted to partner at leading talent agency UTA and continues to work with Emmy-winning artists such as Uzo Aduba, Julia Garner, Jharrel Jerome, Christine Baranski, and Bryan Cranston.

JILLIAN SHARE

MAC TODD

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF TELEVISION, HEYDAY TELEVISION

FOUNDER, URBAN GOLF PERFORMANCE (UGP)

Share is now executive vice president of television at David Heyman’s company, Heyday Television, which has NBCUniversal International as a partner.

JONATHAN SKOGMO FOUNDER AND CEO, JUKIN MEDIA This year, Jukin Media has dispersed more than $25M in royalty payments to video creators by placing thousands of user-generated videos in ads and on TV shows. The company has also launched WeatherSpy, a weather network aimed at cord cutters, that’s now live on NBCUniversal’s Peacock, Plex, Samsung TV Plus, Vizio, and XUMO.

Despite having closed for two months during the lockdown, UGP opened its third location in Santa Monica.

JENNIFER VAN DIJK EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF DIGITAL AND CONTENT PARTNERSHIPS, WASSERMAN Van Dijk left her role as chief strategy officer for the L.A. Clippers and now works as executive vice president of digital and content partnerships at Wasserman.

There, she’s launched Athlete Exchange, the world’s first private marketplace for athlete digital media campaigns with brands like Bevel and Zicam.

Visionaries - Alumni Update

ANA DE DIEGO

JUSTIN FUISZ

FOUNDER, SPARK AND RIOT

FOUNDER AND CEO, OCTI

De Diego was recently featured in Adweek’s Creative 100 and Adweek’s 26 Agency Leaders You Should Be Watching.

Backed by $12M, Octi debuted in January as the first social network to use augmented reality. The company has recently partnered with Snapchat to allow users to share their stories to their Octi profiles.

MICHELLE EDGAR VP, BRAND MARKETING, EPIC RECORDS FOUNDER AND CEO, THE XX PROJECT FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MUSIC UNITES Edgar is pursuing a master’s degree in legal studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she is also training as a track-and-field athlete with Coach Richard Rucker. At Epic Records, Edgar orchestrated a deal

CSQ Q3 2020

KATIE LOEB DIRECTOR OF BRAND AND STRATEGY, LOEB.NYC

TRAVIS MONTAQUE FOUNDER AND CEO, HOLLER Holler saw a 30% increase in message volume at the onset of social-distancing measures in the U.S., leading to significant revenue growth for 2020. Montaque recently published articles on inclusion and diversity in Entrepreneur, Fortune, Fast Company, and Business Insider.

Loeb has been leading an initiative to increase communication and create a more transparent community within loeb.nyc’s team.

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1

NEIL JACOBSON

Age 43 Hometown Westbury, Nassau County, New York Residence Beverly Hills Family Wife Celine Jacobson and twins Felix and Lior (2.5 years old) Education Berklee College of Music

VISIONARY LOS ANGELES

Sound Work

NEIL JACOBSON CEO HALLWOOD

After leaving Geffen Records, Neil Jacobson is looking to rise to even greater heights with the launch of Hallwood, his own company dedicated to managing music writers and producers.

By Andrew Dalton

(left during senior year) Mentors Jimmy Iovine, John Janick, Patrick Whitesell

HALLWOOD Founded 2020 Employees 25

Neil Jacobson spent 17 years ascending through the music business and had the job he’d craved since he was a teenager: president of Geffen Records. But now, at 43, he’s making a turn— and feels like he’s just getting started. Born and raised on Long Island, the son of an accountant and a baby-clothing wholesaler, he was a terrible musician but a masterful music businessman. He worked as a caddy and a carpet salesman before landing at Interscope Records, where he was mentored by the legendary leaders there, including founder Jimmy Iovine and his successor, John Janick. Four years ago, Jacobson became president of Geffen Records (which like Interscope is part of Universal Music Group), the job he’d wanted most of his life. Then he announced late last year that he was starting Hallwood Media, a business devoted to managing music writers and producers. He talked to CSQ about what brought him to this new path.

Visionaries - Jacobson

I had a wonderful run at Interscope and Geffen.

It was my dream job, and I was able to do all of the most amazing things I could ever dream of, and I was able to work with the most incredible artists from the start. But I had this hunkering to start my own business, and to start something that’s mine.

I watched how Jimmy Iovine ran Interscope. It’s impossible to imagine a business more totally run by one man. Jimmy is one of my great mentors, an inspiration. He taught me about staying close to writers and producers. And then I watched John Janick, who is one of my close friends, who has a totally different style: his selflessness, his attention to detail.

He is one of the fairest people I have ever met.

And now I have that to go into my business in a wide-open field in what’s going to be a transformative time in music.

50

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo Credit: DavidGoldmanPhoto.com (1, 3)

What made you want to start your own operation?

1

1. Neil Jacobson was formerly the head of Geffen Records.

2. Jacobson with Jimmy Iovine.

3. The Visionary at home in Los Angeles.

2

I ran the producer-writer management division at Interscope. As that division continued to do really well, it required more and more of my attention. Having my own thing continued to be something that was on my mind. John knew that this was something I wanted to do. He let me buy it and spin it off into my own business. I had a lot of success with Geffen. We had DJ Snake and Avicii.

I actually signed Justin Lubliner who started Darkroom Records, Billie Eilish’s record label.

I felt like I had done my part.

Did you see a need in the market for what you are doing with Hallwood?

I think the writer-producer management sector is really underserved. Understanding how to make a record sound incredible is a really important skill, to understand how the studio works, how a session works. They’re kind of the support to the whole community. It’s much like the director in film.

Our business is built to take everyone from a beginning producer to a producer that might have come up with an artist and is now ready to scale and expand to the rest of the community.

They said, “He’s the biggest tipper.” This dude is the coolest dude ever. They said he was Charles Koppelman, a record label executive. I told my dad, “I’m going to be a record executive.”

I was a huge fan of Nirvana, a huge fan of Guns N’ Roses. They were on Geffen Records, which was huge at the time, so I said “I want to be president of Geffen Records.”

I’ve read you were diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a child. Was that an accurate assessment?

I am full-on ADHD. I will occasionally go back to Wheatley, where I went to school, and I’ll speak to ADHD kids and their parents. Just to say that it’s really hard, and it’s a really hard thing to parent around. I try to be, hopefully, a messenger to say your kids can thrive.

I barely graduated high school. I failed out of college. Yet a lot of my ADHD has helped me in the business world.

Running a big company is a lot of work.

Going from one thing to the next to the next, you have to bounce around from thing to thing to thing. My ability to jump from one thing to the next was really a benefit.

them you got them anything they needed. That was one of the most important factors to my success, to serve an account. I learned what it is to not sell, to be there for them. So, whenever they needed a designer, needed to buy carpet, they would come to me. And that’s something I try to teach other people that come to my desk. I’m a great salesman and all that stuff.

But I am here to serve.

At Hallwood Media, I want this company to be a service business. I want us to be the Endeavor of the music business. I really look up to what Patrick Whitesell and Ari Emanuel are doing there. These guys are so sharp and so on it, that they take fierce care of their clients. Patrick has been Matt Damon’s and Ben Affleck’s agent for 20 years. They have to do a perfect job, or their clients can leave them.

Tech has knocked the music world for a loop in the last 20 years. What direction do you think it’s headed in?

I think VR is going to be the next thing in music. I think music is what’s going to break VR—not movies, not video games, just like it was with streaming. I think we’re a few years away from when the bandwidth will get to the point where you’re basically wearing Oakley sunglasses that offer a mind-blowing musical experience. end

Visionaries - Jacobson

It’s an unfortunate time to have started a business given the economic conditions and the pandemic shutdown, but it seems like you picked the right part of the music business to be in at the moment.

It’s an incredibly tough time for everyone.

It’s just luck, it wasn’t the reason I chose it, but the thing is that my business isn’t really rooted in live music. It has gone way better than I planned, because there are so many artists that are in the studio or on Zoom working now.

The music business is two domains, all things flow through them: the concert and the studio.

My true passion and my true love—the most amazing part of the music business and the magic—is the recording studio.

How did you know at such a young age that you wanted to become a record executive?

When I was 17, I had barely been through puberty; I looked 11. I was a golf caddy at a club called Deepdale. This guy pulls up in a Bentley. He’s wearing a fedora, perfect white hair, a cigar—he just looked like a million dollars.

CSQ Q3 2020

You attended Berklee School of Music.

Did you have any aspiration to be an artist, as so many on the business side did at some point?

No, I am the worst musician you have ever heard. I am the worst musician to ever get into Berklee. I am horrific. I can barely bang out a song on the piano. I play the drums. My idea was, if I went to Berklee and was around musicians, I would know how it worked. My dad, all he wanted me to do was whatever I loved.

While it was a lot of money, my dad said if I got in, he would pay for it.

I practiced eight hours a day, seven days a week my senior year [of high school]. I had never worked that hard at anything in my life.

I got rejected, but they did allow me to do the five-week summer program. I just killed it in the summer program, and I auditioned that September and got in.

And then I proceeded to start a record label, start managing bands, hustling and shaking.

The company I started didn’t last, and I became a wholesale salesman for a carpet company.

You sold to designers and architects, so to serve

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VISIONARY LOS ANGELES

New Perspectives

JOANNA POPPER GLOBAL HEAD OF VIRTUAL REALITY, GO-TO-MARKET AND LOCATION-BASED ENTERTAINMENT HP INC.

Joanna Popper is a virtual reality pioneer with an even bigger mission ahead.

By Matt Pressberg

Visionaries - Popper

1

As a virtual reality (VR) executive at computing giant HP Inc., Joanna Popper is leading VR initiatives for one of the world’s biggest tech companies—while also making it her mission to pave the way for female leadership in VR well into the future.

Popper leads some of the most complex and cutting-edge installations worldwide, such as the go-to-market launch of the upcoming HP Reverb G2 VR headset. And as the technology continues to progress, she believes VR’s moment has finally arrived.

Here, she tells CSQ how she went from investment banking in Sao Paulo to wearing headsets in Silicon Valley, how COVID-19 has impacted the VR industry, and why she believes VR is the future of entertainment.

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JOANNA POPPER

HP INC.

Hometown Miami Beach Residence Los Angeles Education BA, history/ international studies/ Latin American studies, Northwestern University; MBA, strategic management, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

First job Investment banking Mentors Jacqueline Hernandez, Susan Solano, who I worked with at NBC Universal and Telemundo, and my mom

Founded 1939 Employees 55,000

1. Joanna Popper leads virtual reality initiatives for HP. 2. The former investment banker at a VP event in Cannes.

3. With the new HP VR Backpack PC, one of the company’s latest innovations.

2

You were in the traditional entertainment industry before making the move to VR. What was your early career path like?

I was always interested in Latin America and spent a year abroad in Chile, so after I graduated from college, I went to work in investment banking at JPMorgan Chase in Brazil for a year.

I tried to follow the principle of finding what’s the 20% of the job where I’m having the most impact and make it 80% of my job, and that’s what guided my moves.

In banking, I found that I liked the 20% of the job that was focused on strategy, so after business school I moved to strategy consulting at McKinsey. Then I moved to marketing at DHL and eventually came to work in entertainment in 2007, when I went to NBCUniversal. At NBCUniversal, I got to work on everything from the Olympics to the network fall TV launches to Despicable Me. Because of my Latin America experience, I worked at Telemundo and supported across the entire network.

I’m drawn to this industry because the people who work in VR are passionate, interested in deep impact and building things, and highly optimistic. They are innovating in so many areas, from health care to immersive theater to psychology. That’s part of what makes it so exciting to be in VR. People are bringing their imagination and creativity to create this new world.

This has obviously been a tough year for any type of location-based entertainment. What keeps you optimistic?

I believe strongly about the experience of location-based VR. That’s where many people will have their first, best VR experience. You can be there with your family and someone else is doing the troubleshooting.

Some of these locations are temporarily closed, but depending where you are in the world and local regulations, many have started to open up again. They are making the necessary adjustments to operate, and the audience interest is still strong.

Half-Life: Alyx [a first-person, VR shooter game that came out earlier this year]. Interesting games have been released this year, and social VR companies have also seen all-time concurrent highs.

That’s despite the fact that most of the headsets have basically been sold out since the start of the pandemic. There’s growth in demand and that’s having an impact on the supply chain. The HP Reverb G1 headset has been sold out most of the year. We are also getting a lot of phone calls from educators and corporations—more than we ever have in the past.

You’ve made it a priority to bring more diverse voices—especially women—into VR? What are you doing toward that goal?

It’s important that this industry is built by a representative group. There’s an opportunity to create a technology that’s best for all of us.

HP has been a leader for this: We have the most representative board in technology and were the first organization to support Free the Work, which is now called Free the Bid—an initiative advocating for equal opportunities for women directors in the advertising industry. HP has long insisted that our PR firms, legal firms, and other external firms that we work with have diverse representation in the agency teams that work on our accounts.

What’s really important here to underline is that study after study from places like McKinsey show that when you have diverse teams, you end up with better products and better results. I host webinars on getting people into the VR industry, and am constantly promoting the #xrjobs hashtag on Twitter to raise awareness about exciting job opportunities.

These jobs are not easy. These are difficult tech problems to crack. But I believe this is the next wave of computing. It’s still early and there is lots of room to have an outsize positive impact. end

Visionaries - Popper

Why did you leave TV?

When I started to think about moving on, what was most interesting to me was content creation and the way the TV landscape had changed. I got really interested in the world of the future of the digital space and moved to Silicon Valley to run media and marketing at Singularity University [a technology-based executive education company]. I knew I wanted to go back to the media and entertainment world—but I no longer wanted to promote what was on Tuesday nights at 8/7 Central.

I looked at VR as the future of media and entertainment.

The lockdown in many ways seemed like an opportunity for at-home VR to really break out. Has that happened?

Yes! In fact, our partners at Valve continue to see all-time highs in concurrent users on

What in particular drew you to VR?

I first tried VR in 2014. I started working with it in 2016 and 2017, and joined HP in 2018.

When I first started with it, people were really excited and a lot of VC money was going in. By the time I joined HP, it was more like the VR “winter” had started.

It was an interesting time. A lot of the hype cycle was driven primarily by the large investment Facebook made in Oculus, and investments in Magic Leap. But then the crypto boom started around that time, and that drew some away.

CSQ Q3 2020

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VISIONARY LOS ANGELES

Leading a Transition of the Times

NORMAN PEARLSTINE EXECUTIVE EDITOR LOS ANGELES TIMES

Norman Pearlstine, whose distinguished five-decade publishing career includes top editorial posts at Time Inc., Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes, has led the Los Angeles Times into a new era.

By Jason Dean

Visionaries - Pearlstein

Shortly after Patrick Soon-Shiong purchased the Los Angeles Times from Tronc (now Tribune Publishing) in 2018, he called on Norman Pearlstine to orchestrate a path for the prestigious institution’s revitalization. Amid the shifting terrain of new media, Pearlstine was a seasoned editor who knew the business of publishing from the inside out and whose journalistic integrity would not be influenced by ownership.

Pearlstine had risen through the ranks of the newsroom of The Wall Street Journal in the late 1960s, going on to hold a succession of prestigious posts at Forbes, Bloomberg News, and Time Inc. in the ensuing decades.

He understood the business and practice of journalism and the necessity for it to adapt 54

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

to the changing times. Coaxed out of retirement to assume the top editorial post at the largest American newspaper not headquartered on the East Coast, Pearlstine set out to turn the paper’s fortunes around. He had the backing of a new owner with deep pockets who believed print journalism would become relevant to a new generation.

On paper, the outlook was rosy. However, the task would become complicated by the onset of a global pandemic, as well as a couple of well-publicized incidents in the L.A. Times newsroom that reflected racial divisions flaring up in cities across the country. While he always considered his role an “interim” assignment, Pearlstine announced in October that he would be stepping down as executive editor,

NORMAN PEARLSTINE Age 78 Hometown Collegeville, PA Residence Los Angeles and New York Family Wife, Jane Boon, who is an industrial engineer and writer Education B.A. from Haverford College; L.L.B. from the University of Pennsylvania; postgraduate work at the law school of Southern Methodist University First job Summer intern at the Allentown Chronicle Mentors Warren Phillips, CEO of Dow Jones & Co.

and, before that a Wall Street Journal Managing Editor; James W. Michaels, longtime editor of Forbes LOS ANGELES TIMES Founded 1881, originally the Los Angeles Daily Times Employees Newsroom staff of 540

extraordinary journalists to whom over the years I was able to delegate authority and responsibility. People like Walter Isaacson at Time, Martha Nelson at InStyle and People, and Paul Steiger at The Wall Street Journal would be examples.

What was your motivation for accepting the offer to become executive editor at the L.A. Times?

effectively fast-tracking the search for his successor. CSQ had the opportunity to speak to Pearlstine several weeks before he made the announcement, and he shared his candid thoughts about journalism, its fiscal feasibility, and its morphing role in society.

What would you say shaped your goals and served as your motivation for your professional journey?

I grew up in a small farm town west of Philadelphia. My father was a senior partner in a 20-person law firm that included six of his relatives. Most of the pressure was to go to law school, but beginning with my high school newspaper and then in college, I got really interested in journalism.

Before my sophomore year, I wrote to 30 newspapers asking for a summer internship; 29 turned me down. ... The Allentown Chronicle offered me a job on the spot for $55 a week, so I worked as a summer intern. After college, I went to law school, because of that family pressure, and I did not get back into journalism until I took and passed the bar exam. I then ended up becoming a copy boy at The New York Times. I was a terrible copy boy. I was about to be fired when The Wall Street Journal offered me a reporting job in Dallas. I was lucky to have left The New York Times when I did, and The Wall Street Journal was a wonderful place to spend 23 years.

years ago. But the combination of technology in terms of how people are using mobile, coupled with changing the dynamics of how we distribute our publications or how we reach new audiences, requires an investment in technology.

For hundreds of years, since Gutenberg, we had a “one to many” model, where editors told people what to read. Now we have a twoway relationship with our customers. It’s very much “What do we have?” and “What do people want?” And increasingly, the growth areas are going to be in video, mobile, and events, and there are extraordinary challenges that come along with that, that really do require a great use of technology. Ideally, we should try to figure out what machine learning can do so we can free up our journalists to do things that technology cannot address.

I’ve worked in L.A. twice before and have always loved the West Coast. I spent my first years at The Wall Street Journal near L.A., and I spent two years with Forbes in L.A. Even during my years at Time Inc., I spent a lot of time in California. Due to Time Inc. properties like InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, People, and Essence, there was good reason to be here.

When Patrick, who had originally asked me to help him find an editor, turned around and asked me if I would do it, it was like How have the national conversations about a dream come true. I realized, however, the race and reckonings within media compaL.A. Times had been through a very turbulent nies been playing out at the L.A. Times? time. When I came in, I was the 11th editor in The ways in which a protest movement grow21 years. ... Here was a lot of instability, but at ing out of George Floyd’s death has migrated the same time a very talented staff that held into the newsroom—raising serious questions the place together heroically. about management’s commitment to incluFinally, I believe that Los Angeles, Califor- siveness, about management’s understanding nia, and the West have a different point of view, of the difference between being racist, not a grounding, and there was an opportunity being racist, and being anti-racist, and how with the L.A. Times to not only do the kind that might impact your coverage—I think has of great journalism that you’d expect a pub- actually been healthy for us, although painful. lication with a national and global audience would have, but there was also something spe- What do you see as the primary role or charcial about the city, county, state, and region acteristic that distinguishes the L.A. Times’ that made it an exciting possibility. place in journalism in the 21st century?

The commitment to Patrick Soon-Shiong, If The New York Times is known for “All the at his request, was that we put together a lead- news that’s fit to print” and The Washington ership team for the future. I saw the job as at- Post is “Democracy dies in darkness,” if the tractive because of the location, because of the L.A. Times were to have a slogan, it would be story, and because of the opportunity to take “Your window on the future.” The idea that soa grand, storied publication from the print-cen- ciety at large ought to be thinking the way that tric place it had been, into being a multi-plat- Californians are thinking ... but also it would form publication that really is responsive to capture the innovation and inspiration that the needs of not only a geographic audience continues to draw people to Los Angeles even in Southern California but also a psycho- as others are deciding to leave. graphic audience: people who care about what Southern Californians do and think about. You just announced your plans to step down.

Visionaries - Pearlstein

How did you make the distinct transition from reporter to management?

In 1975, The Wall Street Journal decided to start The Asian Wall Street Journal. There were two correspondents in Asia at the time—Peter Kann in Hong Kong, and I was stationed in Tokyo. So they tapped us to start it. He was the editor and publisher and I was the managing editor. Neither of us knew about management, but the initial belief was that we’d be chopping down stories from the U.S. edition. We were into it for about a week when we realized the only future was going to be covering Asia financial news, and so we started putting together a staff. That’s how I got into management.

Early on I came to understand that, in many cases, the more you delegate, the more you get to do. When I look back on my career ... I would say I’m best known for the CSQ Q3 2020

Why now, and what’s next for you?

What was the biggest challenge you faced when you accepted the role?

I saw the looming editorial issues but … Tronc had consolidated ... many of the business functions in Chicago subsequently affecting timeliness of business and IT support.

Add to that an economy that was so damaged by the pandemic. Ad-supported media has been under extraordinary pressure since March 2020. We’ve been pushing a more dynamic relationship with our audience. Those were the trends, but in the past six months, the trends accelerated in what I would have thought would have taken six years.

The question of whether we will be printing seven days a week or something less frequent was not on anybody’s mind a couple

When I started in June 2018, I thought it’d be a one-year assignment, maybe two. Right around the two-year mark of new ownership, and of me being executive editor, we finally wrapped up the untangling from the former parent company. The Los Angeles Times is in a great position now, despite the pandemic and a tough industry. The Soon-Shiongs have continued to invest in the L.A. Times and it’s a great product. This is a good time to bring someone in to lead the next phase of the revival. Patrick has asked me to stay on as an advisor, which I plan to do. This will be the third time I’ve retired and I’m ready for a gap year. I’d like to do some more reading, perhaps some writing and—when it’s possible—get back to the boxing gym. end 55

4

VISIONARY NEW YORK BRUNO MAGLIONE PRESIDENT IMG LICENSING

BRUNO MAGLIONE Age 57 Hometown New York Residence New York Family Wife, Sandra, and two sons, Alessandro (26) and Lorenzo (21) Education BA in history and economics, Brown University; MBA, Harvard Business School First job Treasury analyst at Hewlett-Packard Mentors George Pyne at IMG and now with

Endeavor’s top leadership. Overall, my mentors were my father and mother, a realization that is ever clearer to me IMG LICENSING Founded 1960 Employees IMG’s parent company, Endeavor, has 6,500 employees around the globe

How IMG’s Bruno Maglione Keeps Brands Relevant IMG’s chief of licensing has arranged innovative deals for clients from Armor All to Queer Eye.

By Matt Pressberg

Bruno Maglione grew up all around the world, which prepared him well for a globetrotting career in the entertainment industry. After stints as an executive for Euro Disney, Universal Studios, and Marvel, Maglione made the move to the agency side at IMG, where he crafts creative licensing deals for more than 100 major clients, from Queer Eye to Armor All. He has increased IMG’s licensing arm’s top and bottom lines more than tenfold since 2006.

Maglione tells CSQ how he ended up as the agency’s licensing chief, overseeing more than 800 deals a year from more than 20 offices around the world, and the creative ways he’s working with brands to generate revenue during a shutdown.

Where did you grow up?

I was born in New York, but my parents were both Italian and I grew up mostly outside of the United States—in Italy, the Philippines, Switzerland, and other places—before returning for college at Brown University in 1985 and my MBA at Harvard Business School in 1991.

Three years out of business school, I was very lucky to be hired by Steve Burke, who then was a young executive sent to Paris by Disney to help save what at that time was a debt-plagued disaster zone called Euro Disney. I remember meeting Steve just a couple of weeks before the park was going to launch the new Space Mountain attraction. That cost over $100M to build and was the big-bet, double-down, showcase move to relaunch the park. Steve said, “We are launching Space Mountain … come to Paris with your wife, attend the launch at Disneyland, and we’ll figure out what you do for us later.”

I ended up being in charge of Disney sponsor partnerships and activating those sponsorships with marketing campaigns, including American Express VIP Experiences, Nestlé promotions, Renault marketing events, and limited series vehicle launches. They then added Disney Synergy to my responsibilities, which allowed me to get great exposure to all the other Disney divisions—film, TV, the Disney Stores, home video, even the music and theatrical divisions. Steve went back to the US only a few months after I joined, so my exposure to him ended up being limited, but that was my door in. From there I went to Universal, then Marvel, and then IMG in 2006.

Visionaries - Maglione

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Did you always want to be in the entertain­ ment industry?

I always did because I’ve always loved books, movies, television, music—and not only American entertainment. Living abroad most of my life exposed me to literature, film, and music from the non-English-speaking world as well and only intensified my interest in all of these areas. When I started at Disney, I could tell immediately that I was much more personally engaged and interested in my work than in previous jobs, even though I learned a lot from those other experiences. So, I knew I would be staying in this industry from that point forward.

How did you end up making the move from media to the agency side at IMG?

I was hired by Ted Forstmann not long after he acquired IMG after the IMG founder, Mark McCormack, died. Sports have always interested me in addition to entertainment, and, at that time, IMG was mainly a sports company.

While in college, I had read McCormack’s book What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School, which was a New York Times best-seller. The man, the book, and the company fascinated me, so when the opportunity arose in 2006, this had already been gestating in my mind for quite some time as a company I would like to work for. Besides the company itself, what appealed to me then and still does now are two aspects. One is the variety, inherent in an agency setting, of working with a wide range of clients, and by extension client-related ecosystems. The second is the entrepreneurial spirit of agencies where you need to, as it were, hunt for your own meals— it’s not handed to you. You need to find your clients and deliver for them.

Maglione with his family.

but I’ve found it to be valuable. Today, I might do it more deliberately—although not for too long. You still want to get into the industry of your choice relatively early.

mattress brand to develop a range of inflatable mattresses that will sell at Costco and other retailers. Orders are strong.

This month we are introducing a top-ofthe-line Jeep-branded e-bike with a ColoraCOVID­19 shut down large parts of the enter­ do-based outdoor company called QuietKat. tainment business, including live shows and Outdoor pursuits and camping and hiking is an movies. When was the moment this became area of growing interest and activity, as travel real for you? abroad or further afield has been curtailed, so On the entertainment side, I think the first big we have been doing a lot in that area with Jeep, announcement that made it very real for me as well as Yamaha Seascooters and Goodyear was the postponement of the James Bond re- hiking boots. Recently we launched a range of lease. It was scheduled for April 2 and has now cookware, mixers, and kitchen tools with the moved back to November. On a personal level, Delish media brand owned by Hearst.

I love the Bond movies and there hasn’t been one in a few years, so when I saw that date move, What are some innovative ways you’ve wor­ I knew plenty of other things would follow and ked with media companies to keep their they have. In sports, it was the decision to post- brands fresh and continue to generate reve­ pone the UEFA Euro 2020 soccer tournament nue while TV and film production are on hold? to next year. That’s like the third-biggest sport We’ve just launched a major Queer Eye furnitournament in the world, and this year it was ture collection at Walmart.com to coincide with going to be played in 12 European countries season five of the Netflix show. It includes sofas, versus one host country. We are handling the li- sectionals, beds, TV stands, writing desks, and censing for that event, which typically requires much more—some 80 different items, all with working with upward of 70 companies for a wide a clean, industrial-modern aesthetic. It has range of fan merchandise that includes thou- terrific reviews and has been doing a brisk sands of products, and it was scheduled to start business—as can be expected from a line of mid-June. Back in March, I thought we would 80 items sold at Walmart—from the opening be OK, but of course this virus has proven to day of sale. We have fashion and lifestyle conbe a longer-term problem, so it was moved to sumer product partnerships in the works also next year, as were the Tokyo Summer Olympics. for the Killing Eve and Normal People programs.

It’s no secret that Killing Eve, particularly with We’ve seen certain “stay­at­home” sectors, the Villanelle character, has a sartorial style such as cooking, home improvement, and and aesthetic that is an element of its appeal. home gyms, see a huge increase in interest The right sort of products and collaborations during the pandemic. Have you worked on li­ will leverage that aspect while simultaneously censing deals that capitalize on these trends? emphasizing it. And given that Killing Eve is We have very proactively and deliberately in its third season, the timing is perfect. With gone after those sectors where we saw mar- new, original IP, you typically want to see it deket resilience and even growth during this velop over at least two or three seasons before pandemic. For example, we have a wide range considering its ancillary potential in licensing. of home gym products under the UFC brand Next year we will be launching a toy line that is selling all over the world—a collection and other products with Anastasia Radzinof strength equipment for full-body workouts skaya, the 6-year-old YouTube star whose Like designed to the specifications of those top ath- Nastya channel is among the most subscribed letes. College graduates and other young adults worldwide. With licensing arrangements who years ago left their family homes are now focused on children, the objective is to delivback and needing accommodations that maybe er products that keep children engaged and are no longer there. We worked with the Sealy ensure the longevity of these brands. end

Visionaries - Maglione

The entertainment industry is changing fast.

How would you start your career today if you were looking to get into it?

I think the entertainment industry is much more integrated today with the general business environment than it was 20 or 25 years ago. The leading entertainment companies are much bigger than they were then. They are involved in more businesses and more businesses are involved with them. In particular, the tech world—Apple, Amazon, Google, and so on—larger, richer companies many of them, are encroaching and converging into the entertainment space as content creators or distribution platforms or both. So is the gaming industry in many respects.

The business has become a lot more multifaceted, more complex, and the financial investments and roll-of-the-dice bets are bigger. For all these reasons, I think having some meaningful professional experiences in some of these adjacent areas—finance, tech, strategy consulting-—can be very useful even if the ultimate ambition is to pursue a career in entertainment. This was to some extent my own path, although in my case by accident, CSQ Q3 2020

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CHRISTINE SIMMONS

Age 45 Hometown Rancho Cucamonga, California Residence Los Angeles Education Bachelor of science, physiological sciences, UCLA First job Cashier at the Gas Garden (gas station)

VISIONARY LOS ANGELES

The Show Must Go On

CHRISTINE SIMMONS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES

Christine Simmons says the best is yet to come in sports and entertainment when rooted in inclusion, pivoted in purpose, and built by the collective.

By Jessica Ferguson

in Rancho Cucamonga Mentors Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Debra Lee, Dawn Hudson ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES Founded 1927 Employees 470+

Christine Simmons, COO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is no stranger to overcoming adversity in times of transition. After “failing” at her early dreams of becoming a college athlete and a doctor, Simmons discovered not only the strength that comes from changing paths, but also the purpose that lies just ahead of every pivot. A firm believer that failure is key to getting where you are meant to be, Simmons built a career she didn’t know was possible out of her passion for people—always keeping a keen eye on elevating through diversity, serving the underserved, and leveraging a platform to leave a lasting, positive impact.

Now, at a time when things seem more uncomfortable and uncertain than ever, this “mixed girl from Rancho Cucamonga” elegantly speaks necessary truth to power and reveals how her team at the academy is helping set the stage for a new season that we can all be hopeful for—guided by the principles of representation, inclusion, and equality.

Visionaries - Simmons

From NBCUniversal, the Walt Disney Company, and the academy to Magic Johnson Enterprises and the L.A. Sparks, your career has intricately woven sports and entertainment together. What has your professional evolution been like?

I’ve definitely had a nontraditional journey in my career. But, through it all, I’ve had a love for business, operations, and changing trajectories. I look at the voiceless and the underserved, and I ask myself how we can best deal with those inequities. Sports, entertainment, and finance can each really help us change those trajectories in ways that other industries take longer to do. Driving operational excellence and helping monetize social impact in a way that is authentic and credible—that’s my passion.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

Many of your nonprofit pursuits seem to focus on inclusivity, diversity, and empowering the minority youth of America. As we are currently witnessing a historic moment of demonstrations and conversation surrounding race and equality, are you hopeful about the outcome?

I’m hopeful. Cautiously optimistic, I’ll say.

I think the narrative and positioning we’re seeing today—with folks who may not necessarily be affected by these institutionalized constructs of oppression and inequity starting to recognize them and still wanting to make a change—that is exciting. And it’s not because they have a mom, or a sister, or a black best friend. It’s because it’s wrong. Period. That shift in the narrative, along with the boldness of where we are today in calling for a shorter runway for change, is why I’m really hopeful. Seeing organizations and leadership like ours being bold, confident, and strong in their desire to change what historically has been a challenge is inspiring. We’ve looked at what we have control over, what we can influence, and how we can use that to truly make a sustainable and impactful difference.

What does that action plan look like for the academy?

We recently announced Academy Aperture 2025, which is a holistic approach to increasing representation, inclusion, and equity in the industry. The name is intentional. We want to broaden the lens by which excellence is recognized and celebrated. It is so important, because brilliant stories are being left on the table. If we can broaden that aperture, we will lift our industry as a whole. We look at the eligibility for the Oscars and best picture. We look at viewing habits, and how those are contributing to some of the institutionalized constructs of the system. We look at how we can continue to help people view these stories year-round and democratize them in a way where they’re not always beholden to someone’s marketing strategy, if you will. We also look at our internal business practices and make sure that we, the academy, are walking the walk. It starts with changing hearts and minds with unconscious bias training. It taps into the tactical with eligibility requirements, and it reaches into our day-to-day business to ensure that all those areas, in addition to our library, museum, and archive collections, are representative.

we can support our members as production resumes. As far as the show, there are plenty of exciting options on the table. But absolutely, yes. The show must go on!

What are some of the challenges, efforts, and values that the public might not have visibility into when they are enjoying that night on TV?

Most people know us for the show, but there are so many more programs that encompass the academy. We have nearly 500 employees.

They are building our museum, our library, our archives, and so much more. They are doing the work to preserve and celebrate this art. Our foundational programs, some of which have been around for decades, have been infusing the talent pipeline for years in phenomenal ways. Imagine, as a film student, being mentored by Spike Lee or Sterling K. Brown. Our Academy Gold Internship Program saw nearly 90% of the interns who came through earn jobs within the industry, and nearly 30% of those jobs were above entry level. We are on the front end of the pipeline, but we are also here to help welcome and celebrate artists on the other side.

We talk about representation, inclusion, and equity daily at the academy, and championing those values has been listed as one of our business-critical priorities.

Looking at your professional and academic journey, Los Angeles seems to be a common through line. How did you choose Los Angeles, and how has this city influenced your personal evolution and the organizations you partner with?

Simmons with her son, Christian.

The ability to bring calm to chaos, coupled with empathy—those characteristics in leadership, which used to be deemed soft skills, are so critical now. Especially with all of the intersectionality within our workforce today. But those come with a sense of self. A healthy self-awareness. I think it’s so important for every leader to know his or her effect on a room. That way, your message can be received the best possible way for sustainable change and impact. It is tough. It is nuanced. And it took me a minute.

I had to learn and evolve. I had to check my ego and adjust my communication so it could be better received. I slowly began to embrace the concept of strength in grace. When I talk my colleagues and mentees through these types of things, I try to help them get there a lot sooner than I did.

Visionaries - Simmons

How has the COVID-19 crisis impacted the academy and the landscape of film for the rest of 2020? Will there be an Oscars ceremony in 2021?

We can’t give out too many secrets … but yes, there are some necessities to pivot in this space.

Our board and all of our committees are looking to help resume production responsibly.

They have built a task force that brings together the best and brightest technological and scientific minds in the film business to look at how CSQ Q3 2020

This city has absolutely been a central point for me. When I think about what it meant to be a little mixed girl growing up in Rancho Cucamonga, I think of options. And exposure. My mom is a skinny white girl from Oregon, and my dad is this tall, dark-skinned brother from Pensacola. Diversity is in my blood. My mom raised us four girls on her own—“Arnita’s girls.”

She helped instill in us our work ethic, fierceness, and independence, which were so important in shaping how we could attack the future.

That said, once I moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA, I was exposed to so much. Diversity.

Opportunity. The ability to change trajectories.

The cultures that come together here. That’s what I love about Los Angeles. The career, network, and opportunities it has brought me have given me visibility into the world outside of this place—in a way I might not have had access to if I lived in a small town. I am grateful for and recognize that privilege. I also love that L.A. can be a window, a vehicle, a mechanism to go anywhere and to do anything.

What leadership strategies, grounding philosophies or day-to-day habits do you believe contribute to distinguishing oneself and leaving an impact in business—especially in transitional times such as these?

What are those first steps? How and where can existing or aspiring leaders start to tap into their emotional intelligence, check their ego, and exercise empathy?

It springs from true self-awareness and a healthy self-confidence. You have to believe in yourself, first and foremost. Understanding your own triggers, and being in a good mental space, is important. When you are both secure and self-aware, your value or worth is not defined by your title or where you are at currently.

It becomes about the impact you are making on somebody else’s life, which is exciting. But there’s a balance, right? Because there are still a lot of folks who aren’t seen, aren’t heard, aren’t given credit, and are being overlooked.

As leaders, we have to find that balance to ensure we are giving visibility and a platform to everybody in equitable ways. I cannot stress enough the importance of the collective. There are plenty of individual accomplishments that people will have over the years, but we’re most powerful together. end 59

Visionaries - Loeb/Vogel

VISIONARIES OF THE YEAR

Words by Matt Pressberg

Playing Their Cards Right Michael Loeb and Rich Vogel Visionaries - Loeb/Vogel are a true rarity in the media world: longtime business partners who still like each other.

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Visionaries - Loeb/Vogel 1

The positive relationship between Michael Loeb and Rich Vogel has paid off handsomely for decades, from their sale of magazine subscription services company Synapse Group to Time Inc. in a deal that valued the company at more than $500M, to their current work at Loeb.nyc, where they oversee 18 direct investments with a hands-on approach that leverages their extensive business experience.

This team has always been ahead of the curve, knowing how magazines would be sold before the publications did, and pivoting at the perfect time. Now, they’re blazing a trail with Loeb Enterprises and Loeb.nyc, investing in innovative companies across the spectrum with a one-stop approach that sets them apart. They wouldn’t have it any other way.

Loeb and Vogel, the 2020 Sports, Media, and Entertainment Visionaries of the Year, recently spoke with CSQ (virtually, of course) about their convergent paths to success. “There are many themes that are common between us,” Vogel says. “One of them is getting fired.”

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

Bloodlines and Bylines

Loeb was born into the media industry. His father, Marshall, worked as an editor at several Time Inc. publications, finishing his career as managing editor of Fortune. The younger Loeb didn’t show much academic aptitude early on, describing his performance at a variety of Queens public schools as “solidly mediocre.”

His father moved the family to Scarsdale, N.Y., where “the jig was up” when Loeb’s excellent standardized test scores did not line up with his poor grades. He stepped it up and graduated from Amherst College before following his birthright and taking a job at Time Inc. Fatefully, it was on the business side, not editorial.

Vogel grew up in Connecticut and landed his first job on Wall Street, where he eventually decided to make his career. The problem was that he was hired in 1987. By the end of the year, he was laid off.

“It took a lot of time to figure out what I thought I wanted to do,” Vogel says. “And then I was wrong anyway.” He found himself

unemployed in New York City, but a job reference soon changed his life. “It’s all serendipity,” Vogel says. “Wall Street was a tough place to get a job at that time and I happened to know somebody that worked at Time Inc. who had some temp work.”

The work paid $20 per hour, which was more than Vogel was making on Wall Street.

But more importantly, that’s where Vogel met the “second-greatest marketer” he ever worked with: Margie Rich, who hired him in the magazine’s circulation department.

That’s also where they both met Loeb, whom they’d be bound to forever. Vogel became Loeb’s longtime business partner and Rich became Loeb’s wife. Loeb became what he describes as the “launch boy” of Time Inc., where he helped start up Sports Illustrated for Kids, Sports Illustrated Video, and other wildly successful products in the go-go 1980s.

“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king,” Loeb says about that period.

His big reward was being asked to help launch

MICHAEL LOEB

RICH VOGEL

Hometown New York Residence New York Family Wife, Margie; children Michael (35), Katie (33), Marc, Jeremy, Caroline (22), and Jason (4).

Education BS, psychology, Amherst College.

Mentors My father, Marshall Loeb.

Go-to spot for business drinks The Core Club Awards and distinctions Donated the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning to Amherst College; Direct Marketing Hall of Famer; Marketing EDGE Financial Innovator Award 2019.

Philanthropic causes There are many. To name a few: Amherst College, Museum of Natural History, Juilliard School (Board Member), Johns Hopkins, Mount Sinai, Year Up. Can’t miss conferences and events The annual Or Not series in Southampton founded and organized by Katie Loeb.

Notable projects Our Loeb.nyc startups: Script Relief, SingleCare, Fetch, Steady, Mercato, Penrose Hill, Credit Key, and many more.

Upcoming projects A line of fashion-forward travel wear that provides an added layer of protection in this difficult COVID environment.

Hometown New York Residence New Canaan, Conn.

Family Wife, Pam Education BS, finance, University of Connecticut; MBA, finance, NYU Stern School of Business.

Mentors My grandfather, distinguished attorney and New York City councilman.

My father, salesman extraordinaire and prolific public speaker.

Go-to spot for business drinks The Whitby Hotel Awards and distinctions Partner and contributor to the Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Connecticut; trustee of St. Luke’s School, an independent school in New Canaan, Conn.; member of AdvanceCT (formerly the Connecticut Economic Resource Center); member of the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees Committee for Research, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation.

Philanthropic causes Jewish Community Center of Stamford, Conn.; UConn Foundation; PeacePlayers International, an organization devoted to using the power of sport to unite and inspire youth around the world; Defy Ventures, an organization addressing the social problems of mass incarceration, recidivism, and related issues by providing entrepreneurship, employment, and personal development to individuals with criminal histories.

Can’t miss conferences and events The Loeb.nyc Or Not conference series, our annual event providing 360-degree discussions on the most topical marketing opportunities of the year.

Notable projects Entertainment Weekly, The Synapse Group, and Loeb.nyc—our unique venture collective and investment platform, currently supporting over 20 companies in various stages of development.

Upcoming projects Early-stage business ideas that will provide goods, services, and support to the 65+ age demographic.

Entertainment Weekly in 1990. “That was the job that got me fired,” Loeb says.

Loeb and his editor disagreed about the vision for the magazine. The latter advocated for more of a focus on “folks in poetry,” which Loeb thought would be a poor fit for the cadence of a weekly magazine. Both were given the hook. But it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to Loeb.

“I didn’t mean to get revenge, but I ended up starting the company outside of Time Inc. that I was trying to start inside of Time Inc., which was Synapse Group,” Loeb says. “It sounds quaint now as its mission, but we were going to allow people to pay for their magazine and newspaper subscriptions with a credit card.”

His then and future business partner would soon join the mission.

Charge the Game

the time was right to make a transaction, which was about eight or nine years in, we were going to bring the company public, and wouldn’t you know it—Time Inc. made the phone call asking if we wanted to bury the hatchet.

“The truth is, we had done that a long time ago,” he says. “We were their biggest supplier of subscriptions, and they were our biggest client.”

Synapse and Time Inc. decided on a private deal that included an unusual provision: a lengthy earn-out. That ended up working out for both parties. Even better for Loeb and Vogel, Synapse was bootstrapped from its early days, leading to a huge windfall for them. The only significant outside capital in the company was from investment firm General Atlantic, which happened as a consequence of the founding of an internet travel pioneer.

As Loeb explains it, his co-founder in Synapse was Jay Walker, who would eventually come up with the idea for Priceline.com. But with the dot-com crash, it was nearly impossible to raise capital for a money-losing tech company. Instead, Walker sold shares in profitable Synapse to enable his investment in Priceline.

In any event, Synapse sold a majority stake to Time Inc.’s parent company, Time Warner, in 2001 in a deal that valued the company at more than $500M. Loeb and Vogel, and many of their longtime employees, immediately felt that impact.

“When Synapse was sold to Time Inc., 26 people became millionaires overnight,” Loeb says. “That’s the type of thing that puts a smile on our face.”

Given the sadly diminished state of many of them today, people forget the significance of national newsmagazines during the media heyday of the 1980s and ’90s. Titles like Time and Sports Illustrated printed money, sending well-paid reporters on first-class flights to cover news around the world.

Loeb and Vogel’s idea, Synapse Group, built a business helping these publications add millions of paying subscribers through relatively new avenues like recurring credit card payments and frequent-flier programs.

As Loeb describes it, Synapse Group’s real innovation was a “cradle-to-grave” product.

The company wouldn’t just provide payment processing, it also sold magazine subscriptions Game-Changing Investments and maintained them.

“It was more than just a software-as-a-ser- Loeb and Vogel remained at Time Warner vice-based business,” Loeb says. “While we had until the media conglomerate completed the platform, we deployed the platform for our the purchase of the rest of Synapse in 2006. own account and became a rather large business “After that, all we knew is that we wanted selling thousands of titles. When we decided to continue working together,” Vogel says.

Visionaries - Loeb/Vogel

LOEB.NYC Founded 2006 Employees 70

1. Michael Loeb and daughter Katie, Loeb.nyc’s director of brand and strategy.

2. Rich Vogel listening in.

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“We did not have an idea for our next business.

We did not know what space we wanted to play in. Frankly, all we knew was that the chemistry worked, and to this day we’re better together than we are separate.”

He describes this period as “wandering in the desert.” First, Loeb and Vogel tried what a lot of newly rich people do and dabbled in passive investing. They quickly realized they were better off operating businesses. The only problem: They had no good ideas.

“We just started attacking stuff and spaces and throwing spaghetti at the wall until something worked pretty significantly,” Vogel says.

That particular sticky noodle turned out to be Loeb Enterprises, the investment company they founded in 2006. Loeb Enterprises was rebranded as Loeb.nyc in 2019.

Vogel and Loeb now invest in a variety of businesses through this vehicle, which they describe as a “venture collective” that helps startups grow by supplying capital, expertise, and infrastructure.

“You can think of our model as a Tootsie Pop,” Loeb says. “The chocolatey center is our companies. They are a combination of our ideas and external ideas. Sometimes they are early in the curve companies that we grab the steering wheel and run with. The hard candy on the outside is our shared services group.” does nothing for you.”

Loeb describes the shared services group That’s a flawed incentive structure, he says, as a Swiss Army knife of the skills compa- that leads companies to take on debt they don’t nies need to build and scale. That consists need to meet targets that don’t make sense. of everything from back-office accounting “They say, ‘Load it up with more rocket fuel to tech support and marketing. Loeb.nyc has and make it drive faster,’” Loeb says. “You capabilities like an in-house agency for phys- say, ‘There’s a good chance if we try to go fastical collateral and even an M&A department er the wheels will come off and we’ll crash.’ for later-stage deal making.

They don’t care because three times doesn’t Loeb.nyc’s main selling point—not terri- do a thing for them.” bly surprising from two guys who made it in Every deal is unique, and every comthe media world—is marketing. For example, pany requires its own levels of support, but the firm has its own call center in Virginia. the Loeb.nyc approach as a whole is distinct.

For health care companies, Loeb.nyc as- “The risk-reward curve is very different in our sembled a force of 3,000 people who visited world,” Vogel says. “We’re not a fund. Goals 400,000 doctor’s offices to distribute materials. and objectives and things change when you’re There’s also a TV production studio in- dealing with other people’s money. We’re difhouse, and all the internet marketing tools ferent. It’s our money—until a portfolio comany company would need, from SEO and so- pany raises outside capital—and that gives us cial media expertise to programmatic ad sales great flexibility in time lines and pivots and and influencer relationships. Best of all, these fast decision making.” services are free to the companies, included in It also lets the firm allow slow-growing comthe price of a Loeb.nyc investment. panies to mature on their own time, and acts This is a much more involved and expen- as a good balance against short-term thinking. sive approach than most venture investors use, “We have created this ecosystem that which consists of little more than a check and leans into success,” Loeb says. “We don’t hand presence at board meetings. That’s because a 27-year-old $5M. I wouldn’t give a child matchLoeb.nyc is playing a different game with dif- es either. We pay bills, and every month is anferent fundamental math. In simplest terms, other review: Does it continue to make sense?” if a little extra money up front can materially While they don’t need to hit a 10 bagger improve a batting average in the long haul, it’s every time, they’re in this line of work for mulworth it every time. tiple growth, not the single-digit percentage “We’re trying to lean into a fundamental increases of big companies. tenet,” Loeb says. “Venture capital says 2 in “One of the things Michael and I were frus10 deals work or 1 in 10 work, which really trated about while working at big companies is warps decision making. If it’s really a 1 in 10 that you’re playing for what, 4% growth a year?” or 2 in 10, a three times or five times return Vogel says. “The g-forces of that acceleration

3

is why we get up in the morning and have fun in early-stage, active investing.

“It’s not for the faint of heart,” he adds. “But we love it, because we’re able to have so much impact in such a short time line.”

Visionaries - Loeb/Vogel

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

The Evolution of Theory

Sometimes, a product is so imaginative and clever it is hard to fathom how someone could have come up with it. That’s not what Loeb.nyc is looking to invest in.

“We like the things that when people reflect on it say, ‘Oh my God, that’s obvious!’”

Loeb says.

One of their portfolio companies, Butler Hospitality, is a great example. It provides hotel kitchen “hubs” that allows smaller or independent hotels to use economies of scale to offer a higher-quality room service and catering product to guests.

Loeb and Vogel differ from most investors in another notable way: They are “theory based.” Many investors give up on a great idea as soon as it starts losing money. Loeb and Vogel choose to try to run it back with a different game plan—as long as the idea was good.

“If the execution doesn’t work against the theory, we ask, ‘Is that theory still sound?’”

Loeb says. “If so, we test another execution.”

That’s what they did with portfolio company Fetch Rewards, which helps grocery shoppers save money on packaged goods and take better advantage of loyalty programs—and helps brands understand the shopping behavior of their customers.

The underlying theory behind the business was that manufacturers of consumer-packaged

goods could find value in knowing who their customers were. Before, the extent of their customer insight was how empty the shelf was.

That did not account for whether the shelf was emptied by a string of regular consumers who are likely to come back next week, or if it was a one-time impulse purchase from out-of-town families.

With the guidance of the Loeb.nyc team and others, Fetch Rewards has pivoted multiple times to find the right approach—and is now thriving. “Not to cast aspersions against VCs, but they’re not necessarily built for that,” Loeb says.

Vogel and Loeb are also drawn to companies looking to address problems faced by lower-income Americans—more directly, companies that help put money back in their pockets.

Vogel and Loeb are particularly proud of former portfolio pharmacy discount-card company, ScriptRelief (since acquired and now operating under a different name), which offered discounts of more than 50% off the retail price for prescriptions for people who were uninsured. Loeb credits the company for saving people billions of dollars.

Another portfolio company, Steady, is described by Loeb as “your advocate in the gig economy.” Steady maximizes gig workers’ income by suggesting times when it makes the most sense to drive their Uber or Lyft—and when to ignore prompts from the ridesharing companies and take a different gig instead.

The results speak for themselves, with the company increasing users’ incomes by $350 per month, Loeb says.

“Who’s the advocate for the person who plays in those spaces?” he says. “Who makes sure they are optimizing their income? That’s something that is really, really gratifying.”

Steady also used its data to proactively give cash to drivers struggling with a paucity of rides in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. “When they saw a down vector with COVID, they were able to award $3M to people just to keep them afloat,” Loeb says.

“You can do well by doing good, and that’s an example of that.”

4

3. The detailoriented Vogel making a point at a company event.

how many kids were put through schools and houses were bought by families from wealth created—and shared—by Synapse.

“I remember how passionately Michael spoke about that,” Vogel says. “When you talk about what your legacy is, it is certainly the jobs, the children, the life. It’s a beautiful thing. There’s not a day that goes by when we’re not thinking about this. It’s really the most rewarding part of all of this.”

Loeb and Vogel have navigated through uncertain times in the economy before, but the pandemic and its fallout are clearly different and will have a long-lasting impact on the economy. Of course, this only energizes them.

“The future has never been more confused, cloudy, or opportune,” Loeb says. “There are going to be businesses made right now in this moment when the deck chairs have been reshuffled that will be some of the great companies of five or 10 years from now. The seeds for that are being planted right now.”

Loeb believes the pandemic has caused a 10-year acceleration of existing trends, with the “retail apocalypse” and the supremacy of the digital space the most notable effects. But when the economy goes through the roil of a spin cycle like this, dynamic new companies often float to the top.

Marshall Loeb helped America understand business by writing stories like this. It’s only right for Loeb.nyc to be a part of them.

“Truly disruptive companies come along infrequently,” Vogel says. “Finding them is the most satisfying journey we can be on.

I don’t see us stopping. This is where we’re supposed to be.” end

Visionaries - Loeb/Vogel

Why the Team Works

All happy families may be alike, but there’s no one model for a good business partnership.

It is easy to see the natural chemistry of Loeb and Vogel, even as disembodied Zoom callers in different physical locations.

Vogel refers to Loeb as a “creative savant” and credits his top-tier analytical skills, while saying his own strengths lie in his instincts and intangibles that are more difficult to articulate.

“There’s nobody I think I could be more productive with than Michael Loeb,” Vogel says.

Loeb has no problem finding words to praise his business partner. “What you need is a great partner and great editor, which is built on trust and faith,” he says. “I can get hyped up about a bright, shiny object, and Rich will CSQ Q3 2020

4. Networking at a CSQ event in New York in 2019.

dissect it and ask, ‘Have you thought about that?’ A lot of times, the answer is no.”

“Michael comes up with 75 ideas an hour,” Vogel says. “I’m the guy who has to marry those ideas with finite resources—both capital resources and human resources—and try to narrow those to the things we both believe have the best shot at success. It’s a balance.”

Loeb credits Vogel with always scouring the horizon for potential minefields, many of which didn’t exist when they first got together. “Is a new opportunity one of those things where you can go three or four innings and then Amazon is going to go in and squash you?” Loeb says. “Doing all that brain work about the practicality of it all and the ticking and tying of it all is a skill that he has in great quantity. If I really, really work hard and wince and get a migraine, I can barely muscle it over the finish line.”

Complementary skills and personalities are critical, but a two-headed force only works when there’s one heart. “More important than anything are the shared core values,” Vogel says.

He recalls an early glimpse at Loeb’s core values during a conversation when things were going well at Synapse and a lucrative exit was looming. He wanted Loeb’s thoughts about giving back and got an emotional speech about

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Travelstore

Take Your Business Travel to the Next Level

68 Health 69 The Getaway LA 70 The Journey LA 74 The Getaway NY 76 The Journey NY 78 Meetings and Retreats 82 Golf Getaway 83 Golf Top 5 84 Breaking Ground

Destinations

Part 3

Destinations - Cover A concept home at Walden Pond. Read more about the new generation of city escapes in Breaking Ground, page 84.

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The secrets to a longer, better, healthier life might be found on one of Asia’s most beautiful beaches. By Irene Rawlings

HEALTH

In the Zone Okinawa has one of the longest-lived and healthiest populations in the world. They don’t pump iron, run marathons, or do anything “high-intensity.” They don’t follow the latest juicing or colonic trends. Okinawan centenarians walk, cook healthy meals, drink awamori with friends, and enjoy active sex lives.

Okinawa is one of five Blue Zones (bluezones.com) worldwide. They were “discovered” and studied by Dan Buettner, a National Geographic fellow. “I’d heard about Okinawans’ unusual longevity and thought it would be great to learn about their secrets for a long and healthy life,” he says.

1. Rooms at the Halekulani Okinawa feature stunning ocean views.

2. Healthy eating is one secret of longevity

from the Blue Zones.

3. The interiors of the new property are warm and inviting.

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During many years of research, Buettner awa, PhD, a professor and dean at Okinawa’s learned that people who live in Blue Zones—Sar- University of the Ryukyus, and a leading redinia, Italy; Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula; Ika- searcher of health and wellness tourism. Halra, Greece; Loma Linda, California, and Okina- ekulani Okinawa is the first hotel in Okinawa wa, Japan—not only live longer (100+) but are to offer guests immersive and multidimensionfree of many diseases common in older adults— al programs firmly grounded in the healthy cancer, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. habits of the local population—healing food, Although the Blue Zones are positioned mindfulness, and a social life. all across the globe, Buettner noticed that they “The immersive program introduces peohad some basic things in common: a healthy, ple to the nature of Okinawa and Okinawans,” mostly plant-based diet; regular exercise (as says Akihiro Ichikawa, Halekulani Okinawa’s simple as walking); low stress; finding purpose executive assistant manager, who was instru(helping others); spending time with family mental in creating its Escapes Programs. One and friends (not FaceTime); drinking moder- of the experiences looks into the concept that ately (moderate drinkers outlive nondrinkers); food and medicine come from the same sourcand attending faith-based services regularly es, Ichikawa says. Another explores the rela(no matter the denomination). tionship that Okinawans have with nature— A string of 160 islands surrounded by the from the white-sand beach (rare in Okinawa) East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, Okina- in front of the hotel and walks in the national wa is nearly 1,000 miles from Tokyo. Its unique park (forest bathing) to paddling at dusk with food tradition is more influenced by South- a naturalist through mangrove forests, accomeast Asia than by Japan. Ruins of 13th centu- panied by the twinkling of thousands of fireflies. ry castles, reminders of its shogun past, still “There are 50 varieties of fireflies in Japan, half dominate the landscape. Buettner’s research of which are found in Okinawa,” says Ichikawa. found that Okinawans have one-fifth of the One of the most important elements of the cardiovascular disease, one-fourth of the Escapes Programs is the food. “The cuisine at breast cancer, and one-third of the dementia the hotel … and at old-farmhouse restaurants of Americans. He attributes this, in part, to and gardens that we visit during the program … a culture of walking, year-round access to fresh are based on authentic recipes,” says Ichikawa. medicinal herbs, homegrown vegetables, and Although some ingredients may not be availaa soy-based protein diet. ble outside Okinawa, many traditional dishes The Halekulani Okinawa, located within can be approximated by the home cook by folthe rugged nature conservation area of Kai- lowing recipes in Buettner’s The Blue Zones gan Quasi-National Park, offers “Secrets of Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100.

Longevity” programs, inspired by traditional Halekulani Okinawa’s Wellness Program Okinawan cooking and lifestyle. The series was “Secrets of Longevity” offers three nights at developed in partnership with Masashi Arak- $2,191 per person. okinawa.halekulani.com

Destinations - Health

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DESTINATIONS

Just three hours north of Los Angeles sits Paso Robles, a scenic nook abounding with olive groves, welcoming winemakers, and surfing cowboys.

THE GETAWAY

Los Angeles

Top of the Barrel

By Sheean Hanlan

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STAY

DINE

DO

Live like a winemaker in one of the on-site accommodations, such as the nine-room Sum­ merWood Inn (from $300; summerwoodwine .com). Covered in foliage, the light-filled Briar­ wood Apartment (from $245; onxwine.com) on the Olsen family’s Onx Estate Winery.

The Airbnb options don’t disappoint, such as the former retreat of late singer Tom Petty— the 30-acre, seven-bedroom Windwood Ranch Estate (from $485; airbnb.com) and the terracotta-roofed Olive House (from $171; airbnb.com)—not to be confused with Casa Oliva (from $950; lacasaoliva.com) though, which is a contemporary Spanish-style guesthouse. Other standout homes include, Haci­ enda Robles (from $2,500; haciendarobleses­ tate.com), a five-bedroom estate designed by Marcel Sedletsky and Casa De Madera Vieja (from $1,049; airbnb.com), a 4,000-square-foot villa with a negative-edge pool.

Visitors looking for traditional hotel accommodations also have options. The 171room Allegretto Vineyard Resort (from $239; allegrettovineyardresort.com) juxtaposes garden swings and fire against ancient Roman– inspired architecture. Two brand-new additions to downtown Paso Robles: The Piccolo (from $359; thepiccolo.com), a subtle and upscale boutique hotel offering the area’s only rooftop bar and private wine storage lockers, and The Stables Inn (from $155; stablesinn­ paso.com), the unpretentious 18-room sister hotel to the classic Hotel Cheval (from $380; hotelcheval.com), which features the Pony Club, a Parisian equestrian–themed bar.

Les Petites Canailles (lpcrestaurant.com) is the product of French-born vintner’s son who married a Southern girl whose family owns a butcher shop. Six Test Kitchen (sixtest­ kitchen.com) changes with the seasons, so you won’t know what will be on your plate until you’re greeted with an 11-course tasting menu.

Founded in 1997 by Chef Laurent Grangien, former head chef of Michelin-starred Maison Rostang in Paris, BL Brasserie (bis­ trolaurent.com) will transport you to the hills of Èze. Jeffry’s Wine Country BBQ (jeffry­ swinecountrybbq.com) is ideal for a quick bite.

At Il Cortile (ilcortileristorante.com), Tuscan classics are taken seriously. Its chef, Santos MacDonal, also runs La Cosecha Bar and Restaurant (lacosechabr.com), with Spanish and Latin favorites.

After drinking your way through some of the tasting rooms of Highway 46 (for a full list of the best wine and wineries in town, see page 16), you’ll have plenty of time to test out innovative, ranch-chic breweries and distilleries on the Paso Robles Distillery Trail. Re:Find (refinddistillery.com) one of the area’s first distilleries, forages leftover red grapes from Central Coast vineyards to make handcrafted vodka, gin, whiskey, bourbon, and vermouth.

Top IPA brewing company Firestone Walker (firestonebeer.com), also located in this hamlet, is famed for its hoppy ales.

Serving passion fruit–infused tequila and chai tea–infused, unaged Armagnac, the swanky, 1930s Eleven Twenty Two speakeasy (eleven­twentytwo.com) is now open for an outdoor experience. For even more vintage fun, go glamping at the Trailer Pond (thetrailer­ pond.com) a 1950s trailer camp concept on the 130-acre organic Alta Colina Vineyard.

Take your pick of sheep milk ice cream at Negranti Creamery (negranticreamery .com) or chewy, shortbread cookies from the Brown Butter Cookie Company (brown­ buttercookies.com). Paso Robles’ vine-toocean proximity lets you enjoy morning surf sessions in Cayucos, midday seal watching in Morro Bay, and afternoon sand-dune tours at Pismo Beach. When the sun sets, head back to Paso Robles to take an evening stroll through Sensorio’s field of lights (sensoriopaso .com), a colorful open-air installation of some 58,000 solar-powered stemmed spheres by British artist Bruce Munro.

Destinations - Getaway - LA

CSQ Q3 2020

1. Allegretto Vineyard Resort is one of the few luxury properties in the region.

2. Il Cortile is known for its authentic Tuscan classics.

3. The Negranti Creamery is located among the region’s tasting rooms.

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THE JOURNEY

Los Angeles

Running for the Border

Inside the reopening of exotic resorts in remote locales.

By Samantha Brooks

As countries open up to Americans for traveling, the idea of international adventures is polarizing. For some the thought of walking through an airport is still terrifying. For others, it remains a horror to be stuck at home.

Whether you’re ready to get out there now or planning for the future, here is an inside look from the people in charge of reopening some of the most glamorous and enticing properties around the globe.

KEMPINSKI HOTEL ADRIATIC ISTRIA CROATIA Savudrija, Croatia Kai Behrens, General Manager

Resort reopening date: June 11, 2020 Post-COVID operations: Everything is open in the hotel now, but of course with limitations and additional safety and comfort measures in place, such as a limited number of people in the gym at any one time. Together with all Kempinski Hotels, we have implemented Kempinski White Glove Service, a set of brand standards to implement extreme hygiene and safety measures, while maintaining the high level of guest comfort and impeccable fivestar luxury service for which we are known.

To maximize the comfort of our guests and ensure their safety, we are currently selling only 70% of the total rooms, as we are of the opinion that guest well-being and comfort is a priority—not only during the current situation, but at all times.

Destinations - The Journey - LA

Getting there: Croatia has created an appli-

cation called Enter Croatia, which allows all tourists to speed up the process of entrance into the country. A pre-arrival letter is sent to all guests, informing them of the procedures and current regulations, along with a link to the Enter Croatia application and assistance for guests in regard to arrival routes.

Current property highlights: We are located right on the Adriatic Sea (including our own private beach)! We also have a secluded location in the middle of olive groves and vineyards, amid untouched nature, along with local culinary experiences (wine, olive oil, truffles, and seafood).

Post-COVID guest feedback: It has been truly heart-warming to hear from certain regular guests the remarks, such as, “We missed your hotel” and “We couldn’t wait for you to open again and to travel here” or “Finally, we are back at our second home.” We have just closed for the winter season, but guests are already booking for early March when we reopen.

From $130; kempinski.com

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DESTINATIONS

SONEVA FUSHI KUNFUNADHOO ISLAND Maldives Sonu Shivdasani, Founder and CEO

of stay, we also ask guests to take one more real-time PCR test. We have purchased one of the best real-time PCR test machines—the LightCycler 96 from Roche—and the samples will be sent to Malé for testing at the ADK Hospital.

to protect their health (and the health of their families and fellow guests) and they are thrilled to be able to enjoy our COVID-19-free island paradises.

Destinations - The Journey - LA

Resort reopening date: July 15, 2020 Post-COVID operations: On arrival, all guests will be greeted by one of our airport hosts and escorted to our lounge where they will be asked to undergo a COVID-19 test using our PCR machine. Our airport hosts, lounge hosts, and transfer hosts will all be wearing masks, and we would request that all guests wear a mask whenever in the presence of other guests and hosts until their test results are received.

Once the test has been completed and results sent for processing, guests will be transferred to Soneva Fushi. On landing, guests will be greeted at the private plane and taken to our private island. Guests will then be escorted to their villa and we request that they remain there until the test results are received and are negative. We do not expect it to take more than 24 hours. Once we receive the results of the test, and if they are negative, our hosts will come to the guests’ villa to extend a warm welcome.

In case the test result comes back positive, we ask that all guests isolate in their villa. Our nurses have been trained on how to look after COVID-19-positive guests and observe them.

We will also require all guests have their temperature taken daily. During the first week

CSQ Q3 2020

Getting there: We also funded a special

From $1,310; soneva.com

testing lab at the airport in Maafaru for the convenience of our guests. We believe that we might be over cautious in our measurements stated above, however we aim to create a COVID-19-free environment.

Current property highlights: At our resorts, we insist that one does not have to destroy the planet or their body to indulge in luxury.

When guests arrive, we take their shoes and put them in a bag. Having no shoes and no news is very healthy and grounding. A lot of our competitors apply a dress code, whereas at Soneva, you don’t have to wear shoes or trousers anywhere, which allows our guest to feel at home without the worries and obligations of their everyday lives.

When it’s not raining, all of our guests dine outside. One restaurant is actually in the trees, with a cable car for guests and a zip wire for our waiters to serve guests. Also, we do not serve imported water. Instead, our water menu offers six kinds of purified water, each with a different healing crystal in it.

Post-COVID guest feedback: Our guests have really appreciated the care we have taken

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THE BRANDO French Polynesia Silvio Bion, General Manager

Getting there: We still have Air Tetiaroa flying

Destinations - The Journey - LA

Resort reopening date: July 15, 2020 Post-COVID operations: The only major

things that have changed post-COVID are that the Nami teppanyaki restaurant as well as Les Mutinés gourmet restaurant have a lesser capacity in order to adhere to social-distancing measures. And because of the very low occupancy in this reopening period, these two restaurants are never open on the same day.

as usual between Tahiti and Tetiaroa private island on a daily basis. The flights are operating only if we have guests to transport to and from Tetiaroa of course.

Current property highlights: More than ever

before, we offer privacy and space—at the villa, inside and outside, in the property, on the island, the lagoon, and the other islets—the sense of total freedom, the beauty of the place (the resort, the islands of Tetiaroa, nature), well-preserved nature and sustainability, service, staff dedication, and attention to details.

Post-COVID guest feedback: A couple that have traveled around the world and stayed in great hotels said that it was the first time that they were thinking of returning to a place in the future before they had even left. Our other most regular comments have been: This is the place to escape from home and from everything bad in the world right now; people here are so nice and kind, and always dedicated to their guests, providing an unforgettable experience and making you feel that you are part of their family; a paradise where we want to come back for sure with family or friends to share this special place with them.

From $3,865/night for two in a one-bedroom villa, all inclusive; thebrando.com

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DESTINATIONS

HOTEL WAILEA Maui Markus Schale, General Manager

ures throughout the property.

Destinations - The Journey - LA Resort reopening date: October 15, 2020 Post-COVID operations: We are located on 15

acres and have just 72 suites, all with oversized lanais that feel like your very own private beach home. While we have been waiting for guests to return, we have gone through every inch of the property to ensure all of our amenities, dining, and experiences have safety and well-being in mind, and are naturally distant. Our suites have their own self-contained HVAC systems and are accessed through individual outdoor entrances. The way Hotel Wailea is naturally laid out allows guests to interact with our staff and other guests as much, or as little, as they are comfortable with. All of our dining options are also available alfresco—whether dining privately on your lanai, in the garden at The Restaurant at Hotel Wailea, the oversized cabanas at the pool, or in our brand-new Birdcage, an airy lobby lounge experience. Should a guest’s plans change, we also offer booking flexibility through the end of the year.

Getting there: In addition to participating in Hawaii’s Pre-Travel Testing Program for out-of-state visitors, our entire team at Hotel Wailea will be wearing face masks and adhering to enhanced hygiene and cleaning meas-

CSQ Q3 2020

Current property highlights: The island of Maui has never been more pristine or beautiful—Mother Nature has truly flourished over the last six months and guests will have the opportunity to explore beaches and coral reefs that are teeming with beautiful fish and turtles. To reinforce our commitment to sustainability, we’ve even created our own line of reef-safe sunscreen that is made locally and will be available this winter. We’ve also curated three new private, outrigger-canoeing adventures. All of our experiences are created with the intent to honor the land and sea and preserve this gift we’ve been given back by Mother Nature.

One of our best kept secrets at Hotel Wailea is an incredible Treehouse dining experience, this dinner takes place in our private, open-air Treehouse with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean. A private chef will curate and cook a seven-course tasting menu tableside with wine pairings, while every need is attended to by a dedicated server.

Post-COVID guest feedback: We are seeing

quite a lot of 7–12-day stays on the books.

In addition to our usual West Coast visitors, we are noticing visitors arriving from North Carolina, Connecticut, Maine, Georgia, and Illinois.

From $699; hotelwailea.com 73

THE GETAWAY

New York

The Maker’s Mark

A new boutique hotel in historic Hudson celebrates upstate New York’s creative community, exuding a passion for art and craft. By Martine Bury

1. Hudson’s Valley’s latest chic resort is from the cofounders of Fresh cosmetics.

2. The property’s conservatory.

3. Each room carries a unique aesthetic.

With urbanites flocking to the lush, maple-dotted valleys and idyllic mountain towns that f lank the state’s storied river, New York’s Hudson Valley is having a moment. Now the opening of The Maker Hotel by Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg, co-founders of pioneering beauty brand Fresh, along with hospitality pro Damien Janowicz (Tides Beach Club and Cape Arundel in Kennebunkport, Maine), ensures that hip, architecture-rich Hudson is making a lasting impression in the imagination of travelers everywhere.

The 11-room escape fuses three buildings: a Georgian mansion, an 1800s carriage house, and a Greek Revival building. A sixyear restoration, during which the founders obsessed over every detail, has resulted in a warm and singular sense of place enhanced by the thoughtful contributions of local craftspeople who created several elements, including furnishings, millwork, hand-painted wall treatments, and stained-glass windows. The property has given Glazman, brand director of Fresh, creative license to unleash his inner aesthete throughout the 14,000-square-foot property. He personally helmed the interior design and curation of every space, mashing up his love of all things La Belle Époque, Art Deco, and midcentury modern. He also incorporated his private collections of artwork, photography, and antiques.

A hallmark of the property is sustainable design. More than 70% of the decor is vintage, sourced eclectically from Parisian flea markets, Moroccan souks, New York’s hidden shops, and other far-flung fairs. “I wanted to celebrate different periods and design in a major way,” says Glazman. “More importantly, I wanted to celebrate anybody who takes part in what we’re doing here. There are so many talented people in this region.”

Roytberg’s creative director sensibility is evident in the patterned wallpapers she designed, creating a layered effect. Her signature attention to detail and branding mastery imbues the hotel with a rich color palette of deep reds and moody greens.

Glazman credits the pair’s intuitive working process to 30 years of building their beauty empire together. “I imagine something and she knows exactly what it needs to be,” he says.

“We are a great combination on the design side, which ended up organically expressed in the hotel’s Bohemian sensibility.”

Destinations - Getaway - NY

74

DESTINATIONS

1

2

Getting there: The Maker is a two-hour train

ride or drive from New York City.

On the town: Flanked by colorful historic

buildings, Hudson’s walkable Warren Street boasts treasure-filled antique shops, upscale boutiques, eclectic eateries, and galleries, including homewares and textiles at Les Indiennes and MINNA, French fare at Le Gamin Country, and to-die-for pizzas at Baba Louie’s.

of landscape painting. A 15-minute jaunt to Ghent delivers you to Art Omi, a not-for-profit art center with a 120-acre sculpture park.

Contemporary art is a must-experience at Jack Shainman Gallery, a perfectly preserved old schoolhouse in Kinderhook featuring the work of the most thought-provoking artists of today.

Get an authentic sense of the region wandering the medicinal plant gardens at Churchtown Dairy, a working biodynamic farm dedicated to sustainable and regenerative agriculture, that produces delicious cheese and boasts a soaring feat of architecture: a light-filled, vaulted barn inspired by environmentalist William Coperthwaite.

Destinations - Getaway - NY Day trips: See the stately home and gardens of Olana New York State Historic Site, a curious architectural masterpiece by Frederic Edwin Church, icon of the Hudson River School

All rooms come with covetable amenities, like full-size Fresh bath and body products.

The public spaces are alluring, from a pool that invokes Mad Men style, and The Maker Lounge with its grand Belgian 1878 neoclassical fireplace and plush, speakeasy feel, to the glass-ceilinged conservatory that houses The Maker Restaurant and its pastoral wall mural by painter Michael Allen.

Of the many jewel-box discoveries to be had here, Glazman’s tiny, curtained Fragrance Library is the most unique. A glass case holds a myriad of personally curated fragrances from around the world for folks to spritz, dab, and explore. It’s a nod to his ongoing passion for developing scents at Fresh. The scent architect also co-created The Maker’s Hudson Eau de Parfum with local fragrance maker Christopher Draghi of Source Adage. Sales support Friends of Hudson Youth, a nonprofit that gives back to local youth and families in need.

From $350; themaker.com CSQ Q3 2020

3 75

Destinations - The Journey - NY 1

THE JOURNEY

New York

Luxury Travel, On-Demand

A behind-the-scenes look at Inspirato’s new membersonly travel service that offers a subscription and peace of mind. By Carolyn Meers 76

DESTINATIONS

We’ve seen it work for high-end apparel, organic groceries, and fitness gear—but are commitment-free, monthly subscription services the future of travel? Brothers Brent and Brad Handler, co-founders of 9-year-old luxury travel company Inspirato and its recently repriced Inspirato Club and Inspirato Pass, would venture to say yes.

“After founding Exclusive Resorts and exiting the business, my brother Brad and I remained interested in luxury travel and the idea of creating amazing experiences for affluent consumers, but at a more affordable price point,” says CEO and co-founder Brent Handler. “We partnered with Brian Corbett [CEO of Ross Aviation] and Martin Pucher [managing partner and president of Dahlgren Duck] to create a private club that combined the luxury, space, and character of private vacation homes with warm, personalized service and a host of rich resort amenities.”

2

Inspirato Pass

3

While the travel industry is still reeling from the impact of the pandemic, Inspirato has reported subscribers returning in recent months—June saw its most bookings on record—and at last count, it had more than 18,000 members. Those members, Brent believes, are finding comfort in not just the flexibility, but also the service, quality assurance, and broad inventory the club and pass provide.

In the last year, Inspirato Club and Inspirato Pass have adapted to offer lower, month-tomonth fees that can be cancelled anytime—as opposed to long-term commitments at an annual rate. Previously, the club operated on an annual dues structure and came with a hefty initiation fee of $10,000 to $30,000. With the new model, the initiation fee has been replaced with a $600 enrollment fee and a subscription of $600 per month. Plus, Inspirato Pass holders are now enrolled in the club free of charge.

Here, a look at how the company is catering to a new era of travel.

1. Inspirato offers unli­ mited travel, including stays at properties like Rosemary Beach, Flori­ da’s Watercolor resort.

2. The White Barn Inn, an Auberge Resorts Collection property in Maine is one ofthe club’s hotel partners.

3. One of the club’s residences in Cabo.

4. A ski property in Tel­ luride is another exam­ ple of Inspirato’s range of accommodations.

Described by Brent Handler as the first-ever luxury travel subscription, Inspirato Pass costs $2,500 per month—and promises no further fees, taxes, or nightly rate charges.

On any given day, pass holders can access more than 100,000 luxury vacation homes, hotels, resorts, and location-specific experiences. Like the club, Inspirato Pass unlocks hundreds of luxury homes, hotels, and resorts in more than 200 locales. Want to get away for President’s Day next February? At press time, Inspirato Pass could access nearly 2,000 trip options between February 11 and 15, 2021.

As for logistics, a minimum of seven days is required between a check-out and a new check-in, and vacations can last up to 60 days.

According to the company, pass holders travel every six to eight weeks for an average of four nights per trip. Inviting friends to join?

Pass holders can bring along as many guests as their accommodations will allow, but guests have to cover their own airfare (just like pass holders).

Newly added destinations in Inspirato’s portfolio include a private ski-in/ski-out Marmot Ridge estate in Telluride, a seven-bedroom retreat at the WaterColor Resort on Florida’s Rosemary Beach, and Auberge’s White Barn Inn & Spa in southern Maine.

While top destinations vary by season, Brent notes that current favorites include Los Cabos in Mexico, Vail in Colorado, and Kiawah Island in South Carolina.

Looking to the future, Brent has an eye toward building Inspirato’s portfolio, particularly in the U.S. and Mexico. “We’ve seen an unprecedented demand for that since March,” he says. “Our real estate team is working around the clock to identify new homes that meet our standards as well as negotiating deals for larger units at well-known luxury resorts and hotels.” inspirato.com

Destinations - The Journey - NY

Inspirato Club

For a monthly fee of $600 (plus a $600 enrollment fee), Inspirato Club offers access to more than 300 luxury, single-family homes and more than 800 top-tier hotels and resorts around the world—think Aman Resorts, One&Only, and 1 Hotels. Bear in mind, the nightly cost of staying at these resorts and estates is separate from the monthly fee.

So what does that fee cover? Put simply, access and service. Access to Inspirato’s portfolio of vacation homes and hotels and personalized service from a team of hospitality pros who handle pre-trip planning details and coordinate with on-property concierges.

Additional member perks include privileges and discounts with partner brands, exclusive invites to events and excursions—from safaris and cruises to Wimbledon, The Masters, and the Kentucky Derby—Cadillac vehicles at select vacation homes, weekly promotional offers, and access to private flights through a partnership with private aviation service Wheels Up. CSQ Q3 2020

4 77

MEETINGS AND RETREATS

Los Angeles

Host with the Most

With most in-person meetings and corporate retreats on hold, we’ve all had to adjust to the new normal of screen time and ring lights.

As companies plan a return to work, it’s almost certain that virtual meetings will become a bigger part of business as usual going forward. Zoom has been one of the breakout

stars of 2020, but other virtual networking companies bring their own strengths and weaknesses to doing business online. Just like some real-world meetings are better in a boardroom and others at a restaurant, there are different uses for various virtual meeting platforms.

Here’s how five of the leaders measure up.

Our guide to the pros and cons of virtual meeting platforms.

By Matt Pressberg

MICROSOFT TEAMS Pros: Like Google Meet, Teams is the easiest

solution for companies that use the Microsoft Office 365 ecosystem, making it easy to collaborate on Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and the like.

Cons: The interface is not very intuitive, and

if your company isn’t Microsoft based, other options will likely make more sense.

APPLE FACETIME Pros: Everyone with a newer iPhone or Mac has this software preinstalled, and it is by far the easiest and shortest path to conducting a video call among people with these devices.

If you have a regular one-on-one meeting with a less tech-savvy person who has an iPhone, FaceTime is the easiest tool.

Cons: FaceTime is intended for video phone

calls, not meetings, and has limited functionality and a clunky interface once you get into meetings with three or more participants.

It’s much more useful for one on ones or ad hoc check-in calls than a team meeting with a robust agenda.

Destinations - Meeting - LA GOOGLE MEET Pros: A native Google product that is automatically integrated with the Google accounts that so many companies use, Google Meet also has a simple interface, the ability to record to Google Drive, and one-touch mobile dialing.

For organizations that use Google accounts (and particularly those that use Google Chat), using Google Meet for video calls is the simplest solution.

Cons: Video quality tends to be inferior to Zoom, and there is significantly less functionality.

CISCO WEBEX

ZOOM

Pros: Cisco is a trusted name in security, and WebEx has been the platform of choice among companies with these sensitivities, particularly those that work with the United States government. WebEx is also loaded with functionality, including whiteboards and document sharing.

Pros: The industry standard, Zoom is easy to Cons: Some security concerns have come use across a wide range of devices and has re- up. “Zoombombing,” where uninvited people liable technology that produces good-quality access private meetings due to poor design video with relatively little lag. Its meeting and choices that made insecure meetings a default webinar functions really shine with large groups, option, was an issue before the company made and it offers recording (with the host’s permis- some fi xes. Some of the company’s workforce sion) and one-touch mobile dialing. Zoom’s is based in China, which has been a sticking virtual backgrounds are also a lot of fun, and point for companies with heightened national its free plan is adequate for most businesses. security and other sensitivities.

Cons: WebEx is somewhat pricey and may not

make sense for many small businesses.

78

DESTINATIONS

Shape your education here.

So you’re better prepared out there.

Our School of Management develops skilled, purpose-driven leaders for the global world of today and tomorrow.

Undergraduate Programs • • • •

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Carla Berrios ’20 Executive MBA

MEETINGS AND RETREATS

New York

Back to School: 10 Great Places for Executives to Level Up Online TOP-TIER BRANDED EDUCATION

University executive programs come with bragging rights—who doesn’t want to say they’re growing their business acumen at MIT? The competition for senior leadership is stiff, and this level of education is one distinct way you can set yourself apart and earn the respect of peers or subordinates.

While most in-person events remain on hold, make this the year you step up your power as a developed and innovative leader in your field with virtual learning.

COURSE AGGREGATORS AND SPECIALTY SITES

and Leading with Purpose. If you’re looking for something more comprehensive, consider the LEAD online business program—you spend five to 10 hours per week for a year, resulting in a professional certificate. From $995; gsb.stanford.edu

Hone HQ. Its CEO calls this platform “like Peloton but for leadership training” with world-class instructors and a modern approach to formal education. You pick your classes, learn live with experts, leverage the community, and watch growth happen. From $99/month; honehq.com

Wall Street Mojo. This platform is known by Wall Street insiders as a great way to build investment banking, company valuation, and financial skills for non-financial roles (which is most executives). From $199; wallstreetmojo.com

By Ben Bloch

Wharton. A school known for providing

MIT. With entrepreneurial and skill-building courses, including Innovator’s DNA, Neuroscience for Leadership, and Building Game-Changing Organizations, there are new options each month for top executives and aspiring CEOs. From $100, based on income; openlearning.mit.edu

a world-class business education, Wharton Online brings the same flavor. With access to a worldwide network of over 100,000 online learners, this path is for high-level leaders looking to break through their current plateau and reach the next phase of their career. Offering 50 online courses, Wharton keeps learning options targeted and specific; From $500; online.wharton.upenn.edu

Stanford. Redesigned to fit our new world, Stanford’s executive education online programs include a new Leadership Series, featuring courses such as Leading in the COVID-19 Era, Leading Diversity and Inclusion,

Harvard. Harvard Business School Online offers a highly engaging way to learn vital business concepts, enabling committed learners to transform their careers, their organizations, and their lives. From $1,000; online.hbs.edu

EdX. Offering courses on everything from finance to project management, and even a “MicroMasters” degree in business analytics, the opportunity to step up your skills has never been more easily accessible. EdX courses are designed to help you make the most of your data, more deeply understand business modeling and decision making at a high level, manage teams and projects more fluidly, and ultimately stand out in your field. From $897; edx.org

Coursera. Learn the latest skills, get ready for

a career, earn a degree, or upskill your organization with this long-standing platform that currently collaborates with 200+ leading universities and companies. Coursera reports that 87% of people learning for professional development report benefits like promotions, raises, or kicking off a new career—all thanks to their access to e-learning. From $0; coursera.org

Destinations - Meeting - NY

Masterclass. This platform offers skill-specific classes from world-renowned experts who lean into sharing their shortcuts, failures, and successes to impact your path and potential.

Each class consists of about 20 video lessons, usually around 10 minutes long, accompanied by an in-depth workbook. From $15/month; masterclass.com LinkedIn Learning. Formerly Lynda.com, LinkedIn Learning asks you to set up a quick profile of learning interests so they can link you with courses that match your current goals, interests, and career path. With some 9,000 courses offered, there is something for everyone, ranging from business to technology and even creative skills taught by industry experts.

From $30/month; linkedin.com Udemy. With more than 35M students and 57,000 instructors teaching in over 65 languages, Udemy is definitely high on the list of platforms to drop into for improving job-related skills. From business analysis to becoming an expert in Microsoft’s Power BI, this collection of software services, apps, and connectors works together to turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent insights. From $12/ course; udemy.com

80

DESTINATIONS

GIVE THE GIFT OF A SUCCESSFUL FUTURE. COVID-19 has impacted low-income and underserved communities the hardest, leaving behind financial burdens and loss of community resources.

Your donation can change that.

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need basic hygeine supplies We're all in this together. Your donation supports the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Los Angeles efforts in securing schooling essentials and basic necessities for local youth.

GREAT FUTURES START HERE.

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GOLF GETAWAY

Hills and Valleys

In the shadow of the worldfamous Stadium Course, the second layout at TPC Sawgrass offers a perspective all its own.

By Shaun Tolson

1

While players will be reminded period- manageable for the average amateur (so long By the time golfers get to the 16th fairway during their rounds on the famous Players Stadi- ically of that tournament over the Stadium as they can avoid the water hazards that come um Course at TPC Sawgrass, they will have Course’s first 15 holes, their perspective of into play on two-thirds of its holes). been challenged physically and psychologi- the course’s concluding trio will be influenced “What I love about The Valley is that it cally. If they’ve been lucky enough (or skilled more by the memorable shots they’ve watched challenges me to play my best,” says Alter. enough) to hit quality shots across those first hit on those holes over the years than by the “If I hit good shots, I know I’ll be rewarded, 15 holes, and smart enough to hire a caddie— topography and design features that charac- and I’ll have a good round. Oftentimes an OK and smarter still to heed that caddie’s advice— terize the holes themselves. shot on The Players Stadium Course is not “What I love about the Stadium Course they could be on their way to posting a good good enough; but you can get away with some score on an extremely difficult layout. But The is that it feels like I’m challenging history OK shots on Dye’s Valley.”

Players Stadium Course’s final three holes are throughout a round,” says Tom Alter, vice presA round on The Valley can also more among the most challenging in all of golf, and ident of communications for the PGA Tour. effectively remind visitors of the monumena stride down the 16th fairway provides golfers “If I remember certain players having a similar tal efforts that were required to transform with their first glimpse of TPC Sawgrass’ iconic shot during The Players Championship in the 415 acres of flat Floridian swamp and wetlands 17th: a short par 3 played to an island green that past, I can compare how I did against some into the undulating, visually captivating golf is perhaps golf’s most recognizable hole thanks of the greatest players in the world.” destination that TPC Sawgrass has become.

Alter’s perspective is shared by many who After all, when Dye first surveyed the property to almost four decades of televised coverage of The Players Championship each spring. regularly walk (and sometimes play) the course, during the late 1970s, he noted that there was including aspiring tour pro Montrele Wells, no more than 18 inches of natural elevation who routinely works as a caddie at the resort above the waterline. Today, the gentle slopes and goes by Monty when he’s shouldering a vis- that Dye built up around numerous holes on 1. The clubhouse iting player’s bag. “Going out there every day The Players Stadium Course—some of which at TPC Sawgrass is knowing the history behind it and the stories rise 30 feet high—feel almost like an extension a welcome reprieve that have unfolded and still will unfold, it never of the grandstands, which remain fully conafter conquering the gets old,” Wells says of his time spent on TPC structed for much of the year. Similar slopes challenging course.

Sawgrass’ flagship course. “My goal is to play on and hillsides also define the perimeter of holes 2. The Valley course, the PGA Tour, but this is the next best thing. I’m on Dye’s Valley; however, with no corresponddesigned by Pete still winning by doing this on a day-to-day basis.” ing grandstands those slopes become more Dye who transfor­ med 415 acres of Although visitors willingly spend the of a focal point. flat Floridian swamp requisite $500 to play The Players Stadium Can an introductory round of golf on into an undulated Course at TPC Sawgrass, they may mistakenly Dye’s Valley prepare visitors for their subselayout of greens. overlook the club’s second layout, Dye’s Valley, quent rounds on The Players Stadium Course? a 6,847-yard course that costs half as much The discrepancies between the two courses’ to play and delivers an altogether different levels of difficulty suggests not. That being though no less memorable round of golf. Con- said, a round of golf on Dye’s Valley still ofceived by Pete Dye (and Bobby Weed) and built fers insights that can enhance a player’s round five years after Dye’s Stadium Course hosted on The Players Stadium Course. Simply put, its first Players Championship in 1982, “The playing The Valley fosters an appreciation for Valley” is a true resort course, which means Dye’s transformative achievements, providing golf carts are allowed to roam the playing sur- a fresh perspective that allows visitors to see befaces, multimillion-dollar homes line several yond the grandstands and the heroic shots that of its fairways, and the course—while still the world’s best players have hit on TPC Sawa quintessential Dye design—is generally more grass’ more famous course. tpc.com/sawgrass

Destinations - Golf Getaway

2

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DESTINATIONS

GOLF GETAWAY

Southeast

The top 5 golf courses to play in the Southeast right now.

With the states in the Southeast some of the quickest to reopen after COVID-19 quarantine restrictions, many courses are open for social-distanced play.

Bonus: Each offers an option for second-home ownership, perfect for a continued break from urban life. By Shaun Tolson KIAWAH ISLAND GOLF RESORT South Carolina Designers: Pete Dye (The Ocean Course); Tom Fazio (Osprey Point); Jack Nicklaus (Turtle Point); Gary Player (Cougar Point); Clyde Johnston (Oak Point).

Completed: 2017 Distinguishing characteristics: The resort’s five courses stretch across much of the Atlantic-fronting coast of a 13-square-mile barrier island about 25 miles southwest of Charleston, South Carolina, and each brings into play the island’s lagoons and wetlands, and in some cases ocean dunes. The wind intensifies the difficulty of each course, but the resort’s PALMETTO BLUFF

Bluffton, South Carolina

Designer: Jack Nicklaus Completed: 2017 Distinguishing characteristics: With its low-profile layout stretching 7,171 yards, Palmetto Bluff’s May River Golf Course carefully meanders around the wetlands of its namesake waterway. The course features large, boldly contoured greens that will challenge skilled golfers who like to play aggressively through the air; however, many of those greens are also receptive

flagship Pete Dye design is impacted most of all.

Why now: Visitors to the resort can test their mettle on The Ocean Course almost a year before it is expected to host the PGA Championship in May 2021. Additionally, three of the resort’s other layouts—courses designed by Fazio, Nicklaus, and Player—have benefited from extensive renovations in the last six years.

Real estate options: 13 4 homes (star ting at $550,000), 121 homesites (starting at $110,000), 64 villas and cottages (starting at $249,000), and a selection of fractionally deeded villas and penthouses offered through Timbers Resorts (starting at $540,000). kiawahresort.com to bump-and-run approach shots, which makes the course equally playable for higher-handicap golfers.

Why now: Restored by Nicklaus Design a few years ago, the May River course now benefits from improved drainage across the entire layout, as well as clearer delineation between formal sand bunkers and native, naturally sandy waste bunkers.

Real estate options: 15 homes (starting at $672,900), 36 homesites (starting at $185,000), and 2 Montage Residences (starting at $1.7M). palmettobluff.com

Destinations - Golf - Top 5 SEA ISLAND RESORT

Georgia

Designers: Tom Fazio (Seaside); Love Golf Design (Plantation and Retreat).

Completed: 2019 Distinguishing characteristics: With three distinctive 18-hole layouts, Sea Island Resort offers a golfing experience to suit every skill level and playing style. Tom Fazio’s Seaside course is reminiscent of Scottish links surrounded by tidal creeks and salt marshes, while the Plantation and Retreat courses SEA PINES RESORT

South Carolina

Designers: Pete Dye (Harbour Town Golf Links and Heron Point); Love Golf Design (Atlantic Dunes).

Completed: 2016 Distinguishing characteristics: Simply put, Sea Pines is a shotmaker’s haven. Carved through stretches of loblolly pines and live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, the resort’s two Pete Dye-designed layouts require careful strategy. No less scenic, the resort’s third course, Atlantic Dunes, offers more TPC SAWGRASS

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Designers: Pete Dye (Stadium Course); Pete Dye, Jerry Pate, and Bobby Weed (Dye’s Valley).

Completed: 1987 Distinguishing characteristics: Home to golf’s first stadium course, TPC Sawgrass also boasts a sprawling, 77,000-square-foot, Mediterranean-style clubhouse adorned with memorabilia connected to the stadium course’s creation, as well

CSQ Q3 2020

embrace a low-country aesthetic.

Why now: A year ago, the resort opened a brand-new, 17,000-square-foot Performance Center, complete with six instruction and club-fitting bays. More recently, Love Golf Design (led by brothers Mark Love and Davis Love III) redesigned the resort’s Plantation Course, incorporating Golden Age design elements such as railroad ties and sharply angled bunkers and greens.

Real estate options: 52 homes (starting at $589,000), 20 condos and townhouses (starting at $535,000), and 21 homesites (starting at $245,000). seaisland.com

expansive fairways and larger greens but balances the difficulty with significantly contoured putting surfaces.

Why now: Harbour Town Golf Links just celebrated its 50th anniversary, as did the RBC-sponsored Heritage Tournament that is played there each spring. This year’s tournament has been scheduled for April 12–18.

Real estate options: 132 homes (starting at $419,000), 87 condos and villas (starting at $215,000), 7 yacht club slips (starting at $97,500), and 22 home sites (starting at $160,000). seapines.com as a corridor that displays 45 golf clubs (and counting)—all pivotal pieces of equipment used by the winners of The Players Championship.

Why now: The strongest field in professional golf converges at TPC Sawgrass to contend for The Players Championship each spring—though cancelled for 2020. The course is altered only in minor ways leading up to that event.

Real estate options: 30 homes (starting at $258,900), and 3 villas/condos (starting at $365,000). tpc.com 83

Location: On 2.5 acres at the base of Canyons Village in Park City, close to Main Street and just 35 minutes from Salt Lake City International Airport. The project is steps from Park City Mountain, with more than 7,300 acres of skiable terrain, 17 slopes, 14 bowls, 300 trails, and 22 miles of lifts.

About: The ski-in, ski-out homes also have access to Pendry Park City’s amenities and services. Upon opening, Pendry Park City will feature four unique lounges, including the only rooftop pool and bar in the area.

In addition, there’s an eight-room spa; gym; kids’ club; and ski valet and “ski beach.” The 40,000-square-foot Pendry Plaza will feature shopping and dining. Architecture is by SB Architects and IBI Group, with interiors by KES Studio. The 153 condo-hotel residences range from 448–2,600 square feet and feature Bertazzoni appliances, spa-inspired bathrooms, balconies, and oversized fireplaces.

Pendry Residences Park City

PENDRY RESIDENCES PARK CITY

Timeline: Ground broke in July 2019 with completion expected by the end of 2021.

Pricing: From $595,000

pendryresidencesparkcity.com

Walden Monterey

Destinations - Breaking Ground

REAL ESTATE

Breaking Ground

New developments launching around the world.

By Samantha Brooks 84

DESTINATIONS

WALDEN MONTEREY Location: Three miles from the Monterey Regional Airport (or 100 miles from SFO), on a 600-acre enclave.

About: Sustainability is key here, as the development features its own solar-power grid system and more than 200 acres of open space, including a community-wide trail system, Zen meditation garden, and kids’ treehouse.

Additionally, homeowners are restricted on removing trees, and the use of renewable energy is required. A communal garden and vineyard help connect homeowners with their surroundings, while Walden Gatherings give residents and invited guests a platform to focus on making the world better for the next generation. The property offers just 22

homesites, with design concepts coming from a collective of major names, including Luce et Studio, Feldman Architecture, MAD Design, Surface Landscape Architects, Axelrod Architects, Eric Miller Architects, SERA, Carmel Development Company, Lutsko Associates, Fougeron Architecture, Larson/ Shores, Open Space Architecture, Rana Creek Design, Bone Structure, and Hayward Healthy Homes. Prior to building their own homes, owners live on a cabin on their site to understand the land; afterward, the cabin is intended to be used as a guest house.

Timeline: Ground broke in 2017, with the first homes available for sale as of August 2020.

The remaining 17 homesites will debut in spring 2021.

Pricing: From $5M

waldenmonterey.com

Location: On 400 acres of parks, meandering streams, and picturesque forests, but just 30 minutes from Newark Liberty International Airport.

Timeline: Ground broke in May 2020; initial residences to be completed by the end of 2020 with the rest to be finished in 2021.

Pricing: From $2M

pendry.com

Pronghorn

About: A 100-year-old Tudor mansion anchors this development, which includes a 12-acre farm, a Pendry hotel, and 24 fully serviced private Estate and Farm Villa residences ranging in size from 2,400–3,600 square feet. Owners have preferred access to the hotel’s array of amenities, programming, and unscripted service including Ninety

Acres, a farm-to-table restaurant and cooking school; the full-service Spa Pendry; fitness center, swimming pool, and tennis courts; private membership club; and a variety of classic and unique outdoor activities to be discovered throughout the property. Architecture is by Bob Hillier and interiors are overseen

by Kimberley Harley, Montage International’s vice president of architecture and design.

Pendry Residences Natirar

PENDRY RESIDENCES NATIRAR

Destinations - Breaking Ground

PRONGHORN

LAKELODGE, MOONLIGHT BASIN

Location: Set on 640 acres in Bend, Oregon, amid a 1,000-year-old juniper forest, the world’s second largest, with the Cascade Mountain Range as the backdrop. Just a 25-minute drive from Roberts Field Airport.

Location: About an hour south of the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, on 8,000 acres within the Moonlight Basin development. The nearby Big Sky Town Center offers restaurants and bars, shops, art galleries, and a farmers market, while the Big Sky Resort has 5,850 acres of ski terrain and 300 named runs on four connected mountains. In the summer, the area offers hiking and mountain-biking trails, ziplines, and spectacular fly-fishing on the Gallatin and Madison Rivers.

Timeline: LakeLodge broke ground in May 2019 with homes launched for sale in spring 2020.

About: 16 residences, ranging from 502 square feet to nearly 3,000 square feet, lie

moonlightbasin.com

Timeline: Homesites started selling in 2004, with ground breaking on the first home in 2006 and approximately 8–10 homes being completed per year by members. The 104room Huntington Lodge opened in spring 2019.

Pricing: Homesites from $30,000; homes from $999,999. pronghornresort.com CSQ Q3 2020

Pricing: From $775,000

LakeLodge, Moonlight Basin

About: Bend and Central Oregon are a mecca for outdoors lovers with world-class rock climbing, hiking, fly-fishing, whitewater rafting, paddleboarding, road cycling, mountain biking, skiing, and snowboarding at Mt. Bachelor. The nearby Smith Rock State Park is considered one of the seven wonders of Oregon, while the town itself boats the Bend Ale Trail, with 18 breweries (Bend has more breweries per capita than any other city in the U.S.).

Pronghorn includes four neighborhoods with a total of 96 homes; two golf courses designed

by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio; four culinary concepts; a full-service spa and fitness center; the Pronghorn Academy by Jeff Ritter; and the Trailhead Center, a facility for family recreation and outdoor pursuits. There are currently 12 homes for sale, ranging from 2,482–6,179 square feet, and 56 homesites available for sale, ranging from 20,473–44,867 square feet.

within the Moonlight Basin development, which also includes Moonlight Lodge, a private lodge with lounge and family area; Moonlight Tavern with a restaurant and bar; and a fitness center with an outdoor pool and hot tub. Also features The Reserve, Moonlight’s 18-hole, private, Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course and Clubhouse, and Ulery’s Lake Camp with a beach and lake, tree fort for kids, fire pit, and Carpe Diem Café.

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C-Suite Advisors CONSULTING Information Technology

CSQ’s C-Suite Advisors™ form an invite-only community of the most sought-after, trusted advisors and serve as a resource

Advisory - TOC

to qualified thought leadership,

providing insights from the same individuals who council the most successful C-Suite executives and entrepreneurs in the world.

Want more thought leadership?

88

IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ARTIFICIAL ENOUGH?

EDWARD C. WILSON-SMYTHE AND MICHAEL GOODMAN EWS: Senior Advisor, NTT DATA Services MG: Vice President, NTT DATA Services CONSULTING Talent Management

Visit csq.com/advisors to access our library of content, including invaluable articles and op-eds from our community of Advisors, who are experts in accounting, consulting, finance, health and wellness, insurance, law, marketing, and real estate.

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C-SUITE ADVISORY

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IS TALENT MANAGEMENT STILL RELEVANT? VLAD VAIMAN Associate Dean and Professor School of Management California Lutheran University

FINANCE Wealth Management

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WHY IS NOW A GOOD TIME TO BORROW?

FINANCE Wealth Management

Advisory - TOC 94

96

VALUE ACCELERATION AND EXIT PLANNING

THE UNCERTAIN FINANCIAL FUTURES OF ATHLETES AND ENTERTAINERS DEMAND TRAINING AND DISCIPLINE

RYAN BRISTOL

ANDREW D. HOROWITZ

Managing Director and Banker JP Morgan Private Bank

Senior Vice President Rockefeller Capital Management

DON’T SEE YOUR ADVISOR? NOMINATE THEM TODAY AT CSQ.COM/APPLICATION

CSQ Q3 2020

FINANCE Wealth Management

BRIAN WERDESHEIM Managing Director, Investments The Summa Group of Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

LEGAL Probate and Estate Litigation

LEGAL Mergers and Acquisitions

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100

EXPECT A POST-COVID-19 TSUNAMI OF FINANCIAL ELDER ABUSE CASES

C3: COVID, CANNABIS, AND CRYPTO

SCOTT RAHN

SANDER C. ZAGZEBSKI

Managing Partner RMO LLP

Partner Greenspoon Marder LLP

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INDUSTRY CONSULTING

SPECIALTY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ARTIFICIAL ENOUGH? Creating technology that serves all humankind.

EDWARD C. WILSON-SMYTHE Senior Advisor NTT DATA Services New York, NY

MICHAEL GOODMAN Vice President, Consulting NTT DATA Services New York, NY

We have all read the stories about automated soap dispensers in hotels not working for Black guests, facial recognition software not recognizing dark-skinned people, and image recognition algorithms mislabeling two Black men as gorillas. Some may dismiss these as funny quirks of technology and urge people to “calm down” and not “blow things out of proportion.”

Th is attitude minimizes the severe risk that artificial intelligence, or AI, applied without concern for its human impacts, poses for minorities and marginalized communities—by exposing them to technologies that reflect bias in much the same way as humans do.

Every stage of designing, implementing, and operating these AI systems is driven by humans. It is humans who write the code; humans who define the analytical algorithms; humans who provide sample data and scenarios to test the algorithms; humans who define how analyses are translated into hypotheses and hypotheses translated into conclusions; and humans who defi ne what actions correspond to which combination of conclusion and probability.

And every person brings with them their own preconceived notions and biases. These are reflected in what AI algorithms search for, what correlations are made, what conclusions are arrived at—and, most important, what actions are initiated. The whites-only automatic soap dispenser, more primitive than an AI system, was designed by humans who configured the infrared sensor to work with the light-absorptive properties of pale skin. When the Google algorithm matched photos of Black men with its database of gorilla photos, Google fi xed this by removing tags of monkey, chimp, and gorilla from photos of monkeys, chimps, and gorillas, so that photos of Black men would not be correlated with these images. The question yet to be answered is why Google algorithms were matching Black human beings to images tagged as monkey, chimp, or gorilla in the first place.

Advisory - Wilson Smythe Edward C. Wilson-Smythe has more than 20 years of experience as a trusted strategic advisor to corporate, government, and technology leaders, with a proven track record of elevating clients through the development and execution of strategies that leverage innovation to drive superior business results. He is an entrepreneurial executive with demonstrated success in establishing and leading high-growth technology and consulting businesses and driving growth through innovation in the largest and most complex organizations globally.

PHONE 347/305.0051 EMAIL edward.wilsonsmythe@nttdata.com michael.goodman@nttdata.com WEBSITE nttdata.com ADDRESS 45 West 36th Street, 7th Floor New York, NY 10018

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C-SUITE ADVISORY

Ghosts in the Machine

The casual reader may struggle with the concept of biased technology. After all, isn’t technology the objective and unemotional translation of zeros and ones into something we can use? How can technology have bias, or any other human emotion? The answer lies in what AI is—and what it isn’t.

AI, despite its name, is not some miracle technology that replicates the human brain and neural processes to approximate human thought and cognition. AI, at its most basic level, is made up of very complex and very advanced code that enables systems to gather immense amounts of information from different sources, analyze these for patterns and relationships, draw multiple conclusions with different probabilities, and act on these conclusions—all at incredible speed. Advanced AI systems will learn over time and refine their processes, using more complex code and algorithms that continuously incorporate previous patterns and outcomes as additional inputs to refine future analyses.

Hyper-Accelerated Harm

Don’t believe me? Just google the word “CEO” and look at the images. Only 7% are women.

Even worse, the book Marrying a CEO published by BWWM Romance (that is short for Black woman/white man) comes up before the current or former CEOs of GM, Anthem, UPS,

QUOTE:

ALL PEOPLE, EVEN EXCEPTIONAL TECHNOLOGY INNOVATORS AND ENTREPRENEURS, ARE FALLIBLE.

Oracle, IBM, HP, or Pepsi. The first Muslim person listed links to a story about his gruesome murder, and the first image of a Black man is 17 lines down, referring to an internship program for underprivileged people to experience being “CEO for a day.”

The message is that CEOs are almost uniformly male, mostly white with some space for East and South Asian model minorities, and women and Black and Latinx and Indigenous people need not apply. This is human bias reflected in technology algorithms.

As AI becomes more pervasive, the potential for harm escalates to pose an immediate and severe risk to minorities and marginalized communities. AI eliminates people with “black” and “ethnic” names five to seven times more often from recruitment processes than people with “white” names; suggests similar male names (Stephen versus Stephanie) if you search for women on professional networking sites; wrongly flags Black defendants as high risk to reoffend at twice the rate of white defendants; misidentifies Latinx people for wanted criminals at immigration checkpoints; misidentifies transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people while dispatching emergency services; defines majority-minority neighborhoods as crime hotspots when actual crime rates are much more evenly spread out; and deploys heavily armed police to fight crime that just did not happen. In the name of technology advancement, we are putting people directly into the firing line—sometimes literally—of technology biases. This needs to stop.

Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and LGBTQ people balance the current biases reflective of a small, privileged, relatively uniform sample of society as diverse teams work together, discuss options, and design solutions.

2. Empower dissent. Technology is often a race to be the fastest or the cheapest, or both.

Any voice that gets in the way of that mission is discouraged. It took more than 20 years of failed technology projects for quality assurance to become an independent discipline.

Technology ethics must similarly become an independent and empowered voice, with the power to identify issues, challenge consensus, and direct improvements.

3. Do no harm. AI algorithms often harness the power of technology to solve predefined problems, with limited focus on potential real-life implications of analysis and decisions beyond the immediate problem statement.

Any AI must specifically test for known risks and invest in identifying and testing for potential unknown and unintended consequences to confirm that the design purposefully mitigates and eliminates these issues.

4. Remember you are human: Technology is a frontier, and the leaders who are charting new paths demonstrate the same combination of confidence, hubris, and arrogance as any other group of people exploring new frontiers. The belief in the infallibility of technology is a belief in the infallibility of people pushing the boundaries of progress. All people, even exceptional technology innovators and entrepreneurs, are fallible. Remember that and be humble.

Advisory - Wilson Smythe

CSQ Q3 2020

Not-So-Invisible Hands

The Choice Before Us

AI must reflect an equitable and fair approach to human variability for it to truly serve the common good of all people. The only way to achieve this is to acknowledge the biases that are already integral to AI systems, and then work affirmatively to create systems that eliminate these biases. Having worked in large technology companies that are leading the charge on innovating and commercializing AI at scale, collaborated with multiple startups and academic institutions that are driving much of the research and innovation, and advised both large corporations and governments on how to leverage AI for the common good, I believe there are four steps we all must take to minimize human bias in AI: 1. Ensure representation. All parties in the AI ecosystem must make growing, hiring, training, and promoting diverse talent a priority. This will not necessarily eliminate bias, but the different lived experiences of women and

Without purposeful redirection of innovation to address the human biases that proliferate in AI, the promised benefits will accrue almost exclusively to the same select few to whom the benefits of all change accrue disproportionately. It will expose our most vulnerable communities to the same biases that have served to systematically disenfranchise, impoverish, criminalize—and, let us admit it, kill—except with the heightened efficiency, speed, and anonymity that technology accords. We should not need activists to put Powered by AITM markers on graves before we act. We as leaders must step up to acknowledge these flaws, accept our role in creating these risks, and take urgent actions to make AI less reflective of the worst tendencies of the human condition. We have landed men on the moon, created cars that drive themselves, and connected people around the globe instantaneously. Surely we can create technology that serves all humankind. end

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INDUSTRY CONSULTING

SPECIALTY TALENT MANAGEMENT

IS TALENT MANAGEMENT STILL RELEVANT? The need to invest in your people during these challenging times is clear.

VLAD VAIMAN Associate Dean and Professor School of Management California Lutheran University Los Angeles, CA

Advisory - Vaiman Vlad Vaiman is associate dean and professor at California Lutheran University’s School of Management and a visiting professor at several premier universities around the world. Previously he held academic and administrative positions at Reykjavik University in Iceland and FH Joanneum University in Austria. He received his PhD from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and his MBA at the University of Wyoming. He was a founding editor-in-chief, and is currently chief editorial consultant, of the European Journal of International Management, a highly ranked, peer-reviewed academic publication. Vaiman is a founder, organizer, and leading co-chair of the EIASM Workshops on Talent Management (eiasm.org), where, in just nine years, he has built a strong global community of scholars and practitioners working in the field.

PHONE 805/493.3892 EMAIL vvaiman@callutheran.edu WEBSITE eiasm.org ADDRESS 60 West Olsen Road #3550 Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

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C-SUITE ADVISORY

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about profound modifications to our lives, both at home and at work. While for some people the adjustment to staying at home has not been too remarkable, for most businesses the shift has been absolutely dramatic.

First, these changes affected the way organizations function—social distance and remote work have become the new normal.

Second, companies face much more scrutiny from outside of their internal environment, as their industries became subjected to more government intervention in the form of, for example, mandatory health and safety regulations. Th ird, businesses now have to deal with fresh and constantly developing market challenges, like rapidly changing consumer behaviors, newly appearing or disappearing market competition, and broken supply chains.

Fourth, and probably the most significant change to the “old normal,” is the enormous drop in employment, with unemployment numbers reaching heights not seen since the Great Depression.

Given all these facts, should organizations continue to care about talent management and spend their scarce resources on attracting,

QUOTE:

SMART ORGANIZATIONS UNDERSTAND THAT, IN THESE HIGHLY UNCERTAIN TIMES, HUMAN CAPITAL IS THE MOST SUSTAINABLE ADVANTAGE THEY HAVE.

deploying, developing, and retaining the best employees? In other words, is talent management (TM) still relevant? I would argue that it is still relevant, and perhaps more than ever before.

Health care, food and agriculture, public safety, and other professions will remain in high demand for the foreseeable future. Others that we had long prioritized until March of this year—such as information technology, machine building, financial services, and education—will return to the forefront as soon as the economy stabilizes. Do not forget that the United States has experienced critical shortages in the IT industry for many years.

Although unemployment is high, there still aren’t enough qualified IT specialists in the country to fill available jobs. The talent gap remains, so these shortages will persist.

It is difficult to find a silver lining in high unemployment, but it could be an opportunity to address the talent shortage by teaching new skills to some jobless professionals and inviting them to join organizations that are experiencing acute labor shortages. Also, after organizations in high-demand industries— including those deemed essential—have filled as many positions as possible with American workers, they should be able to tap into the international labor force to try to bridge the remaining talent gap. All these newly filled jobs will inadvertently lead to an increase in consumer spending, which will help reignite the economy. Unfortunately, while countries like Canada and Australia make it relatively easy for organizations to hire needed specialists from abroad, U.S. immigration policies remain prohibitive, exacerbating the problem.

During an economic downturn, and even during the kind of deep recession that we are facing now, retention efforts become more essential. This is because smart organizations want to ensure that, even after major layoffs, they still have their best employees to carry them through the tough times and step up if and when the next crisis hits.

Although multiple studies show us that the higher the unemployment rate, the lower the possibility that people will voluntarily leave their organization, even high unemployment rates have little influence on the intent of talented individuals with highly specialized knowledge, skills, and the ability to leave.

Recent employee satisfaction surveys show relatively high scores, but that does not mean that organizations are in the clear. Some people, especially those in the most susceptible industries like hospitality and retail, are

in survival mode. They are in a state of shock and disbelief about the pandemic and its economic and human consequences. Employees simply do not want to complain about their job satisfaction because they feel lucky they still have a job and can provide for their families.

The longer the status quo continues, the more people—especially talented workers—will feel trapped in the same job, which will lead to quitting behaviors like absenteeism and emotional withdrawal, and to voluntary turnover.

Some experts indicate that, sooner or later, the unemployment rates will return to their lowest levels, which will be followed by an increase in voluntary turnover rates when the recession is over. So, if your organization already employs top talent, you will be able to enjoy that coveted advantage over your competitors, who might still be scrambling to find highly talented individuals in a swiftly tightening labor market. Therefore, you simply cannot forget about serious retention efforts, even if you think that talent is easy to come by now. Continuing to invest in your people, in their development and retention, sends a powerful message of stability and encouragement to your employees, which is especially important at this time.

Although it may seem kind of counterintuitive to talk about TM now, when the economy is in recession and unemployment is so high, I predict that the incredible efforts to attract, deploy, develop, and retain the best performers will continue for the foreseeable future.

Smart organizations understand that, in these highly uncertain times, human capital is the most sustainable advantage they have. Only by leveraging it in the right way, with the help of meaningful TM strategies, can they survive and prosper now and in the future.

There are at least three key forces that constantly stimulate the war for talent: skills deficiency on the part of the existing workforce, a strong tendency for talented people to ride the waves of their employability by switching from one company to another, and the rapidly aging population. These forces, along with the limited supply of young and talented performers, will ensure that TM will remain among the most relevant issues in contemporary business management for years to come. end

Advisory - Vaiman

CSQ Q3 2020

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INDUSTRY FINANCE

SPECIALTY WEALTH MANAGEMENT

WHY IS NOW A GOOD TIME TO BORROW?

Craft a liquidity management plan well in advance to achieve financial flexibility.

RYAN BRISTOL Managing Director and Banker J.P. Morgan Los Angeles, CA

Ryan Bristol is a managing director and banker at J.P. Morgan Private Bank’s Westlake Village office.

He has more than 19 years of experience in the financial industry and is responsible for advising clients on a range of personal wealth matters, including investment management, portfolio construction, asset allocation, tax strategies, credit solutions, estate planning, pre-transaction planning, and charitable giving. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Bristol was a vice president in the private client practice at Bernstein Global Wealth Management. He counseled clients on complex wealth-planning issues such as pre-transaction planning for business owners, multigenerational wealth transfer, philanthropy, and diversification strategies for concentrated wealth. Before Bernstein, he was a regional vice president for Morgan Stanley and a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs.

Bristol is active in the community as a board member of ACG101 and former board member of the American Red Cross in Ventura, the Investment Review Committee for the City of Thousand Oaks, and the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Orfalea College of Business at Cal Poly. He received his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and his BS from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

With economic uncertainty brought on by COVID-19, adding liquidity to your balance sheet can give you fi nancial flexibility—and peace of mind.

Now may be a good time to increase your fi nancial flexibility with a well-crafted plan to efficiently and easily access liquidity—and to have it in place prior to when you might need it.

With today’s historically low interest rates, borrowing outright or establishing a line of credit for future use can add to your peace of mind, given the uncertainties in the current economic environment.

You might also consider establishing a credit line as part of a broader liquidity strategy to help you manage cash flows for personal or business matters; meet unexpected expenses; take advantage of an opportunity, or fund time-sensitive financial obligations, such as tax payments—all without disturbing your longterm investments.

As with any well-thought-out wealth management strategy, plans to integrate credit should be tied to your fi nancial goals, with income and outflows carefully analyzed to ensure they are aligned with your overall financial picture.

Advisory - Bristol

PHONE 805/857.7628 EMAIL ryan.bristol@jpmorgan.com WEBSITE jpmorgan.com/westlakevillage ADDRESS 3960 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Floor 2 Westlake Village, CA 91362

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Financial Flexibility

The goals of any liquidity management strategy are to help you: 1. Avoid a forced asset sale when market conditions are unfavorable.

QUOTE:

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL WHEN IT COMES TO ADDING LIQUIDITY TO YOUR BALANCE SHEET.

2. Gain financial flexibility, so you can enjoy your lifestyle, take advantage of new opportunities, and advance your legacy and other wealth plans.

However, adding liquidity to your balance sheet is not simply a matter of setting aside funds in a cash account (though setting aside cash for emergencies or unexpected expenses may be part of your plan).

Sophisticated lenders can help you structure liquidity management strategies—using a combination of a credit line, short-duration fixed income, and other cash instruments—to address your needs and personal circumstances.

The “Bucket” Approach

IMPORTANT INFORMATION JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your personal tax, legal and accounting advisors for advice before engaging in any transaction.

Loans and lines of credit are extended at the discretion of J.P. Morgan, and J.P. Morgan has no commitment to either extend any loan or line of credit, or make loans available under a line of credit. Any extension of credit is subject to credit approval by J.P. Morgan and, if approved, the terms contained in the definitive loan documents.

Loans collateralized by securities involve certain risks and may not be suitable for all borrowers and investors. Market conditions can magnify any potential for loss. Please read your loan documents carefully so that you understand your obligations.

JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC The information provided may inform you of certain investment products and services offered by the private banking business of JPMorgan Chase & Co. or any of its affiliates (together, “J.P. Morgan”). Bank products and services are offered by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JPMCB) and its affiliates. Securities products and services are offered in the United States by J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, an affiliate of JPMCB, and outside of the United States by other global affiliates. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, member FINRA and SIPC. Should you have any questions regarding the information contained in this material or about J.P. Morgan products and services, please contact your J.P. Morgan team member. Additional information is available upon request.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

So how much liquidity is right for you now?

To help you think it through, we recommend first creating a framework. Think of allocating your resources into financial “buckets,” and deciding how big a percentage you may want to allocate to the different areas of your life.

Commonly used buckets are liquidity (cash), lifestyle, and legacy. Learn more about buckets.

Would having a financial cushion help you sleep more soundly at night? If yes, you may want to create a liquidity bucket designed as a psychological safety net. Or perhaps you have more assets than needed for your lifestyle.

If yes, taking advantage of historically low interest rates to boost returns or gifting strategies in your legacy bucket would make sense.

While the liquidity bucket can be a backof-the-envelope calculation, the lifestyle and legacy buckets are more nuanced and you should seek professional advice. Once you have a detailed view of your cash-flow requirements, your J.P. Morgan team can help you structure a liquidity plan. Included in that analysis could be portfolio stress testing to see how your investments are likely to perform under various potential market conditions, including a market downturn.

1. Pay taxes or meet time-sensitive obligations, such as charitable contributions, without disturbing your investment plans.

2. Make opportunistic investments during down markets.

3. Bridge a funding gap to cover lifestyle expenditures or fund big-ticket purchases, while waiting to receive funds from a bonus, asset sale, or other income source.

4. Purchase real estate, and having ready access to funds can give you a buying advantage in a competitive market.

5. Amplify returns, for example, by investing the proceeds of a residential mortgage; record low rates currently available may make this an attractive option, however, these low rates won’t last indefinitely.

6. Transfer wealth—applicable federal rates (AFR) also are at a historical low. As this rate by law must be applied to intra-family loans, today’s low rate can help you transfer more wealth to your heirs, possibly sooner than originally planned. Your heirs, in turn, could invest the loan proceeds.

For U.S. taxpayers there is potentially an additional benefit: Interest payments on loans used for investment purposes may be tax deductible.

Advisory - Bristol

CSQ Q3 2020

We Can Help

Again, the key is to make a plan well in advance of needing access to funding. Ask your J.P. Morgan team for help designing a liquidity plan that makes sense for you. end

Shield or Spear

One size does not fit all when it comes to adding liquidity to your balance sheet. You can use liquidity as a shield to help protect your wealth.

Or it can be your spear—a source of ready resources when you want to achieve a specific goal, such as when unexpected opportunities materialize. Or both—without having to liquidate assets to meet needs or fund opportunities, or keep a higher than desired literal amount of cash on hand.

Much depends on where you are in your life and what you want to achieve. Perhaps you’d like to:

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VALUE ACCELERATION AND EXIT PLANNING Cash Flow Is King ANDREW D. HOROWITZ, CEPA Senior Vice President Rockefeller Capital Management Los Angeles, CA

Advisory - Horowitz Andrew Horowitz is a private wealth advisor who leads The Horowitz Group of Rockefeller Capital Management. An entrepreneur from the age of 13, he entered the financial services industry by joining a firm in Beverly Hills, Calif. In 1996 Horowitz started his own firm, which he sold to Morgan Stanley in 2011. He joined Rockefeller Capital Management in 2020 to better serve the ever-increasing complexity of his clients’ sophisticated needs. Horowitz educates high-net-worth families through associations and multinational companies. A frequent lecturer at the University of Southern California (USC) who has spoken at more than 100 conferences, he is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) who contributes to USC’s family business program.

He and his wife of 26 years have three children.

EMAIL ahorowitz@rockco.com

PHONE 424/600.7960

WEBSITE rockco.com/horowitz ADDRESS 10877 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 700 Los Angeles, CA 90024

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John came to us with high expectations related to the sale price of his company. He was confident in this number because he had seen comparable companies sell for a similar multiple of gross revenue.

What John failed to understand was that buyers are only partly interested in top-line revenue. Equally if not more important than negotiating the sale price is the company’s net cash flow. By underestimating the buyer’s specific valuation expectation and what the impact of net cash flow meant for him and his company, John wasn’t likely to achieve the value acceleration he envisioned.

The Next Step Transition Growth and Value Acceleration Process (Next Step Process) is specifically designed to address and overcome each of the 12 principal reasons that can cause business owner transitions and value acceleration to be unsuccessful. Each of these reasons impacts the company’s ongoing annual profitability as well as an owner’s transition and future value acceleration results.

QUOTE:

KNOWING THE VALUE OF YOUR BUSINESS AND HOW THIS VALUE IS CALCULATED IS CRITICAL IF YOU WANT TO SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE THE NEXT STEP PROCESS.

The Next Step Process is specifically designed to address and overcome each of the 12 critical building blocks. We use this program to help business owners design and implement their Transition Growth Plans to successfully achieve their transitions and value acceleration.

One of these 12 reasons is illustrated here: The impact of cash flow on a company’s price can be misunderstood.

Often, business owners do not recognize that their exit is dependent upon a buyer’s expectations and needs regarding their company’s future cash flow. They also haven’t demonstrated how their company’s exit-appropriate, buyer-specific valuation is to be determined.

If you are a business owner, in order to understand your company’s valuation it’s critical that you take the following three actions: 1. Identify valuable, transferable, intangible assets.

2. Normalize your financial results.

3. Determine business “exit-specific value”.

A universal ownership objective is to secure the income stream you will need to support the lifestyle you and your family plan to enjoy. Knowing the value of your business and how this value is calculated is critical if you want to successfully complete the Next Step Process.

During the transition and value acceleration process, many different types of business valuations are often discussed. The various types of valuations all tend to have the same objective: to determine what your company or business is worth, which allows you to establish a value for your ownership interest in the business that you (or your family, in your absence) expect to receive, or would be satisfied to receive. The differing types of valuations can come into play at or during various parts of the value acceleration process.

Your business valuation initially provides some idea as to what your company is worth.

However, it also provides an estimate of the value that your efforts have achieved, and an estimate for your advisors for wealth-planning purposes.

One of the most commonly used methods of determining a company’s value is the EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) multiple method.

This method reflects a valuation of the business enterprise operations without deduction for depreciation, amortization, or income taxes, and without reflecting the interest inherent in the debt structure of the company.

The EBITDA to be used might be the most recent year or some simple or weighted average of the past few years, or a reasonable projection of the coming year or years. The multiples typically range between four to seven, although a smaller or larger multiple may apply depending on the quality of the company and its expected future prospects.

For example, if the EBITDA for the company is $1M, and the appropriate multiple is five, then the business (before debt) is worth $5M for purposes of that valuation. If you have $2M of interest-bearing debt on the balance sheet, the value of your ownership (equity) in the company would be $3M. In order to arrive at a valuation estimate (and to determine exit options and key employee retention alternatives), your exit advisors must have a good estimate of the expected annual cash flow that your business can generate. Without this valuation of your company, a realistic Transition Growth Plan cannot be successfully developed. The EBITDA method is just one method for arriving at some indicated valuation for your company.

EBITDA does not represent a substitute for a good company appraisal by a qualified business appraiser. However, determining a company’s EBITDA does provide a preliminary valuation, which is very useful in the Next Step Process because it can be arrived at fairly quickly without the need for an interim stoppage to obtain a full business appraisal.

Setting expectations in this way can be very useful and make the rest of the process more predictable. end

Advisory - Horowitz

CSQ Q3 2020

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INDUSTRY FINANCE

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THE UNCERTAIN FINANCIAL FUTURES OF ATHLETES AND ENTERTAINERS DEMAND TRAINING AND DISCIPLINE

How professionals with unpredictable and short-term earning windows can lock down their financial futures.

BRIAN WERDESHEIM Managing Director, Investments The Summa Group of Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Los Angeles, CA

Advisory - Werdesheim Brian K. Werdesheim is a founding member of The Summa Group of Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., a private client financial advisory team that provides wealth management for affluent individuals and families, owners and executives of private and public companies, family estates, charitable entities, and top tax and legal professionals who serve the business, athletic, and entertainment communities. Werdesheim graduated from the University of Southern California with a BS of business administration. He also attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Richmond College in London, England. He lives in Studio City with his family and enjoys travel, golf, and running. Werdesheim has served on the board of The Fulfillment Fund since 2003. He founded The Banyan Foundation in 2004 (formerly The Summa Children’s Foundation). Werdesheim served on the advisory council for the Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Southern California and as a trustee at the Buckley School from 2016 to 2019.

PHONE 310/446.7133 EMAIL brian.werdesheim@opco.com ADDRESS 10880 Wilshire Blvd., 24th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90024

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WEBSITE opco.com

In one corner, you have George Foreman, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Roger Staubach, Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods, Greg Norman, and Cal Ripken Jr., who not only earned large sums of money in uniform, but went on to build successful business careers, both during and after their playing days. In the other corner, you have Mike Tyson, Michael Vick, Allen Iverson, Antoine Walker, Evander Holyfield, Lawrence Taylor, Scottie Pippen, and Lenny Dykstra, who each burned through a cool billion dollars and have nothing left to show for their domination in their respective sports.

According to Sports Illustrated, 78% of NFL players who are retired for only two years fi le for bankruptcy. After five years of retirement, 60% of NBA players suffer the same fate.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, nearly 16% of the NFL players in the study who were drafted during 1996-2003 filed for bankruptcy within 12 years of retirement.

Here, I examine common mistakes made by those working in a profession where longevity, predictability, and sustainability of earning power are difficult to forecast. I share my experiences advising athletes and entertainers (A|E) and what I learned about their challenges. I address key considerations for

these professionals, regardless of the length of their careers. In addition to the fi nancial and investment mistakes that have haunted this group for generations, many other factors contribute to their success or failure. I discuss the common themes and actions of professionals who not only survive, but thrive after their playing days are over.

Mistake #1: Surrounding yourself with yes-men.

A|E spend the majority of their lives mastering their craft to reach the pinnacle of success, and little time on fi nancial literacy and investing.

By the time they sign their fi rst big contract, a host of “advisors” have entered the picture, often friends of their family, acquaintances, and others whose agendas may not align with the athlete. Many are without the requisite skill set and experience to provide high-level guidance. Hearing “no!” doesn’t happen often because these advisors don’t want to disappoint their client, or put their relationship at risk. These examples have been featured in national headlines, and the story always reads the same: “John Smith is bankrupt after he spent lavishly, while his advisors invested poorly, stole money, and squandered millions.”

QUOTE:

WITH THE HELP OF AN EXPERIENCED FINANCIAL PLANNER, ATTORNEY, AND CPA, THIS EFFORT MAY GO A LONG WAY TOWARD LOCKING DOWN THE PLANNING PART OF YOUR LIFE.

A|E must have a well-vetted and qualified team working for the best interests of the client.

importance of a highly skilled and battle-tested team of advisors for the long haul. Many sports agents have done an outstanding job surrounding their clients with talented and ethical advisors, during and after careers on the field.

Mistake #2: An unrealistic view of longterm earning potential.

It is not difficult to understand why Ryan Leaf, the second player taken in the 1998 NFL Draft, would think that his finances were secure. One Mistake #5: Making outsized investwould think that a $31.25M contract and ments into opportunities that have little $11.25M signing bonus would suffice for most chance for success. people. But within a few years, Leaf was out “I have an investment opportunity that’s of the NFL, was on drugs, and had a criminal a no-brainer—you can’t lose.” Many have record. Most professionals who sign a contract heard this promise, but for athletes it is comare continuously assured of their talent and mon. Unfortunately, the unsophisticated and longevity. They invariably assume there will unprepared target is seduced because they be a next contract. For people like Derek Jeter believe the person or pitch is credible. Years and Tom Brady, that was certainly the case, but ago, an athlete client asked me to meet with they are the exceptions. Recently, Joe Burrow, his attorneys to discuss a business opportunity. the first player taken in the 2020 NFL Draft, My client had already invested $1M into the signed a record-breaking contract with the deal without my knowledge. After consideraBengals. Shortly after, he stated he had no in- tion, I told him to cease any further investment. tention of spending that down, and would rely I felt strongly that only the attorneys would on endorsement contracts and other funds for make money. Things went south fast, and the living expenses. While his contract represents investors lost tens of millions. Taking on some an enormous amount, when you net out agent risk for outsized returns is acceptable, but exfees, taxation, and other expenses, his bottom treme caution and due diligence are required. line quickly dropped to about 35 cents on the dollar. Most athletes sign one major contract Mistake #6: Not investing in their perin their lives, so having some forethought and sonal growth, leaving them ill prepared sense of reality is critical. once their careers are over.

Magic Johnson is the poster child for what sucMistake #3: Lack of a real financial plan cess looks like after an athletic career. Right that allows you to build a safety net. out of Michigan State, Johnson surrounded For every athlete who lacked the discipline himself with smart people who kept him foand structure around them to achieve finan- cused and positioned for success. His develcial independence, others did it right. The key opment projects in urban areas have not only difference between those opposites is a deep improved quality of life for residents, but have and thoughtful financial plan that maps out made Johnson a wealthy man. For many atha future, based on income, spending, taxation, letes, the season is half the year. The off-season inflation, and investment returns. Having should be dedicated to developing skills and a document that shows what’s possible, given relationships. The average length of an MLB these variables, is liberating and creates con- career is 5.6 years; for the NBA, 4.5 years; and fidence. The relationship between athlete and for the NFL, just 3.3 years. Assuming a 75-year investment advisor is a trusted partnership. life span, an athlete’s outsized earning power Both sides have to keep their end of the bargain. comes during just 6% of their lifetime.

Working with an astute, well-credentialed Mistake #4: Absence of a unified team financial planner, attorney, and CPA can proof tax, legal, and financial professionals, vide strategies and thinking that move the ball who are not conflicted with regard to forward. These steps are essential: the client’s personal well-being.

1. Create a current balance sheet, cash-flow Any CEO, CFO, or COO of a large company summary, income and expense summary, and will say they are only as good as their support financial plan that provide a road map and system. A|E need to embrace the idea of being confidence—review with certified financial the CEO of their life while building a team planner. of advisors. Agents or attorneys for A|E have 2. Review the structure and estate tax conseprofessional “pals” that may be referred to their quences of recent liquidity/income and longclient, but this can present challenges and po- term contracts. Make sure all assets are held in tential failures. It’s hard to overemphasize the trust or protected. Maximize the value of the

estate exemption via low-basis stock gifts or other entity structuring. Explore and become educated on the world of estate planning— review with estate lawyer.

3. Review current and potential future tax liabilities. Strategically position assets for taxefficient investments through the use of offset credits, tax carryforward, residency planning in different states, and income shifting via insurance or retirement strategies—review with CPA. Having worked closely with A|E for more than three decades, I have witnessed the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is in the best interest of A|E to invest time gaining knowledge and experience with regard to financial matters.

The most successful people know what they don’t know, then surround themselves with experts to fill the gaps. The NFL, NBA, and MLB have made progress toward implementing an educational platform and screening process for their athletes, but unfortunately, too many are victimized by their own missteps and the presence of people who have an alternate agenda. A|E can have it all during and after their athletic careers if they are properly advised and willing to plan with a long-term view. end

Advisory - Werdesheim

CSQ Q3 2020

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. does not provide legal or tax advice, but will work with your other advisors to assure your needs are addressed. The opinions of the author expressed herein are subject to change without notice and do not necessarily reflect those of the Firm. Additional information is available upon request. Investors should review potential investments with their financial advisor for the appropriateness of that investment with their investment objectives, risk tolerances and financial circumstances. © Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Transacts Business on all Principal Exchanges and Member SIPC

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SPECIALTY PROBATE AND ESTATE LITIGATION

EXPECT A POST-COVID-19 TSUNAMI OF FINANCIAL ELDER ABUSE CASES

SCOTT RAHN Managing Partner RMO LLP Los Angeles, CA

Scott Rahn is the managing partner of probate and estate litigation law firm RMO LLP. He resolves contests, disputes, and litigation related to trusts, estates, and conservatorships, creating a welcome peace of mind for clients. He represents heirs, beneficiaries, trustees, and executors. He uses his experience to develop and implement strategies that swiftly and cost-effectively address the financial issues, fiduciary duties, and emotional complexities underlying trust contests, estates conflicts, and probate litigation.

PHONE 424/320-9444 EMAIL rahns@rmolawyers.com WEBSITE rmolawyers.com ADDRESS 2029 Century Park E #2910 Los Angeles, CA 90067

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Elderly parents and loved ones are at elevated risk of falling victim to financial abuse as the pandemic goes on, especially those in major Advisory - Rahn metropolitan areas.

Pre-pandemic estimates suggest that financial elder abuse already affected at least 10% of our elders, but when the pandemic ebbs, expect a tsunami of new cases.

COVID-19 is exacerbating the problem because elders have been cut off from friends and family, community centers, and other interactions where people look out for them.

Perpetrators of fi nancial elder abuse can capitalize on this dropoff in oversight, or checks and balances. These predators, who most often are family members, caregivers, neighbors, or friends, take advantage of their position of trust and confidence for their own benefit.

You can expect the problem to be even worse in major metropolitan areas, like Los Angeles, where my probate law fi rm is based and where we have a massive population that skews wealthier than the national average (translation: more victims to target).

What to Do Now

We always tell people when dealing with their elderly parents, “Stay vigilant and stay involved.” The best way to remedy financial abuse

QUOTE:

THE ECONOMIC STRAIN OF QUARANTINE LEADS PEOPLE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OTHERS [IN] A PERFECT STORM, WITH ECONOMIC PRESSURE ON ONE SIDE AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ON THE OTHER. is prevention. You don’t want to be caught in a situation where your mother’s neighbor of­ fers “help” with groceries by taking her debit card to the grocery store but then “forgets” to return the debit card, leaving Mom’s account vulnerable to theft. The more you’re present, the sooner you’ll learn about these things, get involved, and prevent harm.

Be involved or, at the very least, be infor­ med about your loved one’s finances. Know where their bank accounts are and who their financial advisors are.

Staying involved means you will not only be able to respond quickly if something hap­ pens, but, more importantly, make your pres­ ence known, which can act as a sufficient de­ terrent to prevent abuse from happening in the first place. Think of it like this: While having a house alarm can’t stop someone from break­ ing in, it will make your house a less attractive target than a house without an alarm.

You don’t need to watch your elderly loved one like a hawk, but in our experience it’s the people whom predators know nobody’s really watching or paying attention to who are most likely to be victimized. In a very short amount of time, someone can come in, take over their finances, and divert their assets or trust to someone else.

Make your presence known to the pred­ ators. Communicate with your parents (or grandparents), and anyone helping them, often.

Speak with their caregivers or care facility fre­ quently. Technology allows new ways to keep tabs on family members. FaceTime, Zoom, and other video chat platforms actually let you peek into their lives, which allows you to make sure there are no signs of physical abuse. In our experience, if your loved one shows signs of physical abuse, 99 times out of 100 there likely is financial abuse as well.

It Happens All the Time

The National Center on Elder Abuse estimates that at least 10% of the elderly population ex­ periences elder abuse. Research shows finan­ cial mistreatment to be the most commonly reported form of elder abuse.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bu­ reau estimates losses to elder Americans from financial exploitation range from $2.9 billion to $36.5 billion per year, and that was pre­pan­ demic.

The economic strain of quarantine leads people to take advantage of others. It’s a perfect storm, with economic pressure on one side and economic opportunity on the other. Right now, these storm clouds are colliding.

Here in California, because we had some of the earliest and strictest quarantine meas­ ures in the country, we are likely to be one of the hardest­hit places, both in terms of gross numbers and assets. That swell is not limited to California, unfortunately.

The tide of financial elder abuse currently is deep out at sea, and we aren’t likely to see it crest or reach land until the quarantine or­ ders are lifted and we see what’s been going on behind closed doors. With people venturing out into their communities as they succumb to quarantine exhaustion, we’re starting to see these cases trickle in with growing fre­ quency. Once orders are lifted, work­arounds structured or ignored, and family members, friends, and neighbors see what’s been happen­ ing, the floodgates will open and the tsunami of financial elder abuse cases will be upon us.

Be prepared. end

Advisory - Rahn

Identifying and Responding to Elder Abuse

Some signs you should look for are changes in behavior, such as sudden reliance on a new “friend,” lack of responsiveness or confidence, getting off the phone quickly, and illogical con­ cerns that don’t comport with their history or situation.

If you think someone is being abused, find the adult protective service organizations in your county, or go to the local police depart­ ment and ask for their elder abuse division.

If you hit dead ends, there are elder abuse spe­ cialists we work with whom you can consult.

Of course you can always consult with an elder abuse attorney to guide you.

CSQ Q3 2020

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SPECIALTY MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

C3: COVID, CANNABIS, AND CRYPTO1

How fear of COVID-19 is helping the legal cannabis business thrive and fueling the growth of cryptocurrencies.

SANDER C. ZAGZEBSKI Partner Greenspoon Marder LLP Los Angeles, CA

Advisory - Zagzebski

Sander Zagzebski is a corporate partner with Greenspoon Marder in Los Angeles, Calif. He has broad experience as a transactional corporate/securities lawyer and represents clients in mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, and other change-ofcontrol transactions; joint ventures and strategic alliances; capital-raising transactions (offerings of debt and equity securities, including private equity investments and venture capital investments); restructurings and recapitalizations; structured finance transactions; private equity and venture capital fund formation and governance; and general corporate, partnership, and LLC matters.

Zagzebski has represented technology and new media, investment advisors, aerospace and defense, bank holdings, manufacturing, real estate, entertainment, and consumer product companies in M&A, capital raising, and other strategic corporate transactions ranging in size from under $10M to in excess of $1B.

PHONE 310/880.4520 WEBSITE gmlaw.com EMAIL sander.zagzebski@gmlaw.com ADDRESS 1875 Century Park E. #1850 Los Angeles, CA 90067

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Smashing the COVID Curve

In late March 2020, various state and local governments began implementing aggressive quarantine measures (such as California Gov. Newsom’s March 19 shelter-in-place order) to “flatten the curve” of anticipated COVID-19-related hospitalizations. The predictions were dire. In the case of California, Gov. Newsom predicted that well over half of the state’s population—25.5M people—could become infected with the coronavirus within two months, requiring hospitalization of approximately 700,000 people. Even with the aggressive shelter-in-place restrictions, the state’s secretary of health and human services, Mark Ghaly, MD, MPH, expected approximately 66,000 people to be hospitalized in that time period. With a statewide total of only 78,000 hospital beds, most of which were already in use, this anticipated surge in patients was no doubt sobering. Expecting a severe shortage of beds and supplies, Gov. Newsom quickly ordered $42M in emergency spending for ventilators, masks, and other supplies, as well as the leasing of additional space (including the Los Angeles Convention Center, which was converted into a field hospital for COVID-19 patients). The U.S. Navy also quickly sent the Mercy, a hospital ship with a crew of 800, including doctors, nurses, and

skilled technicians, to L.A.’s San Pedro harbor.

Thankfully, the worst-case-scenario pre dictions failed to materialize. With the exception of a few localized hot spots, most of the country didn’t experience widespread shortages of hospital beds or ventilators. In the case of California, COVID-19 hospitalizations never topped 3,500 for the fi rst two months of the quarantine order. Neither the Mercy nor the convention center was ever put into serious use. Hospitalizations started to climb in June as restrictions started to ease, peaking statewide on July 21, 2020, with 7,170 cases, of which 2,058 were intensive-care patients.

Since then, hospitalizations have significantly decreased. On October 1, 2020, California had only 2,330 hospitalized patents, just 679 of whom were in intensive care, which begs the question of when and how the world’s fi fth-largest economy will lift its economically crippling restrictions.

California’s unemployment rate, which was 3.9% at the end of February, skyrocketed to 16.4% at the end of April and into May. It dropped to 14.9% at the end of June, 13.5% at the end of July, and 11.4% at the end of August, but it remains unclear whether and to what extent those numbers have been kept artificially low by government programs like the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that

QUOTE:

THE UPCOMING ELECTION IS UNLIKELY TO HAVE A NEGATIVE IMPACT, AND COULD INDEED HAVE A VERY POSITIVE IMPACT, ON THE INDUSTRY.

This article is for information purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice, investment advice, or tax advice.

encourage continued employment. PPP loans been friendly to the cannabis industry, at can be forgiven as long as the funds were used least insofar as it has allowed guidelines and to keep employees employed and paid at their enforcement priorities prepared by the pricurrent salary, so it is likely that a number of or administration to remain the status quo. employers temporarily resisted layoffs or sal- With a few notable exceptions, the cannabis ary reductions in order to take advantage of industry has been allowed to develop organthe PPP program. Disney recently announced ically without significant new federal roadthat it was laying off 28,000 workers, which blocks. The upcoming election is unlikely to adds to large layoffs from airlines and retailers. have a negative impact, and could indeed have Absent significant additional federal stimulus, a very positive impact, on the industry. a significant drop in the unemployment rate seems unlikely as long as quarantine measures COVID Fears Drive Crypto Strength On March 16, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at unremain in place. der $5,000. After governments implemented shelter-in-place orders and, more significantly, Cannabis Is Essential and Is Quietly responded to the anticipated economic fallout Breaking New Records One of the few economic bright spots dur- with fiscal and monetary stimulus, BTC raping the coronavirus lockdowns has been the idly traded up to nearly $12,400 on August 17. cannabis industry. Quickly deemed essential Similarly, Ether (ETH) was trading on March by almost every state jurisdiction in which it 16 at $107.90 and subsequently traded up as is legal, cannabis sales remained strong and high as $441.88 on September 2. By way of have even increased during quarantine. Days comparison, gold also traded up significantly of sheltering in place must go by faster if one during the quarantine period, with a March has a stash of good weed handy! Prior to Gov. 16 price of $1,487.70 increasing to as high as Newsom’s shelter-in-place order, adult-use $2,067.15 on August 5. In a sense, mature cannabis sales in California had remained crypto coins like BTC and ETH have traded pretty steady at around $300M per month. in a similar (albeit more amplified) manner to As consumers started to hoard toilet paper inflation hedges like gold.

The future for digital assets, however, and hand sanitizer, some also dropped by the dispensary to drive March sales up to approx- remains murky, as the Securities and Exchange imately $325M. The number dipped slightly in Commission (SEC) continues to take a rather April but has since grown steadily, with July aggressive stance. In June, Telegram settled its sales a record of almost $350M. An essential combative case with the SEC by agreeing to disgorge the proceeds of its $1.2B initial coin business, indeed!

The legal landscape also appears to be offering (ICO) for the Telegram Open Network, improving for the cannabis industry. In Sep- effectively scuttling its crypto ambitions at tember 2019, the U.S. House of Representa- least for the time being. The SEC has targeted tives passed the Secure and Fair Enforcement the promoters of a number of token offerings (SAFE) Banking Act of 2019. While the SAFE for violating federal securities laws and has Banking Act stalled in the Senate and never targeted a number of high-profile endorsers, became law, its operative provisions were in- including Steven Seagal, Floyd Mayweather cluded in the Health and Economic Recovery Jr., and DJ Khaled, in connection with ICO Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, violations.

The crypto world has found an unlikely the Democrats’ primary proposed coronavirus relief package. Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s willing- friend, however, in SEC Commissioner Hester ness to include cannabis legislation in general, Peirce. Peirce, one of five SEC commissionand in the SAFE Banking Act in particular, ers including SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, has as part of her negotiations with the Republi- spoken out against several of the SEC’s recent can Senate and the White House significantly enforcement actions and has proposed new increases the chances of positive federal legis- rulemaking in the form of a safe harbor provision to allow token issues the freedom to issue lation affecting the cannabis industry.

In addition, several commentators have digital coins without fear of an immediate SEC referred to the upcoming election as a win-win enforcement action. While she has yet to perfor the legal cannabis industry. If Democrats suade the other commissioners, her determigain control of the Senate and also win the nation has been encouraging to the industry. presidency, the legalization effort will have If COVID stimulus continues to elevate token found itself some truly powerful friends. That prices, we may be hearing more from Peirce said, the Trump Administration has generally and the crypto cowboys. end

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Advisory - Zagzebski

CSQ Q3 2020

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C-Suite AdvisorsTM Index ACCOUNTING Stan Arutti gish SEIDEN, LLP sarutti@gishseiden.com Arthur Cohen C-Suite Financial Partners acohen@csuitefp.com Howard Grobstein Grobstein Teeple LLP hgrobstein@stllp.com David Lewis 8020 Consulting dlewis@8020consulting.com CONSULTING Troy Anthony Troy Anthony Clothing troy@troyanthonyclothing.com Scott Cutshall Clay Lacy scutshall@claylacy.com Kurt Duradics Hunt Club kurt@huntclub.com Bree Jacoby Bree Jacoby b@breejacoby.com Jason Middleton Silver Air jason@silverair.com Chuck Stumpf Silver Air chuck@silverair.com Vlad Vaiman, PhD California Lutheran University School of Management vvaiman@callutheran.com Edward C. Wilson-Smythe Avasant edward.wilson-smythe@avasant.com Christopher Yang Corporate Travel Management christopher.t.yang@gmail.com FINANCE Jon Bradford Colab jonr@colab.la Ryan Bristol J.P. Morgan Private Bank ryan.bristol@jpmorgan.com

Brandon Ferrera Fifth Third Bank brandon.ferrera@53.com Jessop Fowler Merrill Corporation jessop.fowler@merrillcorp.com Jim Freedman Intrepid Investment Bankers jfreedman@intrepidib.com Thomas Hayes PNC thomas.hayes@pnc.com Andrew Horowitz Rockefeller Capital Management ahorowitz@rockco.com Todd Kaltman Duff & Phelps LLC todd.kaltman@duffandphelps.com Brian Levin Intrepid Investment Bankers blevin@intrepidib.com Michael Martinez Yes Studio mikemartinez@yescannabis.us Steve Moon Duff & Phelps LLC steve.moon@duffandphelps.com

HEALTH & WELLNESS Ram Dandillaya, MD Atelier Health, Co-Founder dandillaya@me.com Blake Gurfein Tivic Health Systems blake.gurfein@tivichealth.com Carol A. Polevoi, LMFT, CBS, CPC Counseling Resource Center carolpolevoi@gmail.com Daniel Rastein cassderma rx rastein@usa.net

Ash Patel Commercial Bank of California apatel@cbcal.com

Nerre Shuriah, J.D., LL.M First Citizens Bank nerre.shuriah@firstcitizens.com Duane Stullich Focal Point Partners dstullich@focalpointllc.com Jalal Taby Comercia Bank jtaby@comerica.com Suman Talukdar AiSprouts.vc suman@aisprouts.vc Brian Werdesheim Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. brian.werdesheim@opco.com Orin Winnick Aspiriant owinick@aspiriant.com

Bradley A. Barros Private Risk Capital bbarros@privateriskcapital.com Martin Levy, CLU/RHU CorpStrat Inc. marty@corpstrat.com Scott Zimmerman CorpStrat Inc. scott@corpstrat.com LEGAL

W. Alex Voxman Latham & Watkins LLP alex.voxman@lw.com Sander C. Zagzebski Greenspoon Marder LLP sander.zagzebski@gmlaw.com

MARKETING Tony Adam Visible Factors tony@visiblefactors.com David Angelo David&Goliath david.angelo@dng.com Erik Huberman Hawke Media e@hawkemedia.com

Lawrence M. Braun Sheppard Mullin lbraun@sheppardmullin.com Aytan Dahukey Sheppard Mullin adahukey@sheppardmullin.com Eva Davis Winston & Strawn LLP evadavis@winston.com Danielle H. Gotcher Global Immigration Partners dhg@gotcherlaw.com James K. Gotcher Gotcher Law jkg@gotcherlaw.com Mark Kelson Greenberg Traurig LLP kelsonm@gtlaw.com Aash Khalili Loeb & Loeb LLP akhalili@loeb.com

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS

LaVonne D. Lawson Law Office of LaVonne Lawson ll@lawsontax.com

Robert Dalie Oppenheimer & Co. robert.dalie@opco.com

David Herbst Vectis Strategies dherbst@vectisstrategies.com

Lisa Meyer Meyer, Olson, Lowy & Meyers lhm@molfamlaw.com

C-SUITE ADVISORY

Steven C. Sereboff SoCal IP Law Group LLP ssereboff@socalip.com

Andrew Apfelberg Greenberg Glusker LLP aapfelberg@greenbergglusker.com

Eil Bronfman Lincoln Avenue Capital inquiries@lincolnavecap.com

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Scott Rahn RMO LLP rahns@rmolawyers.com

INSURANCE

Advisory - Index

Pardis Nasseri Palm Tree pardis@palmtreeadvisors.com

Jennifer Post Thompson Coburn LLP jpost@thompsoncoburn.com

advisory@csq.com

for Elite members who appear in print

Updates Troy Anthony Owner, Troy Anthony Clothing Troy Anthony Clothing and Ellis Adams Group partnered to expand their portfolios. The company also launched a line of footwear made in Spain and an attainable luxury collection

made in Italy. Its first ready-towear collection sold out immediately. They are also sampling denim, polos, and henley-style sweaters.

Andrew Horowitz Senior Vice President, Rockefeller Capital Management

Daniel Rastein CEO, CARA Corp.

The financial services firm is facilitating virtual wealth and leisure retreats for families and developing donation guidelines to help those affected by COVID-19.

Rastein started a new pharmaceutical company to further the cause of global wound healing with a new patented drug formulation and application methods. (cassderma.com)

Advisory - IndexTRUSTED / SocalBRANDS IP www.socalip.com

SoCalIP.indd 1

CSQ Q3 2020

TRUST OUR LAW FIRM FOR PROTECTION

10/2/20 11:23 AM

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MORA

106 Exhibits and Performances 107 Required Reading 108 Proprietor’s Profile 110 Philanthropy 112 Social Responsibility

Culture & Taste

Part 4

Culture & Taste - Cover

Limitless author Jim Kwik offers insights into how people can read and remember more to achieve more on page 107.

CSQ Q3 2020

105

EXHIBITS AND PERFORMANCES

By Sheean Hanlan

myselves

Kohn Gallery Through November 4, 2020

kohngallery.com

© Amoako Boafo.

Some of the most alluring art shows happening this season.

© Louise Bonnet.

Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy Gagosian.

Now Showing

AROUND TOWN L.A. Other Exhibitions of Note This Season

LOUISE BONNET: THE HOURS

Gagosian Through November 7, 2020

AROUND TOWN N.Y. Other Exhibitions of Note This Season

gagosian.com

Romare Bearden, Amoako Boafo, Bruce Conner, and Naotaka Hiro are a few of the over two dozen emerging and established artists appearing in myselves, an inward-looking contemporary exhibition curated by Joshua Freidman at Kohn Gallery. The differing angles of the self in this multilayered collection of tapestries, collages, paintings, and prints lead to a visceral question: How is identity contrived? Skye Volmar investigates this concept in Look-alike (Clermont Twins), an expressive colored pencil and makeup drawing of reality TV twins Shannon and Shannade Clermont, who admitted to surgically altering everything except their breasts in an interview with Page Six. Their hair is colored electric green, highlighting its unnaturalness. Their elongated nails and eyelashes are evidently extensions. The swollen, crisply illustrated lips emphasizing their injections further suggest that at least one dimension of self, the physical, can be fabricated. Other artists undertake an honest exploration of the ways in which social, biological, and environmental factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality are reflected in the self presented to the world versus the self behind closed doors. Jarvis Boyland’s Bloom oil painting depicts a queer couple of color sharing a moment in a yellow living room with old-fashioned furniture. The couple’s subdued intimacy and affection contrast with their psychedelic shirts, flare pants, and ultra-conservative environment.

Is a person ultimately a multiplicity of identities trapped in one housing? The three overlapping figures wading in the ocean in Moises Salazar’s Clean (yarn and glitter on satin) convey as much.

Jeffrey Chong Wang: Recent Paintings

Arcadia Contemporary Through October 25, 2020

arcadiacontemporary.com Essential Jim Dine

Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art Through October 28, 2020

novakart.com

Hiroya Kurata: When Mother Was Young

Shiny blonde Anna Wintour wigs and clumsy nude figures might not mean much to you, but, in the words of Swiss artist Louise Bonnet, “ This is what my unconscious looks like.” Viewable through Gagosian’s Park & 75 storefront, this installation is the gallery’s first solo exhibition of Bonnet’s bizarre oil paintings.

The sleepy compositions—grotesque without crossing over to macabre—command attention from things they reveal as much as things they conceal. For every lumpy éclair-shaped being, there is a head with a featureless face— or else a stump in place of a head.

Maybe it’s the bright colors and playful perspective, but Bonnet’s disproportionate, fleshy appendages evoke a definite sensuality without being raunchy. The idea for The Hours came from Middle Age, illustrated manuscripts called books of hours that contained prayers meant to be recited at specific times of the day.

Many, such as the famous Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, included psalms, passages on saints, and calendars with notes on Christian holidays. These biblical allusions loosely come across in several of the paintings. Calvary with Potato shows blood erupting from a bruised finger, a callback to Christ’s bleeding wounds on the cross. The treatment of light and shadow on the androgynous bending, leaning, and reclining figures feel lifelike—large, illuminated bodies against claustrophobic, dark backgrounds— adding complexity and weight to otherwise surreal works.

Toyin Ojih Odutola: Tell Me a Story, I Don’t Care if It’s True Jack Shainman Gallery Through October 2020

jackshainman.com

OSGEMEOS: Portal

Lehmann Maupin Through October 31, 2020

lehmannmaupin.com

The Double-Sided Dominions of Henry Darger

Culture & Taste - Exhibits

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CULTURE & TASTE

Over the Influence Through November 1, 2020

overtheinfluence.com

Voulkos, Altoon, Ruscha, Bengston: A Common Thread

Iris Project Through November 1, 2020

irisproject.com Synchronicity

Roberts Projects Through December 12, 2020

robertsprojectsla.com

Genevieve Gaignard: A Long Way From Home

Vielmetter Los Angeles Through December 7, 2020

vielmetter.com

Andrew Edlin Gallery Through November 7, 2020

edlingallery.com

upstairs: Warmth and Promise

Rachel Uffner Gallery Through November 7, 2020

racheluffnergallery.com

Peter Saul: Murder in the Kitchen, Early Works

Michael Werner Gallery Through November 14, 2020

michaelwerner.com

Daisy Craddock: Harvest

The Front Room Gallery Through November 22, 2020

garveysimon.com

REQUIRED READING

Brain Workout

10 Kwik Ways to Build a Better Brain

1. Improve your brain diet: What you eat matters for your brain matter. Avocados, blueberries, broccoli, olive oil, eggs, spinach, wild salmon, sardines, turmeric, almond milk, dark chocolate, and walnuts are just some of the foods that are good for your brain health.

2. Kill ANTS (Automatic Negative Thoughts): Your brain is like a supercomput­ er, and your self­talk is a program it will run.

If you tell yourself, “I’m not good at remem­ bering names,” you won’t remember the name of the next person you meet because you’ve programmed your supercomputer not to. Keep it positive. Words make a difference.

3. Exercise: As your body moves, your brain grooves. Don’t be static. Get up from your screen every hour to go for a walk and get some fresh air.

4. Take nutrient supplements: The most important one to take for your brain in case you may not be getting it from your diet is omega­3.

5. Find a positive peer group: Who we spend time with is who we become. We start imitating the same language, words, and habits of the people around us. If you’re around nine broke people, be careful because you’re going to be number 10.

6. Clean your environment: Clean your office desktop to have clarity of thought. Your external world is a reflection of your internal world.

7. Optimize your sleep: When you sleep, you consolidate short­ to long­term memory.

If you’re having long­term­memory issues, check your sleep. It’s the time you clean out plaque that leads to dementia. Sleep is also when you dream and innovate. Mary Shelley came up with Frankenstein in a dream. Paul McCartney dreamed up his song “Yesterday.”

8. Protect your brain: Speaking from ex­ perience, brain injuries can be traumatic, so protect your brain.

9. Learn something every day: If you want to age with grace, always be learning some new skill or idea.

10. Manage stress: Chronic stress shrinks your brain. We all need something to be able to cope with stress. When you’re in a stress­ ful stage of fight or flight, you won’t perform at your best.

After a childhood fall damaged his brain, Kwik Learning founder and CEO Jim Kwik was plagued by learning challenges that would follow him to college. Today, Kwik is a premier brain coach who helps people of all ages enhance their cognitive performance. His clients have included SpaceX, Facebook, Google, Nike, WordPress, Virgin, and Harvard University.

Published in April 2020, his book Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Any­ thing Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life became an instant Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestseller.

Here, Kwik offers his insights into how people can read and remember more to achieve more. As told to Sheean Hanlan Leaders Are Readers

When I met with Elon Musk or Oprah Winfrey or Bill Gates, we bonded over books. The aver­ age person only reads two books a year, while the average CEO reads four books a month.

If someone condenses decades of experience into a book that you can read in a few days, it’s an incredible edge. For four years, I read a book a day. Classic books that were pivot­ al for me when I first started my journey of self­development were Think and Grow Rich, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Magic of Thinking Big, As a Man Thinketh, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, and Man’s Search for Meaning. My more recent favorites include Principles, Zero to One, Blue Ocean Strategy, Delivering Happiness, Good to Great, The Lean Startup, Mindset, The Element, and Start with Why. Although I sometimes listen to audiobooks and podcasts when driving or working out, research has shown that read­ ing is better for comprehension than listen­ ing because when someone is listening, they will usually be splitting their attention with something else.

your business or brand to grow, your brain needs to grow. The two most costly words in business are “I forgot.” When you forget things, you lose credibility and respect. As Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” People remember people who remember them. That’s why remembering names and remembering things about people is the No. 1 networking skill.

The Four Horsemen of the Mental Apocalypse

In Limitless, I describe four horsemen of the digital age that reduce brain performance: digital deluge, digital distraction, digital de­ duction, and digital dementia. Digital deluge is information overload. Digital distraction refers to every ding and ping and like and com­ ment taking away our ability to focus. Digital deduction is the idea that technology is now thinking for us, so we don’t have to think. See­ ing things from different perspectives, howev­ er, gives you an advantage. Digital dementia, which is using our smart phone devices as our external memory drives, is one of the reasons we can’t remember phone numbers. To be­ come mentally fit, guard against these four horsemen. When it comes to memory, there is no such thing as a good or bad one, just trained and untrained.

Culture & Taste - Read

CSQ Q3 2020

There Is No Learning Without Remembering

More people upgrade their phones, laptops, and tablets than they upgrade their most im­ portant technology—their mind. If you want

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PROPRIETOR’S PROFILE

Nightlife Warrior

By Carole Dixon

Decades ago, bar and nightlife entrepreneur Rande Gerber was working in commercial real estate when an assignment from boutique hotel magnate Ian Schrager kicked off his trajectory into international success and formation of Midnight Oil and the Gerber Group. Married to supermodel Cindy Crawford, with whom he has two children, Gerber also prioritizes friendship—which led to formation of Casamigos

Tequila with George Clooney and real estate tycoon Mike Meldman (the trio famously sold the company to Diageo for $1B in 2017). With a keen eye for developing places you never want to leave in some of the world’s top destinations, right now Gerber is focused on giving back and saving L.A. institutions suffering during COVID-19. He spoke to CSQ from the office above his beloved restaurant, Café Habana Malibu.

How did you start out in the nightlife business?

I was originally working in commercial real estate in New York City. I was representing the owner of the Paramount Hotel at the time, Ian Schrager, and trying to find restaurant and bar concepts for him. I brought him all the latest and greatest from everyone I knew in all the hotspots, but Ian was very picky, and he really wasn’t impressed. He finally said, “Why don’t you just do it yourself?”

Even though I was in the real estate business, I did entertain a lot. I had friends over, put some music on, and burned some incense. I figured if I could design a space that felt like my living room, and I could have control over the music and drinks, I’d give it a shot. So, I created a lounge atmosphere that felt like my apartment. At the beginning, it was pretty quiet with just a few hotel guests. I was confident that I had built something that was beautiful, comfortable, and cozy with a good vibe to it. Word spread really fast and about a week into it 1,000 people were trying to get into The Whiskey and it only held about 100. People were swarming the lobby of the hotel and out on the streets.

It got a little out of control, so we had to unfortunately put up ropes to contain the crowds.

Culture & Taste - Proprietors

When did you realize your success wasn’t a fluke?

I love the creative process and coming up with a concept and design from the music to type of glassware, uniforms, and lighting. I’m involved in every detail. I took that concept and went to Miami to open at The Carlyle in South Beach and turned it into a larger lounge with a few pool tables, larger bar area, and comfortable couches, called The Whiskey on Ocean Drive. It was just at the beginning of the bar scene there in the early 1990s, and it was an immediate success.

I felt like I was a success when other hotel owners started calling and wanting me to do it in their hotels. My first one in L.A. was The Whiskey at Sunset Marquis [which morphed into Bar 1200.] After that was Skybar at Mondrian [now owned by SBE] and Stone Rose Lounge at Sofitel in Beverly Hills [now Riviera 31.]

I don’t look at competition and other things that are out there, but I guess I thought that people really liked what I do. Every new place I open is designed for myself, depending on location. They are all a little bit different. If I’m in L.A., what type of place do I want to go to? Is it in a hotel? That is the fun part for me, creating.

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CULTURE & TASTE

The success comes, No. 1, with loving what you do, and I always have. At one point, I had 40 places. Also, I loved seeing people have a good time. The success was in the excitement of wanting to do it again and again. It wasn’t about the money. I was fortunate that they all were extremely successful, and I never closed a place, which gives you the confidence to move forward. Even if I wasn’t making the money, I would still want to do it and would still be passionate about it.

What do you take into consideration when you are opening a place in New York versus Los Angeles?

In New York, I had seven or eight places. The difference I noticed in New York was that I wanted to design places for a big after-work crowd and then you want to transform that into a local nightlife type of scene. There is a fine line of attracting a corporate after-work crowd, but you also want the crowd coming out at 10 p.m. and staying until 4 a.m. All of my bars were very comfortable, but the New York ones were a little more elegant, so you did feel comfortable wearing a suit and tie from work or late night in jeans.

In L.A. you don’t really get an after-work crowd. People here work later in the entertainment business and have early dinners. You do get people in the hotels coming down earlier at 5 p.m. for a drink before going out to dinner, then at 10 p.m. they would all come back and

1

not leave until 2 a.m. I wondered what these people did to survive, who were in a café at 3:00 in the afternoon and then at the bar until 2:00 in the morning? I’d see them at my places at night and at all times during the day, too.

How did launching Casamigos come about?

It wasn’t a natural progression for me just because I was in the bar business. The only thing I knew about liquor is people would ask me to carry certain brands. I’d taste it and if I liked it would carry it, but I didn’t know anything about the business, the distribution, and never thought of doing a liquor.

Casamigos came about when George and I were building two homes in Cabo San Lucas on one piece of property. We had an idea— when the homes are done, we should come up with a house tequila that we would make just to serve at home. It was never to start a tequila business but to create something we love. After building our homes there, George and I would go out to different bars or stay in hotels. Every bartender has their favorite tequila. We tried plenty and that’s when we thought we should just make our own, one that is perfect for us to drink. We got in contact with a few distilleries and told them the flavor profile we were looking for with no burn at all. People are used to shooting tequila and chasing it with a lime, but we just wanted one that was smooth that tasted great on the rocks and not have to throw it into a margarita or drink with salt and lime. At the

beginning it was funny because the distillers told us, “It’s supposed to have a burn, that’s part of tequila.” It took us two years and 700 bottles of samples later, but we fi nally got it perfect. George and I drank the entire bottle.

We bought a bunch of cases, and when our friends would come and visit us in Cabo, we were always serving Casamigos, which was what we also named the homes.

You are always involved with the design process—even the label of the Casamigos bottle. What design projects are in the works right now?

going to reopen and don’t know what they are going to do. They don’t want to go back into the business. There are some great restaurants and restaurateurs, but it’s been a very difficult time.

What would you like people to do to help restaurants and bars?

We live in L.A. and can expand outdoors because we have nice weather all year, but you

RANDE GERBER’S FAVORITE RESTAURANTS FOR BREAKFAST, LUNCH, AND DINNER ON BOTH COASTS.

I love every aspect of design, from bottles and labels to restaurants, homes, and clothing.

I design the homes [and flip them] for fun.

It’s not a business for me, but there is usually someone who is just happy to move in. When I do the construction, renovations, and decorate, all they need to do is bring their toothbrush. If I get bored, I need to create. I design all our [personal] homes along with Cindy—we have similar tastes.

New York

3. Mussels from Pastis in New York.

4. Perry St. is one of Gerber’s NY go-tos.

Your passion project, Café Habana Malibu, is in your own backyard. How has the restaurant continued to support the local community during the COVID-19 pandemic?

We have kept Café Habana open during COVID. The reason we opened Café Habana is because we live in Malibu and my family and friends all wanted me to open a restaurant nearby. We’ve had it for 10 years now. It’s the local place where everyone goes.

We feed the homeless, and we always donate food to different charity organizations and events. It’s something we have always liked to do even before COVID. I think a lot of restaurants do that, and if they don’t, they should.

We are fortunate that we can help out.

can’t do that year-round in Chicago or New York. Try and support your local mom-andpop shops and restaurants—those are the ones that are struggling the most, even with PPP loans, which I did not apply for, just to be clear. Fortunately, I have the means to support my restaurant, personally. For the ones that remain open, just go and try to support them.

Order and sit outside or order to go. end

2

We live downtown in the Village so we go to Lure, Pastis, Perry St, and anything by Jean-Georges Vongerichten. For lunch, ABC Kitchen or Balthazar. Sadelle’s deli in Soho is great for breakfast.

As for nightlife, I’m happy to just go out and have a nice dinner with some friends and family and call it a night after that. I typically don’t go out after dinner anymore.

Culture & Taste - Proprietors

Are you involved in the menu selection as well?

Yes, and I have tastings with Cindy and the kids and they give their opinion of what they like. Because it’s Malibu we use everything organic—fresh vegetables, organic beef. It’s healthy, not overly complicated. We get the same people coming back three to five times per week for lunch or dinner. And we have at least five meals a week there—and we sell a lot of Casamigos! It’s fun with the family and all of our friends who live in Malibu.

What are your concerns for the hospitality industry moving forward?

I’ve been very fortunate that we have stayed steady and not closed. My concern is there are so many restaurants that maybe don’t have outdoor areas. The restaurant business is so difficult on a good day, the margins are quite low, so it’s going to be very difficult for some of them to reopen and it’s sad. In some cases, the owner is the chef, so for them to reopen and survive is going to be very difficult. I have friends that are not CSQ Q3 2020

Los Angeles

1. Rande Gerber with his friend and Casamigos co-founder George Clooney.

2. Lobster from Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica Canyon.

For a breakfast meeting: Nate ’n Al’s. I’m a partner with Mike Meldman and Irving and Shelli Azoff. We wanted to save an institution. They were going to go out of business, and we couldn’t let that happen. I typically go with the scrambled eggs, pancakes, toasted bagel with cream cheese and lox—all in one order! That is why I try not to have too many meetings there.

The Fountain at The Beverly Hills Hotel is also good for breakfast. They have good pancakes, and they have nice people that work there.

I’m usually in Malibu for lunch at Café Habana. My go-to is the carne asada, fi sh tacos, corn, chicken burritos. Once or twice a week, Cindy and I order the kale and manchego salad with salmon.

For a nice dinner, I like Craig’s and usually order the chicken parmesan, or Giorgio Baldi for salad and pasta. Nobu Malibu is like our local cafeteria here and also Bui Sushi or Malibu Seafood for local, great fish. There are so many great restaurants in Malibu.

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PHILANTHROPY

Onwards and Upwards

New York

CAROLA JAIN Chief Marketing Officer, Spartan ROBERT JAIN Co-chief Investment Officer, Millennium Management $1M, Diversity and Inclusion in Education

With productions halted, museums shuttered, and concerts canceled, the financial ruin felt by the creative community has caught the attention of donors devoted to making a difference. A gro­ wing number of these givers are taking the soaring unemployment rate of the industry into their own hands, discerning that a stimulus check or small business loan may not be enough to get students, families, and professionals through the crisis.

Others are prioritizing inclusivity, equality, and diversity through educational funding. Here’s our list of notable sports, media, and entertainment gifts in Los Angeles and New York. By Sheean Hanlan

The couple established the Robert and Carola Jain Cornell Promise Scholarship, a $1M need-based fund to financially support Black students at Cornell University.

The gift aims to further diversity and inclusion at Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences by aiding Black families facing coronavirus-related financial difficulty.

Culture & Taste - Philanthropy

LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA Composer, Lyricist, and Actor $1M, Diversity and Inclusion in the Arts

STEPHEN M. ROSS Chairman, Related Companies; Owner, Miami Dolphins $13M, Racial Equality in Sports

LAURIE TISCH President, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund $1.5M, Arts Education

STEVEN VICTOR Senior Vice President of A&R, Universal Music Group; Founder and CEO, Victor Victor Worldwide; COO, GOOD Music $1M, Racial Equality

The Grammy-winning Hamilton playwright and his family pledged $1M through the Miranda Family Fund for theater students of color pursuing training at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Theater Institute. Since 2017, 40 students have received the scholarship.

Real estate entrepreneur Stephen Ross pledged $13M over four years to RISE, a nonprofit he founded in 2015 with the vision of eliminating racial discrimination in sports. RISE hosts cultural-competency leadership programs and racial-equality workshops with coaches, athletes, colleges, and community groups. To date, Ross has donated $30M to the charity.

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College received a $1.5M endowment from the L aurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. The grant will expand the museum’s K–12 and family educational programs to reach schools, libraries, and other institutions in underserved communities. Tisch was CSQ’s 2018 New York Visionary of the Year in Philanthropy, Art, and Culture.

Music executive Steven Victor committed $1M to fight systemic racism through his newly established Victor Victor Foundation, which will give children of color access to business opportunities through a mentorship program.

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Los Angeles

J. J. ABRAMS Chairman, Bad Robot KATIE MCGRATH Co-CEO, Bad Robot $10M, Racial Equality

GREG BERLANTI Writer, Producer, and Director, Greg Berlanti Productions $2M, Arts Education $600K, Financial Assistance

BEYONCÉ KNOWLES Singer, Songwriter, Producer, and Actress $6M, Health and Wellness

Bad Robot Productions and the Katie McGrath and J. J. Abrams Family Foundation announced on Instagram that they will be distributing $10M over five years to anti-racist organizations and Black Lives Matter initiatives. So far, the foundation has donated $200K to Black Lives Matter L.A., Community Coalition, Know Your Rights Camp, Equal Justice Initiative, and Black Futures Lab.

The Berlanti Foundation gave $2M to establish the Barbara Berlanti Professorship in Writing for the Screen and Stage at Northwestern University’s School of Communication, in honor of Greg Berlanti’s late mother. Berlanti also committed $600K to Greg Berlanti Productions’ crew and staff members who are financially vulnerable due to production shutdowns. An additional $400K was donated to COVID-19 emergency relief through the Motion Picture and Television Fund, SAG-AFTRA, and the Actors Fund.

In partnership with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Start Small initiative, UCLA, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Beyoncé’s BeyGood will donate $6M to organizations providing mental health, wellness care, food supplies and deliveries, and medical services to essential workers in Houston, New York, New Orleans, and Detroit.

Culture & Taste - Philanthropy

CSQ Q3 2020

JERRY MOSS Chairman, Almo Sounds; Co-founder, A&M Records TINA MORSE MOSS, PSYD Founder, LifeDr.com $25M, Performing Arts

TED SARANDOS AND REED HASTINGS Co-CEOs, Netflix $100M, Financial Assistance

OPRAH WINFREY Chairwoman and CEO, Harpo Productions; Chairwoman, CEO, and CCO, Oprah Winfrey Network $10M, Coronavirus Relief

Tina and Jerry Moss gave $25M to The Music Center in downtown L.A., the largest donation for programming in the performing arts center’s history. Music Center President and CEO Rachel S. Moore says the donation will expand its meaningful cultural programming for Los Angeles residents, including an annual free summer concert in the newly christened Jerry Moss Plaza. The Music Center will also partner with organizations promoting the artistry, health, and wellness of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists.

Netflix set up a $100M relief fund for production crews and cast members left jobless due to COVID-19. Ted Sarandos announced that the fund will mainly support laid-off crew members who typically work on individual projects and are paid hourly wages. This includes $15M to support nonprofits providing emergency assistance such as SAG-AFTRA and Fondation des Artistes in France.

In April, media mogul Oprah Winfrey announced a $10M donation to coronavirus relief efforts around the country. America’s Food Fund—a nonprofit launched

by Leonardo DiCaprio, Emerson Collective, Apple, and the Ford Foundation that combats food insecurity for low-income families— received $1M. Funds also went to World Central Kitchen, Feeding America, Save the Children USA, No Kid Hungry, and Urban School Food Alliance.

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SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Sustainable Development Gives Back The exquisite Oil Nut Bay is in the business of changing people’s lives.

By Irene Rawlings

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An entrepreneur beginning with his first lawn-mowing job as a 12-year-old, David V. Johnson and a few friends were buying underperforming gas stations and making them profitable by the time he was in college at Michigan State.

After graduation, legendary developer Howard Keating hired him, and just two years later Johnson became president of Keating Brokerage, selling real estate in Detroit’s tony suburbs of Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills. In 1974, Johnson started his own real estate brokerage, and in 1975 his new company, Abbey Homes, was the largest luxury homebuilder in the Midwest. “My goal was to build 10% of the high-end custom homes in the United States,” he says. He was on the fast track to the top.

Then, in 1978, he broke his neck.

The doctors who screwed bolts into his head told him he was a quadriplegic. Johnson disagreed: “I’m going skiing in Aspen.”

He proved his doctors wrong and today walks with only a slight limp.

But that injury changed his life. He sold Abbey Homes, became a passionate equestrian (“My horses were my legs,” he says), and at a fundraiser met his future wife, Pamela, who is equally passionate about all things equine.

“I learned to be grateful,” he says. “I learned that every day is the best day of your life.”

Being an entrepreneur and having already developed 20 properties, he began looking for a new enterprise, but this time he was on a quest to find a property that spoke to his heart. In 1994, he began developing Bay Harbor, 800 homes on 1,000 acres, on the property of an abandoned cement plant along the Lake Michigan shoreline, the largest reclamation project in the U.S. at the time. Even so, his quest continued.

“I wanted to find the most beautiful land and to create an amazing development in harmony with nature, a development that would literally change people’s lives,” he says.

The search spanned six years and 13 countries.

He found an idyllic spot in 2008, now called Oil Nut Bay, on the eastern tip of Virgin Gorda in the North Sound region of the British Virgin Islands. There, the ocean surf crashes against the cliffs on one side, answered by the gentle lapping of the turquoise waters of the sheltered bay on the other. Johnson’s company, Victor International Corporation, bought 400 acres, put half of them into a conservation easement, planned 117 homesites in eight distinct neighborhoods, and installed discreet solar panels and smart water-management systems (including gray water for irrigation). “I was green before green was cool,” Johnson says.

Oil Nut Bay is green but also chic with amenities including every imaginable water

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sport, spa and wellness services, and an overwater restaurant. It is totally private—accessible only by boat or helicopter—with homesites starting at $2.95M and the property’s most spectacular home on the market for $39.5M. The marina has slips for superyachts up to 100 meters.

In the spirit of gratitude, the Johnsons created the North Sound Foundation to support local cultural, environmental, heath, and educational services.

The foundation has adopted Robinson O’Neal Primary School in the North Sound, spearheading its rebuilding after heavy damage from Hurricane Irma, making it stronger, smarter, and greener, and supplying it with the latest educational technology.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the North Sound Foundation has raised more than $700,000 and provided meals to vulnerable people in the community through a soup kitchen; supported local schools with computers, headphones, and updated playground equipment; provided food vouchers to people in the community who have been laid off; and hosted youth summer programming and swimming instruction.

Students also enjoy visiting Oil Nut Bay’s barn, where Pamela oversees the rescue and rehabilitation of animals—including horses and other furry, feathered, and four-footed creatures. “They help us teach kindness,” she says.

Oil Nut Bay, one of the biggest employers in the British Virgin Islands, has kept 75% of its team employed during the resort’s closure due to the pandemic. “Responsibility and loyalty are a two-way street,” Johnson says. oilnutbay.com

Culture & Taste - Social Responsibility

1. The $35M hilltop home for sale at Oil Nut Bay. 2. Dining at he developments’ adjacent marina village.

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CULTURE & TASTE

3. David Johnson giving back to the local community in the BVI.

114 CSQ Future of Real Estate Virtual Event 116 CSQ 747 Club Happy Hour 117 CSQ Qui Tequila Happy Hour

The Network

Part 5

The Network - Cover

CSQ Q3 2020

113

VIRTUAL EVENT THE FUTURE OF REAL ESTATE

July 15, 2020 CSQ Virtual Events C-Suite Quarterly

Speakers 1 Meridith Baer, Founder and CEO, Meridith Baer Home 2 Scott Hunter, Principal and Los Angeles Office Director, HKS 3 Christopher Rising, CEO, Rising Realty Partners Moderator 4 Don Peebles, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, The Peebles Corporation

Mission The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the way we work and live. That’s going to result in new opportunities—and new responsibilities. CSQ convened some of the country’s top real estate experts for a comprehensive discussion on how to make the industry more inclusive and focused on social responsibility, and what the homes, shops, and offices of the future might look like.

Signature Sponsors Openpath

The Network Future of Real Estate Event Highlights In a panel moderated by Don Peebles, founder, chairman, and CEO of The Peebles Corporation, designer Meridith Baer shared how people can make their current homes more functional with this new environment. “Every room has to be thought of as one where someone can be conducting a meeting, especially in families where there are three or four people living in one home. Also, the outdoor spaces, how those could be used to work in the nice weather that we have in certain parts of the country.

But more than anything, home itself is more important than ever during this pandemic.

We realize how important it is to really have an environment that we love and can enjoy.”

Rising Realty Partners CEO Chris Rising discussed the future of the office market.

He stated that the future will likely be a hybrid of working from home and working at an office.

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THE NETWORK

EVENT CONTACT Sarah Poor

sarah@csq.com

“I think CEOs have been doing this and now are just going to bring it out to the whole workforce.

You’re going to pick when you come in more. You’re going to be held accountable by your activity—by your achievement, not just because you showed up at 7:30 a.m. And I also think the densification that WeWork brought and others is out the window. These headquarters are going to more and more reflect the Los Angeles Lakers or a professional football team where you’re trying to meet a lot of needs to encourage people to come in to collaborate.

The Googleization of it all.”

Speaking to architecture’s role in diversifying the business of real estate, HKS Principal and Los Angeles Office Director Scott Hunter maintained that cities themselves should be designed to be more inclusive. “If we’re only developing the high, high, high end of the market, because that’s where the money is, then that shapes the nature of our cities. And I think that we have had a really challenging time dealing with these major social issues that still exist.” he said. “Right before the COVID pandemic, we were in a historic run-up. Everyone is wondering, wow, how high can it go? It’s still going. Meanwhile you had people sleeping on the streets. So, this disparity that the economy had generated and our industry was part and parcel to that.

It’s unsustainable. And then the Black Lives Matter protests were the eruption that happened as a result of that. The whole COVID pandemic really highlighted the inequity.”

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The Network - Future of Real Estate

CSQ Q3 2020

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115

VIRTUAL EVENT CSQ X 7:47 CLUB GRATITUDE DINNER

September 16, 2020 CSQ Virtual Events C-Suite Quarterly

Signature Sponsors 7:47 Club

C-Suite Advisors Aytan Dahukey, Partner and Leader, Sheppard Mullin Jessop Fowler, Director, Datasite Jim Freedman, Chairman and Managing Director, Intrepid Investment Bankers Jeffrey Knakal, Managing Partner and Founder, Growth Partners Marty Levy, Principal and Founder, CorpStrat Chris Schembra, Founder and Chief Question Asker, 7:47 Club

Daniel Rastein, CEO, Compliance and Regulatory of America Vlad Vaiman, Associate Dean and Professor, California Lutheran University School of Management

The Network - Happy Hour

Mission To foster more connectivity across our larger community of C-Suite Advisors and NextGens, CSQ partnered with Chris Schembra, founder and chief question asker of 7:47 Club, for an exclusive, virtual Gratitude Dinner. 7:47 Club is an advisory firm that helps companies give the gift of community and belonging to its VIP clients and partners, sparking over 400,000 relationships around the dinner table and over Zoom.

Event Highlights 7:47 Club’s guided, evidence-based framework helps leaders build community and strengthen relationships. Nearly 40 members opened up and shared within small groups who and what they are thankful for and how they can express gratitude to the people who make a difference in their lives. Guests expressed happiness and appreciation for the opportunity to connect through conversations centered on how we can avoid feeling so isolated during the pandemic.

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THE NETWORK

Edward WilsonSmythe, Senior Specialist Advisor, NTT DATA Corporation

NextGen Ashley Crowder, CEO and Cofounder, Vntana Shaz Khan, Chief Strategy Officer and Cofounder, Vroozi Matthew Nordgren, Founder and CEO, Arcadian Capital C-SUITE ADVISORS MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR Tore Erickson

tore@csq.com

Yair Riemer, President of Career Transition Services, CareerArc Watson Mere, Artist, Art of Mere

VIRTUAL EVENT CSQ X QUI TEQUILA HAPPY HOUR

August 12, 2020 CSQ Virtual Events C-Suite Quarterly

Signature Sponsors Qui Tequila C-Suite Advisors David Angelo, Chairman and Founder, David&Goliath

Mission C-Suite Advisors have the opportunity to network face to face and build long-lasting relationships with professionals across industries. For the past few months, we’ve been bringing our exclusive happy hours and networking events to a digital space. Each happy hour consists of a virtual tasting and networking opportunity for founders, CEOs, business leaders, and C-suite executives, primarily in Los Angeles and in New York City.

Event Highlights Pete Girgis, co-founder and president of Qui Tequila, hosted an immersive virtual tasting experience and shared his story of success with C-Suite Advisors. Complimentary bottles of Qui Platinum, the first crystal-clear extra-añejo tequila to market, were sent to all members prior to the event. The tequila can be found in Los Angeles at restaurants like Nobu Malibu, Chateau Marmont, The London West Hollywood, and the Montage Beverly Hills, and in New York at Il Mulino, The Grill, Nobu, Lure, The Mark, Avra, and the Bowery Hotel. “I enjoyed the breakout room interaction, networking, and the ease of doing it from home,” said Jonathan Hodge, vice president and senior portfolio manager of wealth management at UBS Financial Services Inc. Randall Stone, founder and studio head of *māz, remarked that it was an engaging virtual experience that did not feel distant due to the breakout rooms. Palm Tree Managing Director Pardis Nasseri shared that he enjoyed the taste of tequila and loved indulging in a live tasting session with Girgis and other advisors.

Troy Anthony, Founder, Troy Anthony Clothing Bradley Barros, President and CEO, PrivateRisk Capital Development Advisors LLC Robert Dalie, Managing Director, The Summa Group of Oppenheimer Ram Dandillaya, Co-founder, Atelier Health Pete Girgis, co-founder and president, Qui Tequila

Blake Gurfein, Chief Scientific Officer, Tivic Health Jonathan Hodge, VP, Senior Portfolio Manager of Wealth Management, UBS Financial Services

The Network - Happy Hour

Andrew Horowitz, Senior Vice President, Rockefeller Capital Management Bree Jacoby, Founder and CEO, Bree Jacoby Pardis Nasseri, Managing Director and President, Palm Tree

Qui Platinum

Randall Stone, Founder and Studio Head, *māz e

Chuck Stumpf, President of Business Development, Silver Air

e

CSQ Q3 2020

Ash Patel, President and CEO, Commercial Bank of California

C-SUITE ADVISORS MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR Tore Erickson

tore@csq.com

Vlad Vaiman, Associate Dean and Professor, California Lutheran University School of Management

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Advertiser Index American Airlines aa.com

Clay Lacy claylacy.com

ICON Aircraft iconaircraft.com

SoCal IP Law Group LLP socalip.com

Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro LA bgcmla.com

Emerge 212 emerge212.com

ISAIA isaia.it

TravelStore travelstore.com

Burgess burgessyachts.com

Gish Seiden gishseiden.com

MORA moraitaliano.com

White House Historical Association whitehousehistory.org

California Lutheran University callutheran.edu

Hawke Media hawkemedia.com

One Coast liveonecoast.com

Cardinal du Four Armagnac cardinaldufour.com

Hunt Club huntclub.com

Punta Mita puntamita.com

Editorial Index PEOPLE Affleck, Ben Allen, Michael Alter, Tom Arakawa, Masashi Asaoka, Hajime Avicii Barth, Ron Brady, Tom Bristol, Ryan Buettner, Dan Burke, Steve Burrow, Joe Bury, Martine Church, Frederic Edwin Clayton, Jay Daniels, George DeVito, Danny Dixon, Carole DJ Khaled DJ Snake Draghi, Christopher Dye, Pete Dykstra, Lenny Eilish, Billie Emanuel, Ari Fazio, Tom Foreman, George Forstmann, Ted Gerber, Rande Ghaly, Mark Girgis, Pete Glazman, Lev Grangien, Laurent Gretzky, Wayne Grönefeld, Bart Grönefeld, Tim Handler, Brad Handler, Brent Hill, Graham Holyfield, Evander Horowitz, Andrew James, LeBron Janick, John Jeter, Derek Johnson, David V. Johnson, Magic Johnson, Pamela Johnson, Philip Johnston, Clyde Janowicz, Damien Jordan, Michael Joseph, Tony Keating, Howard Keriakos, Mike Kwik, Jim

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44 68 76 64 20 44 23 90 86 64 52 90 23 68 94 20 15 102 94 44 68 77 90 44 44 77 90 52 102 94 17 68 65 90 20 20 70 70 23 90 88 15 44 90 106 90 106 23 77 68 15 2 106 17 101

Koppelman, Charles Leaf, Ryan Loeb, Marshall Loeb, Michael MacDonal, Santos Maglione, Bruno Mayweather, Floyd, Jr. McCormack, Mark Nicklaus, Jack Norman, Greg Pucher, Martin Pyne, George Radzinskaya, Anastasia Rahn, Scott Rawlings, Irene Taylor, Lawrence Trevisan, Matt Tyson, Mike Vaiman, Vlad Vick, Michael Vogel, Rich Wells, Montrele Werdesheim, Brian Whitesell, Patrick Wilson-Smythe, Edward Zagzebski, Sander

44 90 56 56 65 52 94 52 77 90 70 52 52 92 106 90 16 90 84 90 56 76 90 44 82 94

Cape Arundel 68 Carbon Engineering Ltd. 19 The Carlyle 102 Casamigos Tequila 102 Celebrity IOU 23 Fetch Rewards 56 FH Joanneum University 84 Firestone Walker 65 Fortune 56 The Fountain 102 Fraser 18 Fresh 68 The Fulfillment Fund 90 FXAIR 19 Geffen Records 44 General Motors 82 Gerber Group 102 Giorgio Baldi 102 Goldman Sachs 86 Goodyear 52 Google 82 Greenspoon Marder 94 Grönefeld 20 Habanos 15 Hajime Asaoka 20 Hallwood 44 Jeffry’s Wine Country BBQ 65 J. N. Shapiro 20 J. P. Morgan 86 Justin 16 Keating Brokerage 106 Kiawah Island Golf Resort 77 Kwik Learning 101 L’Aventure 16 La Cosecha Bar and Restaurant 65 Les Petites Canailles 65 LifeEdited 23 Linne Calodo 16 Loeb Enterprises 56 Loeb.nyc 56 Lone Wolf Cigar Company 15 Los Angeles International Airport 19 Luminosity 18 Lure 102 Lyft 56 The Maker Hotel 68 Malibu Seafood 102 Marvel 52 McLaren Automotive 22 MedAire 19 Michigan State 90, 106 Negranti Creamery 65 Netflix 52 The New York Times 52 NFL 90 Nobu Malibu 102 North Sound Foundation 106

Advertiser Index

COMPANIES Abbey Homes ABC Kitchen Aerion Supersonic Airbnb Aleksander Allegretto Vineyard Resort Amazon American Red Cross Anthem Apple Balthazar The Banyan Foundation Bay Harbor Benetti Bengals Berklee School of Music Beverly Hills Hotel BL Brasserie Blue Zones Brown Butter Cookie Company Buckley School Bui Sushi Burgess Yachts Butler Hospitality Café Habana Malibu California Lutheran University Cal Poly

106 19 19 65 16 65 52 86 82 72 102 90 106 18 90 44 102 65 64 65 90 102 18 56 102 84 86

NTT DATA Services Oakley Oasys Oil Nut Bay Onx Estate Winery Oracle Palmetto Bluff Paramount Hotel Pasitis Pepsi Perry St Philips The Piccolo Property Brothers Qui Tequila QuietKat Re:Find Resource Furniture Reykjavik University Richmond College Robinson O’Neal Primary School Rockefeller Capital Management Roger W. Smith Ltd. Ross Aviation Rutgers University Sadelle’s Sarpaneva Watches Saxum SBE Sea Island Resort Sealy Sea Pines Resort Six Test Kitchen Skybar Sofitel Spirit AeroSystems Telegram Open Network Tides Beach Club Time Inc. TPC Sawgrass Trailer Pond Turley Uber UCLA UFC Universal Music Group Universal Studios Vista Global VistaJet Wally’s Walmart WheelsUp The Whiskey Yamaha Yaxel Cigars YouTube Zoom

82 44 23 106 65 82 77 102 102 82 102 19 65 23 17 52 65 23 84 90 106 88 20 70 17 102 20 16 102 77 52 77 65 102 102 19 94 68 56 76 65 16 56 86 52 44 52 19 19 16 52 19 102 52 15 52 72

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C-SUITE QUOTED 40

50

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If you asked most people if they are into action/adventure sports, they would say no. I want to change that.

I call what I am doing adventure capitalism.

The music business is two domains, all things flow through them: the concert and the studio. My true passion and my true love—the most amazing part of the music business and the magic—is the recording studio.

I look at the voiceless and the underserved, and I ask myself how we can best deal with those inequities.

Michael Schwab Founder and Managing Director Big Sky Partners

Neil Jacobson Founder and CEO Hallwood Media

Christine Simmons Chief Operating Officer Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

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I didn’t mean to get revenge, but I ended up starting the company outside of Time Inc. that I was trying to start inside of Time Inc., which was Synapse Group.

I’d heard about Okinawans’ unusual longevity and thought it would be great to learn about their secrets for a long and healthy life.

AI must reflect an equitable and fair approach to human variability for it to truly serve the common good of all people.

Michael Loeb President and CEO Loeb.nyc

Dan Buettner Fellow National Geographic

Edward Wilson-Smythe Senior Advisor NTT DATA Services

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One of the few economic bright spots during the coronavirus lockdowns has been the cannabis industry. Quickly deemed essential by almost every state jurisdiction in which it is legal, cannabis sales remained strong and have even increased during quarantine.

I don’t look at competition and other things that are out there, but I guess I thought that people really liked what I do. Every new place I open is designed for myself, depending on location.

I wanted to find the most beautiful land and to create an amazing development in harmony with nature, a development that would literally change people’s lives.

Sander C. Zagzebski Partner Greenspoon Marder LLP

Rande Gerber Founder The Gerber Group

David V. Johnson Founder Oil Nut Bay

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C Suite Quoted

Gift yourself peace of mind this holiday season.

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