As Media Executives Meet, the Spouses Also Network
Dozens of influential women arrived here last week in private jets to attend billionaire investment banker Herbert Allen’s annual media and technology conference. But for the most part, it was their husbands who received the invitations and grabbed the headlines.
This year, as every year, the accomplishments and pet causes of their wives took second billing. But like their hard-charging husbands, the women behind the globe’s most powerful moguls also have developed friendships and connections here that have helped them in their own ventures, charitable and otherwise.
One interesting coupling emerged last year.
Kathy Freston, who’s married to Viacom Inc. co-President Tom Freston and was a conference newcomer, said her yoga instructor told her to keep an eye out for Wendi Murdoch, one of the teacher’s other clients. Wendi is the third wife of Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., a Viacom rival.
The two women became fast friends.
“I adore Wendi,” said Kathy, a meditation counselor who works with orphans, cancer patients and recovering substance abusers. “We have dinner. We’ll see a movie. And if Tom is out of town, she and Rupert will take me out.”
Although the Frestons are liberals and Rupert Murdoch is a staunch Republican, Kathy said: “I’ve come to understand Rupert, despite our political differences.” Kathy said the Murdochs contribute to a Hollywood orphanage of which she is vice chairwoman of the board.
Willow Bay, who’s married to incoming Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger, said her fondest memory was a trek she took several years ago with Jane Eisner -- the wife of her husband’s boss.
“It was a spectacular hike with a wildflower expert,” recalled the former CNN anchor and Estee Lauder model. She said they were joined by designer Diane von Furstenberg, the wife of media mogul Barry Diller.
Von Furstenberg is one of only a handful of businesswomen on the invitation list each year. Hearst Magazine President Cathleen Black and recently ousted Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina were here this year, along with such first-timers as Stacey Snider, chairwoman of General Electric Corp.’s Universal Pictures, and Shari Redstone, Viacom’s new vice chairwoman. Redstone, whose father, Sumner, controls the New York-based conglomerate, first came a decade ago as a family member.
Although most conferences push business from dawn to dusk, this five-day affair is designed with families in mind. Allen & Co. encourages executives to bring their spouses and children, offering such activities as golf, white-water rafting, fly-fishing, horseback riding, ice skating and skeet shooting.
Still, some CEOs, such as Sony Corp.’s Howard Stringer, never bring their families.
“It always falls during the last week of school in England,” said Stringer, whose family lives outside of London.
Some arrive midweek because of their wives’ work schedules. “Wasn’t I a good husband?” quipped Viacom co-President Leslie Moonves, who missed the opening of the conference Tuesday to wait for his new wife, CBS news anchor Julie Chen, to finish the Wednesday morning broadcast of “The Early Show.”
Many spouses, such as Cheryl Saban, who has written half a dozen books about surrogacy, relationships and children’s welfare, simply enjoy getting a close-up look at their husbands on the playing field.
“I can be a fly on the wall and watch Haim in action, which is always quite fun,” she said of her spouse, a clever dealmaker behind such cartoons as “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” who struck a $5.3-billion deal here a few years ago to sell to Disney what has since become the ABC Family Channel.
Like the Sabans, many of the wives and couples who attend the conference are die-hard philanthropists or fundraisers for causes including children’s welfare, education, energy conservation and the environment.
Jane Olson, whose litigator husband Ronald Olson has represented such Hollywood figures as former super-agent Michael Ovitz, is chairwoman of the nonprofit advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
Two years ago, she met up with Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, at a local Sun Valley coffee shop to talk about a three-week AIDS mission she had taken to Africa, where the Gates Foundation has made charitable contributions.
“We were both concerned about how to attack a problem with money without the corruption that leads to the doctors in some poor country all driving Mercedeses,” said Olson, who added that she shared a birth date with Melinda.
Although they are surrounded by some of the world’s richest people, conference guests resist the temptation to twist arms for money or push their agendas too hard. It’s one of the host’s unwritten rules.
Since the outing’s inception in 1983, Allen has meticulously cultivated its image as an ultra-classy affair. This year’s 600 invited guests included such heavyweights as billionaire Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs, investor Warren Buffett, Time Warner Inc. Chairman Richard Parsons and Microsoft’s Gates. The list is guarded with secrecy for security purposes, giving the conference a certain mystique.
All this is not to say that business is entirely off-limits for the spouses. When Susan Dell, wife of computer billionaire Michael Dell, launched her own clothing line in 1997, she would bring samples and take orders from some of the other wealthy wives.
There’s also no rule against buying a little bling on the side.
Celebrity jeweler Martin Katz regularly hangs out in the piano bar at the Sun Valley Lodge, the conference’s nerve center, to mingle with his clientele. Last year, Katz, who owns a residence here as well as in Los Angeles, gave a private viewing of some of his diamonds for a few of the wives. The gathering raised some eyebrows among some guests who considered the expensive purchases at odds with the woodsy setting and high-minded spirit of the conference.
Many of the activist wives are here as much for the seminars -- often led by some of the nation’s preeminent experts -- as they are for the social scene and idyllic setting. The topics reach beyond business, exploring such issues as human cloning and religious fundamentalism. On Thursday, a panel featuring former CIA Director George J. Tenet was created in response to the London terrorist attacks.
“To be connected with the smartest people, with global perspectives, during a crisis like the London bombings is very helpful in coming up with solutions,” said Olson of Human Rights Watch. “There’s a lot of wisdom that comes out of the shared experience.”
Olson said she was not reluctant to be vocal during the various presentations even though her political views clash with those of the conference’s conservative host and many of the other executives. She said she encouraged the other wives to use their expertise in areas including energy conservation and education to ask tough questions and shape the debate.
Said Olson: “I want the women to be heard.”
