Byline: By richard siklos section: Section C; Column 5; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1 Length
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URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: CONSTRUCTION (90%); MOUNTAINS (90%); COASTAL AREAS (89%); LAND USE PLANNING (89%); FORESTS & WOODLANDS (77%); COUNTIES (76%); REAL ESTATE (76%); CONSTRUCTION SECTOR PERFORMANCE (75%); COUNTY GOVERNMENT (71%); MUTUAL FUNDS (71%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (71%); REAL ESTATE AGENTS (71%); CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS & COMPONENTS (70%); BUILDING PERMITS (70%); NOVELS & SHORT STORIES (63%) Housing; Housing PERSON: Finn-Olaf Jones GEOGRAPHIC: LOS ANGELES, CA, USA (94%); SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA (93%); SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA, USA (79%) CALIFORNIA, USA (95%); NEW YORK, USA (79%); XIZANG, CHINA (56%) UNITED STATES (95%); CHINA (56%) Big Sur (Calif) ; California LOAD-DATE: March 16, 2007 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH GRAPHIC: Photos: THE GRASS CEILING -- Like anyone who builds in Big Sur, Zachary and Langka Treadwell had to satisfy a lot of California and local environmental regulations. Their hillside home, a cube of glass and rock, has a sod roof. (Photo by Noah Berger for The New York Times)(pg. F1) DISCRETE DESIGN -- The Treadwells have views 600 feet above the Pacific from their bedroom and terrace, but the house is relatively invisible to the outside world. NATURAL HABITAT -- Peter Mullin spent a decade building a home that clings to the rock. CHANGES -- Monique Bourin, a real estate broker, has been in Big Sur for 20 years. FLIP SIDE -- Michelle Rizzolo says the boom is pushing her employees out of Big Sur. (Photographs by Noah Berger for The New York Times)(pg. F8) Map of California highlighting Big Sur. (pg. F8)
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 1016 of 1258 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final Future of UBS Executive Part of Wall Street Chatter BYLINE: By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and MICHAEL J. de la MERCED; Julia Werdigier contributed reporting. SECTION: Section C; Column 5; Business/Financial Desk; Street Scene; Pg. 7 LENGTH: 453 words Kenneth D. Moelis, the president of UBS's investment bank in New York, is threatening to leave the firm, according to people briefed on the matter. Credited with turning UBS from a small Swiss bank into a Wall Street powerhouse over the last five years, Mr. Moelis has told colleagues and friends that he has begun looking for opportunities elsewhere, these people said. He has floated the idea of starting his own advisory firm or private equity shop, or possibly joining another bank, but it remains possible that Mr. Moelis could stay at the company and may be angling for more authority, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about personnel matters. Rohini Pragasam, a UBS spokeswoman, said that Mr. Moelis was still with the firm and declined to elaborate. Speculation about Mr. Moelis has spread throughout the company and across Wall Street in recent days. On Wednesday, a protege of Mr. Moelis, Jeffrey A. McDermott, who is one of three global co-heads of investment banking, said that he would leave on June 30 after six years at the firm. In an internal memo, UBS said that Mr. McDermott, who is based in New York, was leaving ''to pursue outside entrepreneurial opportunities.'' The loss of Mr. Moelis would be a blow for UBS, which ranked first in advising initial public offerings globally and seventh in advising on global mergers and acquisitions last year, according to the research firm Thomson Financial. Around Wall Street, Mr. Moelis is known for his long list of big clients and for a long history in investment banking, including high-profile stints at Drexel Burnham Lambert, which he left in 1990 after the firm filed for bankruptcy, and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where he ran the Los Angeles office. But Mr. Moelis has had frequent confrontations with UBS's managers in Switzerland, who he believes have not used the balance sheet aggressively enough, especially as the private equity market has grown. He has been embarrassed by instances in which he committed loans to clients, only to be told by his Swiss bosses that he could not make the transaction. Mr. Moelis and Mr. McDermott joined UBS in 2001 as part of a sweeping transformation of the firm by John P. Costas, then the chief executive of the investment bank and now the head of UBS's hedge fund, Dillon Read Capital Management. Once he arrived at UBS, Mr. Moelis hired 70 investment bankers during his first three months, pulling in talent from competitors like Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. Among them was Mr. McDermott, who was then a managing director and co-head of investment banking for the industrial large-capitalization group at Salomon Smith Barney.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 1017 of 1258 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final China Approves Property Law, Strengthening Its Middle Class BYLINE: By JOSEPH KAHN SECTION: Section A; Column 1; Foreign Desk; Pg. 1 LENGTH: 1047 words DATELINE: BEIJING, Friday, March 16 After more than a quarter-century of market-oriented economic policies and record-setting growth, China on Friday enacted its first law to protect private property explicitly. The measure, which was delayed a year ago amid vocal opposition from resurgent socialist intellectuals and old-line, left-leaning members of the ruling Communist Party, is viewed by its supporters as building a new and more secure legal foundation for private entrepreneurs and the country's urban middle-class home and car owners. But delays in pushing it through the Communist Party's generally pliant legislative arm, the National People's Congress, and a ban on news media discussion of the proposal, raise questions about the underlying intentions and the governing style of President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, experts say. Despite a high level of interest among intellectuals and businessmen and the unexpected decision last year to withdraw the measure from the legislative agenda at the last minute, neither leader has spoken about the matter publicly. Mr. Wen's two-hour address to the nation on the opening day of the annual two-week legislative session last week did not mention property rights. The measure could not pass the legislature, which acts under the party's authority, without the active support of the top leadership. Yet the conspicuous silence of Mr. Hu and Mr. Wen appears to be a form of tribute to the influence of current and former officials and leading scholars who argue that China's economic policies have fueled corruption and enriched the elite at the expense of the poor and the environment. ''My own view is that the leftist voices that have emerged are not going to disappear because we have a property law,'' said Zhu Xueqin, a historian and government expert who supports the law. ''On the contrary, they are stronger now than they have been in some time.'' The leadership did not so much overcome opposition to the property law as forbid it. Unlike in 2005, when leaders invited broad discussion about property rights, the latest drafts of the law were not widely circulated. Several left-leaning scholars, who favor preserving some elements of China's eroded socialist system, said they had come under pressure from their universities to stay silent. When one financial magazine, Caijing, defied the Propaganda Department's ban on reporting on the matter and published a cover story last week, it was ordered to halt distribution and reprint the issue without the offending article, people associated with the magazine said. While the law's final wording -- and the nature of any compromises necessary to build a consensus to pass it -- remain unclear, many mainstream scholars and business people have welcomed it. Several said they also approved of the way Mr. Hu and Mr. Wen had handled the opposition. ''I think the low-key approach was the best way to get this law passed,'' said Mao Shoulong, a public policy expert at People's University in Beijing. ''The point is to enact a new law, not to pick a fight.'' Mr. Zhu agreed. ''Their style is to say less and do more,'' he said. But the leadership's strategy did not resolve the underlying tensions. Hundreds of scholars and retired officials signed a petition against the law, which they said ''overturns the basic system of socialism.'' The petition claimed the law did too little to distinguish between private property gained legally through hard work and public property that falls into private hands through corruption. They also argued that China could not give state-owned property and private property the same legal status and still call itself socialist. Supporters of the law dispute the assertion that it will protect the ill-gotten gains of corruption, arguing that it will protect only legal property. In the past, Chinese have bought and sold property freely, but doing so in a legal vacuum. Supporters say they hope the law strengthens the rights of property holders, especially middle-class homeowners. China's urban middle class has fueled a real estate boom, even though all land is owned by the state and purchasers trade only the right to use property on the land for up to 70 years. The disposition of property after that term expires is one of many unsettled issues. But proponents of the law tend to remain quiet on the broader complaint that China's pretense of socialism has become more and more hollow. Leftists do not seem likely to give up their offensive. They scored an important victory recently when online petitions and an intensive campaign in the state-run news media appear to have prompted a leading American private equity company, the Carlyle Group, to scale back its planned investment in one of China's largest construction machinery manufacturers, Xugong Group. The investment had become a test of China's willingness to sell majority stakes in core industrial companies to foreign investors. Amid this tussle, Mr. Hu and Mr. Wen appear to have sought a middle ground. In public statements, Mr. Hu has promoted a ''harmonious society'' that does a better job of distributing wealth equitably and alleviates some of the excesses of pollution and corruption that have accompanied rapid growth. Mr. Wen has focused mainly on lifting rural incomes and increasing social spending. Those approaches have addressed some concerns of people on the left. But in practice, the two leaders have also sought to keep faith with business leaders and the rising middle class. Under their leadership, state-run banks have sold shares to foreign investors and overhauled bank management systems with the help of foreign consultants. As well as approving the property law, the legislature revised a corporate tax, ending an advantage foreign investors enjoyed over local companies for more than two decades. Mr. Wen and Mr. Hu have so far steered relatively small amounts of government revenue into the country's rudimentary social welfare system. And they continue to invest heavily in infrastructure and industrial expansion, helping the economy expand even faster than in the 1990s. Those measures, along with the property law, suggest that they will not casually abandon the pro-growth policies that have made China a leading economic power. URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: POLITICS (90%); PROPERTY LAW (90%); PUBLIC POLICY (90%); LEGISLATIVE BODIES (90%); LEGISLATORS (90%); ECONOMIC NEWS (89%); ECONOMIC POLICY (89%); LEGISLATION (78%); TRENDS (78%); FREEDOM OF SPEECH (78%); ETHICS (78%); DELAYS & POSTPONEMENTS (77%); APPROVALS (77%); POLITICAL PARTIES (76%); HEADS OF STATE & GOVERNMENT (76%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (76%); FREEDOM OF PRESS (74%); HISTORY (73%); PRIME MINISTERS (73%); MIDDLE INCOME PERSONS (75%) Law and Legislation; Economic Conditions and Trends; Ethics; Freedom of the Press; Freedom of Speech and Expression; Privatization COMPANY: CNINSURE INC (93%) TICKER: CISG (NASDAQ) (93%) PERSON: HU JINTAO (92%); WEN JIABAO (91%) Joseph Kahn; Hu Jintao (Pres); Wen Jiabao (Prime Min) GEOGRAPHIC: BEIJING, CHINA (58%) NORTH CENTRAL CHINA (58%) CHINA (95%) China; China; China LOAD-DATE: March 16, 2007 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 1018 of 1258 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final The Stylist Who Would Be Star BYLINE: By RUTH LA FERLA SECTION: Section G; Column 3; Thursday Styles; Pg. 1 LENGTH: 1616 words DATELINE: LOS ANGELES RACHEL ZOE strums her moods like the strings of a guitar. Her tone, dulcet when she talks about the women she has dressed -- Hollywood nymphets like Keira Knightley and Mischa Barton -- turns raspy when she catalogs her woes. There is the jackhammer pounding from the construction site opposite her house in the Hollywood hills; there is the walk-in closet that cannot begin to contain her personal wardrobe, its contents spilling into three adjacent rooms. But Ms. Zoe, a celebrity stylist almost as famous as the stars she dresses, coaxes out a plangent chord on the subject that most vexes her: the rude gossip that trails her wherever she goes. ''It's like being punished by your parents for something you didn't do,'' she said last week, in response to rumors that have variously portrayed her as a taskmistress who foists diet-drug cocktails on her clients to whittle them into sample sizes, and as suffering herself from an eating disorder that has ravaged her tiny frame. Most grievous, in her view, is the talk that she ceaselessly schemes to upstage her clients by thrusting herself at the camera with the likes of Ms. Barton, Ms. Knightley and Nicole Richie (who deserted Ms. Zoe last month for a rival stylist). Snatching the spotlight ''was never my intention,'' Ms. Zoe insisted over Diet Cokes and brownies on her palm-shaded patio. ''I never set out to be in the public eye.'' In recent months Ms. Zoe has parlayed her fame (or notoriety), her talents and a readily identifiable Rachel Zoe look -- a studiedly disheveled distillation of vintage clothes and current designs -- into a multitentacled fashion career. The latest red-carpet stylist to affix her name to a product line, Ms. Zoe, who began as a stylist for YM magazine in the 1990s, stands to eclipse them all. In the last year, L'Wren Scott, who dresses Nicole Kidman and Ellen Barkin, introduced her own fashion label. Patricia Field, the costume designer for ''Sex and the City'' and ''The Devil Wears Prada,'' now markets her own line; and Andrea Lieberman, who dresses Faith Hill and Mary J. Blige, designs jewelry for Mouawad and consults on L.A.M.B., the sportswear collection conceived by her client Gwen Stefani. As for Ms. Zoe, she juggles projects. She is at work on a handbag collection, her second, for Leiber, formerly Judith Leiber. ''She is one of those rare personalities in this business who can make a name for herself, and in this case almost brand herself,'' said Frank Zambrelli, the president of Leiber and Ms. Zoe's collaborator in the bags' design. Baroque in their styling, they sell for about $2,500 to $9,000. Charlie Corwin, a Hollywood producer who with Jamie Patricof is developing a television pilot with Ms. Zoe, calls her one of the world's most influential fashion personalities. ''More so than in the past,'' he said, ''the fashion industry today is largely driven by celebrities. Rachel is the conduit to that. And certain members of the old guard in fashion are probably feeling threatened by that.'' Ms. Zoe, who reportedly commands up to $6,000 a day for talking her clients out of their dungarees and baseball caps (a figure she would not confirm), acknowledged that the gossip stings. ''Over the last year I've learned to develop a really thick skin,'' she said. But the whiff of scandal that clings to her is an integral part of the Zoe mystique. Cinco Calfee, the senior manager for strategic marketing at Samsung, which is featuring Ms. Zoe in a print campaign for its BlackJack cellphone, said that her controversial image has been a boon. ''It only raises her profile,'' Ms. Calfee said. Among potential Samsung customers, ''she's getting a lot of attention. People who didn't know who she was a year ago know her now.'' Ms. Zoe, who styled spring 2007 advertising campaigns for Leiber and the Jimmy Choo shoe brand, has simultaneously been working on staff uniforms for the Thompson Hotel in Beverly Hills, in collaboration with Jenni Kayne, a Los Angeles designer. She consults for Piperlime.com, a Web site selling shoes that is run by the Gap, and performs a similar service for Revolveclothing.com, a popular shopping site that features Ms. Zoe's styling tips. She is writing a guide, ''Style A to Zoe,'' to be published by Warner Books in October. Although confidentiality agreements prohibit her from talking about her plans, she said she is about to complete arrangements to style or design for at least two well-known luxury brands. Her agent, Todd Shemarya, confirmed that Ms. Zoe will be a creative consultant for Halston, the legendary fashion house, which this week was bought by the film producer Harvey Weinstein and a private equity group. She will help put together a creative team for the house. PUBLICLY hiring a stylist to design or market a fashion label is a departure for the fashion industry. A half-dozen years ago, stylists were all but invisible -- service personnel hovering behind the scenes, shrouded in sweats and darting to center stage only to pin a stray seam. Today they are the boldface names. ''They're walking down the carpet, sitting in the front rows at fashion shows and invited to fabulous parties'' said Bonnie Fuller, the editorial director of American Media, which publishes Star magazine. ''They're living the celebrity lifestyle.'' In Ms. Zoe's case, the pictures seem to tell the tale. Last fall she appeared in Harper's Bazaar celebrating her 35th birthday party at Social Hollywood, a club on Sunset Boulevard, partying with intimates like Debra Messing, Mary-Kate Olsen, Ms. Knightley, Ms. Barton and Ms. Richie. She is routinely seen in celebrity gossip magazines like Star, toting supersize handbags and wearing alien-style specs. She hobnobs with her clients -- her ''girls,'' as she calls them -- in much the same way that Halston socialized with Liza Minnelli in the 1970s and early '80s, outfitting her, then escorting her to Studio 54. Ms. Zoe stands to profit from similar associations. Socializing with the stars ''gives the stylist a certain cachet of being in the know,'' said Dana Telsey, an independent retail analyst. Stylists like her ''do have the ability to make a name for themselves,'' Ms. Telsey said, and to transform their personal wattage into a valuable marketing tool. She added that the phenomenon, while ''still in its infancy,'' bears watching nonetheless. To Ms. Zoe's detractors, especially her peers, the phenomenon rankles. ''It's shocking to see a stylist get as much publicity as her clients,'' said Wayne Scot Lukas, who has dressed Janet Jackson and Meryl Streep. Mr. Lukas, who sells a sportswear collection on HSN shopping channel, said that for a stylist like Ms. Zoe to ''step away from her primary role as caretaker and actively seek out the flashbulbs is the kiss of death.'' He suggested that her angling for the spotlight would cost Ms. Zoe clients. Not so, she maintained. Aside from Ms. Richie, whom she declined to discuss, ''I haven't lost anyone,'' she said. Ms. Zoe both caters to and circulates among Hollywood's hard-partying set, young actresses who are the subject of continual rumors in the tabloids and on the Web. As their stylist, she has been caught in the cross hairs, portrayed as a controlling ''older sister,'' as dependent on drugs as some of her clients. Those rumors, Ms. Zoe said, ''not only have no merit, they are so opposite of reality.'' Sounding by turns wounded and willful, she added: ''I've never touched a drug in my life. Until recently, I didn't even know what crystal meth was. And I haven't known the name of a diet drug since Dexatrim in the '80s. The only person I've told to lose weight is my mom.'' Mr. Weinstein, who has known Ms. Zoe for years, called her ''the straightest, most conservative person I know. Socially she is boring. The most I've seen Rachel do at any party or event is have a glass of white wine.'' Some suggest Ms. Zoe is vulnerable in part because she has forged relationships with clients that some of them find oppressive. Inexperienced in the ways of style, they appear to have refashioned themselves in her image -- Zoebots, as rival stylists call them -- dressed in look-alike Grecian draped gowns and Mod-inspired minis. Ms. Zoe concedes that she has a hard time keeping professional and personal relationships apart. ''I nurture these girls,'' she said of her clients and styling assistants. ''We're like family. I don't know how to do it any other way. We laugh, we fight, we let our guards down. If we bond, we have to hang out.'' She has even enlisted her husband, Rodger Berman, an investment banker turned awards-show entrepreneur, as a collaborator. ''He goes to the shows in Europe with me,'' she said. ''And here at home, my girls have done whole fashion shows for him.'' Her relationships come from the heart, she said, her style sense ''from the gut.'' Mr. Zambrelli of Leiber is impressed by her radar. ''She brings almost a prescient sense of where the market is going to be, and of where peoples' tastes are,'' he said. Ms. Zoe has a personal affinity for vintage pieces, which she mixes with pristine Gucci, Hermes and Chanel. Pulling a leopard-spot Saint Laurent coat from her closet, she gushed: ''My mother gave me this. It's fabulous, isn't it? I wore it the very first hour.'' Her makeup, too, owes a debt to the old-school glamour of an Edie Sedgwick or Brigitte Bardot. ''I'm always going to have a smoky eye and a matte lip,'' she said. Then, in the next breath, she unabashedly contradicted herself. ''I'm going to head toward a polished lady look,'' she mused. ''I'm feeling Grace Kelly. I like to mix it up. ''It's about change, isn't it?'' Directory: ~hesterj -> Entrepreneur Entrepreneur -> Byline: By armand limnande section: Section mm; Column 0; T: Men's Fashion Magazine; Pg. 76 Length Download 4.36 Mb. Share with your friends:
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