André Balazs

Brought up mostly in Cambridge, Massachusetts, André Balazs is a graduate of Cornell and Columbia Universities whose success in the hospitality sector has been phenomenal. A leading hotelier and restaurateur, Balazs’ portfolio numbers London’s Chiltern Firehouse and the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles. A divorced father of two, Balazs has variously dated Naomi Campbell, Cameron Diaz, Daphne Guinness, Chelsea Handler, Courtney Love, Sharon Stone, Uma Thurman and Renee Zellweger. In 2014, he told The New York Times: “Never to say ‘no’, it’s an absolute mantra… Part of the culture of [my] company is always to say, ‘Let me try’.”