HOT WHEELS
You are what you drive, even more so if you’re a CEO.
The top 10 cars favored by chief executives – who don’t have to pay for their wheels or chauffeurs – feature deep luxury, such as sterling silver champagne flutes and small fridges that keep the Dom Perignon chilled even when the engine’s off.
In its first “Top 10 Cars for CEOs,” Chief Executive magazine says the favorite chauffeur-driven car is the $408,000 Mercedes Maybach. (German luxury cars dominate the list.) Tying for most-favored sedan, with or without driver, were the BMW 760Li, the Audi A8L and the Rolls-Royce Phantom.
Best weekend sports car for CEOs is the Porsche Turbo, followed by the all-American Ford GT. Best convertibles: Mercedes SL55, followed by Cadillac XLR, with its push-button retractable roof. Best SUV is the Porsche Cayenne. And, for off-road rampaging, CEOs’ favorite SUV is the Ford Range Rover.
RUSSIAN ROW
Nothing irritates a professional investor more than snotty business school students. So no wonder stock guru Jimmy Rogers got his dander up in a widely circulated e-mail exchange with Dmitry Alimov, a Russian student at the Harvard Business School.
After Alimov called Rogers “wrong, wrong, wrong” about his native land, Rogers sent back a long missive – notable for its use of innumerable synonyms for lies (“balderdash” and “codswallop” among them).
After Alimov asks the investor to “kindly abstain from spreading inaccurate information,” Rogers responds, “You might read the section of my book about Russia’s reported figures. Or get some one to read it to you.”
Sweet ways win
Smooth female CEOs like Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard probably won’t be fazed by it. But some women might get steamed over HayGroup’s new research that suggests style does matter after all. It advises women executives to “act like a man . . . but don’t ignore your ‘feminine side.’ “
The study of 45 women bosses says the most successful female execs “use a blend of both masculine and feminine leadership styles.” They know when to hit someone over the head and bully them, and they know when to switch to being sweet and nurturing – a distinct advantage, the report says, over male counterparts, who are often stuck in rigid tough-guy roles.
THE WEEK’S WINNERS & LOSERS
WINNERS
John Reed, former Citigroup boss, got back in business as interim chief of the New York Stock Exchange.
Barry Diller, head of e-commerce giant InterActiveCorp, gobbled up online travel biz Hotwire.com for $665 million.
Alan Lacy, Sears CEO, continued his company’s reorg, selling National Tire & Battery to TBC Corp. for about $260 million.
Dick Parsons, AOL Time Warner chief, saw the media conglomerate’s HBO and TNT networks snare 18 Emmy Awards.
LOSERS:
H. Carl McCall quit the NYSE board to distance himself from its disgraced ex-chairman, Dick Grasso.
Edna Morris lost her gig as Red Lobster president after letting customers pig out on $22.99, all-you-can-eat crab dinners.
Al Goldstein, publisher of flesh magazine Screw, suspended publication just shy of its 34th anniversary.
Jean-Marie Messier, ex-CEO of Vivendi, saw $24 million in severance frozen by a federal court at the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission.