MARK NORCROSS
NORCROSS FURNISHING LEADER MAKES
THE WORLD A BETTER AND BEAUTIFUL PLACE
Mark Norcross wants to make the world a better place. The president and CEO of Mark David, the High Point, North Carolina–based furniture company, understands the hospitality industry from both sides: as an international traveler whose brief takes him from Beverly Hills to Beijing and as the supplier of high-end furniture with high-end finishes to some of the most luxurious hotels and resorts in the world. He uses his success, connections and business acumen to support a wide variety of humanitarian causes and institutions, locally and across America.
Rolex
Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative
A modern office in Geneva, Switzerland may seem an incongruous place for those who rely on antiquity and personal relationships for inspiration. But to Rebecca Irvin, program director of Rolex’s Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, the contradiction is easily reconciled. Rolex is a company committed to exploring “new frontiers”—even those distant in time. And, says Irvin, Rolex “has a long history of supporting visionary individuals.”
Hugo Boss
International Arts Program
Hugo Boss. Glam designer. Edgy and elegant, classically sophisticated clothes, purity of line and color. But the fashion icon has other faces.
One such face is Emily Jacir. A multimedia conceptual artist, Jacir is the 2008 and seventh recipient of the Hugo Boss Prize; an exhibit of her work, awarded to her upon her win, debuted at the Guggenheim in February 2009. Her work is provocative, polemical, and disturbing. Her signature piece recaps the assassination of a Palestinian intellectual in 1971. Using photography, performance and video, Jacir’s multimedia “installations” use space and materials in original, radical ways.
John Paul DeJoria
The Man with the Midas Touch Shares His Success with Others
If the saying “everything he touches turns to gold” relates to anyone, it must be applied to billionaire businessman, environmentalist, and philanthropist John Paul DeJoria. DeJoria’s business ventures include John Paul Mitchell Systems, co-founded in 1980 with hairdresser Paul Mitchell, and the Patron Spirits Company, co-founded in 1989 with business partner Martin Crowley. His latest venture is John Paul Pet, providing hair and personal grooming products for animals.
