Category: EOLIS Perspective

Leading together, Mike and Wendeen set in motion the 1974 legislative effort in the State of New York to overhaul the statute that applies to “headhunters.”

Marching into the offices of Assemblymen and Senators, Wendeen used Mike’s talking points to persuade them, one by one, to give up the 1904 law that prohibited recruiting by “employment agents.”

In 1975, Mike and Wendeen celebrated at the largest state convention of “headhunters” the triumph of our current modernized statute.  On the occasion of Mike’s retirement from the world of business, Wendeen toasts the power behind her role as the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Personnel Consultants of the State of New York.

Until her recent visit with Hal Steinbrenner in the owners’ suite, she knew just a tad about baseball from Rudy Giuliani, Randy Levine, and Alex Rodriguez.

But last week, her knowledge base of all things baseball skyrocketed.
Wendeen supported a unique Citymeals-on-Wheels event that included not only the best box seats, but plenty of tutoring on Yankees history in the owner’s suite.

Escorted into the inner sanctum of the Yankees’ homeland by Ross, a wonderful new young friend substituting for her son, they chatted amiably with Hal Steinbrenner at the grand buffet that included tall drinks on the house. The bartender, a 12-year veteran turned out to be an old friend from her days at City Hall.

The visit got better when Yankees President Randy Levine arrived to provide a bear hug and a reminder to call him — after the playoffs. Then his wife Mindy showed up and wowed the gathering crowd  with stories of Randy and Wendeen’s days and nights in City Hall dramas during the early years of Rudy’s reign.

A special night to remember with Ross, whose eyes lit up so brightly as he checked out every piece of memorabilia and explained its significance.

At a luncheon held at the Hilton, Wendeen is the keynote speaker moving from one roundtable to another, coaching lawyers on the cusp of partnership regarding four key strategies to make the cut.

Wendeen says, “On home, in business, and on the road, negotiations revolve around how much do you love me and who is boss.”  Well channeled competitive juices lead to finely tuned negotiating skills at home, in the workplace, and on the road, taking lessons she brought from her experience as an interviewer to the realms of politics and card rooms. Wendeen uses poker as a metaphor in her keynote speech in describing the four basic strategies one must master to become savvy in negotiations at any table. EOLIS Institute for Leadership customizes “people reading” seminars for law firms, legal departments, business groups, and individual executives.

Email emead@eolis.com for further information.

The Women’s Forum small dinners are reason enough for accomplished women to want to be part of this organization.  It is filled with leaders and trend setters who share empathy, enthusiasm and desire to achieve more.

Tonight’s dinner was a salon style affair featuring women’s stories of transformative travels around the world.

On the first business day in January 1995, Governor George Pataki invited Wendeen to lunch at his new digs on the 57th floor of World Trade Center 2.

He showed her around the offices and upon opening the door to a luxurious space with a drop dead view of the New York Harbor, proposed that she accept a position in the administration as First Assistant and Senior Advisor to the Governor.

It was an offer she could not refuse and a job to which she devoted herself as an independent thinker rather than a political appointee.

Mindful of the 1993 bombing below Tower One, Wendeen took the position of fire marshal seriously and began to educate herself on evacuation planning.

As the rebuilt World Trade Center now rises to become the tallest building in Manhattan, Wendeen recalls the idea for Hope’s Champion Task Force was inspired by her days in the Governor’s office – before their move uptown.

Last weekend Rick Marek, President of the prestigious real estate leasing boutique, Vortex Group,  hosted an  annual summer cocktail party with tall drinks and big servings of Wendeen’s homemade lobster salad at his luxurious Watermill spread.

Longtime friends, Rick and Wendeen began their respective careers in the same year–more than a few years ago and are known to visit with each other and mutual friends on Marek’s manicured lawn each summer. En route to the lawn this year, Wendeen chatted  up  a crowd  in the cook’s borrowed kitchen including  the likes of Latin rainmaking lawyer Carlos Mendez Penate and his wife Ellen who joined Rick and his weekend house guests for dinner and a rousing, yet polite, conversation on political hot button issues of the day.

At a private reception in her chambers, Chief Judge Loretta Preska (S.D.N.Y.) hosted fellow members of the New York branch of the International Women’s Forum.  Having arrived with a suitcase at her door, the uniquely touching Loretta later sent me off to my flight for Madrid with a doggie bag in hand.

All be it a short visit, Loretta’s words of wisdom and genuine embrace of her new “sorority”, reminded me of why women committed to leadership in their fields are so at home in this group.  As Alair Townsend, the former publisher of Crain’s Business once told me, “The best reason to be part of the Women’s Forum of New York (and the International Women’s Forum) is because it is a great group of women.”  Greater today for Loretta’s inclusion in its ranks.

Gotham’s preeminent political reporter Wayne Barrett leaves no stones unturned in covering New York City’s rich, famous, and powerful players, except when dining on porterhouse with a friend.

The legendary master in “digging deeper”, Wayne reminisces with Wendeen on his pursuit of inside information, dating back to her days in the august corridors of power within New York’s City Hall and onward in the Executive Chamber.

When Wayne is not working on the big story or participating in a televised round table, he pauses for dinner but never from his search for nuggets.  Today, he probes of all in his path on the never ending possibilities of Giuliani’s and Pataki’s future prospects.  Wendeen still listens and smiles.

Most know Wayne as a fearless muckraker; Wendeen knows him better as a gentle soul with lots of heart.

Prince Albert was the consummate host at his private reception during the Monaco iGaming Conference of 2010.  A pet project of the prince, the conference attracted attention in the worldwide gaming community.

As moderator of a panel on iGaming-“Future Winners in America”, I predicted that major Nevada casinos would most likely be the primary beneficiaries, but that no palpable progress would be made until 2011.

The prediction was correct, but the reality of 2011 progress comes with a twist that neither the debonair Prince nor I contemplated during our chat at the Monaco Igaming Awards Ceremony. See Eolis Commentary of March 28, 2011.

On a cloudless night before 9/11 changed the world, America’s Mayor chatted up Republican bigwigs and New York friends on a boatride that highlighted the view of the Twin Towers.  Tonight, he reflected on the bittersweet justice that has finally been done.