Who

As Mayor Bloomberg's main squeeze, Taylor is New York's de facto first lady.

Backstory

Taylor grew up in a firmly Republican old-money family in Greenwich and attended the swanky Milton Academy and Dartmouth before heading off to Columbia Business School. After working as an investment banker at Smith Barney, in 1999 she was hired as a VP at KeySpan Energy. She soon switched over to the public sector, becoming deputy secretary for finance and housing under Governor George Pataki and then, in 2003, New York's superintendent of banks, a position that entailed regulating the state's lenders, check cashers, and mortgage industries.

In 2007, Taylor stepped down—she said the newly-elected governor Eliot Spitzer "ought to have his own people" do the job—and accepted a job offer at Wolfensohn & Co., the boutique investment bank founded by James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank. Though she remains at Wolfensohn, Taylor once again has a foot in the public sector: In mid-2007, Spitzer appointed her chair of the Hudson River Park Trust, the city agency charged with remaking the West Side waterfront and kick-starting the long-stalled redevelopment of Piers 40 and 57.

Drama

In 2006, the White House nominated Taylor to run the FDIC, the agency that insures bank deposits, but various shadowy forces eventually quashed the nomination. Why the snub? It's believed that Mayor Bloomberg's hard-line position on gun violence and illegal gun-running upset the National Rifle Association, which in turn put pressure on Bush to rescind his offer to Taylor. In what may have been a subtle protest, Bloomberg subsequently cancelled an appearance at a White House dinner.

The look

At 5' 10", Taylor towers over the mayor, especially when she's in heels—he's just 5' 8". And although she's often spotted by Bloomberg's side in standard-issue business suits, she apparently does have a more glam side. She's received a nod of approval from none other than Anna Wintour, who praised Taylor's sartorial choices and allotted her a five-page spread in Vogue's August 2003 issue.

Personal

Taylor and Bloomberg have been dating since 2001. They had the good fortuna of being introduced by Diana Fortuna, head of the financial watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission. Taylor lives with the mayor at his townhouse on East 79th Street and spends weekends with him at his homes in Westchester, Vail, London, and Bermuda.