Who

New York's "tourism czar," George Fertitta is in charge of packaging and marketing New York City to tourists and corporations alike.

Backstory

In the early 1970s, Fertitta teamed up with a partner, John Margeotes, to start an advertising agency; over three decades, Margeotes/Fertitta and Partners handled work for companies like Godiva, Hearst, McGraw-Hill, Campbell Soup, Disney, and Coca-Cola. (Margeotes was the creative talent; Feritta handled the business end of things.) Margeotes eventually retired from the agency and in 2005 it was merged with Neil Powell's upstart to form Margeotes Fertitta Powell. Fertitta later sold his share in the firm. Seeking a new challenge, he met with then-deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff to discuss the city's promotional plans, a meeting that apparently went rather smoothly considering Mayor Bloomberg named him CEO of NYC & Co. in 2006. He replaced former tourism chief (and alleged Giuliani paramour) Cristyne Nicholas; as part of his new job, Bloomberg also put him in charge of two other city promotional groups, NYC Big Events and NYC Marketing.

Of note

Fertitta's job is fairly straightforward: It's up to him to figure out how to get more people to come to New York City, eat in restaurants, see Broadway shows, stay in expensive hotels, and buy lots and lots of stuff. Fertitta—and his boss Mayor Bloomberg—are hoping to attract 50 million visitors annually within the next few years, up from the roughly 44 million people who visited the city in 2006. With an increased budget, Fertitta tapped the agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty to design a series of ad campaigns. In December 2006, NYC & Co. launched its promo effort, Open/Book ("New York is Open, so Book it"), which was targeted at tourists in the U.K., Ireland, Spain, and Italy. (One uninspired ad that Londoners got to see on the Tube: A poster that read "Pound for pound, New York City is the place to be. Well, make that pound for dollar.") A more recent campaign with the tag line "Just Ask the Locals" has featured local notables like Robert De Niro, Julianne Moore, Chuck Close, Jimmy Fallon, Kevin Bacon, Cynthia Rowley, Eric Ripert, Ivanka Trump, Mickey Boardman, Tim Gunn, Itzhak Perlman, Peter Gelb, Dany Levy, and Tiki Barber.

Namedrop

Fertitta works closely with NYC & Co.'s board chair, Metropolitan Museum of Art president Emily K. Rafferty, and executive committee, whose members include Bill Rudin, Ellen Futter, Kate Levin, Michael Cardozo, Ed Skyler, Robert Lieber, James L. Nederlander, Peter Ward, Tim Zagat, Tom Bernstein, Barry Gosin, Patti Harris, and restaurateurs Stephen Hanson, Nick Valenti, and Danny Meyer.

Personal

Fertitta and his wife, Naomi, have two sons. They live on the Upper East Side, in the same building as Steve Brill.