Who

One of the most powerful publicists in town, Magrino heads up the PR agency that bears her name. She's best known for serving as Martha Stewart's pal and longtime mouthpiece.

Backstory

Long Island native Magrino attended Skidmore and spent a decade in the PR department at Crown Publishing before going out on her own. In 1992, she founded the Susan Magrino Agency with her younger sister, Allyn. Martha was one of her first clients: Magrino had worked with her at Crown, which published Martha's first book, Entertaining, in 1982. Since then, Magrino's worked alongside Ms. Stewart through thick and thin and built a successful PR agency that handles dozens of other clients in the fashion, beauty, dining and hospitality. She now has a staff of 25 at her Midtown offices.

Of note

Magrino's client list spans hospitality (W Hotels, Club Med), media (Harper's Bazaar, Readers Digest), fashion (Dennis Basso, Ann Taylor), dining (Alain Ducasse, Sirio Maccioni's Le Cirque, Gordon Ramsay), home furnishings (David Monn, Preston Bailey) and liquor (Dom Perignon, Imperia Vodka). Her most famous client, of course, is Martha, whom she advised both before and after the domestic diva's spectacular fall. The events of 2004 put pressure on the relationship—Stewart was believed to have been unhappy with Magrino's crisis management skills and brought in another agency to pitch in—but Magrino provided Martha with a shoulder to lean on throughout her year-long ordeal. (Martha also spent some of her final pre-incarceration hours gloomily strolling up and down the beach at Magrino's wedding in the Bahamas.) The PR vet has been back at Martha's side since her release, guiding her through a tumultuous experiment with reality TV (and a feud with Donald Trump), new book deals, TV shows, magazines, product lines, and more.

Personal

Magrino's husband is James Dunning, chief of Doubledown Media, which publishes specialty magazines like Trader. Magrino and Dunning live at Sutton Place, in the same building as Sheila Birnbaum.