Farther down the hall, Open Kernel and CohesiveFT, a cloud-computing firm run by Patrick Kerpan, ex-CTO of software icon Borland, run larger operations.
For instance, Shanghai city officials pressed the state-run company that owns the Peace Hotel, an Art Deco icon, to undertake a multimillion-dollar renovation.
Likewise, Alec Baldwin's perpetual threat to run for mayor of New York or Betty White's reinvention as a gay icon demonstrates that political branding can give actors an appeal beyond TV and movies.