Jason Strauss
With partner Noah Tepperberg, Jason Strauss formed the Strategic Group, which manages the nightspots Marquee, Avenue, Tao (in NYC and Las Vegas), and Lavo, which is located in Vegas' Palazzo Hotel.
Manhattan-raised Strauss and Noah Tepperberg first started working together as college students, promoting parties in the city when they were home on vacation. After graduating from Boston University, Strauss returned to New York and turned to promoting full-time, teaming up with Tepperberg to host events in Manhattan and the Hamptons. In 2001, they founded the Strategic Group to give their promoting and event production efforts a name. Two years later, they opened Marquee, converting a 7,500-square-foot former taxi garage in far west Chelsea into one of the city's most high profile hotspots, attracting a steady stream of boldfaced names and the attendant namechecks in Page Six. Tepperberg and Strauss have their hands in several venues these days. There's Marquee, which continues to make a mint even though the celeb quotient isn't what it was. They're also partners in the circus-like Tao in Midtown and its outpost at the Venetian in Las Vegas. In 2008, Strauss and Tepperberg launched another Vegas venue, a restaurant/nightclub called Lavo located in the Palazzo Hotel returned to New York for the gastropub AVENUE in Chelsea. [Image via Getty, with Fergie]