Atop Capital’s Guest Lists, an Outsider: Obama White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Atop Capital’s Guest Lists, an Outsider
By RACHEL SWARNS
Published: December 12, 2008


(Robert Carl/Ravinia Festival)
SAVVY Desirée Rogers, center, at an event with Linda Johnson Rice, left, and Valerie Jarrett.

The holiday bash at the Phillips Collection art museum last week brimmed with bubbly and bold-faced names. But party people in the know breezed past the senators and television personalities to hover around a striking, willowy woman with a shimmering Oscar de la Renta dress and an unfamiliar face. The woman was Desirée Rogers, the 49-year-old Chicago corporate executive and civic leader who streaked to the top of this city’s A-list last month when President-elect Barack Obama announced that she would take on the role of social secretary in his White House.

Ms. Rogers, an Obama fund-raiser and an executive at Allstate Financial, will oversee every White House social event from Easter egg hunts to lavish state dinners (along with those oh-so-important guest lists). An invitation to make her acquaintance has quickly become one of the most coveted accouterments among the political elite.

Ms. Rogers will be the country’s first black presidential social secretary when she settles into the East Wing in January. And the requests for her presence at exclusive social events here are already streaming in. After eight years of the Bush administration’s early-to-bed presidency, Washington hostesses are hoping the Obamas will revitalize political night life. “She’s going to get invitations hourly, truly,” said Ann Stock, who served as social secretary during the Clinton administration and dined last month with Ms. Rogers.

“This is an historic moment and you have tremendous interest in the White House right now,” added Ms. Stock, a vice president of the Kennedy Center. “She really is, if you will, the face of the new administration.”

Originally from New Orleans, Ms. Rogers has an M.B.A. from Harvard, a philanthropic bent, a penchant for designer fashions, a diverse and powerful group of friends and a reputation for stylish entertaining in her Gold Coast condominium. Her name appears regularly in the society pages in Chicago, where she is a fixture at fund-raising galas and is on a first-name basis with the city’s politicians, corporate executives and cultural leaders....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/fashion/14secretary.html

[Uzybone]

1. Nice...

like Borat would say...very nice.

[rvablue]

2. Only one kick? I'll give it another....nice article! n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

3. She's stunning! I predict an exciting social scene in Barack and Michelle's D.C. nt

[Cha]

4. Tres Interesting~ Rec'd~ We're going

to be hearing a lot more about Desiree Rogers and I, for one, heard it here first:fistbump: