OUT & ABOUT
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Private law firm hours on a government salary: That’s one way the director of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Adam Szubin, described his job at the Partnership for Public Service’s annual gala last Monday. But his main points addressed how fulfilling he finds the work and how indebted he is to philanthropist Samuel Heyman for leading him to it.
Mr. Szubin first considered a government job when he won a Heyman Fellowship at Harvard Law School. He never looked back. Over the years, he has urged hundreds of young people to follow him into the federal workforce at events organized by the Partnership for Public Service, the nonprofit organization Mr. Heyman founded in 2001 to spark a brain wave to Washington.
Mr. Heyman’s financial commitment has remained firm as executive director Max Stier has built the organization, which is preparing to issue its first full-scale report on government service next year. But Mr. Heyman and Mr. Stier understand that organizations that rely on one person’s generosity have some inherent limitations.
That’s why Mr. Heyman gave an additional $20 million this fall to help the organization develop a larger donor base. It’s also why the organization holds its major fundraising event in New York, even though the Partnership for Public Service — and the government jobs it promotes — are in Washington, D.C.
The challenge is to convert the people who come because they are friends of the Heymans into people who want to support the partnership’s mission.
One such friend is Senator Lieberman, Independent of Connecticut, who spoke of what he believes is the main obstacle to effective government. “Partisanship poisons our system. I fear it may cast a cloud over public service,” he said.
The other honoree was Dennis Haysbert, an actor who played the president of the United States on the television show “24.” Acknowledging his own lack of experience in public service, he spoke of his sister, Rita Haysbert, and his father, Charles Haysbert Sr., who served as a temporary police officer in San Mateo, Calif., before becoming sheriff at the San Francisco airport, and his sister, a teacher.
CELEBRATING A FASHIONISTA: Some gatherings become just another holiday party this time of year, but it wasn’t so at Julie Macklowe’s 29th birthday party Saturday, a bash that everyone wanted to be at to celebrate one of New York’s most outrageous hedge fund fashionistas. Ms. Macklowe and her real estate executive husband, William Macklowe, who works at his father’s firm Macklowe Properties, held court at the Upper East Side Japanese restaurant Geisha, located near two of Ms. Macklowe’s favorite haunts, Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys. Her preferred spot at the party was on the dance floor, rocking to 1980s tunes. Spotted: Dr. Lisa Airan, Lisa Anastos, Donya Bommer, Robert Burke, William Lauder, Patrick McMullan, Joseph Perella, Jill Swid, and beaming in-laws Harry and Linda Macklowe. Birthday wishes are also due to Edward Pantzer, who on December 9 celebrated his 60th with family at the Four Seasons.