Beyond Vassar

Four Housemates on Top of the World: Politician, CEO, Media Mogul, and Entrepreneur

By Jessica Winum
Rick Lazio
Rick Lazio
Steven Kluger
Steven Kluger
Lloyd Braun
Lloyd Braun
Michael Naso
Michael Naso

In 1979/80, in Vassar's Terrace Apartment 44, four senior housemates ( class of '80) lived, as they tell it, mostly studiously. Three were preparing for law school; the fourth had his eye on a career in international business. While at Vassar, one was active in student and Republican party politics, one headed Vassar's student entertainment committee, one was a basketball player and member of the French majors committee, one fostered his burgeoning interest in the music and entertainment industry. Together they shopped for groceries -- "hundreds of dollars a week," recalls one -- prepared meals, and ate. They spent hours playing the board game Risk, "the classic game of strategy and world domination." Looking back with 20th-reunion hindsight, one might ask, Did their board game choice reflect their ambitions? * Maybe. Certainly, today each is sitting on top of his world. * The student politician is a U.S. congressman running for the senate. The former head of campus entertainment now co-chairs a major Hollywood television division. The French major is president of a multi-billion dollar investment company. The music and entertainment fan owns his own talent agency. Just how much Risk did these four play?

The Politician: Rick Lazio

lazio_fall2000
lazio_fall2000
Even before he stepped into the race against Hillary Rodham Clinton for United States Senator from New York, Republican Congressman Rick Lazio was considered a fast-rising star in GOP ranks. He had won his congressional seat with an upset victory in 1992 over an 18-year Democratic incumbent in Long Island's second congressional district. In his current (fourth) term he has served as assistant majority leader in the House, deputy majority whip, and chair of the House Banking Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity.

Lazio majored in political science at Vassar and earned his law degree in 1983 from American University in Washington, DC. He returned to his native Long Island, NY, earned admission to the New York State Bar, and joined the office of the Suffolk County District Attorney. In 1987, he was promoted to executive assistant district attorney. The following year, he became a partner in the law firm of Glass, Lazio, & Glass.

Lazio's career in electoral politics began in 1989 with a successful campaign for a seat in the Suffolk County legislature. Of his student political experiences at Vassar (he was active in student government and headed the campus Republican club), he once said, "I learned how to work within the system. I learned how to respect and at the same time confront authority, to challenge authority when I thought the answer was not satisfactory, or that we could do better."

Once, on his way to a class of '80 mini-reunion in Manhattan, Lazio was greeted by protesters objecting to a bill he was sponsoring to overhaul U.S. housing policies. Just four days after being nominated as New York's GOP senate candidate, Lazio was back on campus-without press-to share 20th-reunion cocktails with his classmates.

The CEO: Steven Kluger

kluger_fall2000
kluger_fall2000
Steven Kluger is president and chief executive officer of General Electric Capital Markets Services Inc., an investment subsidiary of the international GE corporation. He joined GE Capital in 1988 as vice president. Over the years he has worked on strategic acquisitions, financing of commercial aviation and energy projects, and global infrastructure development. By 1997, he was president and general manager of GE Capital Markets Services. In this position, he oversees the finances and investments of GE and its subsidiary companies and manages 275 people worldwide.

After graduating from Vassar, Kluger stayed for another year to earn a master's in French in 1981. He then began work at Irving Trust Company in New York City, where he took part in their international training program. In 1987, Kluger earned his M.B.A. in finance from New York University, then began working at Credit Anstalt, an Austrian governmental financial institution.

Kluger returned to campus both for reunion and in April, when his former housemate, Lloyd Braun, was executive in residence.

The Media Mogul: Lloyd Braun

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braun_fall2000
In July 1999, Lloyd Braun was named co-chairman of the ABC Entertainment Television Group. In this position, which he shares with Stuart Bloomberg, Braun has responsibility for all creative programming and business areas in the division, which encompasses the Walt Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment.

Braun majored in political science at Vassar and received his law degree in 1983 from Hastings College of the Law at the University of California. He then began working in the entertainment business as a partner in the law firm of Silverberg, Katz, Thompson, where he represented an array of writers, directors, and actors. From 1994 to 1998 he was president of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment and was instrumental in helping to build the company's television division. He moved from there to become chairman of Buena Vista Television Productions.

Over the course of his 20-year career in entertainment, Braun has overseen the development and production of a number of critically acclaimed and commercially successful television programs, including The Sopranos, Sports Night, Felicity, and Once and Again.

In April, Braun returned to campus as Vassar executive in residence, giving a lecture to students and, at an early-morning breakfast at the All Campus Dining Center, one to hundreds of Poughkeepsie area business people and community leaders.

The Entrepreneur: Michael Naso

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naso_fall2000
Michael Naso calls himself a career planner for newscasters. His agency, The Naso Group, which he started in 1996 with his wife Lynne, represents television newscasters around the country. (Beverly Schook and Rhonda Schaffler, both at CNN, are on their roster of clients.) After earning his law degree at the University of Denver in 1983, Naso went to work for the William Morris Agency in New York City. He stayed with them for more than 10 years-two and a half as a business affairs attorney and eight as an agent-then decided it was time to go out on his own.

Naso, who works with the African American Alumnae/i of Vassar College (Triple AVC) and serves on the nominating committee of the New York City Vassar Club-returned to campus three times this spring. Once during Lloyd Braun's executive in residence visit, again in May, to represent AAVC at spring convocation, welcoming the class of 2000 to the ranks of AAVC 20 years after his own graduation. And once for reunion.