RANDE GERBER

The former model has worked with George Clooney and Edition's lan Schrager on a number of lucrative businesses, but it's down time that he really values.

- Justin Fenner

YOU’D THINK BY now that Rande Gerber might want to put his feet up. Though the 61-year-old is perhaps best known for founding Casamigos Tequila with George Clooney (the pair met when the actor had a drink at one of the New York City bars Gerber owned in the 1990s), the Queens-born entrepreneur began working when Ford Models scouted him at age 16. After college, he modelled in Europe for a few years, then took a job selling commercial real estate. It led to his first big break in business: running the watering holes for Ian Schrager’s network of boutique hotels. The experience planted the seed for Gerber Group, which has since opened a large number of stylish boites across the US. Gerber handed the reins to his brother Scott to focus on the tequila business in 2008, which was subsequently bought by Diageo in 2017 for US$1 billion.

Gerber’s entrepreneurial streak is still strong. On a recent vacation with his wife, the supermodel Cindy Crawford, and their two children—daughter Kaia and son Presley—Gerber was so impressed with the sunscreen in his hotel he tried to buy the company. Its founders made him a partner instead.

What is your exercise routine and how often do you do it?

I do cardio five to six days a week. I’ll do some weights and push-ups, and I have a chin-up bar. I also have a Katalyst suit. It looks like a wet suit and it has electro pads in it. You can turn it up to where you can barely lift, but it’s stimulating everything. They (Katalyst) say it’s like doing a two-hour workout in 20 minutes.

What do you do that’s still analogue?