Kelly A Gray

Wayne Lowell humbly attributes his zoom up the corporate ladder to luck. James T. Schraith was in such a hurry to get where he is today that he dropped out of college. Samuel L. Westover wanted to be a doctor but discovered he enjoyed crunching numbers more than peering into microscopes. Kelly A. Gray recalls as her inspiration childhood dinners where her parents passionately discussed their family business.

You've come hoping for a glimpse beneath the image of icy control that Kelly Gray projects as signature model for St. John Knits Inc., the elegant, Irvine-based fashion house her parents founded nearly 40 years ago. You'd wanted to get her out from behind that desk adorned with ceramic and toy Chihuahuas, the one she has occupied since father Bob appointed her company president in 1996. One idea was to catch Gray at a clothes fitting, part of the preparation for a photo shoot in Wyoming. But no.

You've come hoping for a glimpse beneath the image of icy control that Kelly Gray projects as signature model for St. John Knits Inc., the elegant, Irvine-based fashion house her parents founded nearly 40 years ago. You'd wanted to get her out from behind that desk adorned with ceramic and toy Chihuahuas, the one she has occupied since father Bob appointed her company president in 1996. One idea was to catch Gray at a clothes fitting, part of the preparation for a photo shoot in Wyoming. But no.

Wayne Lowell humbly attributes his zoom up the corporate ladder to luck. James T. Schraith was in such a hurry to get where he is today that he dropped out of college. Samuel L. Westover wanted to be a doctor but discovered he enjoyed crunching numbers more than peering into microscopes. Kelly A. Gray recalls as her inspiration childhood dinners where her parents passionately discussed their family business.

An ongoing feud between St. John Knits and Amen Wardy Jr. intensified Tuesday when a Colorado company owned by Wardy and his father filed a lawsuit against the upscale clothier's executives. The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, rehashes many of the issues covered in a wrongful termination lawsuit that Wardy filed against the Irvine company in October after he was fired as chief executive of St. John subsidiary Amen Wardy Home Stores LLC. It claims that St.

St. John Knits Inc. shareholders agreed Monday to accept a $522-million buyout offer from the company's founders and a New York investment firm, capping off the upscale clothier's most tumultuous year since it went public six years ago. The $30-a-share offer from Chief Executive Robert E. Gray and his family and Vestar Capital Partners was approved by 91% of the 13.2 million shares that were voted Monday, said R. Brian Timmons, the Grays' attorney.

St. John Knits Inc.'s founders, saying they're tired of trying to satisfy Wall Street's insatiable demand for rapid growth, announced plans Tuesday to buy all the shares of the upscale clothing maker and take it private. "We wanted to slow the growth down, and Wall Street doesn't like slow growth," Chief Executive Robert E. Gray said Tuesday. "We feel the best way to do that is by being private."

More Orange County executives than ever were boosted into millionaire status last year. Unlike 1992, however, there are no women with million-dollar pay packages on the list of the year's 100 most highly compensated executives of publicly traded Orange County companies.

When Kelly Gray took over as president of St. John Knits, nervous investors threw their own little welcoming party: They slashed the stock's value by $40 million. "Wall Street was saying: 'Oh, my God, she's just 29 years old. What could [the Grays] be thinking?' " said Marie Gray, St. John's chief designer and co-founder (along with husband Robert) and Kelly's mother. The stock has recovered since last spring's rude greeting, hitting a yearly high last month.

Being the boss certainly has its advantages. The top executives at Orange County's public companies received a median 20% increase in their cash compensation last year, compared with a 4% pay raise for workers generally. But it got even better than that. Many executives' total pay soared far higher as they cashed in lucrative stock options, according to a study conducted for The Times by the consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide.