Susan MacTavish Best is the founder and CEO of Living MacTavish, a lifestyle business. She was previously the founder of Best Public Relations. She has become known for hosting salon-style dinner parties in San Francisco and New York.

Early life and education

MacTavish Best's mother is Laurie MacTavish Best and her father is the Canadian scientist and politician Charles Alexander Best. She is the granddaughter of Charles Best, the co-discoverer of insulin. She attended

St Leonards St Leonards may refer to: Places Australia *St Leonards, New South Wales **St Leonards railway station *St Leonards, Tasmania, suburb of Launceston *St Leonards, Victoria Canada *St. Leonard's, Newfoundland and Labrador New Zealand * St L ...

boarding school in St Andrews, Fife. She graduated from

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

with a bachelor's degree in History. She spent one year at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

Career

MacTavish Best created and edited ''POSTHOC'', an online guide to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, after studying at night school at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...

’s Multimedia Center. MacTavish Best founded Best Public Relations in 1998. The company has focused on working with

startups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

, and has worked with clients such as

Craigslist Craigslist (stylized as craigslist) is an American classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums. Craig Newmark began the ...

, Esurance and

Playfish Playfish was a developer of free-to-play social network games. Playfish was founded in 2007 by Kristian Segerstråle, Sebastien de Halleux, Sami Lababidi, and Shukri Shammas. It closed in 2013. Playfish in the past had attracted up to 55 million ...

. She was also an executive producer of craigslistTV, a

documentary TV series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

spawned by craigslist. While representing Best Public Relations MacTavish Best featured as a boss on the show "Beat the Boss USA" in an episode entitled "Dog Outfit", which aired in 2009. In November 2013, MacTavish Best opened up a

pop-up shop Pop-up retail, also known as pop-up store (pop-up shop in the UK, Australia and Ireland) or flash retailing, is a trend of opening short-term sales spaces that last for days to weeks before closing down, often to catch onto a fad or scheduled e ...

called "Living MacTavish"

SoHo, New York City SoHo, sometimes written Soho (South of Houston Street), is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and has also been known for its variet ...

, with all of the contents of her California home. In the evening, she hosted informal salons, concerts and discussions while serving dinner for the attendees. MacTavish Best has also held poetry evenings in association with the

Poetry Society of America The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the society have included such renowned poets as Witter Bynner, Ro ...

. Former interviewees and speakers at MacTavish Best's events include Oren Yakobovich,

Robert Lustig Robert H. Lustig (born 1957) is an American pediatric endocrinologist. He is Professor emeritus of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he specialized in neuroendocrinology and ...

, and Ken Goldberg. In 2018 she was named one of America's Top 100 Party Hosts by The Salonniere website.

Personal life

MacTavish Best spends time in San Francisco, New York and

Point Lobos Point Lobos and the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve is a state park in California. Adjoining Point Lobos is "one of the richest marine habitats in California." The ocean habitat is protected by two marine protected areas, the Point Lobos St ...

, Carmel. In 2009, she was badly burned in a fire accident at her San Francisco apartment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Best, Susan MacTavish American socialites Living people Year of birth missing (living people)