Serena Boardman (Photo credit: Patrick McMullan)
From the December issue: It’s 2005, and golden-haired socialite Serena Boardman is sunning herself on a yacht near the coast of Sardinia in Italy. Nearby, her friend Dori Cooperman — now best known for befriending actress Lindsay Lohan in rehab — is on the phone with a reporter from W Magazine, chronicling the addictive qualities of photo Web site PatrickMcMullan.com. Boardman interjects with her opinion of the site, which documents the social lives of New York City’s glitterati. “Tell him it captures a moment,” she shouts. Until recently, the scene was typical for the 39-year-old Boardman, the jet-setting heiress to a banking fortune whose stepmother is a European princess. Along with society pals like Alexandra von Fürstenberg and Blaine Trump, Boardman spent her 20s being photographed in couture gowns at galas and benefits all over New York and Palm Beach, often with her equally glamorous sister, Samantha. Magazines chronicled her taste in clothes (Roberto Cavalli ruffled cocktail dresses) and jewelry (Verdura). She held jobs at the Web site Luxuryfinder.com and in the jewelry department at Sotheby’s. But to the media they were a postscript to Boardman’s glamorous social life. So it comes as a surprise to those who know Boardman that only a few years later, she’s morphed into one of the most successful real estate brokers in the business.
