You can sense it. You’re at a party or a meeting or any large gathering, and that couple walks into the room. All heads turn. There’s something about how they hold themselves, shake hands, and smile. And if you didn’t know them, you’d ask “Who are they?” Power couples.
Whether on the world stage or in our own communities, they draw our attention. Targets of our fascination, these couples draw both our curiosity and maybe our envy. Who are they? How did they get to be where they are? In what ways are their lives different from ours? Or are they?
What’s Up? Media set out to interview four local couples who can claim the moniker “power couple,” even though each rebuffs the title. In a region where government dominates, three of the four couples are politically connected. A fourth reflects a highly successful business acumen. All four couples offer something to make our own lives better.
A Bit of Background. To some people, the term “power couple” may feel new. We think of celebrities like Kim and Kanye West, Amal and George Clooney, or Beyoncé and Jay Z. Or political leaders, like Bill and Hillary Clinton, or one of the most famous power couples of our time, Barack and Michelle Obama.
But the term actually was cited nearly 40 years ago when Bob Dole, then U.S. Senator, and his wife Elizabeth, then Secretary of Education, were dubbed a “power couple” by such publications as the New York Times, U.S. News, and Cosmopolitan. Other publications proclaimed the 1990s and the years that followed as the “age of the power couple.”
Today, the phrase generally applies to two people who are married or in a relationship with one another, where both have very successful careers, typically in politics or entertainment.
According to a recent article in Harvard Business Review, researcher Jennifer Petriglieri notes that dual-earner couples are on the rise. Her findings indicate that “evidence is mounting from social research that when both parties dedicate themselves to work and to home life, they reap benefits such as increased economic freedom, a more satisfying relationship, and lower-than-average chance of divorce.”
In a related article Harvard Business Review’s Executive Editor Ania G. Wieckowski cautions that “Choosing a spouse may be one of the most important career decisions you’ll ever make because that person will be either a support or a hindrance to your professional ambitions. So, choose wisely.”
The Couples
Lawrence J. Hogan, Jr. & Yumi Hogan
It’s hard to imagine anyone in this region more powerful than the residents of Government House. By virtue of Larry Hogan’s political prominence, Maryland’s Governor and First Lady qualify as a “power couple.” In 2014, Governor Hogan became the first Maryland governor in more than 100 years elected as an Anne Arundel County resident, and in 2016, the first Republican to win a second term in Maryland since 1954.
But what makes this pair even more attractive is Yumi Hogan’s own renown as an artist and teacher. Born on December 25th in South Korea, the youngest of eight children, Mrs. Hogan met her husband in an art gallery in Columbia, Maryland, when he was “in real estate and just passing by.” They married May 1, 2004 at the William Paca House in Annapolis, “the year of the cicadas. It was very noisy!”
The first Asian-American first lady of Maryland, she also is the first American artist to live in the mansion, complete with the home’s first art studio. Mrs. Hogan teaches at the Maryland Institute of Art and has held exhibitions of her work—applying Sumi ink and mixed media on traditional Hanji paper—in the United States, Canada, China, Korea, and, most recently, in Greece.
Robert Neall & Marta Harting
Another local power couple also has strong government ties. Having served as Anne Arundel County Executive from 1990–94 and State Senator from 1996–2003, Robert Neall now serves as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health, overseeing 7,000 employees and a $14 billion budget. For 26 years, he was Senior Vice President of Development and External Affairs for Johns Hopkins Health System.
Marta Harting is a partner with Venable LLP, a law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., with 850 professionals nationwide. She is a state regulatory and government affairs attorney who represents clients before the Maryland General Assembly, Executive Branch, and State regulatory agencies. Her clients include large Maryland health systems and other health care providers, insurers, public utilities, IT companies, manufacturers, hospitality, gaming, and entertainment companies. Married in June, 2006, the couple first met earlier when she was bond counsel for Anne Arundel County and Neall was County Executive. During his Senate term almost a decade later, the two met again “over a bowl of oyster stew,” which he made.
Vicki Gruber & Tom Lewis
Vicki Gruber is the Executive Director of the Department of Legislative Services, a state agency with 400 employees that provides comprehensive support for the Maryland General Assembly, including policy and fiscal analysis, bill drafting, and committee staffing. An attorney, Gruber formerly served as Chief of Staff for Senate President Mike Miller from 2006–2017.
Tom Lewis, Vice President for Government and Community Affairs for Johns Hopkins Health System and University, oversees a staff of 25, including lawyers, researchers, and community workers. Also an attorney, he served as Chief of Staff for two House Speakers, Casper Taylor and Michael Busch. Married in September, 1999, the couple met at a Maryland Chamber of Commerce Conference in Ocean City, “while working, of course!”
Tina & John Galdieri
This Eastern Shore couple epitomizes entrepreneurship. A 1996 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, John is President of Trident Aircraft, a company he founded in 2006 to make flight instruction and aircraft rental affordable to midshipmen. Based at Easton Airport, Trident’s staff of 47 employees, including 30 pilots, has trained more than 3,500 midshipmen to fly in Maryland and in Trident offices in Milton, Florida, and Ozark, Alabama.
Tina is the National Football League Baltimore Ravens Cheerleading Director, a position she’s held since 1998. She hires, fires, and trains the 70-plus cheerleaders, both male and female, who perform at home games and numerous appearances yearlong. She also is General Manager of Epic, one of the largest cheerleading and dance-event planning companies in the United States that hosts some 65 events per year. The couple met when John’s younger brother at the Academy couldn’t keep a date with a Ravens cheerleader, so John attended and met Tina at the annual cheerleading event. The couple married May, 2006, “in a clubhouse on the water with sundresses and Tommy Bahama shirts.”
