6. Saul Katz

Presiding over real estate and retail holdings as the co-founder of Great Neck-based Sterling Equities is not enough for this CEO/CPA: The Glen Cove guy’s got a throwing arm in baseball as president of both the New York Mets and Brooklyn Cyclones. The financier headed Dem Tom Suozzi’s transition team after Suozzi became county exec, and was tapped by Suozzi to consolidate Nassau’s real estate holdings and ailing county buildings. A donor to ERASE Racism and other regional organizations, Katz was the first chairman of North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, helped form the healthcare giant and has returned as its chair. And with the Mets’ recent signing of two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana through 2013, the largest contract for a pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball, it’s looking like 2008 has already proven to be a good year for Katz.