Susan MacTavish Best

MacTavish Best was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada. MacTavish Best's mother is Laurie MacTavish Best[9] and her father is the Canadian scientist and politician Charles Alexander Best.[10] She is the granddaughter of Charles Best, the co-discoverer of insulin.[11]

She attended St Leonards school for eight years as a boarder in St Andrews, Fife.[12] She graduated from Hamilton College[13] with a bachelor's degree in History and the George A. Watrous Prize in Poetry.[14] She spent one year at Oxford University where she was co-editor of the University's magazine, The Isis.[15][16]

MacTavish Best created and edited POSTHOC, an online guide to San Francisco, after studying at night school at San Francisco State University’s Multimedia Center.[17] Years later, she relaunched Posthoc as an organisation and community that hosts salons worldwide.

MacTavish Best founded Best Public Relations in 1998. The company focused on working with technology companies and represented dozens of long-term clients such as Craigslist[18] for over 15 years,[19][20] Esurance, Klout, Founders Fund, Smugmug, Olivia Travel, Quid,[21] YouNoodle, VentureBeat, MainStreet, and Playfish through to their acquisition by Electronic Arts.[22] She was also an executive producer for five seasons of craigslistTV, a documentary TV series spawned by craigslist.[23][24] While representing Best Public Relations MacTavish Best featured as a boss on the BBC Children reality show "Beat the Boss USA" in an episode entitled "Dog Outfit", which aired in 2009.[25]

In November 2013, MacTavish Best opened up a pop-up shop called "Living MacTavish" SoHo, New York City, where she made the contents of her life for sale. In the evening, she hosted informal salons, concerts and discussions while serving dinner for the attendees.[26]

Former interviewees at MacTavish Best's Posthoc salons include Marcelo Gleiser, Tim Draper[27] Jennifer Doudna, Rana Foroohar, Tim Ferriss, Dean Karnazes, Barbara DeFina, Pete Worden, Andy Strominger, Amanda Feilding, Anne Case, Angus Denton, Ruby Wax, Fab Five Freddy, Lauren Jauregui, Philip Ball, Gary Hall Jr., Douglas Rushkoff, Paul Rosolie, Amanda Feilding, Oren Yakobovich, Josh Tetrick, David Gelles, Leandra Medine, Emily Chang, Conor Dougherty, Erich Schwartzel, Robert Lustig, Michael Pollan, and Ken Goldberg.[28] Musicians who have performed include Grammy winner Grace Weber, frontman for the Hothouse Flowers Liam O'Mainlai, Marianne Aya Omac and Gabe Harris (the son of Joan Baez).

MacTavish Best has held poetry evenings in association with the Poetry Society of America.[29][30]

In 2016, Calm launched their Sleep Stories app at a salon at MacTavish Best's home.[31] (In 2017, Calm was named Apple's App of the Year).[32]

In 2018 MacTavish Best was named one of America's Top 100 Party Hosts by The Salonniere website for the second year in a row.[33]

MacTavish Best has been recognised for her interior design style[34] and fashion.[35]

Susan MacTavish Best in front of her library in Los Angeles. Photo by Maria Jose Govea

During Covid, MacTavish Best hosted dozens of digital salons. She also launched The Salon Host to inspire others to gather people in their community[36] as the pandemic ended, and she has been credited for inspiring a new 21st Century trend[37] of salon-hosting.[38][39]

MacTavish Best spends time in Los Angeles’ Arts District, New York[40] and the remote far Northern California coast.[41] In 2009, she was badly burned in a fire accident at her San Francisco apartment.[42] In 2023 she was signed as a model[43] to Grey Model Agency.[44]