What companies or people partnered with Paolo Zampolli to build IDT Models?
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Executive summary
Paolo Zampolli founded ID Models (often referred to in reporting as ID Model Management) in New York in the mid-1990s and built business alliances that blended fashion, real estate and high‑profile personalities; public reporting ties his agency to real‑estate partners such as the Paramount Group and Prudential Douglas Elliman and to a later formal working relationship with the Trump Organization when Zampolli moved into property development [1] [2] [3] [4]. The record shows direct commercial collaborations and client relationships rather than a long list of formal equity partners in the agency itself, and available sources do not list a comprehensive roster of every company or individual Zampolli may have worked with while building ID Models [1] [5].
1. The founding fact: ID Models and its role as a talent pool
ID Models (also called ID Model Management) was founded by Zampolli in New York in the mid‑1990s and is repeatedly described in profiles as his launching pad — an agency that not only represented models but became a resource Zampolli could deploy across other ventures, including real estate marketing and events [1] [6] [5]. Reporting emphasizes the agency’s function — using model talent as part of a broader branding and sales strategy — more than presenting a list of corporate co‑owners or investors in ID Models itself [3] [1].
2. Real‑estate collaborators: Paramount Group and Douglas Elliman
Multiple contemporaneous profiles and trade pieces document that Zampolli leveraged his modeling roster to help sell Manhattan properties, notably through a relationship with the boutique real‑estate shop Paramount Group, which “elected to exploit” his agency’s crossover between models and brokers, and through business ties referenced with Prudential Douglas Elliman as part of his pivot into luxury property work [3] [2]. These accounts portray the relationship as commercial collaboration — using ID Models’ talent and image services to market real estate — rather than necessarily as equity partners in the agency itself [3] [2].
3. The Trump Organization: from representation to development partnership
Zampolli’s most consistently reported formal partnership outside fashion was with the Trump Organization, where he served as Director of International Development in the mid‑2000s; multiple sources say he “went on to form a partnership” with Donald Trump’s organization as he shifted from modeling into property and international development [1] [6] [4] [5]. Reporting frames this as a distinct professional engagement that followed his work running ID Models and as a move that blended Zampolli’s Rolodex and event‑marketing instincts with large‑scale real‑estate ambitions [7] [4].
4. High‑profile individuals and contested connections
Beyond corporate names, Zampolli’s network included notable figures and model clients who appear across sources: he is frequently identified as having represented Melania Knauss (later Melania Trump) in her modeling career and is credited in some accounts with introducing her to Donald Trump at a party he hosted, which underscores the personal network aspect of his agency’s influence [8] [9] [4]. Other associations reported in gossip and magazine coverage — such as a charity collaboration with Ghislaine Maxwell or his attempted involvement with Elite Model Management — are documented in the press but do not, in the sources provided, establish that those individuals or organizations were formal partners in building ID Models itself [10] [7].
5. What the sources do not (clearly) say
The public reporting assembled here documents the firms Zampolli worked with or whose projects he supported using ID Models’ talent — notably Paramount Group, Prudential Douglas Elliman and the Trump Organization — and highlights celebrity and client relationships that amplified the agency’s profile [3] [2] [1] [4]. However, the sources do not provide a definitive list of formal investors or co‑founders who “partnered” with Zampolli to finance or legally build ID Models as an entity; thus, any claim that additional companies or people were formal equity partners in the agency is not substantiated by the cited material [5] [1].