William "Bill" Paley is the great-grandson of Samuel Paley, who founded Chicago's Congress Cigar Factory in 1896 and named the original La Palina marca after his wife, Goldie Drell Paley. Bill revived the family brand in 2010 on a New York City rooftop—framing it as a personal signature luxury cigar in the spirit of his grandfather's dedication to excellence and his parents' meticulous style. An early Graycliff partnership in the Bahamas (near the Paley family's Lyford Cay estate) proved short-lived, pushing La Palina toward the multi-country negociant model it uses today.
La Palina does not own a factory, but it does own its tobacco, brands, and finished cigars. Bill brought aboard industry veterans Samuel "Sammy" Phillips and Clay Roberts to shape the modern company; he remains chairman and principal while they steward day-to-day operations. The portfolio's apex Goldie cigars roll at El Titan de Bronze in Miami, with additional production in Honduras, Nicaragua through A.J. Fernandez, and the Dominican Republic including PDR Cigars. Bill Paley connects a Gilded Age Chicago cigarmaking dynasty—and the CBS broadcasting fortune it helped seed—to one of today's most distinctive American heritage revivals.