While doing things that felt familiar to the core business, the Davids were also expanding Standard Investments, an investment arm they established, which now manages more than $4 billion. The majority of that money is invested in the public markets, in other industrial companies like Shell. But through Standard Investments, the Davids have also invested in businesses further afield, like MyForest Foods, which makes plant-based meat alternatives; Saildrone, which operates ocean drones for mapping and data; and the electric carmaker Rivian.

Given Standard’s early involvement in Air Mail and its many links to Vanity Fair, one might assume that Mr. Carter, 74, is the person who wooed the Davids to invest in his new media venture and then others.

But in an email from Italy, where he was on vacation with his family, Mr. Carter dispelled that idea. Asked if he made introductions to Mr. Kelly and others who received funding from Standard, or put in a good word for former employees who have gone to work there, Mr. Carter said, “Not at all.”

He said the person responsible for that was Hamilton South, a veteran public relations executive who has worked at Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren and later helped found (and eventually sold) HL Group, a communications and consulting agency with fashion and corporate clients.

“Hamilton was on the front lines in this,” Mr. Carter said. “He brought in Beth Kseniak to handle communications and, before you know it, the place was filled with the VF diaspora.”

Stylish and well connected, Mr. South, 59, is also a Vanity Fair alum. He was hired at the magazine in 1989 under the editor Tina Brown, and became one of the few staff members from that incarnation to earn Mr. Carter’s admiration and to stay on when he took over in 1992.