Hey, Bulldog

Sometimes when you're running a $3 billion company, you just have to be a bulldog. And for inspiration, NStar chief executive Thomas J. May can turn to this pair of cuff links, easily the most colorful response we got to our Globe 100 survey that asked chief executives to name their favorite dress-to-impress wardrobe accessory. May got the pair as a Father's Day gift seven years ago from his daughter, Kara , in appreciation for taking in her college-dorm pet bulldog, Hippo, as she went off to start medical training. (She's now a pediatrician at Children's Hospital Boston.) Seven years later, Hippo surely is Dad's dog. "I clean his wrinkles every day," May says. "He's the love of our life."

PETER J. HOWE