Rare cigars and at-home spas: Meet the man who can get billionaires whatever they want

As London ground to a halt in April 2020, Marcus O’Brien was finalising the sale of 2-8a Rutland Gate: a palatial property made up of four townhouses knocked together, overlooking Hyde Park. It went for £210 million: the most expensive house ever sold in Britain. The buyer was Cheung Chung-kiu, a Hong Kong billionaire. He never moved in, and O’Brien moved on: hopping from his role as head of the Private Office at Beauchamp Estates, to UK Sotheby’s International Realty.  

Part of a new cohort of movers and shakers including George Vernon, protégé of Oliver Bernard; Alice Freeman, a partner in the super prime lettings team at Knight Frank; and , star of the new Netflix show , O’Brien has been appointed head of the Family Office at the UK luxury agency: a new centre-point for the super-rich looking for