Most private offices are not designed. They accumulate, one hire at a time, around whoever was trusted first. Private Office Design is a short, structured engagement that looks at what a principal's affairs actually require and sets out the office to run them: which functions, which roles, at what level, in what order, and who to hire first.

What it covers

Investments

How the investment function should sit alongside external managers, advisers and banks, and whether a Chief Investment Officer, an investment manager or an analyst is the right first hire, and when.

Office and administration

The Chief of Staff, executive assistant, finance and operations roles that keep a principal's affairs in order, and how the work divides between them.

Household and lifestyle

Estate and residence management, household staff and the people who travel with the principal, and how they report into the office rather than around it.

How it works

Week one: the diagnostic. We reconstruct the last twelve months of the principal's affairs: who did what, where the gaps and the overlaps sit, and which projects never started because nobody owned them.

Weeks two and three: the design. Structure, roles, reporting lines, levels, compensation ranges and sequencing, written as a plain document the principal can act on.

Week four: the hiring plan. Role briefs for the first hires, the order to run them in, and what to do in the meantime.

The fee is fixed and agreed before we start. Search is a separate engagement and is never a condition of the design work.

Who it is for

Principals establishing a first office or a first household team; principals relocating between London, the US, the Gulf or Europe; families rebuilding after a departure; founders after an exit.

Led by

Fırat Bay, CFA, Managing Director, with Antonia Edwards on the household and lifestyle function.