SESSIONS ASSOCIATES · JAMES HARWOOD
For more than 25 years, I've helped people with the decisions, responsibilities and complicated arrangements that come with significant wealth — from sensitive personal matters to substantial properties, projects and private-office operations.
Sessions Associates does not provide investment management, regulated financial advice, legal advice or tax advice. Those matters remain with appropriately qualified professionals.
The experience behind the advice
My experience runs from hands-on private service to establishing and leading the non-investment operations of a complex international private office — and continuing as a trusted adviser to the family.
As Chief of Staff to a Mayfair-based family, I led a team of around 50 people across private households, yacht operations and the office itself.
My responsibilities included a residential property portfolio worth more than £70 million across the UK and Europe; property purchases, estate management and major renovation work; the acquisition and operation of a Feadship superyacht; and oversight of a museum-quality art collection, including work with art historians and loans to international museums.
I recruited and led senior household and office staff, dealt with salaries and employment arrangements, managed significant operating budgets and worked closely with lawyers, accountants, bankers, insurers and trustees in several countries. Much of the job was less visible: understanding what mattered to the family, helping them reach decisions, handling sensitive situations and making sure the right things happened.
I started from the ground up in private households as a chauffeur, butler and estate manager. That early experience matters: I understand the realities of running homes and supporting the people who live in them, as well as the wider responsibilities of leading a private office.
Alongside this work, I also coach communication and productivity skills. That experience strengthens the way I help people think clearly, work through difficult choices and get things done.
You're speaking directly to someone who has handled the details, led the teams, worked with the specialists and carried responsibility at a senior level.
Where I can help
Sometimes you need an experienced perspective on a difficult decision. Sometimes you need someone to take responsibility for getting things done. Often, you need both. Here are some of the situations I can help with.
Overseeing house purchases and sales, substantial building and renovation work, estate operations, and the many decisions and specialists involved. I've also helped manage significant collections and complex purchases, including a superyacht.
Helping you think through sensitive situations, weigh options and organise the practical consequences — whether that's a family change, a separation, a move abroad, selling several homes or a major change in how your affairs are arranged.
Recruiting and replacing key staff; helping decide whom to appoint and on what terms; improving how teams work; setting up a new household; or reviewing whether existing arrangements are right for you. This includes the judgement and conversations around decisions, not just the administration.
Bringing together household teams, property managers, lawyers, accountants, insurers and other specialists; making sure responsibilities are clear, decisions are followed through and nothing important gets lost between people.
These are examples, not a complete list. I've also helped clients with art collections, substantial payments, communications, business-related matters and the unexpected problems that don't fit neatly into a category. If there's something you need help thinking through or getting done, please get in touch. I'll tell you candidly whether I can help.
What that looks like in practice
A few examples from the work I've done, described without identifying the people involved.
Established the operational structure for an international family's private affairs, recruited and led the team, oversaw homes, yacht operations and a major art collection, and coordinated professional advisers across countries.
Returned to support a long-standing client by overseeing a programme of major building and renovation work in the UK, bringing together the people and practical decisions required to move the work forward.
Helped a client work through the choice of a new housekeeper, consider an appropriate salary, respond to a counteroffer and reach an agreement they felt comfortable with. The value was as much in the judgement and discussion as in the recruitment itself.
Client details are kept confidential. I can discuss the relevance of my experience to your situation in a private conversation.
Working together
I'll start by listening, understanding the circumstances and helping you work out what would make the most difference. My involvement can be as focused or as extensive as the situation requires.
Talk through a decision, assess a difficult situation or work out a sensible way forward.
Ask me to organise a project, bring the right people together, oversee the work and see it through.
For some clients, my involvement develops into an ongoing relationship: I get to know their circumstances, oversee agreed areas of their private affairs and provide a consistent point of contact as needs change.
When specialist expertise is needed, I can help identify, brief and coordinate the right professionals. I work alongside your existing advisers and staff, not in place of them.
In their own words
Different perspectives from people I have worked with over the years.
“Even in the periods when he wasn’t formally running things day to day, he remained the person I turned to when I needed something handled properly. […] Whoever has James in their world is lucky.”
“Where the principal was not present, we found him to be a careful and dependable representative of the principal’s interests […] Throughout our dealings, James conducted himself with professionalism and discretion.”
“Smart, real, friendly and varied. The diversity of James’s experience shines through”
A conversation is a good place to start
If you're dealing with something complicated, have an important decision to make, or simply think an experienced pair of hands might help, please get in touch. I'm always happy to have an initial conversation, and anything you tell me will be treated discreetly.
I live with my wife and daughter in Surrey.
James Harwood · Founder, Sessions Associates
