The Fixers Who Do the Impossible for the Filthy Rich
It was the middle of the pandemic, and Jon Dove’s client needed a car. Not just any car—a brand new, right-hand-drive, specific model of Mercedes. The only problem was, with supply chains shuttered, the fastest the company could get one off the line was 18 months. And Dove’s clients are not the kind of people who like to wait.
So the 29-year-old picked up the phone and started calling: contacts at Mercedes, then in the car industry in general. Eventually he reached out to factories, asking if they had any canceled orders. He finally found one sitting in a shipping port in Germany, waiting to be returned. It could be delivered to London in a week. “It’s the only [one of these cars] that exists on the planet and is available to buy,” he said. “And we got it.”
Dove is what is known in some circles as a “luxury lifestyle manager.” The job has many names—concierge, attaché—but they all serve the same purpose: getting rich people what they want, when they want it. Whether it’s tickets to the Oscars, reservations at an exclusive restaurant, or a trip to the French Riviera, Dove and the select, international group of professionals like him use their tightly honed set of connections—and a few golden handshakes—to make the impossible possible.