When I ask Emma Gwyther if she’s ever arranged a last-minute helicopter transfer into a Formula 1 track for one of her ultra-high-net-worth clients, she describes the task the way one might describe running a quick errand at the store. “Oh yes, we’ve done that before,” Gwyther, founder and CEO of Interluxe Group tells me. “We all know what the traffic is like getting in and out of COTA (the Circuit of the Americas in Austin) and I’ve personally made sure that someone got on a helicopter to the airport to make their flight.
We’ve pulled off things like that in 30 or 40 minutes.” The British-born founder, who specializes in curating luxury automotive experiences, has spent the past 16 years building a network of top-tier suppliers, vendors and partners around the country who she can call upon at any moment to make what seems like the near impossible, happen. Crucially, they’re willing to “jump through hoops” to help her and her 38-person team cater to the 1% of the 1%.
“You're constantly asking for the unachievable, the unexpected, the unreasonable, but I think if you do it with a certain level of politeness and grace, you’re more likely to be successful,” she explains. Gwyther entered the automotive industry as a college student by way of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where she helped the marketing agency running Mercedes’ experiential activations. “I decided over the course of that week that that was absolutely 100% what I wanted to do,” sh.