Darren Swayne, Founder and CEO

Darren graduated from Hull University with BSc. Economics and Business Economics in 1993 and from York University with MSc. Project Analysis, Finance and Investment a year later.

From 1994, the first part of Darren’s career was working in the City of London as a Fund Manager for American Express Asset Management and then as a co-founder and founder of 2 hedge funds from 2000 up until 2010.

Darren left the fund management industry in 2010 to continue his love of business. Moving away from the financial industry, Darren wanted to focus more on brand, innovation and creativity.

Firstly choosing to focus on Hill House, an incredible Tudor Manor that Darren restored with his wife Juliette whilst he was working in the City. Hill House was being rented out through an agent and Darren wanted to focus much more on the client experience, bringing a creative overlay and high level of service to an incredible building.

From 2010 to 2012, revenues at Hill House tripled and more importantly the client feedback was extremely strong which pushed Darren into thinking bigger about the project. Extraordinary escapism was born and the next big idea was taking it beyond Hill House.

Darren’s passion is for building things and working with people, and Elsewhere was created in 2012 to take forward a mission of making life more extraordinary. With a core-belief that our experiences with friends, family and colleagues are everything.

Darren founded and runs Elsewhere and spends most of his time working with new clients, strategy and new creative ideas.