Ed Leyson

Chief Marketing Director, Co-Founder, Carolwood Estates

In L.A.’s fiercely competitive high end, compliments are hard to come by, especially from competitors. So, it means a little more when others outside of Carolwood Estates say its co-founder and head of marketing, Ed Leyson, has redefined branding and set the tone for modern marketing of residential brokerages and high-end properties. 

He’s the executive who has turned brokerage’s mid-year reports into tomes that look more like a coffee-table book in a five-star hotel. The executive, with nearly 20 years of global creative and marketing experience, started off as the IT director of Hilton & Hyland. He held that gig for five years before making a big switch to marketing. It was at Hilton & Hyland that he crossed paths with Carolwood co-founder Drew Fenton, with the two now clocking 16 years working together. 

Leyson and Fenton ultimately set off from Hilton & Hyland and brought in Managing Broker Nick Segal to start the County’s fastest-growing brokerage in late 2022. Two years later, some might (begrudgingly) say Carolwood owns the local high-end market. Unlike some of his peers in marketing, Leyson wears many hats at the brokerage and is proactive in business strategy and growth, assisting with recruiting, pouring over the P&L and a hype man of sorts for the brokerage’s high-wattage agents as Carolwood aims for a bigger piece of L.A.’s high end in the coming years. 

– Kari Hamanaka