A top Hamptons broker has left Saunders & Associates to join Christie’s International Real Estate Group.
After a decade with his former firm, Ed Bruehl has taken up a new post as managing director of Christie’s East Hampton office, the brokerage’s only outpost in the luxury enclave.
Bruehl and his former business partner, Jennifer Wilson, closed $177 million worth of deals between June 2024 and June 2025, earning them the No. 9 spot in The Real Deal’s latest ranking of the top brokers in the Hamptons.
Wilson will not join Bruehl at Saunders, though he has brought over his junior partner, Angel Theodore. Bruehl is not joining Christie’s with any of his Saunders listings.
Though Christie’s opened its East Hampton office in November 2023, the firm has yet to make a splash in the enclave, a sentiment Bruehl acknowledged to TRD. He described the brokerage’s debut as “underbranded.” Now that he’s at the helm, however, Bruehl plans to build up awareness of the outpost.
As managing director, Bruehl is tasked with leading the 15 agents headquartered at the firm’s East End location, including 30-year veteran Bonita DeWolf and Sanda Busch of the New York City-based Gottlieb Team.
He plans on hiring a small number of “top-shelf senior producers” with the goal of eventually opening offices in Southampton and Westhampton. He added that he intends to double down on harnessing social media and podcasts to sell real estate.
Bruehl said he “couldn’t be happier” with his time at Saunders. He added that he wasn’t looking to leave the firm when he met with the Christie’s affiliate’s owner, president and CEO, Ilija Pavlovic. He said the decision to exit Saunders came after the two had a four-hour lunch at the top of the Rockefeller Center,
He said a major selling point for him was that he’d be running the only Christie’s office in the region. He also touted the firm’s relationship with the auction house and the opportunity to travel to the company’s affiliates in other countries, including an upcoming trip to Portugal, Amsterdam and London.
“I always knew that there would come a time when I would need an international brand,” Bruehl said. “Once my online brand was big enough, my buyer pool broader and my seller clients broader, I knew I would need a bigger platform.”
Pavlovic added that the Hamptons have increasingly become “an international destination.”
“That’s a fact,” Pavlovic said. “For us, this is the first big step in a new direction.”
Pavlovic also touted the firm’s relationship with developers as a draw for Bruehl, including what Pavlovic claimed was the largest portfolio of new development in New Jersey, with more than $1 billion in the pipeline. In New York, the firm formed a partnership with new development veteran, Shlomi Reuveni.
Andrew Saunders, president of Saunders, did not respond to a request for comment.
Before joining Saunders in 2015, Bruehl was with Sotheby’s International. He also served as a financial advisor with Morgan Stanley during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
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