Who

A senior vice president at Corcoran, Browne is one of the most successful—and flamboyant—real estate brokers in the city.

Backstory

Kentucky-born Browne has a sterling pedigree: He graduated from Phillips Andover Academy, Princeton (class of '71), and Harvard Business School. After holding several jobs in academia—teaching fellow at Andover, admissions officer at Harvard—he co-founded a company, Browne-Ladd Tours, that organized student trips to Europe. By the early '90s, he'd switched to real estate and taken a job at Douglas Elliman, quickly zeroing in on the city's expanding luxury market. In 2002, he jumped to rival brokerage Corcoran. He's now one of the firm's top producers, consistently selling upwards of $200 million in properties annually. These days he partners on many of his deals with fellow Corcoran brokers Maria Pashby and Chris Kann.

Of note

Browne is best known in real estate circles for brokering a then-record-breaking $43 million deal to sell a duplex on the 76th and 77th floors of the Time Warner Center to press-shy financier David Martinez in 2003. But he's also orchestrated a slew of other notable property transactions. In 2006, he sold Andre Balazs' 10th-floor penthouse at SoHo's New Museum building for $10 million; in 2007 he sold a duplex penthouse in the same building to Bon Jovi for a cool $26 million. Browne placed Hilary Swank and Chad Lowe at their Charles Street townhouse, and then helped them sell it for $7.55 million after they broke up. Other clients have included Mariah Carey, Lorraine Bracco, Bob Vila, glasses guru Robert Marc, Whoopi Goldberg, and former George Soros protégé Scott Bessent, for whom he finagled a $12 million penthouse at One Sutton Place South in May 2007. Most recently, he was reported to be helping Mariska Hargitay find a new place.

Off hours

A serious diver when he was younger, Browne competed in diving events in the 1990 and 1994 Gay Games. (In 1990, he took home gold medals in the 1-meter and the 3-meter.) He's also dabbled in movie production: In 1997, he executive produced a gay B-movie called Boys Life 2, which featured a pre-breakout Vincent D'Onofrio in role of "Nunzio's Second Cousin." These days Browne's most notable extracurricular commitment is the annual fest he hosts for the Toys for Tots Foundation.

Habitat

Browne recently purchased an apartment at 15 Central Park West, Arthur and William Lie Zeckendorf's ultra-luxe, Robert A.M. Stern-designed development. His new neighbors include Lloyd Blankfein, Sting, Dan Loeb, Dan Och, Denzel Washington, Bob Costas, and Sandy Weill.