UPDATES: TAO

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At the end of 2024, I reached a natural point in my career where building something new felt right. TAO launched in January 2025, not to be bigger or louder than anyone else in the market, but simply to reflect the standard of service I would expect as a client.

I founded TAO on a clear objective: to ensure that aircraft owners, family offices, and senior decision-makers receive advice that is genuinely aligned with their long-term interests. Advice that is senior, independent, and considered, rather than influenced by volume targets, internal incentives, or momentum.

From day one, Ellen Urell was instrumental in helping bring TAO to life. With a long-standing career in business aviation, particularly supporting family offices, Ellen worked alongside me to establish the foundations of the business, shape how we engaged with clients, and ensure TAO grew with the professionalism, structure, and integrity it needed to succeed. Following a serious medical emergency mid-year, Ellen had to step away from the business. Her contribution to our early success does not go unrecognized, and I remain personally grateful for the role she played in getting TAO off the ground.

Having spent much of my career within some of the most respected global aviation organizations, I’ve seen first-hand the strengths that scale can bring, and equally, the trade-offs that often accompany it. As teams grow larger, priorities naturally evolve, processes expand, and decision-making can become more layered.

TAO was intentionally designed differently. We are smaller by design and senior by default. Every client works directly with experienced leadership, and every recommendation is made without pressure to force a particular outcome. Sometimes the right advice is to wait. Sometimes it’s to reassess. Sometimes it’s to do nothing at all.

That level of objectivity requires discipline, and it’s the reason many of our clients have chosen to work with us during our first year. In that time, we have exceeded the targets set at launch. But the numbers were never the point. What mattered was building trust, delivering sound advice, and proving that a more considered, independent model could succeed.

Much of our work has extended well beyond transactions. We’ve supported clients with broader aircraft portfolio decisions, long-term planning, and strategic thinking that looks beyond the next deal. We’ve regularly been brought into conversations where owners want clarity rather than noise, independence rather than persuasion, and advice rooted in experience rather than momentum. In many cases, our role has been to help clients step back and ask better questions before committing to major decisions.

As we move into our second year, the focus remains unchanged. While we aim to grow, we’re not chasing scale for its own sake. We’re selectively expanding our advisory work, continuing to refine our approach to aircraft portfolio management, and investing further in the infrastructure that supports thoughtful, data-led decision-making.

Above all, we remain committed to the principles on which TAO was founded: depth over breadth, quality over quantity, and long-term relationships over short-term wins.