UPDATES: TAO

---

At the end of 2024, I made the decision to step away from arguably the largest transactor of pre-owned business aircraft and build something new.

The Aviation Office (TAO) is not aiming to be bigger, nor louder, than anyone else in the market. Simply more aligned with how I believe the business aviation advisory offering should be.

TAO was founded with a clear objective: aircraft owners, family offices, and decision-makers operating at the highest level deserve senior, independent advice genuinely aligned with their long-term interests. This advice would not be driven by volume targets or internal incentives.

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 am 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 that working at scale creates inevitable compromises. As teams grow larger, priorities shift. 

TAO was designed to avoid that. We are small by design. Senior by default. Every client works directly with experienced leadership, and every recommendation is made without pressure to force a particular outcome. High objectivity is rare in aviation, and it’s the reason many of our clients have chosen to work with us in 2025.

In our first year, 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 involvement has extended well beyond transactions, supporting clients with broader aircraft portfolio decisions, long-term planning, and strategic thinking that goes far past the next deal. We’ve been brought into conversations where owners needed 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 — about mission fit, ownership structures, timing, and risk — before committing to major decisions.

Independence sits at the core of everything we do. It’s a word frequently used in aviation, but rarely fully delivered. At TAO, independence means no fleet incentives, no management affiliations, and no internal pressure to push a particular solution. Our advice is driven by data, experience, and an honest assessment of what serves the client best over the long term. That approach has resonated strongly with family offices and private owners looking for a trusted advisory partner rather than a purely transactional intermediary.

As we move into our second year, the focus remains unchanged. We’re not chasing scale for its own sake. We’re selectively growing 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.