The Corporate Jet Investor Podcast

129 Episodes

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CJI Podcast #54 | Luis Barros | Leviate Air Group | “Find people that do things better than you”

2026-10-0901:02:59

Luis Barros, founder and CEO of Leviate Air Group, joins Alasdair Whyte to talk about his path from a first aviation program at 16 to building a Dallas-based business that covers charter, aircraft sales and operations. He explains how he bought the company he once worked for and why he went to Columbia Business School to study private equity. Barros explains how he plans to double Leviate organically, but acquisitions could make it five times larger. They also cover private equity’s role in a...

$CJI Podcast #53 | Mark Bearden | First American Equipment Finance | "As a lender we feel really good about fractional ownership"$

CJI Podcast #53 | Mark Bearden | First American Equipment Finance | "As a lender we feel really good about fractional ownership"

2026-10-0238:14

This week on the Corporate Jet Investor podcast, Mark Bearden, Senior Vice President at First American Equipment Finance, explains why fractional ownership is so popular and why his banks likes financing it. Mark discusses why City National lends against the borrower rather than the aircraft, and how that approach fits well with used fractional shares. He covers what drove the post-2020 boom, who is buying fractional today, and when it beats charter, jet cards or whole-aircraft ownership. He ...

CJI Podcast #52 | Patrick Hosman Jr | Southern Cross Aircraft | "We have lost millions on single airplanes"

2026-09-2550:44

Southern Cross Aircraft is one of the most active large business jet dealers in the world. In this CJI Podcast Pat Hosmann Jr. explains how they look for aircraft with “good bones” and the risks involved in inventory (especially when three brothers are making investment decisions). The company specialises in complex international deals and Hosmann explains how to deal with different cultures. He also says how tight-knit the community is: “In business aviation there is probably three deg...

CJI Podcast #51 | Denise Wilson | The Jet Agent | "Interpersonal relationships are still everything"

2026-09-1854:53

Denise Wilson has done nearly everything in business aviation: commercial pilot, aircraft manager, operator for 14 years, and now founder and president of The Jet Agent, a brokerage built on real advisory relationships instead of the usual sales hustle. In this episode, Denise talks about why she specialises in specific aircraft rather than a region, how she helps first time buyers cut through all the noise, and what's actually going on right now in the Citation M2 and CJ4 markets. She gets i...

CJI Podcast #50 | John Odegard | 5x5 Trading | "The aircraft brokerage world can be a little bit like the Wild West"

2026-09-1154:41

John Odegard, founder of 5x5 Trading and Chairman of IADA, has spent 30+ years closing deals in private aviation, from NetJets to Wheels Up to building his own firm from scratch. He talks career pivots, the leap of faith it took to launch a new business in the middle of a global shutdown, what it really takes to move aircraft at scale, and the highs of competition and celebration in dealmaking, right down to the horn that goes off every time his team closes a deal. Plus: why he still says the...

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