Tom has had a long and varied career in the aviation industry spanning several decades. He began his career in economics and research before joining the aviation company Guinness Peat Aviation in Ireland. He gained experience in aircraft leasing in both Europe and the United States. Later he worked for finance companies involved in aircraft and engine leasing such as HSBC Holdings and Willis Lease. Most recently, Tom was CEO of an engine leasing venture and helped Macquarie Air Finance sell their engine division. Through these diverse experiences, Tom has an extensive knowledge of the aviation industry.

1. As Principal of MacAleavey Aviation, Tom's career has spanned the spectrum:
Born in Montreal where his father was one of the original five pioneers who
joined a fledging International Civil Aviation Organisation. Upon graduating
from Trinity College, Dublin with a degree in economics, he took a gap year
and worked as a deep sea fisherman on an Icelandic trawler before joining
the Economist Intelligence Unit in London. In his position as a Research
Analyst he worked on various projects including the introduction of the
Range Rover to the US market, the future of organic health foods for the
Duchy of Cornwall ( yes Prince Charles was way ahead of the posse on this)
and the Future of Forecourts in Petrol Distribution for Shell BP. That project
in later years has produced the shops and food courts we see in
petrol stations today.
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Time to move on: Tom joined a semi state body The Irish Export Board; with
his knowledge of Spanish he was charged with developing trade ties with
Central and South America and would manage trade delegations visiting a
string of countries with a group of Irish business men and a Government
minster in tow. Later he got posted to Warsaw as Irish Trade Commissioner .
While in Poland he heard of a new aviation company that had started in
Shannon called Guinness Peat Aviation. So he started a campaign of sending
a telex to Tony Ryan , then CEO, looking for work. Perseverance paid off and
Tom started his journey in the aviation business.
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He was there for the dawn of aircraft leasing and focused on covering Latin
America but also on learning a new business from the bottom up. Moving to
San Francisco, he joined GATX leasing which had acquired the assets of ITEL
Air and had little expertise on the the management of aircraft. At that
stage aviation was at a financial crossroads: Aircraft were now being financed
with exotic financial products, accelerated depreciation and safe harbour
leasing.
Time to move on to HSBC Holdings which was both a senior and junior
lender in the aircraft finance space. It was during his time at HSBC that he
met up with Charlie Willis as HSBC was a lender to Willis Lease. So it was a

2. logical move to switch to the engine leasing business which had
a stability through recessions not enjoyed by aircraft leasing.
Tom was responsible for putting Willis Lease on the map, culminating in
his negotiating the largest single purchase of engines from CFMI.
Tom moved to AerCap Holdings as CEO of an new Engine Leasing venture
which got smashed by the financial crisis in 2008. He then joined Macquarie
Air Finance to bring some logic to their aircraft engine business. However, the
engine diision was not well suited to the Banks' business model and
he worked to profitably sell the division for Macquarie .
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So when you hear the expression 'been there, done that, have the tee shirt', it
applies to Tom in buckets.