Teamwork in Successful Business Purchases and Sales
To properly serve your industry, we have assembled a world-class team of business, M&A and aviation experts working together with precision and effectiveness.
When you employ FBO Sales, you enlist the talents of the entire FBO Sales team, with an unsurpassed track record of over 1,100 successfully closed business deals — and 100,000 hours of flying time.
Well-focused teamwork yields important resources and insights at critical points in the deal process. Our experts have not only an excellent understanding of what makes businesses tick, but also decades of real-world aviation experience that crosses military, commercial and recreational aviation markets.
Bob Latham
Bob Latham got his first taste of aviation at the age of five, flying right seat (sitting on a phone book) in his grandfather’s Mooney Chaparral. He earned his pilot’s certificate during college, but it was nearly three decades later, as his two boys became adults, that he finally dusted off the logbook and regained his currency, going on to earn his instrument rating. This opened up the opportunities to use aircraft for business, not just poking holes in the sky. Now a proud owner of a Cirrus, Bob utilizes his plane to visit clients across the great, and far-flung, state of Texas.
Bob is a managing partner and principal in IBG Business, an M&A advisory firm specializing in privately owned middle-market and lower middle market businesses, and part of the FBO Sales network. Having spent 20 years in manufacturing and 10 years in construction, he has an understanding of those industries gained only by “sitting in the left seat.” He entered the M&A world nearly 10 years ago and enjoys helping owners reap the benefits of their years of hard work and sacrifice.
He is a Certified Business Intermediary, a Mergers & Acquisitions Master Intermediary, and a member of the International Business Brokers Association and the M&A Source.
An instrument-rated pilot and an active member of the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association (COPA), Bob is a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight South Central, a charitable organization dedicated to transporting financially needy patients who require critical medical treatment in distant cities.
Steve Bisbee
A former Naval Flight Officer with over thirteen years of combined active and reserve duty flying in S-3A squadrons, Steve Bisbee continued his interest in aviation by working for a multi-national corporation providing military aircrew training and courseware development to the Navy (SH-60, SH-2, H-46, and F/A-18), Marines (F/A/18, H-53, RF-4), and the Air Force (C-130), eventually serving as a program manager on domestic and foreign aircrew training programs. He was a key member on five major US military contracting proposal teams bidding on Air Force aircrew training and courseware development projects (C-5, C-130, KC-135, SOF, HC-130), winning the bid for the C-130 Aircrew Training System where he became the courseware development program manager, a multi-million dollar, multi-year project.
Steve is an experienced attorney skilled in M&A transactions in the business community where he has worked closely with buyers and sellers for nearly 20 years. Licensed through the State Bar of Arizona and the Arizona Department of Real Estate, Steve holds both his law degree and his undergraduate business degree from Arizona State University, and his MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Steve’s flight experiences, aircrew training qualifications, business ownership, and years of managing an M&A law practice provide him with keen insight into the business of aviation, in support of buyers, sellers, and the FBO Sales Process.
Chase Larabee grew up surrounded by aviation. Raised in Seattle (home of Boeing) and coming from a family of professional pilots, he began flying at a young age and developed an early understanding of the industry.
Before joining FBO Sales as a Managing Director, Chase founded, scaled, and sold Avionics Source, an aircraft electronics distributor serving thousands of customers worldwide. He led the company through its acquisition by an industry-leading partner and worked with prominent aviation brands, including Boeing-owned Jeppesen.
Chase is also the founder of Aircraft Source, a general aviation brokerage, as well as a sales and marketing consultancy. His experience as both a business owner and aviation professional gives him a valuable perspective when representing buyers and sellers. He takes a consultative approach to every engagement, guiding clients through each stage of the transaction and working to exceed their expectations.
Jim Afinowich
Jim Afinowich has more than a quarter century of successful experience in the M&A industry. He is a Certified Business Intermediary (CBI) and Merger & Acquisition Master Intermediary (M&AMI), the highest levels of accreditation in the industry. Jim is a founding partner of IBG Fox & Fin Financial Group, a mid-market M&A firm that has been ranked the number one brokerage firm in Arizona for more than 13 consecutive years.
Jim is a founding member of the M&A Source and is a Fellow and past president of the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA), the industry’s largest trade association. He is currently the president of the Business Intermediary Education Foundation, Inc. Nationally recognized in the M&A industry, Jim is a frequent presenter at national and regional conferences.
The former owner of 15 businesses Jim is not just experienced in closing deals – he is experienced in business. He started his first company when he was 20 years old, and by the time he reached 30 he had launched multiple businesses domestically and internationally, employing hundreds of people and, like you, experiencing the joys and challenges of business ownership.
As a pilot Jim has been obsessed with flight since his first solo flight at age 16. He has held instructor ratings for ultralight aircraft and hang gliders. Jim is a current IFR-rated pilot and aircraft owner with over 3,000 hours.
John Zayac
As a pilot with over 20 years of experience, John Zayac has competed in the National Championship Air Races for the past 11 years. He won first place in the T-6 Bronze Class in 2003 and second place in the T-6 Gold Class in 2010. John currently competes in the highly competitive T-6 Gold Class annually in the race team “McDonald Racer #37” and is recognized as one of the top 5 T-6 race pilots in the world.
In addition to John’s competitive aviation achievements he is also a successful entrepreneur having owned and operated over a dozen businesses in various industries. In 1982, John founded IBG Business Services, Inc., a merger and acquisition advisory firm specializing in the sale of privately owned middle-market businesses. IBG is a nationally acclaimed M&A firm based in Colorado and part of the FBO Sales’ affiliate network. John’s record of success as a business intermediary has resulted in excess of 680 completed transactions with a combined value of over $2 billion.
John is a Certified Business Intermediary (CBI), a Fellow of the International Business Brokers Association, is on the Board of Advisors to the M&A Source and a Board Member of the Business Intermediary Education Foundation in addition to serving as a board member on other numerous business, community and charitable organizations.
John’s ratings include IFR, Multi-Engine Prop, Air Race Certified by RARA (Reno Air Racing Association), FAST Formation Flight Qualified.
Jim McNerney
EmailJim McNerney
Jim McNerney obtained his pilot’s license before he applied for a driver’s license. From the age of 18, Jim has been an instructor pilot and has flown over 50 different types of aircraft. Currently he is a Boeing 777 captain for a major airline and also serves as an arbitrator for disputes between union and management.
For the past two decades, when he is not flying Jim has worked in the brokerage business. He knows how to add value when representing clients and closing business transactions. Jim has owned several businesses and understands a business owner’s perspective. His wide range of aviation and sales experience makes him an expert in aviation related merger and acquisition transactions.
Jim holds numerous and varied instructor ratings, sea plane ratings and an air transport certificate with type ratings in Boeing 737s, 757s, 767s, and 777s. He has accumulated over 22,000 flying hours.
Garry Barnes
As a commercial banker, Garry Barnes was vice president and manager of the aviation financing division for a regional bank. He provided financing and leasing services to various FBO operations, airplane brokers and aircraft owners.
In addition to his role with FBO Sales, Garry serves as a director and co-owner of a bank consulting company which provides management consulting services as well as mergers and acquisition services for community banks.
With more than 35 years of commercial banking experience Garry has served as a bank president/CEO as well as in a host of senior management positions. In addition, he has taught business and finance at the university level, money and banking for the American Institute of Banking, credit and lending at four national banking schools, borrowing techniques for the U.S. Small Business Administration, business lending for CPAs, and business valuation and financial statement analysis.
Garry started flying at the age of 18 while working for a FBO, where he was a lineman and aircraft servicing apprentice. Once he earned his private license he went on to achieve his ground school Instructor certification and then taught private pilot ground school at a local flight school at night while going to college and working as a commercial banker.
Private Pilot, Ground School Instructor