Growing up on a small, rural farm in Orange Park, Florida, Wayne Brown never asked for help when equipment broke down or the animals needed feeding. The youngest son of a long-distance truck driver, the owner and CEO of Aggressor Adventures knew, “It was up to us to figure it out. We didn’t call a guy. We were the guy.”

Today, Brown credits his hands-on childhood with giving him the independence and can-do spirit he’s carried throughout his career.

Brown went on to join the U.S. Air Force as a medic. After eight years of service, he left the military to work for Taco Bell corporate, ultimately becoming his own boss in the franchise system as the owner of 60 stores in Florida and Georgia, which he sold in 2006.

It wouldn’t be long until Brown, an entrepreneur at heart, discovered his next business venture—albeit in a place far from home.

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Diving Into the Liveaboard Business

During a family vacation on Belize Aggressor, Brown learned the entire fleet was for sale after the previous owner, Paul Haines, had passed away from an illness. An avid diver and admirer of the Aggressor Fleet’s elite accommodations and five-star service, Brown leapt at the opportunity to buy into the franchise-style organization, which licenses its brand and standard procedures to operators around the world.

“I’ve always been attracted to high-end, service-oriented businesses, because I know how hard it is to deliver all the time,” says Brown. “Obviously it’s very different from working with 1,500 fast food employees. We’re always trying to add another level of service. We fail sometimes, just like everybody else. But we try our best and make up for it if things go sideways. It doesn’t come from being profit-driven. It comes from making sure we’re taking care of the customer, which results in the bottom line.”

After acquiring Aggressor in 2007, Brown spent a year studying the dive industry, attending trade shows and personally visiting each Aggressor destination to meet with owners. He also traveled alongside customers—something he continues to do today—asking what they enjoyed, what may have fallen short and, if they were repeat guests, why they came back.

“After the first 10 months, I felt like I had enough knowledge to shape it into the kind of organization that I wanted to run. While they had a lot of good standard operating procedures, it had become unorganized, so I created a bible for our owners to make sure they’re all operating by the same high standard.”

Cruising to Success

Never one to do anything halfway, Brown purchased one of Aggressor’s competitors, Dancer Fleet, in 2008, extending the brand’s reach further across the globe. While traveling, Brown also realized the potential of broadening beyond liveaboards to other types of adventure-based tourism. “Scuba diving is great, but it’s a niche market. I want every person in the world to be a potential customer.”

In 2018, Brown opened his first Aggressor Safari Lodge in Sri Lanka, as well as Aggressor River Cruises in Egypt. Marking this period of growth, he renamed the company Aggressor Adventures. Today, the brand has grown from a fleet of eight yachts to a travel empire that offers 51 unique itineraries in 16 countries—and there’s no sign things will slow down anytime soon.

“There have only been two years that we haven’t had double-digit growth—that was during the [2008] financial crisis and COVID-19,” says Brown. “During COVID-19, we were shut down for four months. But during that time, I said, ‘Look, people are going to come back. We’ve just got to be ready when they do. We can’t let them forget about us.’” By continuing to actively engage with customers through a series of initiatives, including a podcast and interactive digital treasure hunts for free gear, reservations flocked in and it was business as usual once they reopened.

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Charting a Future Course

Outside of launching Aggressor Floating Resorts in Hurghada, Egypt, next year, Brown prefers not to dwell on his future ambitions for Aggressor Adventures. Despite the impressive evolution of his company, the CEO says he’s “never been a big planner for growth.” Instead, Brown prefers to take things one step at a time, focusing on what he knows works: creating thrilling luxury adventures that exceed guests’ expectations.

That approach might not work for everyone, but according to Brown, that’s how he’s found his own brand of success.

“The best advice is: Run your business well and take care of your people, but do it with your own style and personality. Trying to emulate some seminar you went to on five-minute managing is not going to come through as being genuine.”

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Milestone Moment

All divers have a personal story about what inspired them to take their first breath underwater. For Brown, it was his love for his children.

“It was 1999 and we had moved to Augusta, Georgia,” he says. “My son was 15 at the time, and we rarely saw each other except at dinner. I was worried that once he turned 16 and he could drive with his friends, that would be it.”

A chance sighting of a dives hop on the way home from work one day inspired Brown to suggest an unexpected family activity. “I figured we could learn something new together and take a trip once a year.” The experiment was a great success for father and son; Brown’s younger daughter joined in the fun a few years later.

“Just like everyone else, we started out shore diving and then did some dayboats out of West Palm Beach. Eventually, I heard about the Aggressor Fleet and asked which was the best one. They told us Galapagos was top of the line, so we went there, and I thought, ‘Man, this is diving. We’ve got great dives during the day and tablecloths and wine at night.’ I was hooked.”