London/Dublin, April 9th 20I8: IBA, the independent aviation advisory and leading aircraft appraisal firm, is delighted to announce that Phil Seymour, CEO and Senior ISTAT Appraiser, has been bestowed with the honorary title of Appraiser Fellow by the ISTAT Appraisers’ International Board of Governors. The designation recognises Seymour’s outstanding service to the appraisal profession for over twenty years as an ISTAT appraiser, six of which as the elected Chair.
“It is a special honour to receive the title of Fellow and join the list of aviation industry stalwarts who have achieved the accolade during their careers” says Seymour. “It has been my good fortune to have served two 3 year terms as Chair, the maximum allowed under the constitution, and I am delighted to hand over to my colleague Bryson Monteleone who was elected by the appraiser community to take on the seat.
“During my tenure the programme has grown from 42 certified appraisers to 70, and it has evolved from a US centric programme to a truly international one. I have introduced the Appraiser 101 sessions at the Asia and Europe/Middle East conferences, and located examinations and resits to Europe, rather than the previous annual sitting in the USA. Seymour goes on to say how pleased he is that the move towards a streamlined (but not simpler) testing, examination and qualification procedure is underway. “The growth of the programme led to my view that ISTAT needed a full time director level post-holder and that was instigated from January 2018 with the appointment of Jeff Straebler.”
There is strong evidence that the role of the appraiser is evolving as valuations of aircraft portfolios become increasingly complex. “There is a growing demand for appraisers” explains Seymour. “ISTAT has already grown by almost 70% and over twenty candidates are waiting in the wings. People want to be appraisers, but only half of the qualified individuals are practicing in multi-functional advisory firms like IBA. The rest are employed by OEMs, banks and lessors who consider the ISTAT programme to be the gold standard.
IBA is seeing the industry moving towards portfolio sales, lease management and mergers & acquisitions between leasing companies. In this environment the professional and senior appraiser becomes part of the due diligence when valuing aircraft portfolios. “It is our responsibility and on-going challenge to keep ahead of the game in the understanding of sophisticated and highly intricate progressive financial structures – there’s never been a time when the role of professional appraiser has been so integral to the changing landscape of aircraft ownership.”
Winning the Airline Economics’ ‘Appraiser of the Year Award 2018’ recognises not only the importance that IBA as an advisory firm places on the qualification, but also demonstrates the industry’s reliance on appraisers’ knowledge and expert opinion. This in turn feeds the data platforms such as IBA.iQ which share industry intelligence to enable and guide informed decision making.