The Story of Aggressor®
Augusta, Georgia. Wayne Brown grew up in a very small town in North Florida and at age 18, unsure of what he wanted to do when he graduated from high school, he joined the United States Air Force and trained as a medic working in the emergency room of Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi Mississippi. After four years, he was sent back to school to train as a flight medic and was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany for the next four years. When his service term expired he made the decision to move back close to his hometown. He was hired by Taco Bell as a manager of one store and then the better part of a large city. After two years, he went into business with a Taco Bell franchisee, built his own Taco Bells and eventually sold his 60 stores in 2006.
As an avid scuba diver, Wayne booked a trip on the Galapagos Aggressor and was so impressed with the service, he then booked another trip on the Belize Aggressor III. He found the same outstanding level of service and immediately inquired as to the ownership of the company. This is when he learned Paul Haines, founder of Aggressor Fleet® had passed away and the family was selling the business. In 1984, Paul Haines, an oil crew boat owner invested in retrofitting one of his oil field crew boats into a liveaboard in the Cayman Islands with Wayne Hasson as Captain and Burns Rutty, as a local Caymanian businessman.
In 2007, Wayne Brown purchased Aggressor Fleet®, in 2008 purchased its competitor Dancer Fleet® then in 2012, merged Dancer Fleet® with Aggressor Fleet®. Today, the company is known as Aggressor Adventures™ which features three luxury brands; Aggressor Liveaboards™ offers scuba diving liveaboards in over 30 countries, Aggressor Safari Lodges™ offers luxury safaris, and Aggressor River Cruises™ offers intimate river cruising. Brown says, "I have always been a huge fan of service based businesses and these three brands allow me to explore more ways to put this passion to work while ensuring we give the highest level of guest service and satisfaction. The attentive staff of Aggressor turns experiences into adventures of a lifetime for our guests. It is a trade, it is an art, it is our talent. Experience it for yourself."