A ship needs a harbor. A plane needs a place to park. Neither arrangement works for long without somebody doing the less picturesque jobs: dredging, fueling, repairing, handling cargo. Thomas Lefebvre’s recent investments bring him into those businesses. The scenery is good. The work is considerably more practical.
As partner and CEO of Tallvine Partners, the firm he founded in 2024, Lefebvre is building a new chapter around North American infrastructure. Its airport services investment began with three locations. Its marine platform has added companies serving the East Coast, San Francisco Bay, and the Gulf Coast. These are places where a financial decision eventually meets a vessel, a hangar, or a crew.
There is a maritime detail in his own past, too. Before finance, Lefebvre served as a sub-lieutenant in the French Navy Commandos, based in Toulon. He also ran a software engineering company in Paris. His route into investment management took several turns before arriving at the water again.
A software company before the spreadsheets
Lefebvre’s education crossed engineering and business. He earned engineering master’s degrees from École Polytechnique and the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris, now known as Télécom Paris. At Harvard Business School, he completed an MBA; his attendance there ran from 2004 to 2006.
Before his financial career, he was CEO and cofounder of Natika, a Paris software engineering company. That gives the later investor biography an earlier operating chapter. He had held the chief executive’s title at a business of his own before taking responsibility for investments in other people’s companies.
His banking career included Morgan Stanley’s investment banking division in London and Paris, covering industrial businesses, telecommunications and digital infrastructure, and aerospace and defense. He then worked in New York in the bank’s Principal Investments operation, focusing on power, utilities, and commodities.
At Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, he became a portfolio manager for the Americas. His remit included power, utilities, and oil and gas. The progression brought him closer to the businesses beneath the financial instruments: companies supplying energy, moving materials, and maintaining systems whose usefulness depends on continued operation.
A decade of learning what infrastructure can be
In 2012, Lefebvre joined I Squared Capital as a founding member. He went on to lead the firm’s infrastructure strategy in North America. Over the following decade, his work extended across power, utilities, transportation, logistics, and telecommunications.
By 2022, his record included overseeing eleven platforms and companies across the Americas. His responsibilities involved acquiring businesses, developing them, and directing changes to their operations. The word “platform” can sound suspiciously weightless. In this career, it refers to companies with assets and management teams, intended to serve as a base for further growth.
His work also included exits. He led divestments of Lincoln Clean Energy, Cube Hydro, Cube District Energy, and Curtis Palmer, alongside the firm’s investment in Venture Global. He also led the earlier divestment of Kendall Green Energy. Buying was one stage of the job; developing and eventually selling businesses were others.
One story from that period offers a smaller, more human view of the process. In a 2021 infrastructure roundtable, Lefebvre described getting to know the management of Star Leasing, a trailer-leasing business, over Zoom. The partnership developed through those conversations, with an in-person meeting coming months later.
The anecdote suits the sector. A trailer is easy enough to understand. Deciding whom to trust with a company full of them takes longer. Lefebvre’s account placed management relationships at the center of a transaction that would otherwise be remembered mainly as the acquisition of an Ohio leasing business.
The asset has a job. The people running it have one, too.
He left I Squared in 2022. The following April, Lithium Energi Exploration appointed him to its board, citing his financial background and experience in power, batteries, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and Latin America. It was another connection between capital and the physical systems supporting energy use.
The airport business beneath the flight
Tallvine emerged in 2024 with a middle-market infrastructure focus. Lefebvre leads it alongside partners Chucri Hjeily, Mark Clark, and Victor Sosa. Its target sectors include energy and utilities, transportation and logistics, and communications. The firm is based in the Miami area, with its office in Coral Gables.
In January 2025, Tallvine launched an airport services platform by acquiring Odyssey Aviation’s US assets. The initial locations were Willow Run near Detroit, Kissimmee Gateway near Orlando, and St. Simons Island in Georgia. The transaction terms were not disclosed.
The businesses are fixed-base operators, usually shortened to FBOs. Their services include aircraft fueling, hangar space, ground handling, cargo support, and concierge arrangements. A flight can inspire poetry. The practical arrangements awaiting it on the ground inspire invoices, schedules, and a good deal of coordination.
Tallvine put an experienced aviation executive in charge: Chad Farischon, formerly cofounder and president of Lynx FBO Network. Ed Zwirn, Tallvine’s operating principal, supported the platform. Lefebvre’s own role was to help establish and grow the investment alongside people whose experience lay in the sector’s daily operations.
In June 2025, the US business announced a new name, Velocity FBO Network. Its former branding relationship with Odyssey Aviation Bahamas ended, and the two businesses would operate independently. For the US network, the rebrand accompanied plans to expand through acquisitions and development.
The expansion continued. Velocity added BTR Jet Center at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport in February 2026. In August, it acquired SkyPlace FBO at San Antonio International Airport, taking the network to six locations, including Lake Havasu City in Arizona.
At Baton Rouge, the offering included fuel service, ground support, flight planning facilities, and lounges for pilots and passengers. Those details explain the business more clearly than a phrase about transportation assets. Each location supplies a set of services that aircraft operators need when the aircraft is on the ground.
Three acquisitions, three stretches of coastline
In September 2025, Tallvine acquired Donjon Marine and established its North American marine infrastructure strategy. Donjon, founded in 1964 and headquartered in Hillside, New Jersey, brought dredging, salvage, heavy lifting, towing, and environmental remediation capabilities.
John A. Witte Jr. continued as CEO, with Thomas and Paul Witte also part of the executive team. Thoroughbred joined as the platform’s industrial partner. The arrangement paired a new financial owner with an existing operating leadership team and another partner experienced in industrial businesses.
Lind Marine followed in May 2026, extending the platform to the West Coast. Founded in 1906, Lind serves San Francisco Bay and nearby waterways from its shipyard base on Mare Island. Its services include dredging, towing, salvage, vessel repair, and marine environmental work.
For Lefebvre, the addition extended the platform’s geographical reach. Christian Lind stayed on as CEO. The company retained its name, too. Expansion at the ownership level left a familiar operator and identity in place for the business.
“expanding its geographic footprint into the West Coast”
Thomas Lefebvre / Lind Marine acquisition, May 2026
The third acquisition arrived in September 2026: substantially all the assets of Crosby Enterprises and certain affiliates. Based in Galliano, Louisiana, Crosby brought operations across the Gulf Coast and inland waterways, including offshore and inland towing, dredging, rock placement, marine construction support, and shipyard services.
- Donjon MarineEast Coast operations
- Lind MarineSan Francisco Bay
- Crosby assetsGulf Coast + inland waterways
The Crosby transaction followed a court-approved sale process connected with its Chapter 11 proceedings. The bankruptcy court in the Eastern District of Louisiana approved the sale on September 3. Tallvine announced completion on September 16 and said Crosby’s crews and facilities would continue serving customers without interruption.
Lefebvre’s stated commitment included “investing in its people, fleet and infrastructure.” The wording makes the next stage concrete. The acquired business comes with equipment to maintain, employees to support, and customers whose work continues after the sale closes.
Another kind of ensemble
There is a different institution on Lefebvre’s list of commitments: the Miami Symphony Orchestra. He serves on its board and executive committee. His LinkedIn profile dates his board service to April 2022; the orchestra also lists him among its Gold Baton sponsors.
That places him in a civic setting alongside musicians, arts supporters, and fellow directors. The board is chaired by Emilio Estefan, while Eduardo Marturet is music director and CEO. Lefebvre’s involvement adds cultural governance to a professional history more often associated with energy systems and transport businesses.
At Tallvine, the next steps remain grounded in operations. Airport expansion means adding facilities and services. Marine expansion means working across different waterways with different fleets and customers. The announcements make those ambitions visible through the people retained to run the businesses and the locations added to the network.
For Lefebvre, the founder’s role has returned with a different set of assets. Once it was a software engineering company in Paris. Now it includes the services behind a flight and the work that keeps a harbor useful. Aircraft still need fuel. Vessels still need room to move. Commerce has a habit of making very practical demands.