Meet The Team

David Segel first encountered a Porsche when his Uncle Johnny—a Vietnam war veteran—pulled up in a wide-bodied, silver 911 Carrera with a whale-tail. At 10 years old, Dave vowed that when he was a “grown-up” he’d be driving a Porsche. He never imagined that after many years in finance, splitting years between London and California, that he’d own his own collection. But some vows are upheld… and done so with dexterity.

In regard to motoring, Dave’s favorite era of automobiles is 1962—1976. He never outgrew his fascination for the 911, nor did he drift too far away from German engineering. To this day, both German and British manufacturing remain to be the predominant bloodline of his fleet—seeing as air-cooled technology and the mechanics of manual transmission have enticed him since his days at Yale (where he studied both physics and philosophy).

Additionally, Dave is also an avid outdoorsman and a competitive sailor in Nautor Swan calls. He's also a qualified airplane pilot and operates primarily bush planes and warbirds. He’s explored much of the unvisited world, including a trip on skis to the true north pole in 2004, and a shorthanded journey on a Rigid Inflatable Boat through the North West Passage from Greenland to upper Alaska in 2010.

If the mechanics are unique, the engineering spells adventure, and it looks a bit off-kilter, it’s probably going to have a place in Dave’s heart. Today, Dave lives in California, where he pioneers Segel Group Limited—his family office—and has time to nurture, expand, and optimize his fleet.

Based on the South coast of the UK, Ben is about an hour and half’s drive from Central London. Ben was brought up in the center of England and has been sailing since a very young age. He is never seen too far from the water and was a certificated boat captain at 16 years of age. Keen to interact with all forms of water, Ben is an accomplished snowboard and skier as well as scuba diver.

Following a degree in Mechanical Engineering he has captained transatlantic sailing trips and skippered David's UK based yacht for over 15 years, campaigning it at World Championship level events. Ben also plays an active role in running and maintaining the UK classic sports car fleet for David and has been know to make an appearance at the historic Goodwood aerodrome motor circuit in the track prepared 1989 Porsche 964 C2. Ben has the ambition to fly out of Goodwood one day in the Supermarine Spitfire and complete his pilots licence.

Today, Ben works as the Head of Engineering at Oyster Yachts, the UK’s premiere sailing super-yacht boat builders. He is keen to lead the design and development based on his personal experiences and many thousands of sailed sea miles.

Raised in Northern California, in a little town called Monterey, Shawn decided to move down to Los Angeles with the completely original dream of being a screenwriter. After working in film for three years, he decided to migrate to finance, accepting an opportunity to work for Segel Group LTD, David Segel’s family office.

With basically zero experience in anything vehicle-related, he found himself in a position to help manage a fleet of automobiles, planes, and boats. With pointed research, Dave’s mentorship, and hours on hours working with the fleet, he now knows a thing or two.

Today, Shawn works at Segel Group LTD, runs a startup called Copycat, and manages the day-to-day for SGL Motors. While motoring sports, aviation, and boating were never passions of his, they’ve become one of his great affinities.