Civilian
Curry’s proud Marine Corps career continued until his retirement in 2017 from U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in Tampa. He transitioned into a civilian career that began at Icon Aircraft in California where he rose to VP of sales, marketing, flight operations, and service (whew!). During his tenure, Icon delivered its 100th A5 aircraft, solidifying its position as a leading manufacturer in the light-sport aircraft category. By 2022, Icon delivered 35 A5 aircraft — the highest annual total since 2019 — to bring the global fleet to over 165 aircraft with more than 30,000 cumulative flight hours. After nearly five years with Icon, Curry then founded his own company to represent buyers of private jets, called “Crew Chiefs.” His company’s slogan is “Don’t assume — verify!”
Then, Skyryse Founder and CEO Mark Groden phoned Curry to ask him to join his innovative company in Los Angeles. Curry recalls, “By the time I hung up, my U-Haul was packed and I was ready to drive cross country. I’ve been fascinated with Skyryse’s technology since first hearing of it when I was at Icon Aircraft.”
Leaders Eat Last
The Marine Corps forged many leadership skills into Curry; the former Marine continues to draw on those skills. “Being a commanding officer of Marines was the most satisfying professional thing I’ve done...I don’t miss everything in the Marine Corps, but I miss the young Marine to this day. It’s hard to replace that sense of teamwork we had anywhere else.” Still, he tries to bring that teamwork to Skyryse through his leadership. He says, “The Marines do a great job of teaching leadership and their saying is, ‘Leaders eat last.’ I actually get a little anxiety if I eat before others in our organization; it’s a habit that’s ingrained in me.” What he means by eating last is that a real servant leader doesn’t put himself before the needs of his team. “You pour everything you have into your team members,” he says. “If you’re a really good leader, you should end each day spiritually exhausted because you gave everything you had to the team around you.
14 May/June 2025
That requires a strong work ethic. A real servant leader is usually the first in the door and the last one to leave.”
Leadership isn’t just about pouring yourself into your team, it’s also about giving team members ownership. “My top value in hiring a team is finding people who are action oriented. For that to happen, they need to trust me, as a leader, not to micromanage them. You give people authority to accomplish a task, but that also means you give them the authority to make mistakes,” Curry says. “If you say you’re giving someone ownership, but you’re constantly micromanaging them, you haven’t really given them anything.”
A book about creating this ownership culture that Curry has read going on five times — and he says warrants another reading — is It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by Michael Abrashoff.
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