Steve Wood began his journey at Mesa College. Now, he hires CMU engineers to work at his company
With a grandfather, father and uncles who were all pilots, it’s not hard to imagine how Steve Wood, 1975 Mesa College alumnus and CEO of Spirit Engineering, Inc., gravitated towards a career in building aircraft.
According to Wood, if someone had asked him at age seven what he wanted to be, he would have said an aeroengineer. He never wavered from that.
“I can’t remember not being around airplanes or hearing airplanes talked about,” he said. “That was almost like an established thing in my mind from a very early age.”
Wood kicked off his journey by taking classes at then-Mesa College while still a senior in high school to prepare for engineering school. Wood earned his Associate of Science in Engineering from Mesa College before earning his bachelor’s degree in Indiana.
GETTING STARTED BACK HOME
Wood started his career with one of the most well-known names in aviation, Cessna, as a test engineer. He said he worked on a lot of different projects, including designing aircraft, that would later serve him well in his own ventures.
After five years, he felt it was time to go home to Grand Junction, Colorado, to begin a long career in entrepreneurship.
His first entrepreneurial endeavor, an aircraft engineering company called Sport Flight Engineering LLC., designed aircraft and consulted with manufacturers on experimental planes.
“We were working on racers, aerobatic airplanes, bushplanes, ultra-light planes,” Wood said.
The work was dynamic andwide-ranging, resulting in a variety of plane designs, including projects like the Sherpa Bushcraft plane. While he had the engineering business, Wood — like many with an entrepreneurial bend — had his hands in other projects.
“During that time, I got involved in helping set up an engineering staff and department in a business my dad was in, in Grand Junction,” Wood said. “I came to a point where I had to decide which one of these am I going to do.”
He chose the defense company, Capco, Inc., which he would eventually purchase and run as CEO, until he sold it in 2015.
THE LAUNCH OF SPIRIT ENGINEERING
Shortly before his Capco, Inc. exit, Wood created Spirit Engineering, Inc. to design an affordable light sport aircraft that pilots could purchase ready-to-fly. The all-metal monoplane harks back to a previous era of flight with the design of the SE-1.
To design and build the planes, Wood and Spirit Engineering, Inc. have leaned on Colorado Mesa University’s CMU/CU Boulder Engineering Partnership Program to find talented engineering students.
“Over the years, I’ve hired a lot of CMU engineering grads,” Wood said. “They’re good engineers.”
He said he has seen a shift in the university’s approach to engineering education. Prior to CMU establishing a four-year engineering program, Wood said many employees at Capco, Inc. would pursue engineering opportunities outside of the Grand Valley. Many of them never came back.
“For many years, when I was in the Capco business, CMU would come around and say, ‘What do you need?’ and I would tell them, ‘We need a four-year engineering program at Mesa,’” Wood emphasized.
Today, CMU offers several engineering degrees to fit that need. Wood believes this is not only good for businesses like his, but the community as well.
“It’s allowed a lot of bright, young people coming out of high school in western Colorado to stay at home or near home while they get an engineering degree,” he said.
The opportunity to study engineering at CMU has provided a source of talent for Wood and a growth opportunity for his business.
“Right now, I have four CMU engineering grads and two or three interns that are in the engineering program at CMU that are working at Spirit. The quality of education they’re getting is very high. They’re bright and they’re usually not afraid of hard work,” said Wood.
Wood returned home to start his life as an entrepreneur. It’s always been a place that feels special to him. He loves the wide-open spaces, the wildlife and the mountains.
“Western Colorado is just a unique, beautiful, wonderful place to live,” he said.
It seems only fitting that he is now in the place he calls home, doing what he always dreamed of doing and helping others launch their careers from the same institution where his own journey began.
Watch the video below to learn more about Steve Wood and Spirit Engineering, Inc.