Tom O’Leary, CEO and co-founder of JetZero, joined Jack Ryan P’17, owner and principal at Jack Ryan Advisory and chair of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business Board of Advisors, in LaRose Digital Theatre on Feb. 19 for a Lessons from Leaders conversation on leadership and building the “future of flight.”
Lessons from Leaders welcomed Tom O’Leary, CEO and co-founder of JetZero, to LaRose Digital Theatre on Feb. 19 for a conversation about leadership, disruption and building something that has never existed before.
The conversation was moderated by Jack Ryan P’17, owner and principal at Jack Ryan Advisory and chair of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business Board of Advisors.
O’Leary leads JetZero, an aerospace company developing a blended wing aircraft design aimed at rethinking what commercial aviation can be. In 2025, JetZero announced plans for a $4.7 billion production facility at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, projected to create more than 14,500 jobs with an average wage above $89,000.
Ryan opened with a lightning round to introduce the person behind the title.
Favorite place as a kid? “Waterfalls.”
First job? “Paperboy.”
Best part of being a CEO? “Bringing a dream to reality.”
Worst part? “Resistance.”
One word for leadership? “Vision.”
That theme resurfaced as O’Leary reflected on his undergraduate years.
“I wrote my political science thesis that the media will be diffused by technology,” O’Leary said. “We will retreat into echo chambers where we get the information that will reinforce our faith quickly. I received a C-,” he said, because the professor noted there were no citations.
O’Leary credited his liberal arts education with preparing him to move across sectors, from education and sales to automotive, technology and aerospace.
“I’m a huge fan of liberal arts,” he said. “I think you all are making an incredibly wise decision coming to Elon.”
He told students that a broader education can make it easier to adapt when industries change.
That adaptability became critical when he transitioned from automotive leadership roles, including time at Tesla, into aerospace. He described immersing himself in the industry during JetZero’s early days, dedicating hours each morning to study and spending afternoons and evenings learning directly from seasoned engineers.
“I’d get a quad shot from Starbucks to power up, and from about 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., I was deep in the matrix,” O’Leary said. “At 1:00 p.m., I’d get on the phone or on Zoom with some of the best aerodynamics experts and basically get a PhD in aerodynamics from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., then continue those conversations with experts on the West Coast. That was the first two years of JetZero.”
Throughout the conversation, O’Leary urged students to question assumptions.
“The first principles of business are not settling for, ‘This is the way things are always done,’” he said. “Have the audacity to question why.”
Students asked why JetZero chose Greensboro. O’Leary pointed to workforce potential, infrastructure and alignment of long-term vision across state and local leaders.
“We can’t underestimate the power of a vision,” he said.
He also encouraged students to expect setbacks and keep moving forward.
“Buckle up,” O’Leary told students. “You are going to fail at something, and you may as well embrace that.”
As the event concluded, he encouraged students to seek perspectives beyond their own.
“If you want to know the future and predict change for the market,” he said, “have diverse and oftentimes uncomfortable perspectives.”
About Lessons from Leaders
Launched in 2017 by Dean Emeritus Raghu Tadepalli, Lessons from Leaders brings senior executives to campus for open talks, small-group roundtables and purposeful one-on-one networking that connects students with mentors. The program bridges classroom learning with real-world decision-making and aims for every student to leave with a new contact and an actionable career insight.