Wild Blue Yonder
John Flynn was the quarterback of the Air Force Academy football team, a decorated officer in the U.S. Air Force serving active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then became an aide to then-Vice President Biden. When it was time to move on, Flynn thought about joining MGM Resorts. Why would he consider a gaming company after being a couple of heartbeats away?
“I grew up playing sports in a competitive atmosphere—that was sort of in my DNA,” he explains. “I always enjoyed gaming. I enjoyed knowing the odds and understanding what are the odds of doing something. There are a lot more similarities than differences between gaming and the military.”
But in the end, it’s the people that drew Flynn to gaming.
“It’s about getting to know the people,” he says. “It’s about understanding motivations and helping the broader team achieve success together. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to make the private-sector transition, but in D.C., we would fly in Marine 2 at the time with the vice president. We were always flying over National Harbor when MGM had won the license. And so every couple of weeks as that construction kept getting higher and higher and higher, MGM was always top of mind.
“And then I got to meet the leadership team, came to Vegas, spent some time with the company, got to know the city itself, and just fell in love with everything about the industry and about the city.”
Flynn’s star rose when he was tapped to handle MGM’s response to the pandemic.
“Our CEO Mr. Hornbuckle and my boss John McManus brought me in saying they would like me to run the strategy for our pandemic response,” he says. “And I remember saying, great, what’s your vision? They said that’s why we we’re asking you to do it. You go out there and figure this out, and you come back and tell us the best strategy.”
The best things that came out of the pandemic are policies and procedures that are still in effect today.
“Our properties have always been clean, but we’ve taken that to a new level,” he says. “And the non-smoking policy at Park MGM has been very popular as well.”
Flynn is responsible for security at all the U.S. MGM Resorts properties, which could be an overwhelming responsibility, but he says it comes back to people.
“Just like the military, it’s a great team,” he says. “You’ve got to have a really good team around you, especially with a large organization like ours. We set the vision and goals, clearly communicated with routine check-ins and staying engaged. We talk about the standard operating procedures and having the right leaders in place where you have strong trust built. They’re experts in their craft.”
Using his Air Force experience, Flynn is also responsible for the MGM Resorts aviation program, and again, he says, it comes down to people.
“We have several planes here in Las Vegas and one that serves the regional properties,” he explains. “We fly several thousand hours a year servicing some of our highest-end customers. So the first employee that they usually see is one of our flight attendants or pilots. And then the last employee that they usually see is one of our flight attendants or pilots as well.
“So it’s great that we have that relationship and it’s great that we’re trusted to be able to do that side of the business. On a daily basis we provide that sort of five star-level service, from when they board one of our planes until we drop them off.”
