As a 15-year-old in New Jersey, Steve Borden earned his pilot’s license before his driver’s license.

“I could fly an airplane solo, but I couldn’t drive myself to the airport,” Borden said Thursday. “You had to be 17 back then to get your driver’s license.”

Borden, 47, brings more than 30 years of flying experience to his new role as executive director at the Moore County Airport, a job he will assume on July 30.

“I’m extremely excited to get started. I’ve heard a lot of great things about the team out there,” he said. “Right now, I’m in the learning stage because I’m transitioning between jobs.”

The Moore County Airport Authority announced Wednesday that it had hired Borden, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force and a command pilot with more than 20 years of service.

“We had some very strong candidates, but we felt that Steve’s qualifications and his immediate availability made him the obvious choice,” said Don Delauter, vice chairman of the authority. “Steve already had roots in the community and had a very strong Air Force career. He did airfield management work in Japan and elsewhere. We just felt like he really met our requirements to move the airport forward.”

Borden’s Air Force credentials also include developing policy and procedures, contract oversight, and aircrew simulator and training device acquisition. He has extensive experience leading both large and small groups ranging from five-person C-130 aircrews to more than 1,800 people.

Borden is also an FAA commercial pilot with single- and multi-engine ratings and an instrument rating having flown several different types of fixed wing general aviation aircraft.

Since his retirement from the Air Force in 2008, Borden has been working for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University as director of academics and instructor of business administration. His responsibilities included the leadership and mentoring of faculty members and oversight of academic programs at the school’s Greensboro campus. He also taught management, leadership, human resources and military history.

Borden said he applied for Moore County job after seeing an advertisement in The Pilot earlier this year.

“My heart really lies a lot closer to aviation itself and airplanes. If I’m not around airplanes, I’m talking about airplanes,” he said. “I also like the aspect of being more involved in the community.”

Borden moved to Pinehurst with his wife, Judy, and two children, Sydney and Alex, after being assigned to Pope Air Force Base nine years ago.

“I used to skirt Moore County Airport during training runs, but I’ve never physically flown out of the airport,” he said. “I look forward to learning the procedures that pilots and crews face in flying in and out of Moore County Airport.

“It doesn’t matter where you go, each airport typically has unique procedures.”

For the past several years, Ron Maness and Carol Thomas have served as co-directors at the Moore County Airport.

Both will remain with the airport in different capacities. Maness will serve as a consultant for U.S. Open planning and Thomas will work as special assistant for grants and contracts.

“With Ron and Carol remaining in their specific roles, we’re well on our way to a great success story here,” Delauter said. “They’ve been very effective. We love them both.”

Borden said he looks forward to developing a plan to handle the Open traffic.

“The chief goal is to make the U.S. Opens a resounding success, not only for the airport, but for the community as a whole,” he said.

Maness said the airport handled about 2,000 takeoffs and landings during the week of the 2005 U.S. Open.

“I’m going to help them lay out the game plan for 2014, and I’m happy to do that,” he said. “I had promised the Airport Authority to stay through the 2014 U.S. Opens. They wanted someone in fulltime before then.

“I want the transition to be a good one, so I’m going to help make that happen.”

Maness, 64, is a Moore County native who took his first flight out of the airport at the age of 10.

“I wanted to be a pilot from that day on,” he said. “I’ve been lucky to fly for the Air Force, the Thunderbirds and the commercial industry. I’m still doing some consulting for the industry, so I think this transition will work out good for me and the airport.”

Contact Ted M. Natt Jr. at (910) 693-2474 or tnatt@thepilot.com.