Retired FBI agent running for mayor of Vestavia Hills

Retired FBI agent Ashley Curry, a longtime resident of Vestavia Hills, recently announced plans to run for mayor of the city.

“The main reason I am running is because I have a strong interest in Vestavia Hills,” he said, “a vested interest. I’ve lived here for more than 30 years, my children grew up here and went through Vestavia Hills schools. Now, my grandchildren are not far from entering the same school system.”

Curry said he has a “true interest” in serving the city, one he has had for a long time but could not before act on due to his professional obligations.

After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in Industrial Management and going on to receive an MBA degree from the University of South Carolina, Curry spent his early career with Milliken and Company. According to his campaign website, there, Curry gained experience in production management, sales, financial reporting, and accounting. In 1978, he joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Special Agent and was assigned to the Tampa division. In 1980, he moved to the FBI’s Birmingham Division where he handled criminal investigations in drugs, public corruption, white collar crime and foreign counter intelligence. Curry was also the SWAT team sniper and a firearms/tactics instructor at the FBI's National Academy. In 2003, he became the Assistant Federal Security Director for Law Enforcement, TSA, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  Curry left his law enforcement career in 2005 and became the Corporate Recruiter for EBSCO Industries before retiring in 2014.  

Now, he said, he has more time to devote to the city.

Though he has never served in an elected position, Curry has served the city via appointed positions on both the Vestavia Hills Parks and Recreation Board and the Library Board of Trustees.

“The city saw some major changes during the time I served on each of those boards,” said Curry.

Both his family and members of the community, said Curry, encouraged him to run. Asked about running against a longtime incumbent for the mayoral position, Curry said he’s up for the challenge.

“Competition is a good thing,” he said, “it’s a healthy thing. Change is a good thing too.”

Curry said he believes his previous roles as an FBI agent as well as in the business world equip him to be able to understand city budgets and finance sheets.

“As an FBI agent, you have to do everything by the book,” he said. “I would never do anything that would affect my integrity, that of city employees or the city itself.”

His planned campaign slogan, said Curry, is “Integrity and Action.”

“I believe I would be a good ambassador for the city,” he said.

Asked what he would like to see different in the city, Curry said he would like to see more citizen involvement. As mayor, Curry said he would be more accessible so that residents could feel like their voice matters and would be more encouraged to be involved in the city. Maintaining the city’s “excellent school system,” as he refers to it, would also be a top priority.

According to his website, Cury and his wife, Marga, have been married for 44 years. Marga is a Speech Pathologist who spent her career working with elementary-age children in the public school system. The couple has two children, Stuart and Anna. Stuart Curry is a dentist in Vestavia and lives in Vestavia with his wife Christy, an OR nurse who now stays at home with their two children, Zachary, 3, and Avery, 1. Anna Curry Gualano is an attorney who also lives in Vestavia with her husband Mark Gualano, a real estate closing attorney and owner of Vestavia Title, and their two children, Luke, 3, and Charlie, 1.

For more information about Ashley Curry, visit his campaign website at www.curryformayor.org or his Facebook page at “Campaign to elect Ashley Curry-Mayor of Vestavia Hills.”