Chrysilios Chrysiliou – From Flight School to Food as Medicine
Chrysilios Chrysiliou, known to most as Chrys, grew up in a large family in Cyprus. His childhood ended early. In 1974, war broke out on the island, and his family lost nearly everything. At 13, Chrys became a war refugee.
Even so, he held onto one idea: he wanted to fly. That dream followed him out of Cyprus and across the Atlantic when he immigrated to the United States in the early 1980s, in his early 20s, to train as a pilot.
Learning to fly in America
Chrys earned his pilot's license and then his instructional license, and he found he had a talent for teaching others to fly. That talent set up the next move. In 1986, Chrys and a business partner bought a small flight school in Southern California. The same year, he married his wife, Lindy.
Building a business from the ground up
Through the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, Chrys and his partner grew the flight school into a serious operation. At its peak, the business ran 21 aircraft, offered jet charters across the country, and had earned several commendations from the FAA. During these same years, Chrys and Lindy had three sons.
The business had momentum. Then, in 1994, the Northridge earthquake hit just miles from the flight school. The hangar and runways took serious damage, and the business could no longer run its training flights or charters. Chrys sold the school and started over, something he had already done once before, at 13, in a different country and under very different circumstances.
Starting over after the earthquake
In 1995, Chrys founded Transworld Innovation, an import and export company dealing in consumer goods: watches, baby products, children's toys. The business grew to include offices and operations in both the United States and Europe.
This move from aviation to import and export shows a pattern that runs through Chrys's career. When one path closes, he looks for the next opening rather than waiting for the first one to reopen.
A new chapter in real estate
In the early 2000s, Chrys shifted again, this time into commercial real estate, joining RDPH Properties, Inc. He has led the company ever since. Real estate has given him a longer runway than his earlier ventures, and it remains where he spends most of his working life today.
Feeding a need
Chrys's entrepreneurial instincts did not stop at real estate. In the 2010s, he opened a restaurant and later built a string of coffee shops called Honeycup Coffeehouse and Creamery.
From there, he moved into something more specific: food made for people with particular health needs. He founded Nurifo, a "food as medicine" company that makes hot and frozen meals for individuals who need to eat according to strict dietary requirements. It is a narrower business than a restaurant or a coffee shop, built for people whose diet is not a preference but a medical necessity.
Giving back
Chrys has long been part of St. Nicholas Church, a Greek Orthodox parish in Los Angeles. Through the foundation he oversees, he has supported causes connected to the church both in the United States and abroad. Several years ago, that support helped fund a medical clinic in Guatemala, which now provides care to people who otherwise could not afford it.
Nurifo plays a role in that giving as well. Chrys regularly donates meals from the business to people who need them: unhoused members of the community, hospital patients, senior citizens, and first responders.
Looking back at the path from a Cyprus refugee camp to a flight school, an import business, commercial real estate, and now food service, the throughline is not any single industry. It is a willingness to start again, learn a new field, and build something lasting out of it.
