Message from The Chair
With change comes opportunity. My colleague and former Fort Bend EDC Chairman of the Board Les Newton began his address to the membership in the 2022 Annual Report with these words- with this challenge. With change comes opportunity. Les asked us all to look forward, while respecting past alliances and accomplishments, and forge a new path while remaining focused on exceptionalism, quality growth, and a culture of inclusion and success.
This year, the organization leaned in to change, identifying new opportunities to support our community and refreshing work that has been ongoing for 40 years. We saw changes in our marketing tactics, a public policy program of work, and business attraction strategies. We welcomed a new county economic development director, revised our agreements with major stakeholders, expanded our staff to include marketing support, and initiated a strategic plan to guide growth and development across the county and provide a model for how this organization fits within the larger economic development ecosystem. We instituted change, activated change, and in doing so, found new opportunities. We met the challenge laid out 12 months ago.
As we reflect today and forecast tomorrow, we must challenge ourselves once again. We must navigate uncertain waters this next year and chart a course driven by collaboration, open-mindedness, and thoughtfulness. We must be aspirational and bold in our thinking and open to what is next.
We are committed. We are ready. Together, we can and will continue to make Fort Bend County Greater Houston’s Finest Address.
Jared Jameson, Chairperson of the Board
Message From The President
As President and CEO of the Fort Bend EDC for nearly 20 years, I, along with so many of you, witnessed exceptional growth, unprecedented growth, across Fort Bend County. We have together watched communities grow, schools expand, retail explodes, and commercial growth swell to touch nearly every community in our county.
We have built consensus and found common ground, focused on simple ideas: collaboration, quality infrastructure, a business-friendly climate, and exceptional quality of life- particularly access to tremendous schools and master-planned communities. As we look forward, we must reconvene as a community to define our message, our competitive advantages, and our broad development goals. We must hold true to what has made us successful and look toward innovation and opportunities to differentiate ourselves and remain competitive with surrounding communities.
As an organization, the FBEDC understands this need for refocusing and reinvention. We took on new challenges this year, and new responsibilities, and identified where we could be most effective. We engaged TIP Strategies, in cooperation with the county, to initiate a strategic plan. We have and will listen to stakeholders, digest diverse opinions, find consensus, and reconfigure how to best serve this community as we move forward with this process for the next six months, resulting in guidance and direction as a county and as an organization on how to nurture our community into the next phase of growth as we lean toward 1 million residents in the next couple of years.
I ask you to stay engaged, remain vigilant, and be heard. Your voice matters as we chart the next course. Let’s stay united, and together, let’s move forward with excitement and enthusiasm for what is next for Fort Bend County.
Jeff C. Wiley, President and CEO
