Sunday Conversation: CEO Gil Staley of The Woodlands Area EDP
Gil Staley has been the chief executive officer for The Woodlands Area Economic Development Partnership for the past nine years. He and his wife, Debra, moved to The Woodlands with their two sons shortly after his retirement from Delta Air Lines. Staley said he loves the quality of life in The Woodlands and enjoys giving back through volunteer work and by serving on several community boards.
You worked at Delta Air Lines for 26 years. Why did you decide to leave that job and come to The Woodlands Area EDP?
Staley: The career I had—and it was a really rewarding career—it was not the best of times for all airlines; 9/11 changed the industry, no doubt. It was not the best of times economically for the airlines, and I saw that. They offered a retirement package and I took advantage of a very generous retirement package that enabled me to continue working somewhere else.
The position that I interviewed for with the economic development partnership was vice president of business retention and expansion. So I did some research and applied for it
and I thought “I could do that” because I was in sales and marketing for Delta for many, many years and that’s basically what that role is, to make sure that our companies that are here stay here and prosper and don’t leave our community for another community. I interviewed and was very fortunate that they hired me, and then nine years ago I was asked to serve as the CEO by the board.
What strategies do you use to recruit new businesses to the area?
Staley: We are actively doing that all the time. We recruit with companies that are potential clients for relocation. We do that by “mission work” we call it. We go on trade missions all over the world. I just got back from San Francisco, from Silicon Valley, had an opportunity to talk with Google out there at their headquarters. We’re just planting a seed more often than not. I’ve been to China, South Korea, Japan, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Scotland—talking to companies and at least planting the seed as a place to come and prosper. We do that actively.
We also get leads from a number of resources. The [Texas] governor’s office has an economic development division so we get leads from them. When a company is of significant size that’s out of state or even out of country, more often than not they start with the governor’s Office of Economic Development, and then they send it out to the communities to respond to.
We work very closely with regional allies. The Greater Houston Partnership has an economic development division. We work extremely close with them. In fact, some of those missions that we go on is with GHP so we work closely on following up with leads there. We get leads from commercial real estate brokers. We get those frequently. We get leads from every day people who call.
We work extremely hard to try to find that next pipeline to get companies to come here.
What aspect of your career do you enjoy the most?
Staley: Not knowing what the day is going to bring me. It is so different every single day. I never know when my phone is going to ring with a corporate relocation or at least a possibility of a relocation, and that’s exciting. Every day, I truly am, I’m thankful every day I am able to have this career in economic development.
We played a small role but we did play a role in a lot of the key development around here. This organization has been in existence 20 years. I’ve been here 13 of that. It’s just exciting every day. I never know who’s going to come into my office or who’s going to call me. It’s wonderful.
You serve on multiple community boards. Tell me why you feel led to join some of them?
Staley: I strongly feel about giving back, and I have my entire working career. Giving back to those that are under served. I allow my staff to do that as well. Everybody volunteers. We have expertise to lend with our leadership skills and also our business contacts with a lot of non-profits. Going even further on that, we strongly work to the benefit of this community because of our quality of life. That plays a key role in economic development—how your quality of life enhances the environment for corporations to come here.
I believe that quality of life should be for everyone. So when you help those that are in need or under served, you’re offering a good quality of life, and it trickles all the way up to even what we do and that’s recruiting companies. So I strongly believe in that. My board supports that. Giving back and giving a good quality of life for everyone is important.
To you, what is the best thing about The Woodlands community?
Staley: There’s so many positive aspects. When I retired from Delta, I could’ve gone anywhere. But my wife and I believed this was the best place to continue raising our sons—a strong place to raise a family but also to work here. So to have the ability to work here and live here is phenomenal. We truly are blessed to be able to say that.
What is the key aspect though? That’s a very good question. Quality of life is important. To be able to live in a community where you can live, work and play is fabulous. Every one of my colleagues around the state of Texas, around the country—ask any one of them and every one will say we have the best community and the best quality of life. I say, I believe it, and I know we are the best. I do believe that we have the best quality of life of any of our competitors out there. It also helps in recruiting companies here.
So quality of life is all inclusive. It is the quality of your homes, the quality of your education opportunities—both public schools and private schools. It’s the opportunity for quality health care, which I think we’re unmatched with all the hospitals and specialty care that we have here. It’s the quality of shopping and dining, which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. And the quality of recreation that we have here is unmatched.
We’ve never lived in a community quite like this and so we’re proud to say this is home. And it will always be our home.
Tell me a bit about your sons, Johnathan and Joseph, and their accomplishments. Do you feel that you and your wife
did well raising them?
Staley: We were very fortunate to have two very motivated, very smart children, and they’re twins. They started here in pre-K. They are what we called 20 years ago “Interfaith babies.” Interfaith has a child care facility here that is unmatched. Parents wait in line overnight to get their children into Interfaith and so we were lucky enough our boys were Interfaith babies. They went from that to kindergarten and from kindergarten all the way through senior high school here and graduated from The Woodlands High School. That quality education prepared them immensely for college.
Both of them graduated from the University of Oklahoma with [a] very diverse education. One is a petroleum geologist and the other one is an art history major. One has a job with the Glade Arts Foundation and ... the petroleum geologist is going back to school to get a Master’s to be more competitive. We were very fortunate, and they will agree with me on this, that their education here prepared them. College life was not a breeze, but it was an easy adjustment for them.
What goals do you have for the EDP?
Staley: Certainly job creation is always No. 1. That’s our primary mission in economic development. Job creation and capital investment. That’s always paramount. In all of our minds is to always look for that next opportunity, whether it’s growing companies internally that are already here or growing our recruitment.
No. 2 is to grow membership. We’re the only member-based economic development organization in the county and one of the handful in the entire Houston region. There’s a reason for that. In Texas, you can be supported by sales tax revenue. You can dedicate half a cent of retail sales for every dollar for economic development, but that same statute says you have to be a city. The Woodlands, by definition, is not. So, 20 years ago community leaders, business leaders saw the need for economic development. And so we spun out of the Chamber [of Commerce] to be a member-supported economic developmental organization and continue that today. What that means is you always have to recruit new members. As your need grows for more income to grow economic development, you have to have members since that’s the only source of revenue. That’s always a challenge and we’re very blessed to have 92, as of today, very good quality business leaders who support what we do.
Do you have any plans to retire?
Staley: You know, when you stop being motivated and productive, then I think it’s time for anyone. I’m not. I am still as motivated as I was when I started 13 years ago. Every day is an exciting day in economic development, and as long as I’m still motivated and still performing at the level I think I should be, I have no desire to retire.
I know professionals out there that perhaps have stayed too long, and I recognize that. So I will never be that person to stay too long. I want to go out with dignity, with a sense of accomplishment.