Category Archives: Industry

Leadership Matters: Manny Vela

Business Advice Healthcare News Comments
Valley Baptist Health System CEO Manny Vela

Editor’s Note: Leadership can mean different things to different people. The Valley Business Report wanted to learn more about the views on leadership through the words of experienced business leaders in the Rio Grande Valley. Starting with this month’s edition, VBR introduces Leadership Matters, a new question-and-answer feature that poses questions on leadership to Valley CEOs and other business leaders. Manny Vela CEO, Valley Baptist Health System   What are…

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Gluten-free Goods on the Road

Food & Entertainment News Comments
Peggy Harris with some of her gluten-free breads at a farmers market. (VBR)

Selling shrimp caught in the Gulf Mexico was a full-time job for Peggy Harris when she was a vendor on the second floor of Valley International Airport in Harlingen. Called Texashrimp, the business on the south side of the boarding area was easily seen by passengers wanting to take some fresh shrimp with them. After eight years, she sold the venture and embarked on a new and different type of…

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Big Freeze: Pathway to Pain Relief

Healthcare News Comments
Vaporized nitrogen flows from a cryosauna as Cryo Body Perfections owner Margret DeBruyan holds the door open. (VBR)

Margret DeBruyn is a walking advertisement for cryotherapy. After a bad car crash she was left with chronic back pain when she tried cryotherapy and was amazed with the results. That prompted her to start a business to help others find relief. “It’s something that is really amazing,” she said. “If you are in chronic pain it chips away at your life. You start to miss out on life. We…

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Three Generations of Protection

News Professional Services Comments
Owner Jeremy Holden with a manually operated shutter often used by businesses for security. (VBR)

There are only a handful of locally owned home shutter companies in the Rio Grande Valley, and Holden Security and Storm Shutters is probably the oldest one around. “I am third generation,” said Jeremy Holden, who has run the company founded by his grandfather ever since his father died 11 years ago. “I started right out of high school so I’ve really been in this business for 21 years.” The…

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CodeRGV Attends CodeWars 2018

Education Events Featured News Technology Comments
Representatives from CodeRGV attend CodeWars in Houston. CodeRGV is currently planning events to help local students prepare for next year's event. (photo CodeRGV)

More than 750 high school level Computer Science enthusiasts converged on the HPE campus in Houston last weekend to participate in CodeWars 2018. CodeRGV was in attendance to learn more about the program and to build a stronger partnership with school districts across the state. In addition, the group learned how Valley school districts can participate in future HPE events like this one. The students, representing close to 100 districts across…

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School of Medicine to Open Women’s Center

Education Featured Healthcare News Comments
The UT Health Rio Grande Valley Surgery and Women’s Specialty Center will soon be coming to this building at 614 Maco Drive.

UT Health Rio Grande Valley, the clinical component of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, has acquired a general surgery practice in Harlingen as part of the School of Medicine’s mission to increase access to primary and specialty care for residents throughout the region. The UT Health Rio Grande Valley Surgery and Women’s Specialty Center, located at 614 Maco Drive in Harlingen, will offer services such…

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McAllen Heart Hospital Named 100 Best Again

e-Brief Features Healthcare Industry News Comments
McAllen Heart Hospital Healthgrades 2018

McAllen Heart Hospital is one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for both cardiac care and coronary intervention. The 2018 honors come from Healthgrades. The organization identifies the 100 best-performing hospitals across all conditions or procedures evaluated within both cardiac care and coronary intervention. Healthgrades evaluated nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 34 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions. This is the second year in a row the South Texas Health System hospital has…

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Landscape Design: Beauty and Function

News Professional Services Comments
Andrew Heffner used native plants help this residential landscape design fit into the natural surroundings. (Courtesy)

While working for the city of McAllen as a landscape architect, Andrew Heffner realized the region could support a full-time business that catered to commercial, residential and public clients who needed a landscape architect. Five years ago, he opened Heffner Design Team as a one-man operation. Today he heads a full-time staff of four designing landscapes with the aim they be “beautiful, functional and meet the client’s budget.” Licensed by…

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Getting Ready to Pay the Taxman

Business Advice Events Finance/Banking News Comments
CPA Javier Alacron discusses tax reform with small business owners.

Some elements of the new tax reform package that was signed into law late last year and took effect in 2018 are straightforward and simple to understand. Others are detailed and complex. And some areas are cloudy since the regulations haven’t been written yet. The simplest part of the package to understand is the lowering of tax rates in the seven tax brackets for individuals. “Whatever bracket you are in,…

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Dental Practice Grows as a Business

Healthcare News Comments
Dr. Juan D. Villarreal (center) with Dr. Denise Hausenfluck and Dr. Vivian Teegardin. (VBR)

Several hundred dentists provide needed services throughout the Rio Grande Valley, and one of them owns and manages the largest network of clinics in the South Texas, and perhaps in the Lone Star State. Dr. Juan D. Villarreal, a Harlingen native who holds a doctor in dentistry from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, has turned the business that he first opened in 1983 on Ed…

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