Brownsville native Orlando Campos spent over 15 years in North Texas, working for chambers of commerce and in economic development. He was hoping for the right opportunity that could bring him home.

In 2023, a job opening and the right candidate for it met when Campos became the new manager and chief executive officer for Harlingen Economic Development Corporation. He was selected in mid-June among 20 candidates by the EDC board via a months-long headhunting firm’s national search process.

In Campos, the Harlingen EDC not only chose a RGV native, but an economic development executive whose first big job in the field was in Harlingen in 1999. Campos served as the manager of business development for Valley International Airport. During that time, he was responsible for recruiting new passenger air service and expanding air cargo business in Harlingen. He would later take a job with the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation before leaving for the North Texas area. Here, he would work for the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.

More recently, Campos was the director of economic development and tourism for Addison. He held that job for 12 years before the Harlingen EDC leadership job came open.

“The mayor and city commission are very ambitious and progressive,” Campos said. “Harlingen in the past was sort of left behind when it came to growth in the Rio Grande Valley. I don’t know exactly why, but I do know Harlingen today is primed for growth and development.”

‘Investors Are Looking’

Looking out over the RGV’s current economic development map, Campos sees a cluster of upper Valley communities that are reaching levels of saturation. He states Brownsville is experiencing “lots of activity.”

“Then you have Harlingen,” he said. “We’re right in the middle of those nodes.”

Harlingen features the Valley’s busiest airport with Southwest Airline flights daily. The city is seeing its best retail growth and new housing construction surge in years. Academy Sports + Outdoors is building a nearly 58,000-square-foot building in the Harlingen Corners shopping area. It’s in the same general area where new subdivisions and homes are going up, heading west toward Stuart Place Road. 

“Investors are looking at what the rest of Texas has to offer,” Campos said of economic activity that is moving out to previously underserved markets. “In the Valley, a rising tide lifts all ships. We need to be able to compete head on while working well regionally with the other communities in our area.”

Key Elements

The first months of the new job in Harlingen has found Campos busy meeting with organizations and local governments across the city. 

“I’ve been going to a lot of meetings and listening to what people are saying and getting to know key stakeholders in the community,” he said. 

He is currently focusing on his internal organization and “polishing up processes” in setting his staff up to best serve the EDC’s mission. Campos wants to work with his board on a targeted industry analysis that identifies Harlingen’s best opportunities in marketing to specific industries that are right for the city.  

Campos plans to continue the small business assistance program favored by Mayor Norma Sepulveda. The program assists local businesses in the city’s core areas with grants to improve exterior appearances in signage and facades as well as upgrades inside stores, shops and restaurants. The Harlingen EDC is working closely with UTRGV’s Workforce & Economic Development office to make the university’s resources available to local businesses. A full-time staffer from UTRGV is based at the EDC office in partnering with Campos and his staff on initiatives to support small businesses and entrepreneurs in the city.

The EDC office is housed on the campus of Texas State Technical College and working with the school on the wide range of technical training and programs it offers is essential in providing industries with a skilled local workforce, Campos said. Another recent development sure to help in all of these efforts is a $1.6 federal grant given by the Economic Development Agency that will enable Harlingen to develop a new industrial park.

Harlingen, in Campos’s view, has all the key ingredients needed for development and growth. It’s what brought him back home.