In his days as a business school professor in Brownsville, John Martin had a key piece of advice for his students. “If you want to be a high salaried employee, leave the Valley, but if you want to be an entrepreneur, stay here,” Martin said. Martin is a member of the Rio Grande Valley Angel Network. The investor group provides seed money for aspiring entrepreneurs in return for equity in their…
The view from Ford Sasser’s sixth-floor office offers a wide expanse view of the expressway traffic running beneath it. Rio Bank’s new office tower looks out over Expressway 77/83 in McAllen since its opening in October. The city’s hospitals and medical district are just across the way. Sasser, Rio Bank’s president and chief executive officer, is a fixture on local television with a signature and folksy line. “Your kind of…
Hundreds gathered for the Rio Bank “Topping Out” lunch on Jan. 17 to celebrate the final beam addition to the new corporate headquarters in McAllen. Signing the beam were contractor workers and Rio Bank directors and employees, as well as other business leaders. The beam then made its way to its destination atop the sixth floor of the building on the north side of the Interstate near McColl. With roughly…