The Woodlands Edition | March 2025

BY VANESSA HOLT

CEO Jevon Gibb presented The Woodlands Area Economic Development Partnership’s 2025 employment report on Feb. 21.

COURTESY THE WOODLANDS AREA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP

VANESSA HOLTCOMMUNITY IMPACT

Jevon Gibb shares vision for future economic development Jevon Gibb took over as CEO of The Woodlands Area Economic Development Partnership in February, replacing Gil Staley, who announced his pending retirement from the position last year. Gibb previously worked as the economic development director in Salt Lake County, Utah, and has worked in consulting and in other economic development roles in areas including Chicago, Connecticut and Boston. Community Impact spoke with Gibb on Feb. 27. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What drew you to The Woodlands? [My] goal has been to get back to Texas. It’s just been a long road ... to nally be here [and] to raise my family here. The Woodlands is such a spectacular place for both the business community and ... personal life. It just sold itself [and] ... I realized it was something that I could sell to businesses from around the country [and] around the world. What do you feel are the most important growth areas for The Woodlands? I think we have to go after a diversied

were here to gure out how we make the best use of our current resources and how we allocate resources dierently in the future. What is the biggest advantage for this area in terms of economic development? The big advantage is the master-planned community. Texas is a huge asset. It’s one of the most competitive states for site selection and economic development in the country, but Texas doesn’t do a lot of land use planning, urban planning. ... There aren’t well dened or well curated communities in a lot of places. You have that here, so you’ve almost got the best of both worlds.

portfolio of new businesses to continue bringing the next generation of companies to The Woodlands. [We’re] going to be getting really precise [on] what we go after. ... We’re going to be smarter in how we spend investor dollars. ... While it’s a low win rate, sometimes it’s one in 100 deals. We want to make sure [we] win as many deals as possible in order to bring in as much as possible in a way that supports the prosperity and the goals of this place. How important is it to attract smaller companies with fewer than 100 employees? You need the mix because, for example, if you look at our chemical sector, you’ve got Huntsman and [Chevron Philips Chemical], but around them ... we’ve got great mid-sized companies. It’s going to be very unlikely, given the mature stage that a lot of large chemical companies are in now, ... to attract another CP Chem. It’s going to be much more likely that we can go after these independent midstream companies. What challenges do you see for economic development in this area? I think it’s bringing structure and vision and eciency to this whole idea of doing more, doing more sometimes can be really clumsy, and you waste resources and you waste energy. We have a very clear mandate to do more. The challenge is going to be to do that in a way that is cost eective and to take the awesome foundation that I’ve been given from previous teams that

Partnership serves region The Woodlands area includes:

• The Woodlands • Oak Ridge North • Shenandoah • South Montgomery County

SOURCE: THE WOODLANDS AREA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP COMMUNITY IMPACT

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For a longer version, visit communityimpact.com.

THE WOODLANDS EDITION