What’s the next big thing for San Antonio’s business community?
That’s one of the questions Greater:SATX, and its new CEO Sarah Carabias Rush, is answering as the organization works with companies and workers to bring new jobs to the region and keep what’s here from going anywhere.
Greater:SATX focuses on selling San Antonio across the globe, targeting domestic and international companies that want to move or expand.
Carabias Rush has played an important role in that work for the past three and a half years as the organization’s chief economic development officer. Now as CEO, she’s focused on making Greater:SATX more proactive, she said, by building connections with companies so that San Antonio is always front of mind.
After Greater:SATX convinces companies to come to San Antonio, it pivots to helping them get to San Antonio, connecting businesses with local utilities and government agencies as a one-stop shop.
At the same time, Carabias Rush said, Greater:SATX is trying to broaden its scope. The organization has increased its geographic area and is supporting efforts to increase education and workers’ skills so that when those companies do come or decide to grow, there is a workforce ready to take on those jobs.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Sarah Carabias Rush, President and CEO of Greater SATX on Wednesday. Credit: Vincent Reyna for the San Antonio Report
Tell me a little bit about yourself, where you’re from, and what brought you to this role in particular?
My stories’s a bit of a funny one. I was originally born in Alaska, grew up primarily in Norman, Okla., and came to Texas for college. I went to Austin College in Sherman. It was a fantastic little liberal arts school with an amazing international program.
I ended up in the Dallas market, where I spent about 20 years working in all things economic development and the chamber of commerce world at the Dallas Regional Chamber.
I left as a senior vice president, when our board here recruited me to San Antonio to serve as our chief economic development officer.
As I step into the CEO role, my mindset is the same. How do we continue to elevate our organization across the board? We are doing tremendous, fantastic work as an organization, but where can we scale that work? I believe we will do that through collaboration and partnership throughout the region, making sure that our entire community has a shared vision and a shared lens on what we’re trying to accomplish, so that we’re all moving forward in the same direction, and trying to deliver on those results.
How will you measure success for Greater:SATX moving forward, especially as the organization creates a new five-year plan?
We are very thoughtful about setting our targets through our strategic planning process. So when you look at this five-year strategic plan that we are just wrapping up, we set up with some bold, ambitious goals around job creation, around capital investment, around certifications and educational attainment and certifications.
When I think about the next strategic plan, we’re going to be just as bold in terms of setting our sights on those targets for job creation at the end of the day.
We’re going to measure those results first and foremost. The other piece that I think is super critical is internally, are we doing the work that is going to ultimately land us those results down the road?
Also, are we pulling together the region, the community, to advance these big, critical issues that will allow us to make sure we’re winning 20 years from now, 25 years from now. One of the things I hear from investors is they’re grateful we are thinking about 25, 30, 50 years from now.
They’re not necessarily thinking about the long term, and that’s where we can deliver an exceptional vision and keep everybody’s eye on the long term prize.
What do you want to see the San Antonio workforce achieve? How do you want to see that workforce grow?
When we think about the workforce development of our region, we are trying to think about what our employers that are here today need to be able to continue to grow and thrive as businesses.
We’re also thinking about those jobs of the future. Are we ensuring that San Antonio’s residents are ready to take on the challenge of those future jobs? We think about it from that perspective first.
Second, we have to look at this issue as an economic mobility issue at its core. If we’re going to diversify and strengthen this region’s economy, we need to make sure that every San Antonio regional resident has access to jobs that are going to help them advance their livelihoods, to provide them opportunities for career advancement and benefits that will serve their family and change generational cycles of poverty over time.
When you look at the numbers San Antonio, when we’re compared to our peers, we’re one of the poorest markets. We’ve set out some very high standards and a vision for where we think we need to be.
These things don’t change overnight, but over five years we’ve seen tremendous progress, and why have we seen that? Because, as a community, we are all coming together. We’ve all identified the challenge and we’ve said, ‘how are we going to solve it?’
What are some of your areas of focus when it comes to attracting new employers to the San Antonio area?
We’ve defined our core target industries as advanced manufacturing, life sciences, cybersecurity and technology. Financial services, professional services, which is related to headquarters-specific targeting, is a core focus for us, as well. We have a focus on aerospace and defense military. Those are the core segments.
When you look out over the next five years, the top markets that we see job growth coming to this region are actually very well in alignment with those target industries that we mentioned.
When we’re projecting numbers, I believe we’re anticipating life sciences and biotechnology around 15% growth in jobs, and cybersecurity and information technology around 15%, as well.
Sarah Carabias Rush, President & CEO of Greater SATX Credit: Vincent Reyna for the San Antonio Report
Any idea of what might be on the horizon for San Antonio?
Everybody wants me to answer that question. We can’t say what’s coming for certain until we’re allowed to, until the decision’s final. I will say right now, we are dealing with some uncertainty, at the macroeconomic level.
There’s a lot of questions that businesses are having to answer around tariffs and the impact on their cost of operations and their cost of goods to be able to build products on the other end.
They’re being extra cautious at the moment. We have a significant number of wins that are to be announced, if we can just get more certainty that they’re coming.