Rolando Pablos is CEO of Borderplex Alliance. Their offices are located in the Chase Building downtown.
Rolando Pablos wants to get El Paso, Las Cruces, and Alamogordo designated as one metropolitan statistical area, or MSA.
That's part of a larger strategy to unify the economic development efforts of El Paso, Southern New Mexico, and Ju?rez, and sell this region to the world as one economic powerhouse, said Ju?rez-born, El Paso-bred Pablos, the new chief executive officer of the privately funded Borderplex Binational Economic Alliance, or Borderplex Alliance, formed late last year by the merger of El Paso's two private economic development groups.
It's his job to make the unification happen and make the regional sales pitch -- used by various groups for years -- stronger. He's been in his new job four months.
The
MSA is a "barometer used by many to determine the size and strength of a community," Pablos said. Ju?rez also should be included, but that's difficult to do since federally designated MSAs include only cities inside the United States, he noted. Ju?rez will continue to be a vital part of the regional sales pitch, he said.An El Paso-Las Cruces-Alamogordo MSA would have more than 1 million people, if countywide populations are included. While that's less than the estimated 2.7 million regional population when Ju?rez is included, it still meets an important threshold, Pablos said.
A million population is a magic number when it comes to Madison Avenue looking for product test areas or Corporate America looking for
facility locations, he noted. MSA size also plays a big part in government grant making, he said.Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima said adding Alamogordo may be a challenge, but he agreed a million-plus population MSA could help bring more attention to this area.
"It would move us up the list, and make us more attractive" to companies and others, Miyagishima said. "The Las Cruces-El Paso area has arrived, and I think Rolando is the guy who can bring us together. He brings a new sense of energy to the region."
Davin Lopez, CEO of the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance in Las Cruces, and Richard Dayoub, president of the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce, said the MSA idea needs analyzed for its pros and cons.
"This is the first I've heard of it. The idea is worth exploring," Dayoub said. "You have to have buy-in from the region."
The MSA can't be designated under current federal rules, but Pablos said he wants to try to get the rules changed, or get an exemption so the MSA can be created. That's one of the items the Borderplex Alliance will lobby for in Washington, D.C., as part of its stepped-up advocacy plans for the nation's capital, he said. Commuter traffic is used to define an MSA, he said.
Pablos, 45, was born in Ju?rez, and raised in El Paso by parents who had an orthodontic practice in Ju?rez. He graduated from Cathedral High School, and as many natives of this area have done, left for greener education and professional pastures.
He spent 26 years in San Antonio where he graduated from college and worked as a lawyer, and worked in economic-development organizations and in political arenas. He has master's degrees in international business and hospitality management, and a law degree, specializing in international trade.
He's a Republican who counts Texas Gov. Rick Perry and George P. Bush, nephew of former President George W. Bush, among his friends.
He was a commissioner on the Texas Public Utility Commission in Austin -- a position Perry appointed him to in September 2011 -- when he was recruited home to run the Borderplex Alliance.
The group was born from a merger between the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corp., or REDCo, which was El Paso's industrial recruiter, and the Paso del Norte Group, a large group of El Paso business people and community leaders aimed at growing this area's economic wealth and clout.
"I am here to show those that left that coming back -- not only is it possible, but it is required," Pablos said in a recent interview in the Borderplex's 18th-floor conference room in the Chase Bank building with a panoramic view of Downtown, Mount Cristo Rey in New Mexico, and portions of Ju?rez. He wore a pair of El Paso-made, Lucchese cowboy boots.
"The No. 1 reason why we need the reverse bran drain is because we (area natives) have El Paso, Ju?rez, and Las Cruces at heart. We understand this region."
He and his wife, Laura San Martin, an orthodontist who's not currently practicing, and their four children, ages 4 to 11, live on the West Side, near Pablos' parents.
Being a region made up of three states in two nations is this area's greatest asset, as well as its greatest obstacle to growth, Pablos said.
"We have fallen into a trap of allowing these barriers we have -- that mountain, that river, those political boundaries -- define how this area behaves, he said. "We have to once and for all agree to set those aside and act as one, wholesome region, and not three or four independent regions.
"This organization is going to be the umbrella that truly acts and walks and talks regional integration," Pablos said. "Our job is to work with local (economic development) organizations, not meddle in their business, and bring in some of that muscle required to be able to promote the region at the global level. . . . We have to prove we are regional, and not El Paso-centric." Borderplex will have personnel in Las Cruces and Ju?rez, he said.
One of Pablos' main roles will be to lead lobbying efforts in Washington, Austin, Santa Fe, and Mexico City, he said.
El Paso businessman Woody Hunt, chairman of the Borderplex Alliance executive committee, said in February when Pablos was hired that his resume, his familiarity with this region, his fluency in Spanish, and his extensive experience with government officials on both sides of the border made him stand out from a list of about 50 candidates. Pablos has skills to lobby state, federal, and Mexico officials, which are needed for economic development efforts, Hunt said.
The El Paso chamber's Dayoub, and Mesilla Valley's Lopez said their organizations and others have done regional economic development for years. A big reason the Army expanded Fort Bliss in recent years as part of the nation's base realignment process was because the chamber and others were successful in selling the regional military complex of White Sands and Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, and Fort Bliss, Dayoub said.
"I think there is a renewed interest, and renewed energy" for economic development as a region, Dayoub added. "We want them (Borderplex Alliance) to succeed (as) the lead for economic development in the region."
Lopez said the Borderplex Alliance can help by bringing attention to the region's broader issues, such as needs and problems at the area's international crossings, and improving skills of the regional workforce.
Lopez said he wants the alliance to do federal lobbying that individual organizations don't do, or can't effectively do alone. Pablos' political connections may help, he said.
Many things need to be worked out, including protocols for when a company looks at this region, Lopez said. "We need formal (work) agreements" between the alliance and other groups, he said.
"He (Pablos) seems to be knowledgeable, and a broad, visionary thinker," Lopez added.
Pablos spent his first four months on the job setting up the administrative apparatus for Borderplex. He hired Marco Delgado as chief operating officer -- another El Paso native, who has a master's degree in business administration from Notre Dame, and was working at an El Paso engineering firm. He retained Bob Cook, who was running REDCo, to oversee industrial recruitment. He set up a task force with the city of El Paso and others to look at effective ways to retain companies already in this region. And he expects the alliance later this year to hire an outside firm to re-study what industries the alliance should target for recruitment. He expects one of those will be the solar-power industry. This area has the resources to be a "solar energy hub," he said.
Borderplex has an 11-person staff. Pablos wouldn't divulge the size of its budget -- funded by companies and individuals.
Pablos agreed with El Paso leaders who've said El Paso's quality of life needs to be improved to effectively recruit companies to this area.
"The four Qs" have to be in place "before we can even think about going out and attracting new investment," he said.
Those are quality of life, which, he said, starts with Downtown, and includes schools, parks, and the arts; quality of place, which includes good roads, reliable and affordable electricity, and clean and ample water supplies; quality of workforce, which means increasing education levels of the area's population; and quality of industry, which is a strong base of suppliers and service providers, he said.
Pablos said he plans to stay in his job "as long as it takes" to get it done. But he has one "wild and hairy" personal goal: To one day be ambassador to a Spanish-speaking country, he said. It can't be Mexico because rules don't allow an ambassador to serve in a country where the person was born, he said.
"My great uncle was Ronald Reagan's ambassador to Mexico -- John Gavin. So, I've always been intrigued by diplomacy," Pablos said. "And to a great extent what I am doing right now is international diplomacy already; that requires me to balance interests, to dignify concerns, and to leverage opportunities for the good of the region. That's basically what an ambassador does."
Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com, 546-6421. Follow him on Twitter@vickolenc
More information: elpasoredco.org; http://rolandopablos.com
Outtakes
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