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SAN BENITO — Cameron County officials are snatching the city’s economic development director to lead a new department aiming to draw industry to the area.
Officials are hiring Ramiro Aleman, who’s led San Benito’s economic development agency for about a year, to serve as director of the county’s new economic development department, Deputy County Administer Dan Serna said.
Earlier this year, county commissioners created the department to help draw industry and business to the state’s southernmost county.
“The court wanted a dedicated economic development arm to look at industry coming to our area,” Serna said.
Aleman, who was hired at a salary of $95,000, has worked in economic development in the county’s biggest cities, he said.
“He’s qualified, with the experience we’re looking for,” Serna said in an interview. “He has years of economic development experience, not only in San Benito but in Harlingen.”
Serna said Aleman will determine whether to build a department around his position.
During his 16-year career in economic development, Aleman helped shape new economic arms in Harlingen and Brownsville.
Since October 2022, he’s served as San Benito’s economic development director, where he leads a three-member staff while drawing a salary of $103,000.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for me,” he said in an interview. “I’m familiar with the largest industries in the three largest cities in Cameron County. I want to be the economic director for the entire county. I want to help the rural communities in the western part of the county all the way to the eastern part of the county. I want to be able to bring opportunities to the smaller communities and industry to the larger communities.”
Before taking the job in San Benito, Aleman worked to revamp the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, serving as the agency’s director of business recruitment, retention and expansion from 2017 to 2022.
“I really honed by skills in Brownsville,” he said.
In 2007, Aleman took a job as industrial development manager with the newly formed Harlingen Economic Development Corporation, serving through 2017.
Aleman holds a bachelor of business administration degree in management with a concentration in international business from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
In San Benito, where Aleman’s resignation becomes effective Nov. 27, officials are launching a search for the city’s next economic development director, Jose Luis Morales, president of the EDC’s board of directors, said.
During the search, new City Manager Fred Sandoval will serve as the EDC’s interim director, Morales said.
In his 11-year career at Pharr’s City Hall, Sandoval worked to build the city’s international bridge, opening its first industrial park while helping to draw businesses such as Papadeaux’s Seafood Kitchen and Costco to town, Morales said.
“He’s got an impressive track record,” he said. “We’ve got a great person to fill in.”
