greater:SATX Organizational Changes Align Workforce, Local Business Engagement, Advocacy
greater:SATX announced an organizational restructure to support the continued implementation of its 5-year regional economic development strategy. Romanita Matta-Barrera, greater:SATX’s Chief Workforce Officer, will lead the organization’s new Regional Business Advancement department as Chief Business Advancement Officer. The new department will align the organization’s workforce, local business engagement, and advocacy and influence efforts.
greater:SATX undertook a review of its 5-year regional economic development strategy in 2023 to review key initiatives and ensure meeting its goals by 2025. This entailed a comprehensive review of the metrics, progress to date, and feedback from greater:SATX investors which informed the development of the new greater:SATX department, Business Advancement. The integrated department will elevate the level of service greater:SATX provides to local businesses, ensuring proactive outreach and full spectrum of support services critical to their business’ growth and competitiveness.
“As an integrated Business Advancement function, we will be able to elevate the services we already provide to our regional employers by further promoting their jobs, supporting their talent needs, ensuring infrastructure critical to their business growth, and providing targeted economic development advocacy,” said Matta-Barrera. “A longstanding service to engage with our local businesses and lead strategic workforce development solutions for our San Antonio region will now be fortified through our aligned efforts.”
Before joining greater:SATX to lead the organization’s strategic workforce development, Matta-Barrera’s career spanned workforce development, education policy, and media relations, having served as Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans and Director of Hispanic Outreach and Communications at the U.S. Department of Education under the Bush Administration. Prior to that, she was the Texas Media Director for U.S. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, serving as Spanish spokesperson and coalition liaison to Hispanic organizations.
“Our organization’s corporate attraction efforts are what we are most known for, but as much as we invest in attracting new businesses to our region, we are equally invested in ensuring that our local businesses have the support and resources they need to grow and continue adding jobs in San Antonio,” said Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, president & CEO of greater:SATX. “Through an elevated Business Advancement function, our team will proactively deliver greater support to our local businesses to ensure their success in our region.”
Under the Business Advancement team, Sarah Morales will serve as Senior Vice President of Business Engagement, focused on building relationships with regional businesses and collaborating with the workforce development team to generate economic growth through job retention and expansion support services. Christopher Mammen, Vice President of Workforce Development, will lead regional workforce readiness, talent attraction, retention, and development.
Organizational changes will take effect on January 1, 2024.