Gilberto Salinas
Chief Operating Officer
Kerr Economic Development Corp.
Kerrville, TX
Gilberto Salinas is Chief Strategy Consultant for GilSalinas Ecodevo Concepts, a firm which specializes in smart economic development for public entities and providing location support to expanding companies, specifically foreign direct investment.
In his prior role, he led economic development in the Brownsville-Matamoros Borderplex, an emerging binational region of 1.2 million on the Texas-Mexico border, where he created and managed a prospect pipeline of more than $11 billion in capital investment and 5,500 jobs. Salinas has had the distinctive opportunity to work a project of significant impact with Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, which is currently constructing a major launch complex at Boca Chica Beach in South Texas.
In 2016, Salinas was appointed by Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott to the Aerospace & Aviation Advisory Committee, where he advises the governor and his staff on the recruitment and expansion of industry in the Lone Star State.
Salinas is currently a board member of the International Economic Development Council and a founding board member of the Bordernomics Initiative by the nonprofit Mexican and Americans Thinking Together (MATT).
He is also the recipient of DCI’s inaugural class of 40-Under-40 Rising Stars in Economic Development. Salinas was recently honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of Leadership Brownsville and was named Community Builder of the Year by the Brownsville Masons.
Salinas earned a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Arts in Communication from the University of Texas–Pan American.
In his off time, Salinas has been cast to play minor roles in Texas-based films, of which he has been a pistolero in the film “A Night in Old Mexico,” alongside Academy Award Winner Robert Duvall, a bad hombre in “From Dusk Till Dawn” and a henchman in “Queen of the South”.