New Leadership
Grow Odessa announces New Leadership for 2022-2023
On Aug. 9, Grow Odessa held their annual stockholders meeting where outgoing President Eddy Shelton stepped down, passing the gavel to incoming President Gus Ortega. Shelton served a one-year term as President beginning in August 2021 and ending at the board meeting in August 2022. Ortega will assume the position of president and will serve a one-year term on the 27 person board.
Ortega currently serves as the West Region Manager of Customer Service for Oncor Electric Delivery. His territory includes Odessa and Midland. Ortega has worked with Oncor for 24 years holding various positions during his time with the organization. In his current position, he has direct responsibility as a liaison with elected officials at all local levels of government as well as coordinating solutions for escalated issues related to both Oncor transmission and distribution matters through this portion of West Texas which includes 56 cities in 37 counties encompassing approximately 325,000 customers. Ortega has been very involved in Odessa serving many organizations. Ortega got involved with Grow Odessa because of the organizations long, successful history of working to grow the community. He believes that Grow Odessa can continue to have a positive impact on the growth and economic development in Odessa. He hopes the organization will make significant strides during his time as President to develop 500 acres on the south side of Odessa that the organization owns. He would also like to see Grow Odessa purchase more land locally which would enable them to attract more jobs and business here.
Shelton is proud of the accomplishments made during his term as president including: committing $25,000 each in scholarships to Odessa College, UT Permian Basin and Texas Tech UHSC, transferring Grow Odessa property to Nacero, selling multiple properties to various companies helping them grow their footprint in Odessa, committing funds to ECISD bond advertising, reserving funds for development of the South Industrial Park, contributing to the expansion of the Ellen Noël Art Museum and contributing to the development of the Odessa College Wood Science Center.
Odessa Industrial Development Corporation, DBA Grow Odessa, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to Odessa’s economic development growth. Grow Odessa was established in 1966 to assist existing businesses with expansions and to attract new compatible industries to Odessa. The organization has developed four industrial parks in south Odessa and has more 500 additional acres of undeveloped land for future use. Grow Odessa provides an annual scholarship donation to Odessa College, UT Permian Basin and Texas Tech UHSC. They have also partnered with the City of Odessa and Ector County on several infrastructure projects throughout the community, as well as making contributions towards the construction of the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center, UTPB Athletics and the West Texas Food Bank to name a few.
(Article excerpted from article printed in Odessa American August 24,2022)