A native Houstonian, Jankowski graduated from the University of Texas in 1980 and originally studied Russian for a job in the foreign service. An abroad trip to Russia changed his life, as he met his wife there and was inspired to study economics, he said.
In an interview with Community Impact, Jankowski discussed Houston's resiliency and how the metro's economy has changed during his tenure with the Greater Houston Partnership.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What have you learned about Houston’s economy over the last 40 years?
The whole nature of the economy has changed over the last 40 years. When I first started, this was considered a blue-collar town, very heavily involved in the dirty side of oil and gas, oil field services and oil field equipment. ... Now it's a more white-collar town—more professional jobs, more tech-oriented jobs—where we went from working with our hands and working with our backs to working with our brains.
Another thing, which I've seen time and time again in this community, is how Houstonians come together to help each other to solve problems. ... Houstonians are just so resilient, and they come together. We don’t wait for the federal government to solve our problems for us; we solve them ourselves.
What misconceptions are there about Houston’s economy?
One of the things people [don’t] realize [is] just how resilient Houston is.
People focus on the fact that we've had flooding, but they don't focus on the fact that even with 16 named storms, our economy is almost three times larger than it was 40 years ago, ... the population has more than doubled and the employment has more than doubled.
What events can you point to that had a significant impact on Houston’s economy?
The oil boom of the early ‘80s and then the oil bust of the mid-'80s, ... the collapse of Enron, the [2008] financial crisis, ... the COVID-19 pandemic.
We’ve had six major recessions in Houston; ... we’ve had 16 named storms, either hurricanes or tropical storms. ... And even with those named storms and recessions, Houston has managed to grow.
What is your biggest accomplishment while working at the Greater Houston Partnership?
I was in H-E-B about [10 p.m.] one night buying groceries for my family. ... The guy behind me had on a shirt that said, ‘Software Support Inc.’ ... That guy said, ‘I was out of work for six months, but this company came to town recently and hired me.’ ... What I didn’t tell him was we brought that company to Houston. ... I think that’s a pretty big [accomplishment].
We see these numbers in these big reports, but it's really a very personal level. ... I've been able to work on projects which have brought companies to us and have created jobs that have allowed people to feed their families, send their kids to school and have a middle-class lifestyle. It’s the reason why I stuck around.
Do you have any advice for community leaders in the region to ensure economic prosperity?
They need to be prepared to read everything they can on the U.S. economy, on the global economy, and on the energy industry, because everything is so interlinked. ... We're so dependent upon what happens in the U.S. economy, or what's going on with global trade, our ability to export, or the population growth which has occurred in the region, or the corporations that have decided to relocate here, or some of the innovations which are going on here.
