Photo courtesy MMI AgencyFor more than 20 years, Jeff Wiley worked in the private sector—a job that brought him and his family to Fort Bend County in 2003. Shortly after relocating to the area, his company asked if he would move to Lincoln, Neb., but Wiley said he fell in love with his community. One morning Wiley spoke with Herb Appel, the former president of the Greater Fort Bend Economic Development Council, and after some deliberation, Wiley decided to leave his career in communications to become executive vice president with the Fort Bend EDC.
For more than 20 years, Wiley worked with the ALLTEL Corporation—a communication holding company that owned local telephone, wireless and information service businesses, including the former Sugar Land Telephone Company before he joined the Fort Bend EDC. He earned a bachelor's in economics from Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.
Today, Wiley serves as the president and CEO of the council where he and his team focus on business recruitment and retention, business climate, infrastructure improvements, and finding solutions to the challenge of quality growth.
What has allowed Fort Bend to flourish economically?
Most of [Fort Bend's] growth has been master planned so that development has occurred with forethought to produce quality of place. This has resulted in the fastest-growing population growth rate in the Greater Houston region for more than a decade. At the same time, the quality of our communities has attracted high-caliber residents. Fort Bend County has the highest educated, most diverse residents in the region with a high percentage of the population living as families and owning their own homes. In terms of safety, Fort Bend cities consistently rank among the safest in the region, based on crime statistics.
