President & Chief Executive Officer. Allen is credited with recruiting

over 215 companies to the Foreign Trade Zone at McAllen,

employing over 18,000 persons on the U.S. side of the International

border, and over 250 companies to the Mexican side where an

additional 75,000 workers complete the bi-national Maquiladora

manufacturing process.

He leaves his post with the McAllen Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) ranked #1 in job growth and #2 in cost of living in 2005 Forbes Magazine survey of the top metro areas in the United States.

 

   Othal Brand, Sr., who hired Allen during his 20 year tenure as Mayor of McAllen, calls him, "The very best in the United States, at what he does". Also quoted to Valley Newsline is Rio Grande Valley Partnership President Bill Summers, "I'm going to miss working with Mike, he was always there when I needed him, I truly love him." No one "has helped the growth of the Rio Grande Valley" and northern Mexico more than Mike Allen.

 

   Allen founded and is Chairman of the Texas Border Infrastructure Coalition, which has secured over $1.1 Billion dollars in highway construction funds for the 19 Texas counties that it represents from Brownsville to El Paso, and has served as a member of the Governor's Task Force on Management and Relations.

 

   When told by Valley Newsline of Mike Allen's pending retirement, Texas State Representative's Veronica Gonzalez (D) McAllen and Aaron Pena (D) Edinburg, who were appearing on the November 27, 2005 edition of Valley Newsline to discuss the region's concerns over the loss of $6 Million dollars in state healthcare funding and the threat to the $100 Million in "Robin Hood" public school funding the Valley receives every biennium, posed by the upcoming Special Session on school finance mandated by the Texas Supreme Court, both expressed shock and dismay in contemplating his departure. Gonzalez offered that the Rio Grande Valley "is one of the fastest growing areas in the nation, and much of that can be contributed to Mike Allen. He's going to be deeply missed, he's done so much in moving the Valley forward." Pena, whom Speaker Tom Craddick has appointed to serve on the Texas House Appropriations Committee and other important committees on Eminent Domain and Homeland Security, refers to Allen as "as real mentor to me," especially "showing me that....attracting business is somehow related to morality and service to your fellow man", because "if you give a man honest pay for an honest days work, you have a positive impact on that persons life."

 

   Many who know him across Texas, do not know, that prior to becoming the legendary head of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation, Allen was a Catholic Priest whose ministry was working with the poor predominantly Mexican Immigrant families who live in the Hidalgo County colonias which surround the McAllen Foreign Trade Zone. After determining that what his mostly hispanic flock desperately needed to improve the quality of their lives, was good paying jobs, he left the priesthood. Mike Allen then got married and moved to the State Capitol of Austin, Texas to fulfill the second part of his life's mission, by bringing manufacturing jobs to people who suffered with the highest unemployment rates and highest poverty levels in the United States of America.

 

   That period of service in Austin in the 1980's led Mike Allen to ultimately to return to his former parish at McAllen, to there organize and lead the McAllen Economic Development Corporation, which over 17 years has thus far been responsible for over 98,000 jobs, and gain him the respect of his peers around the world.

 

   While many maquiladora's from Texas to California have seen shrinkage over the past few years, McAllen/Reynosa has been the exception with over 6,000 jobs added in the last year. The 2000 U.S. Census ranked making it number one in jobs created across the nation in the preceding decade, and the track record seems to go on and one. But most likely, the most recent highlight of Mike's service, to those who know him, seems to be in his commitment to making a quality education available to his former parish flock. Following work to create the Regional Academic Health Center's

   Valley campuses, which will lead to "home grown" health care jobs, he was elected in May of 2005, as a trustee of the South Texas College (STC) at McAllen, filling the position of Glen Roney. Since STC is booming in student growth in academic and technical training to prepare young people to fill healthcare jobs in the U.S. region with the most critical shortage of doctors, nurses and pharmacists, it seems that Mike Allen has his eye on yet a third way to serve mankind.

 

   Stay tuned, Mike Allen has more to do, and you can bet that he will be the "good and faithful servant" as always, and will do it, in service to God, God's children, Father Mike's flock and all of Allen's thousands of friends around the world.

 

   His successor Keith Patrick, who has served as MEDC's second in command, and Mike Allen's protege since it was formed in 1988. Patrick's endorsement for the post was offered to Valley Newsline in the November 27, 2005 edition by former McAllen Mayor Othal Brand, Sr., McAllen,Texas" State Representative's Veronica Gonzalez and Aaron Pena of Edinburg.