|
Only have a minute? Listen instead |
HARLINGEN — Valley International Airport’s new aviation director is planning to meet with officials to discuss “priorities” after taking office, pointing to the airport’s potential amid the area’s growth.
After a 10-month national search, city commissioners have approved the airport board of directors’ recommendation to hire Juan Antonio “Tony” Nevarez, marking the first time in at least 75 years officials became involved in the aviation director’s selection.
Nevarez, who retired in April as El Paso International Airport’s director, is set to take office Sept. 8 at a salary of $215,000 a year, City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez said.
“I’m very excited with the community, the airport board, the mayor, the commission and the city manager,” Nevarez said in an interview Thursday. “I want to meet the staff and the community and the airport board and commission and see what their priorities are and what they want to focus on and take it from there.”
Nevarez, who retired as El Paso’s airport director in 2024 after more than a 20-year career there, pointed to the area’s potential amid the region’s growth, including the city’s Aerotropolis, a 479-acre site next to airport that’s zoned as a light and heavy industrial area.
”I’m so excited about the potential of what’s going on in the Rio Grande Valley,” he said. “There’s so much, with SpaceX, the land available at the airport, the potential growth.”
In a meeting, commissioners approved the airport board’s recommendation to hire Nevarez as he stood at the podium.
“I really appreciate the efforts from the entire (airport) board in ensuring the right person was chosen,” Mayor Norma Sepulveda said during the Aug. 5 meeting.
“We’re very blessed that there were 30 to 40 applicants,” she said. “It’s a good problem to have a small pool of candidates of such caliber, and you rose to the top. I think it’s fantastic that you’ve got more than two decades of experience and, in addition, you’re in a border town, we’re in a border town, and there’s a lot of similarities. I’m looking forward to this next chapter at Valley International. We look forward to working with you and looking forward to the future of VIA.”
During his 20-year career with El Paso International Airport, Nevarez took the job as interim director in April 2024 before going on to serve as aviation director from November 2024 before retiring last April.
From 2017 to 2024, he had served as the airport’s assistant director of aviation for operations and security.
After starting his career as assistant operations officer, he served in positions including airport security coordinator and operations manager.
Nevarez is taking office about a year after former longtime Director Marv Esterly announced his retirement in August 2025 before leaving office in early December following months of clashes with city leaders over the airport’s control.
The national search that led to Nevarez’s selection, led by ADK Consulting and Executive Search, which specializes in recruiting aviation industry executives, became the second hunt to fill the director’s position.
Last October, the airport board launched its first search, a monthlong hunt that advertised the position with the American Association of Airport Executives, the nation’s largest organization of airport employees.
In a heated meeting in November, a 5-2 vote led to the selection of a candidate then-Chairman George McShan described as a highly experienced executive from a big city airport.
Days later, Sepulveda questioned the airport board’s selection process, while McShan described it as a “structured” and “merit-based” national search.
In late December, city commissioners voted to extend the search, marking the first time the city became involved in the airport director’s hiring.
Since the airport board was founded in 1950, board members hired the aviation director, based on the city charter, which aimed to keep politics out of the selection process, McShan said prior to stepping down as chairman in February.
Then in 2024, commissioners ordered an election whose ballot included a proposition calling on residents to change Valley International Airport’s charter to give the commission the authority to approve the hiring and firing of the airport’s director.
In a November 2024 election, residents overwhelmingly voted to amend the charter, giving the commission the authority to approve the hiring and firing of the aviation director.
In February, board members hired the ADK search firm after city officials offered to pay its $43,506 fee.