Big fish: RGV Startup Week lands Vicente Fox as keynote

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox will be the keynote speaker for the second annual RGV Startup Week, which takes place April 25 through May 2.

Nathan Burkhart, vice president for Entrepreneurship and Innovation for the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, announced the news at a downtown news conference on Thursday.

Fox, who served as Coca-Cola’s chief executive in Mexico and then head of the company’s Latin American operations before serving as Mexico’s president from 2000 to 2006, will speak in Brownsville on April 28 for a “fireside chat” during the week-long entrepreneurship event. The venue is the Texas Southmost College Performing Arts Center.

The discussion will center around how border entrepreneurs can “overcome the current political crisis,” Burkhart said.

Tickets to the keynote event go on sale April 5 and will be available at rgvstartup.com. Anyone interested in attending the several events across the Valley can register at the same website. Most of the other events are free, though it is necessary to RSVP, according to organizers.

Also during the news conference, which was attended by Brownsville John Cowen and City Manager Helen Ramirez, several of Startup Week’s key participants were on hand to discuss their organizations’ scheduled programs during the event.

Orlando Campos, CEO of the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation; Cori Pena, BCIC president and CEO; Linda Ufland, director of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Commercialization for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley; Victor Perez, CEO of the Pharr Economic Development Corporation; and Ron Garza, UTRGV associate vice president for the Workforce and Economic Development, all discussed their respective organizations’ plans.

Also offering remarks was Rodrigo Gomez, director of sales operations for Arca Continental Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages, the title sponsor for this year’s event. He said the company was “incredibly proud” to be the main sponsor for this year’s event.

“We believe in the power of innovation, entrepreneurship and community,” Gomez said. “As a company with deep routes in the region, we recognize that thriving local businesses create thriving communities.”

Pena remarked how far RGV Startup Week — which starts and ends in Brownsville — has come since the inaugural event in 2024.

“Last year we launched the week-long celebration with one goal: to put a spotlight on our entrepreneurial energy that’s already alive and thriving in our region,” she said. “In just one year that spark has grown.”

Burkhart said the week concludes with Demo Day, the “closing chapter of a pilot project called our Frontera Leadership Institute, where we’ve been really keen on trying to keep our best and brightest here in the Rio Grande Valley.”

“I was born and raised here in Brownsville,” he said. “The entire time I lived here every family member, every teacher, all had the same message for myself and all my childhood friends: leave. That was the only way you could really succeed.

“We are in a completely different time now. We have a very strong regional research university. We have strong regional economic institutions … that are partnering together to find our best and brightest and focus on them, the talent in our backyard.”

Following the news conference, Cowen said “it’s amazing to see how this event has grown more regionally, supporting our entrepreneurs that are trying to build businesses here in the Valley.”

Developing such an entrepreneurial ecosystem is likely to create a snowball effect that means just more success for the region’s business talent, he predicted.

“I think the more opportunity we can provide for people to showcase what they’re doing and network and hone their skills, the more success we’ll see from all our cities across the Valley,” Cowen said.

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