Job Details

Executive Director Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC)

The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) is a mature, multi-program regional enterprise operating at the intersection of regional governance, public service delivery, and complex funding administration across one of the country's fastest-growing and most operationally demanding regions. The next Executive Director will inherit a strong foundation, an aligned and cohesive board and region, a well-respected agency, and a strong and knowledgeable staff.

The ideal candidate will possess the vision, executive leadership, and strategic acumen to shape and advance the future of H-GAC and the 13-county region. This individual will steward and strategically deploy more than $500 million in public funding annually, while aligning the organization's subsidiary boards, executive leadership team, and professional staff to deliver transformative solutions across one of the fastest-growing and most economically dynamic regions in the nation.

The Executive Director serves as the organization's chief administrator while also acting as a regional thought leader, coalition builder, and trusted partner to elected officials, state and federal agencies, and community stakeholders. This role demands long-range vision, political acuity, and the ability to turn regional priorities into measurable, results-driven outcomes.

The Executive Director will address the following critical needs:

• Articulate and advance a bold regional vision that reflects the distinct geographic, economic, and demographic needs of the region, building consensus among elected officials, partner agencies, and community stakeholders.
• Strengthen regional collaboration by leveraging partnerships with urban, suburban, and rural leaders to advance cohesive policy implementation that benefits the entire region.
• Lead collaborative solutions to complex regional challenges, including transportation, workforce development, and early childhood education, by working in close partnership with the governing boards of H-GAC's subsidiary entities, alongside state and federal agencies and local governments, to develop and implement forward-looking, regionally aligned strategies.
• Empower and align the executive leadership team to effectively implement board-adopted policies, cultivate innovation, and deliver high-performing programs.
• Drive organizational excellence and operational efficiency, ensuring resources are strategically aligned to maximize impact in workforce development and early childhood education initiatives across the 13-county region.
• Serve as chief steward of public trust, ensuring transparency, accountability, and strong fiduciary oversight in collaboration with subsidiary boards.
• Champion best-in-the-nation programming, positioning H-GAC as a national model in regional planning, workforce development, and intergovernmental coordination.

H-GAC operates and leads at local, regional, state, and national levels, with an expectation that this influence will continue and increase. The organization maintains strong relationships and has held leadership roles in major peer and partner networks, including AMPO, the National Association of Regional Councils, and the Texas Association of Regional Councils, among others.

H-GAC is organized across multiple program and service areas that function as distinct operating platforms, each with its own stakeholders, compliance requirements, and performance expectations. Major platforms include:

• Transportation and regional planning
• Workforce system stewardship
• Aging services
• Community and environmental planning
• Disaster recovery and emergency preparedness
• Enterprise, data, and shared services

The FY2025 unified budget totals approximately $594.6 million. The funding model is primarily restricted and program-driven:

• Restricted revenue: approximately $578.7 million
• Unrestricted revenue: approximately $16.0 million

The expenditure profile reflects substantial pass-through activity tied to program delivery and partner/provider systems:

• Pass-through funds: approximately $497.6 million
• Non-pass-through operating costs: approximately $97.0 million

Workforce represents the largest share of the FY2025 program expense profile at 83.09 percent, underscoring the scale and performance importance of the workforce platform within the overall enterprise.

H-GAC also helps prioritize and allocate major funding streams outside the unified budget, ranging from hundreds of millions in transportation investments to disaster recovery resources in the billions. Because these dollars carry the greatest scale and public visibility, they are often the most scrutinized and most actively debated allocations the organization supports.

H-GAC's staffing reflects the breadth of its programs and administrative responsibilities. The FY2025 plan reflects 502 total positions (including full, vacant, and proposed) and 436 total FTEs based on time allocation.

The organization is structured to support multiple program disciplines through dedicated departments and divisions, enabled by shared services such as finance, procurement/contracts, human resources, communications, and technology. Execution quality depends on how effectively the organization operates across governance-to-staff handoffs, program-to-shared-services workflows, and cross-department coordination required to deliver projects and programs efficiently while maintaining compliance.

The Executive Director is the chief executive officer of H-GAC. This role is accountable to the H-GAC Board for strategic leadership, operational performance, financial stewardship, talent and culture, and board and stakeholder relationships across a diverse multi-county membership.

The role is structured with substantial leeway to lead the agency and develop new approaches to how H-GAC serves the region. This includes latitude to apply creativity and build durable systems that strengthen the team, improve speed and effectiveness, and expand the organization's long-term impact for the people and communities served.

In practical terms, the Executive Director must lead at three levels simultaneously:

• Regional governance leadership
• Enterprise operational leadership
• External leadership and partnerships

The Executive Director will work with the Board, Stakeholders, and staff to address the challenges identified in the upcoming years within H-GAC.

Key responsibilities include:

• Strategic leadership and agency direction
• Organizational management and operational performance
• Boards and governance
• Stakeholder engagement and external leadership
• Regional collaboration and program delivery

H-GAC is looking for a leader who understands Council of Governments (COG's) operations and governance from the inside: the cadence of board work, the importance of member trust, and the operational reality that regional progress requires both diplomacy and delivery.

Required qualifications include:

• Bachelor's degree in Public Administration, Regional Planning, Business Administration, Political Science, or a closely related field.
• At least 10 years of progressively responsible executive management experience in a public-sector, intergovernmental, private, or nonprofit organization of comparable complexity.
• Proven record of managing large, multidisciplinary teams and budgets.
• Significant experience working with boards comprised of elected officials and facilitating decision-making in a public context.

Preferred qualifications include:

• Master's degree or other advanced degree in a related discipline.
• Executive experience in a Council of Governments, MPO, or similar regional agency.
• Experience in the Houston-Galveston region or similarly large, fast-evolving metropolitan regions.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary regional initiatives, strategic planning, and grant administration.
• Demonstrated experience leading digital transformation or major technology initiatives in complex organizations.