“Our best days and greatest opportunities are still in front of us.”
Marty McVey stands out in the 2015 Houston Mayoral campaign. Not only is he the only business leader among the seven running candidates, but he is also the youngest of them all. With over 15 years of experience in entrepreneurship, public service, and international development, he decided to give back to the city he loves so much by running for Mayor of Houston. Businessman McVey said, “This city has been very good to me, and I have gotten a lot of opportunities, and I want people to have the same opportunities as me. I owe this city a great deal, I owe the state, and I owe the country, and I want to make sure that I do my part to give back.” As a leader and CEO of his own private equity company, McVey & Associates, LLC, he is ready to lead Houston on a path of success through economic development. In 2011, McVey was appointed to serve as a Board of Directors Member of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BFIAD) by President Barack Obama. Through this opportunity, he has traveled to Haiti, Libya, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and many other countries and more-experiencing the culture, as well as building trade partners, and assisting the countries in times of natural and manmade disasters.
Seeing this extensive experience, Julia Nader and I were interested in meeting Marty McVey personally. We were fortunate enough to be able to sit down and talk to a man so culturally diverse and so ready to lead the city of Houston with a slightly different take. He hopes to use his business expertise to help energize the economic development, the public safety, and the public mobility of the city.
Working in business for so many years, why have you decided to dive into such a new career path as a politician?
I am not a career politician – this is pure public service, and I see myself as a public servant. I always have known I would become a public servant at some point in my life. I grew up around politics; my father was a police officer and later became a judge. My mother was an entrepreneur. My sense of giving back came from my parents. It’s a duty, and what I found later in life as I expanded my career and had may experiences, I found joy, it is very rewarding. I knew that I would end up in public service at some point in my life.
I have been asked to run for public office many times, from many Democratic leaders -to run for Congress, Chairman of the State Party–it wasn’t the right time for me. I think for me as a leader
and CEO of my business, I don’t think I would be happy in City Council. I enjoy leading and motivating people; because they are the life blood of the organization – and they will follow
the leader. I enjoy that, and I enjoy getting people to be their best and as creative as possible.
Who are your supporters, and whom are you reaching out to?
My first priority in building my base of supporters is reaching out to people who have not been heard before. I think it is part of my job and responsibility to get people to come to vote; even if it’s not for me. I want to go to areas that have not previously had a voice: the Vietnamese community, the Middle Eastern community, South Asian — in particular, the deaf and blind communities. This is very important to me.
Why the deaf community?
They have no voice at City Hall. The third largest deaf population in the US is in Houston. If there are no services at meetings, they cannot participate in their government. At my kick off, we made sure that we invited a deaf translator so they were able to participate in the election process. I want to go the people here other candidates aren’t. I want them to know they are important, and their voice matters. I can’t just govern the people who vote. The homeless person on the street, or the billionaire- I represent all of them. No matter where they come from. I see them as Houstonians, and it is my responsibility that they have a voice and that they feel represented. I really want to go to those who feel like they have no reason to vote, and give them a reason to vote.
In your race, you seem to have been focusing on bringing more international business into Houston. Why? Houston is an international city- we are very Lebanon Times 1 fortunate to have the oil and gas industry headquarter, and the medical center. But as a business leader, I look at this as a risk to rely on so few industries. We cannot rely on the oil field for our future. We have to diversify-one thing that you won’t see other candidate’s talk about is real economic development and jobs, and that is one of my responsibilities as mayor. I want to recruit new businesses and better jobs to the city, in particular, manufacturing and technology.
My mandate is two things:
1) to protect Houstonians
2) to protect the interests of Houstonians.
What is the priority on your agenda?
Economic development, mobility, and public safety. There will be a lot of things we need to do in the first 90 days. Establishing an office of economic development that reports directly to the mayor is at the top of my agenda.
What is your one- liner for this race?
Our best days, our greatest opportunities, are still in front of us.
Marty McVey concluded with the constant reassurance that he is running for the people and only for the people. He represents everyone, “no matter their color, what they believe in, or whom they love,” McVey said, “we are all Houstonians.” After getting through all the political talk, I was able to ask Mr. McVey some off topic questions. He shared his love for the Middle Eastern culture. As a speaker of Farsi and selected few words of Arabic, he looks forward to returning to the Middle East to learn more. “I love the Middle Eastern culture, it is such a rich culture that I enjoy!” Marty McVey has high hopes that he will win this race. “I don’t ask God to help me to win, I ask God to help me to govern,” he said.
As we walked out the door, we wished him good luck in the race and thanked him for his time and hoped to speak to him as Mayor of Houston in which he returned with “InshAllah!”