Phoenix’s new economic director says he believes in the upward trajectory of the city

Article originally posted on HERE on February 18, 2026

The city of Phoenix’s new community and economic director believes in the upward trajectory of this city.

Ryan Touhill has spent his career in Virginia, but the possibility of the Valley of the Sun drew him to the desert this year after longtime Economic Director Christine Mackay left to take the helm at the Greater Phoenix Economic Council.

Touhill joined The Show to talk about his new role, his views of the city and the challenges it faces. And he said he’s wanted to move here since he and his wife came to visit last year.

Full conversation

RYAN TOUHILL: We were impressed by the stunning beauty of this place and the warm and welcoming community. And we really decided that if we were going to pick up and move somewhere across the country, we want to be in a place where we feel that we can build a life. And that felt exactly like what Phoenix had.

It felt like home, to be honest.

GILGER: So here you are. OK, so let’s talk about Phoenix and kind of your impressions of it, especially in terms of development here. We have for a long time, I think, been like the poster child of growth just stretching into the desert forever.

Where do you see the opportunity right now when it comes to business? What industries?

I know we hear a lot about TSMC and semiconductors. There are literally entire neighborhoods being built around that right now. But what else?

TOUHILL: Well, what impressed me when I dug in and started learning about Phoenix, and since I’ve been here for just over two months, is it’s not just one industry that we’re focused on. We’re focused on a number of industries.

Advanced manufacturing and semiconductors for sure. But we have a very robust bioscience industry here. We have a growing aerospace and defense industry. And technology is becoming a huge part of our growth for the future. Everything from autonomous vehicles, like the Waymos you see driving around, to autonomous drones and aircraft, and then all the way down to medical devices that might be implanted into a patient.

And so all of that work is happening here, and that’s really important because it allows us to have more resiliency, economic resiliency, so that if there is a downturn in one industry, then others can step up and continue to support the Phoenix economy and the community here.

GILGER: So not everything coming from one place.

TOUHILL: That’s right, yeah.

GILGER: When you are talking to companies about trying to come here, especially as someone who’s new here yourself, what’s your sell? Like, what questions do you get? How do you talk to them about it?

TOUHILL: Sure. Well, the first thing we talk about is the growing labor force or workforce that we have here. We’ve seen tremendous growth in population in the last 10 years. 2010 to 2024, I think we grew by 15.6%. I mean, added 200,000 more people. That’s translating into more workers.

And we’re seeing the educational attainment of our workforce increase. In that same period, bachelor’s degrees or hires that have been attained have grown by 83%.

So employers come here, come to a location generally because they can get a great workforce. That’s still the number one factor we hear when we’re talking to companies about location decisions, is what does the talent look like? Will I have the workforce to support my company and future growth? And the answer in Phoenix is yes.

GILGER: Is that on all ends of the economic spectrum? Like, are you looking at, you’re mentioning people with college degrees, but is it people working in factories, things like that as well?

TOUHILL: Yes, we’re seeing growth in educational attainment across the board, which is really helpful because not every job requires a college degree for sure. But then we start to sell Phoenix itself. This is a great place to live. It’s a great place to work. It’s a great place to raise a family.

And then we talk about then other things like our global connectivity. So Sky Harbor Airport is rated one of the best airports in the country. And we just have grown new connections to Asia, direct flights to Taiwan just in the last couple months. So companies also then have an ability not just to tap a local market or a domestic market, but an international market. So that gives them room to scale.

And so those are just some of the things we talk about in addition to just the weather, which usually always comes up. But we like to tell them that for eight or nine months of the year, it’s absolutely beautiful. And then we have a little bit of a hotter summer.

GILGER: You don’t fly them out in August or July, I’m guessing.

TOUHILL: No, that’s right. That’s right. Yeah.

GILGER: I mean, let me ask you about some of those headwinds, right? Like, what some of the questions you might get that are on the other side of that, like, especially with water at the forefront of the conversation right now, as we’re kind of looking at these negotiations over Colorado River water and looking at how Arizona may fare and how it may not be so good for our state heading forward.

Do you get a lot of companies saying, like, “Are you going to have water there in the future? How much will it cost?”

TOUHILL: We always have questions about resources, whether they’re natural or resources like power, for example. And I’m confident that there are folks at the city who are handling negotiations.

I know our mayor came out and was very vocal with her position that we need to have a compromise and an agreement that is beneficial to Phoenix given our importance in the national economy. The fact that we’re making chips here that are going out to global markets, that’s very significant.

But with companies, we talk about also the very forward thinking approach that we’ve taken to economic development going back all the way to the Great Recession. We have built in sustainable practices when it comes to water and power. We always look to the future.

And so I think that gives companies a level of confidence that we’re not just thinking about tomorrow, we’re thinking about the next year and the next 10 years.

GILGER: Is it often though, when it comes to business, just down to the dollars and cents? What are the tools in your toolbox in terms of the regulatory landscape here, the kind of offers you can give them, tax breaks, etc., to try to spur these industries that matter?

TOUHILL: Well, we use a variety of economic development tools, whether that’s to help develop land. We work with developers who often pay for infrastructure to be put into areas like up around TSMC where we have potential growth opportunities with new developments. And we have tools that help us cost share those infrastructure expenses. And there’s other tools we can use that we’ve used with the downtown revitalization that are more on the tax side.

What I think is most important goes beyond just the incentives or the tax breaks. It’s really what is the holistic package that we provide. And I’ve never seen in my time in economic development a deal that started with discussions about incentives.

GILGER: Yeah. Let me ask you about the big picture here in terms of where you see Phoenix headed in the future as you’re kind of here to help guide it in that direction.

We have, as we said, been the fastest growing metropolis in the country for a long time, and we’re starting to see that shift a little bit. We’re starting to see it not be so cheap to live here, not be so cheap to move here, prices going up, things like that.

How do you see the future in terms of the big-picture landscape of like the arc of this place that, you know, can’t grow forever?

TOUHILL: Well, from an industry standpoint, I really believe that we are pushing the boundaries of innovation constantly here. And so that’s going to, I think, unlock more potential for future industries to come here or subsets of industries. So I’ve talked about aerospace, for example, but looking at unmanned aerial vehicles as a potential option for growth.

So that I am confident is going to continue because Phoenix has been forward-looking for the last 10-15 years, and that is now part of just our DNA. And part of my job is gonna be continuing to do that and pushing the boundaries and looking over the horizon to see what’s coming next.

Secondly, I think we still do have room to grow and grow smartly and that’s what Phoenix has also done. I think we’ve been very deliberate about our growth, figuring out ways to redevelop our downtown, to do infill development in certain neighborhoods. And then yeah, we’re pushing the boundaries into the desert a little bit, too.

But I think we’re doing that in a very smart, planned way that’s mindful of things like resource allocations and mindful of things like even traffic and how you build new roads and pedestrian bridges and bike lanes and all those kind of things. I’m very confident that we’re going to continue to do that. I think that’s what’s going to keep us at the top of the list in terms of places for business.