After a decade, Holly Schroeder is departing this month as president and chief executive of the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corp.
Schroeder will join DrinkPAK – a company she helped lure to Santa Clarita – in October to work on its nationwide expansion. Jey Wagner succeeds her at the economic development corporation, with the two currently sharing the role through Sept. 15.
“It’s been a really fascinating and dynamic 10 years,” Schroeder said. “We’ve seen a lot of growth. We’ve seen a lot of companies move in. We’ve seen a lot of job growth. I think it’s really positive for the community.
“The thing I love about the job is you really are making a difference in the community,” she continued. “Helping people find jobs and having high-quality jobs available locally to them is important to the quality of life, both for individuals and the community at large. We do a lot to try to help people who live here and work here as well, to find these jobs at these companies.”
Formed in 2010, the economic development corporation has worked in a public-private partnership with Santa Clarita to lure and expand businesses within the city or surrounding communities. The effort has added a number of traditional office-based businesses as well as warehouse-based enterprises such as studios. One of the great gets in the past decade was bringing in Logix Federal Credit Union, which relocated its headquarters from Burbank and remains among the largest financial institutions in upper Los Angeles County.
“We made the pitch that we wanted them here. They had cities whose response was to either not call them back or ask why they are calling,” Schroeder recalled. “Instead, what we did was pull together all of the leaders from different parts from our community, made a presentation to their executive leadership team and really made it clear that we thought their company would be a good fit up here.”
At DrinkPAK, Schroeder’s title will be vice president of external affairs. The company’s production plant is in Santa Clarita, and she will help identify locations nationwide to build other facilities for its continued expansion.
“They have proven to be a very fast-growing, successful company,” Schroeder said. “They’ve taken close to a million square feet of space. They have 400-plus employees right now, so they’ve grown very fast and are quickly becoming a leading employer here in the Santa Clarita Valley.
“It’s a great job, great organization and great place,” she added, referring to the development corporation, “but the opportunity that came to me was a great fit. It was an exciting opportunity that I just couldn’t turn down.”
Wagner has been the organization’s vice president of workforce and economic development since May. He is a veteran of the Air Force and California Air National Guard and has decades of business experience. He lives in Newhall with his family.
“It is exciting that our final choice is a local resident with an outstanding business reputation and proven track record” development corporation co-chair Calvin Hedman said in a statement. “We are pleased to have Jey take the helm and lead our dynamic organization. His experience is well suited to hit the ground running in this new role and continue the great work the SCVEDC is doing in workforce development initiatives, business assistance and expansion efforts and more.”
One of the most rewarding parts about her tenure, Schroeder said, was bringing to her suburban home a thriving business community to compete with other hubs in L.A. County.
“Santa Clarita absolutely was originally a suburban bedroom community to Los Angeles, but has had a growing business community for a couple of decades,” she said. “During the Great Recession, a group of civic leaders got together and said, if we want Santa Clarita to have a resilient business community, we can’t leave it to chance. The reality is, there’s quite a diverse area of industry,” she added, “so there really are a lot of career opportunities here that people don’t recognize.”