Director, Business & Community Development Economic Development & Tourism Office of Governor Abbott

Larry McManus is the Director for Business and Community Development in the Office of the Governor, Economic Development and Tourism Division (EDT).  He is responsible for the management of the Office’s Existing Industry and Business Recruitment Activities, Small Business, International, Marketing, Research, and Community Relations initiatives. 

McManus returned to EDT in March of 2020 after serving, for 2 years, as Senior Director for Rural Economic Development at the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) where he was responsible for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, the State Office of Rural Health, and TDA’s economic development activities. 

McManus previous tenure with the Office of the Governor had him managing Community Relations and Domestic Expansion and Recruitment (DER) activities. These teams assisted in the announcement of more than 140,000 jobs and a capital investment in excess of approximately $63 billion between January 2005 and August 2015. 

McManus has 29 years of economic development experience with the State of Texas.  Prior to joining the State of Texas, he spent nearly five years with NationsBank (now Bank of America).

McManus holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Texas at El Paso and is a graduate of the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma.