Warning signs have been flashing for Montgomery County’s economy.

But Jared Smith, Montgomery County’s new economic development leader, says the economy will bounce back. He saw an economy recover at his last job, when the Las Vegas metro area emerged from the COVID pandemic.

He’s confident this region will be resilient, too.

Smith started Monday as the president and CEO of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corp., a public-private nonprofit established by the county in 2015 to attract businesses and help them grow.

He comes to the job facing lofty expectations and economic headwinds. Moody’s economists have warned of a possible recession.

Revenue projections are also on the decline. Montgomery County will take in $854 million less than expected over the next six years, which has prompted officials to begin broaching the topics of tax increases and budget cuts.

In his first months, Smith will guide the Economic Development Corp. through a strategic planning process and define the county’s economic strengths and weaknesses. The assessment occurs every four years, and Smith and his team will present their findings to the County Council in July.

He will also fill several high-level positions at the organization, including a permanent chief operating officer, a vice president of business development and a director of research and policy.

The Economic Development Corp. held off on filling the roles during the CEO search, which lasted 10 months.

For the last three years, Smith, a father of three, served as director of economic development and tourism for Henderson, a city with a population one-third the size of Montgomery County’s.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What drew you to Montgomery County?

In Las Vegas, the world comes to our back door for fun, right? Here, the world comes to the back door for business.

The target industries here are very interesting. They’re great-paying jobs in the life sciences and federal contracting. The opportunity to see our community grow through these industries is an amazing opportunity.

My wife and I, when we visited here, went to some of the public schools. And I was inspired by the principals that we met and some of the folks working with kids.

I’m inspired by what I’m hearing from the business leaders about how it’s time to look to tomorrow, versus looking backwards.

What are your thoughts about the signs of economic instability here?

Undeterred, undeterred.

Economies go up and down, and nationally we see the economy ebbing and flowing.

I’m coming from Las Vegas, the hardest-hit community in the country during COVID. The hardest hit. Because, Las Vegas, if you think about what they do, they bring people from all over the world into confined spaces for revenue generation, and COVID eliminated that.

But that economy bounced back with force. Our industries here are as resilient. So, I’m undeterred.

We’re gonna push through any challenges.

We’ve got a great board. We have very interested community partners that want to be a part of seeing success and so, if anything, I’m just worried about doing the best job that our team and our staff can do to bring those folks together.

What’s first on your to-do list?

We’re about to go through a strategic planning process that’s going to be a heavy lift, not only for us but for the community.

We have some other leadership roles we need to fill here as well.

And I’m going to connect with the community partners — shaking hands and building trust, and me spending a lot of time listening.

Where is Montgomery County lagging?

I would phrase it a little differently. I look at things as opportunities. There’s definitely opportunities in growing our traditional sectors and growing new industry sectors.

I’m incredibly excited to map out the county’s assets so that we clearly understand what we are pitching to companies, nationally and internationally, to come here and hire folks.

We don’t just recruit new companies. We do our best to assist local companies as well.

Some in the business community and some elected officials think Montgomery County is not business-friendly. What do you think?

I lean back into positivity. I can’t think of a region anywhere in the country where there’s not gonna be criticism. We need to see past the criticism and into opportunity and into the future. That’s really where I want our team to be — leaning into the future, into what’s possible.