John-Michael Cortez

What we talked about

Trust starts with showing up

For John-Michael Cortez, community engagement starts with being present. As GFiber’s head of government and community affairs for the South and Southwest, he works across communities with different priorities and histories. In this Making Names conversation, he explains why a face-to-face meeting offers something that email and virtual calls cannot fully replace. Body language, eye contact and the effort of showing up help establish a relationship before a difficult decision arrives. He sees that investment as a foundation for collaboration, not simply a courtesy at the beginning of a project.

Infrastructure is a long-term relationship

Building a network in an existing neighborhood means working around homes, streets and other utilities. Cortez compares that process to performing open-heart surgery on a community. Even careful work can encounter unexpected conditions or leave a resident with questions. His argument is that trust makes it easier to address those problems together. He points to Round Rock as an example of taking time to align expectations before accelerating construction. The lesson is not that every deployment will follow the same schedule, but that moving quickly can depend on doing slower relationship-building work first.

Understand the municipality’s problem

Cortez’s experience inside local and regional government shapes how he approaches private-sector partnerships. He describes local government as a way for people to solve shared problems they cannot address alone. A company entering that environment needs to respect the community’s responsibilities and goals. When an internal team encounters a municipal obstacle, he asks them to look beyond the company’s inconvenience: what problem is the city trying to solve? That shift helps frame an offer around local needs. It also requires listening, adapting and renewing relationships when public leadership changes.

Growth does not stop at a city boundary

Turning to Central Texas, Cortez describes growth beyond Austin’s city limits and the pressure that puts on neighboring communities. He sees housing, water, infrastructure and public services as connected regional challenges. Rather than expecting each city to work everything out independently, he hopes communities with more experience managing growth will help those encountering similar pressures now. He also welcomes wider cooperation between Austin and San Antonio. These are his observations and priorities from the interview, not a prediction that every place will grow in the same way or a formal regional plan.

Make progress in useful pieces

The conversation closes with transportation along the Austin–San Antonio corridor. Cortez sees potential value in a rail connection, while distinguishing trips between the two cities from shorter commuter journeys within each region. He suggests that useful segments could be worth pursuing while work on a larger connection continues. It is an incremental approach offered for discussion, not an announcement of an approved route or project. Across both infrastructure and transportation, his emphasis is consistent: understand the people affected, build relationships that can withstand setbacks and find practical ways to move forward.