Colonel (Ret) Cary Westin was appointed interim City Manager of El Paso, Texas, in March 2023.
Mr. Westin, who leads the 21st largest city in the United States, joined the City of El Paso in January 2014 following three years with the Borderplex Alliance and the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corporation as Vice President of Business Development for the Defense and Clean Technology sectors, responsible for attracting new industry to the region. Prior to that he worked for Aerospace Missions Corporation as Vice President for Business Development, supporting key technology research and development projects including hyper-spectral imaging for small unmanned aerial platforms, Nano-photonics, and the development of miniaturized sensors.
Prior to being name interim City Manager, Westin was the Senior Deputy City Manager of Economic Development & Tourism and the Senior Operations Officer.
As the Senior Deputy City Manager of Economic Development & Tourism, he worked with his team to promote business growth, attraction and retention through implementing and coordinating strategies and tactics focused on encouraging a healthy and stable business environment.
Westin served 25 years on active duty in the Army in a variety of critical command and staff positions. COL Westin’s occupational specialty was air defense operations, culminating in a four-year assignment as the Director of the Air Defense Artillery Test Directorate (ADATD), U.S. Army Operational Test Command at Fort Bliss, Texas. As Director of ADATD, Westin led a team of 200 military, Department of the Army civilian and contractor personnel in the design, coordination and execution of operational tests and field experiments to support weapon system acquisition for the Army and joint forces.
Colonel (Ret) Westin’s military education includes graduation from the Air Defense Artillery Officer Basic and Advanced courses, the U.S. Army Airborne School, the Combined Services Staff School, The Marine Corps Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College.
Colonel (Ret) Westin earned a Master of Strategic Studies at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 2006. He also holds a BA (English) from the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia. His tenure with the Army included deployments for both combat and peacekeeping operations to Iraq, Albania, Kosovo and Honduras.