Jaime Castillo is the Chief Strategy Officer/Chief of Staff for the San Antonio Water System, one of the largest municipally owned utilities in the nation with more than 1.8 million customers and a $780 million annual budget. A longtime communications and public affairs professional, Castillo previously served as an Obama Administration appointee as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs under former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro.
As the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at HUD, he led a 30-member public affairs team for nearly three years and spearheaded the creation of HUD’s first-ever team dedicated to social media and rapid response. He was also responsible for speechwriting, internal and external relations, and broadcast and public engagement for the Cabinet agency.
Prior to joining Castro in Washington D.C., Castillo spent five years as part of Castro’s mayoral administration. Castillo was named Communications Director following Castro’s election as Mayor in 2009 and ultimately became Chief of Staff before Castro was tapped to be a Cabinet secretary in 2014. During his time with the mayor’s office, Castillo helped develop strategy for successful major initiatives such as the creation and launch of SA2020, Pre-K 4 SA, Café College and the City of San Antonio’s 2012 bond program.
Prior to his public affairs work, Castillo was a newspaper columnist, reporter and editor for nearly two decades, including jobs at the San Antonio Express-News, the El Paso Times and the Naples (Fla.) Daily News. At the Express-News, he guided the newspaper’s political coverage at the local, state and national levels and was the lead metro columnist.
Castillo has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from The University of Texas at El Paso and a Master of Arts in Latin American Studies from The University of Texas at Austin.
He is a native of El Paso, Texas.
