About Us

“Grow from Within”

Philosophy

 

Our “Grow from Within” strategy focuses on creating industry-relevant skills programs, supporting entrepreneurs, helping existing firms expand and innovate and strengthening local assets that improve the economic prospects of local workers and industries. This is an approach that prioritizes the skills, infrastructure, capital and innovation needs of existing industries and emphasizes creating value and income in the economy through increased productivity and trade, especially from our advanced industries.

We seek to bring these resources into an innovation district to reduce transaction latency and increase the frequency of interaction among like-minded individuals.

At InnovateABQ a special emphasis is placed on creating access points which are culturally comfortable to Burquenos (someone from Albuquerque). The physical embodiment of these access points may be one of our unique doorways, but also include portal programs which may be located within in Albuquerque’s rich and diverse communities. The goal is to allow anyone seeking to improve their income or living standard to become part of our Innovation Community and access new ideas, skills, capital and mentorship within an infrastructure that increases their chances of success.

InnovateABQ does not seek to displace the many well-established programs innovation and entrepreneurship support programs that already exist in Albuquerque but rather to help align their services in an intentional way to reduce duplication, increase efficiency, improve the likelihood of outside investment in our community and provide access for all to Albuquerque’s Innovation Economy.

Advisory Board

Teresa Costantinidis

Teresa Costantinidis

Senior Vice President

Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration, University of New Mexico

Marcos Gonzales

Marcos Gonzales

Economic Development Assistant Director

Bernalillo County

Michael Buehler

Michael Buehler

Executive Vice President

Executive Vice President of Finance and Lending, Nusenda Credit Union

Joe Christian

Joe Christian

President/CEO

Nusenda Credit Union

Carrie Freeman

Carrie Freeman

Managing Partner

Second Muse

Riis Gonzales

Riis Gonzales

President & CEO

Sandia Foundation

Tracy Hartzler

Tracy Hartzler

President, CNM

Central New Mexico Community College

Charles Ashley III

Charles Ashley III

Economic Development Director

City of Albuquerque

Mitzi Montoya, Ph.D.

Mitzi Montoya, Ph.D.

Dean, Anderson School of Management

University of New Mexico

Carlos Perea

Carlos Perea

Entrepreneur, CEO & Co-Founder

Terra Vera

Garnett Stokes, Ph. D.

Garnett Stokes, Ph. D.

President

University of New Mexico

Lonnie Talbert

Lonnie Talbert

CEO

ATM Industry Association

Charles Wellborn

Charles Wellborn

Former President

UNM Rainforest Innovations

Douglas Ziedonis

Douglas Ziedonis

Executive VP for UNM Health Sciences and CEO of the UNM Health System

UNM Rainforest Innovations

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