About Us

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.
Our Team

Garnett Stokes, Ph. D.
President
University of New Mexico

Tracy Hartzler
President, CNM
Central New Mexico Community College

Carlos Perea
Site Investor
Carlos Perea

Michael Buehler
Executive Vice President
Executive Vice President of Finance and Lending, Nusenda Credit Union

Carrie Freeman
Managing Partner
Second Muse

Lonnie Talbert
Bernalillo County Commissioner
Bernalillo County Commissioner, District 4

Tim Keller
Mayor
Mayor of the City of Albuquerque

Patricia K. Collawn
President & CEO
President and CEO, PNM Resources

Richard Larson
Executive Vice Chancellor
Executive Vice Chancellor, Vice Chancellor for Research, UNM Health Sciences Center

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

Dr. Dan Lopez
Former President
New Mexico Tech

Charles Wellborn
Former President, UNM Rainforest Innovations
Former President, UNM Rainforest Innovations

John Sanchez
Former Lieutenant Governor
The Honorable John Sanchez, Former Lieutenant Governor, State of New Mexico.

Carlos Garcia
Principal
Garcia Automotive Group