AED announces 2017 board of directors

Albuquerque Economic Development Inc. has announced its 2017 board of directors.

The private, nonprofit organization’s board will be chaired by Gary Gordon, the treasurer of Albuquerque Academy. The chair-elect will be Roberta Cooper Ramo of Modrall Sperling, and the treasurer is Mike Canfield of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Their one-year terms begin Jan. 1.

A full list of the 78-person board can be found on AED’s website at www. abq.org.

Gordon said he was looking forward to keeping the state’s business community “involved and informed” with AED’s economic-development initiatives in his new role as chair.

“It’s a big effort, but it’s an important one,” Gordon said.

AED was one of several organizations involved in the campaign to bring the Facebook data center to Los Lunas, which is now being constructed. Gary Tonjes, AED’s president, said his organization will continue to build on that momentum in 2017.

“Just this afternoon I spoke to someone who is looking at our market as a result of Facebook’s entrance,” said Tonjes. “We have a very good pipeline of projects in 2017 that will build on the success we saw last year.”

Tonjes also said AED would work with the Legislature to protect economic-development tools like Local Economic Development Act funding and the Job Training Assistance Program. Some politicians have called for scaling back such expenditures in light of the state’s projected $69 million budget deficit.

“It’s going to be an exciting year,” Tonjes said.