One-on-One
played for a stint with D.C. United and then he played in the USL (United Soccer League). We traveled the world for soccer.
When my first son graduated from high school, his club coach told him he was too good to play college soccer. So my wife and two sons moved to Holland and both of my boys got to play in a professional program called NEC (Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie). It was in … Holland. So they lived there for eight months and then came back, and he went to college.
Did you visit them in Holland?
Yeah, I did. It was really funny. It was Thanksgiving, and obviously they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Holland. So I called up United (Airlines) and asked if I could bring a frozen turkey on the plane and they said “Sure.” So I had a frozen turkey up in the compartment ... for the 12-hour flight. And we had Thanksgiving.
What did you do after college?
In college, I worked at Montgomery Ward. So when I graduated, I did not really want to work retail, but in 1976 the job market wasn’t that great. I got offered a job at J.C. Penney. I worked Downtown at the management training program. They were going to transfer me to Grand Junction, Colo., as the assistant manager of a store there, and I didn’t want to leave Albuquerque. And I found out there was an opening for a purchasing agent (at PNM). And I applied for it and got the job, so I was able to stay in Albuquerque. I started in 1978 and officially left Jan. 4, 2016, so I was at PNM almost 38 years. I was the vice president of government affairs since about 1999.
And the last 18 months at PNM, they allowed me to be a loaned executive at the nonprofit of my choice. I chose here (the Hispano chamber) because I had been a board member for 12 years, I’d been the chair back in 2006, I was intimately involved in the chamber activities. I was fortunate to get to do that.
You know everyone has a ... game-changer in their life, in their career, in anything that they are doing. (Mine) was Ben Montoya’s presidency at PNM. Ben was probably the greatest guy I’ve met as far as what he accomplished in life and the kind of person he was.
Since he was a rear admiral in the Navy, he had a program called aide-de-camp, where he’d have people that he thought had potential at the company and they would spend three or four months shadowing (him). I got to spend three or four months with him, and we became very good friends. And that elevated my career at the time.
When were you aide-decamp?
It was 1996 or ’97. And the funny thing was that I did not want to. I had just changed positions at PNM, where I was getting more involved in state politics rather than local politics. You know politics, when you are doing government affairs work, it’s a lot about relationships and getting to know people and that takes time. And I’m going like, “Oh, this is taking away time.”
And my wife said, “Idiot. The president of the company is asking you to do something. What are you thinking?”
And I said, “You are right, you are right, you are right.”
What do you do for fun?
Well, I don’t know if I can say I “play” golf, but I like to go to the golf course and I like to strike at that little white ball. Unfortunately, it wins more often than I do.
We have a grandson now and every moment that I possibly can spend with him, I will. We often call my son and daughterin-law, and say, “Don’t you have to go on a date? We will pay for it, whatever, just bring the kid.”