Advisory Council

Tracey Bryan

President/CEO, The Bridge of Southern New Mexico

Tracey Bryan, the president and CEO of The Bridge of Southern New Mexico, calls this her “second tour of duty.”

Bryan served as the organization’s executive director from 2010 to 2013 — a time that saw the launch and implementation of Arrowhead Park Early College High School. The school, one of the keystone projects of the nonprofit organization created to “bridge” education and workforce development through public/private partnerships, has become a model for several other early college high schools across the state.

The Bridge set out with the primary focus of improving the graduation rate with the belief it would have a positive impact on workforce development in Doña Ana County. The graduation rate has since improved dramatically — from around 49 percent to 74 percent countywide — but more remains to be done.

“Since 2010, we’re talking about a little more than 5,000 kids that graduated, who — statistically — might not have,” Bryan said. “I want to be very clear. The Bridge didn’t make that happen; the conversations that led to The Bridge made that happen. The alignment of partners that The Bridge facilitated made that happen. We, in and of ourselves, are just a facilitator. We connect the dots.”

She left The Bridge in 2013 and moved to Washington, D.C., where she served as vice president for PreK-12 Education for Widmeyer Communications, working with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. When Denni Cheney stepped down as The Bridge’s president in the summer of 2016, Bryan was offered the opportunity to return to the position and accepted it.

Lee Rand

Partner, Sun Mountain Capital Mr. Rand is a Board Member of Sun Mountain portfolio companies Skorpios Technologies, TriLumina Corporation, Incitor, Comet Solutions, JackRabbit Systems, KiwiLimon, and FINAE. Mr. Rand also serves on the Limited Partner Advisor Committee for a number of private equity funds.Mr. Rand has over 18 years of experience starting and managing technology related businesses at both startups and large corporations. Prior to joining Sun Mountain, Mr. Rand founded Knogee, a semantic search company, ran business development for Intel’s consumer electronics group, launched and managed the product marketing and standards team for Intel’s blade based server initiatives and led product management at semiconductor start-up Netboost (acquired by Intel). Mr. Rand also has extensive business consulting experience having worked at Ernst and Young early in his career and as an independent consultant brought in by investors and the board to work with start-ups on strategy and operations. Mr. Rand has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a dual BA in computer science and mathematics from Cornell University.

Deborah Peacock

President/CEO and Managing Partner of Peacock Myers, P.C. Deborah Peacock is the President/CEO and Managing Partner of Peacock Myers, P.C., Intellectual Property Law Services, with its primary office in Albuquerque and satellite offices in New York and Washington D.C. Deborah is a Registered Patent Attorney, and Registered Professional Engineer. She provides legal and business/technology advice to clientele worldwide. Her particular expertise involves complex transactions and commercialization of cutting-edge technologies (internationally). Deborah obtained her B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1978 and her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1985. She is a licensed attorney in New Mexico, Colorado and New York. Deborah previously worked in the mining industry in Zeehan, Tasmania and at Kennecott Copper in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was the first woman front-line foreman (since World War II) at Kennecott’s Utah Copper Division in the late 1970s. Some of her technology areas include patents (U.S. and international) for chemical and mineral processing, mining, metallurgy, materials science, environmental technologies, water treatment, energy, and alternative energy. She is also highly involved in the venture capital and angel investor community in New Mexico. Deborah received two appointments from Governor Susana Martinez when the Governor took office in 2011. Deborah serves as Chair of the Environmental Improvement Board (through 2014), which passes all New Mexico regulations concerning environmental matters. She is also a Regent at the New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology (through 2016). Deborah also serves on other boards and committees, including the Albuquerque Community Foundation, Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum, New Mexico Angels, Kirtland Air Force Base Partnership Committee, New Mexico Israel Business Exchange and Mayor’s Prosperity Committee. Deborah is also a member of the International Women’s Forum (NM and NY), New Mexico and National Society of Professional Engineers, Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME), and Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum. Deborah has received numerous awards and professional recognition including the Colorado School of Mines Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award (2013), 2012 Engineer of the Year (Albuquerque Chapter NMSPE), Best Lawyers in America (over 16 years), Martindale Hubbell AV (highest rating), Super Lawyers, Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers, Ethics in Business, Best of the Bar, New Mexico Bar Quality of Life Employer, New Mexico Business Weekly Power Broker, Governor’s Volunteerism award, YWCA Women on the Move, and Flywheel Venture’s Red Paperclip award. Deborah is married to Nate Korn and they love to travel in his private plane. Deborah is also a musician (piano, marimba and percussion), and enjoys rock collecting and anything related to airplanes, rocket ships, space exploration and the arts.

John J. Chavez

President of the New Mexico Angels Mr. Chavez is the President of the New Mexico Angels. President since 2008, he has been an angel investor since 2003. Mr. Chavez is also the Managing Director of Phase One Ventures, a start-up fund out of Santa Fe, NM. Outside of the Angels, he is the President of Tafoya and Brainerd Partners LLC, a nationwide business development consulting firm. Prior to his work in consulting, Mr. Chavez was appointed Cabinet Secretary of the Taxation and Revenue Department by by New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. During his six year tenure as Tax Secretary he also served as the President of the Federation of Taxation Administrators for one year. Mr. Chavez is a Member of the Board of Directors of the University of New Mexico Anderson School Foundation. Mr. Chavez received the following degrees from New Mexico State University:

  • Master of Business Administration
  • Bachelor of Art in Economics
  • Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance

Ricardo Mora

CEO Technology Hub Ciudad Juarez

Ricardo Mora — a third generation entrepreneur — is CEO and founder of RM International, a diversified services company with subsidiaries in telecom, cellular and food service industries. RMI has 30 retail outlets in Mexico and the US, 250+ employees, and average annual growth of 20% for the past 10 years. Ricardo’s current project, Tech – Hub Juárez (T-Hub) – is the first of its kind in Cd. Juárez, MX, located on the property that once housed the US Consulate, a prominent location for international business incubation. T-Hub offers real estate, back office, and finance solutions to aspiring and established technology companies. This bi-national tech transfer incubator leverages and connects talent and entrepreneurial drive of IT engineers and researchers with growing demands of the IT sector in the Americas.
Born in El Paso, Texas and raised in Cd. Juárez, Mexico, Ricardo holds a BBA from the University of, has been honored as “Minority Retailer of the Year” by the Phoenix Minority Business Enterprise Center (2006), and received the “Building High Performance Business” recognition by the Dartmouth Tuck School of Business (2007) and Congressional Recognition by Speaker Nancy Pelosi for “Outstanding and Invaluable Service to the Community” (2009).
He is married and has a daughter. Ricardo is most proud of his family and his philanthropic Instituto Promotor de Education Chihuahua First Presbyterian Christian Pre-School work in his community.

Tony Ramirez

Borderplex Alliance Vice President for Economic Development Tony Ramirez is the Vice President of Economic Development for The Borderplex Alliance where he focuses on business recruitment, retention and expansion efforts, economic development and strategic partnerships. A native El Pasoan, Ramirez has more than a decade experience working in various leadership roles in corporate sales for a global Fortune 200 logistics and supply chain company in Dallas/Fort Worth and El Paso, CH Robinson. While at Robinson, Mr. Ramirez successfully assisted multiple organizations in various industries with supply chain mapping and process design in regard to distribution, technology optimization, and the end-user experience. He has also driven solutions for clients manufacturing in Mexico conducting global cross-border trade. Previously, Mr. Ramirez served as a regional economic developer with the New Mexico Economic Development Department. While at the New Mexico Economic Development Department Mr. Ramirez assisted public and private organizations to leverage resources to enhance economic development opportunities in industries such as energy, agriculture, tech startups, & value added manufacturing which led to significant job growth and private investment. Mr. Ramirez also has served as a market analyst in business retention and expansion for the Arrowhead Center of Economic Development while pursuing a degree at NMSU. He has a BA in Business Administration – Marketing from New Mexico State University and earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington.