SOCORRO, N.M. – New Mexico Tech recently announced that Dr. Richard Luarkie has been named the new executive director of the NMT Research Park Corporation, the arm of the university that is responsible for marketing and commercializing intellectual property, and Director for New Venture Development in the Office of Innovation Commercialization.

Luarkie has a wealth of experience in leadership roles. Most recently, he was the CEO of Emerging Equities Solutions Group in Albuquerque since the end of 2014. From 2007 to 2014, he worked with the Laguna Pueblo in a variety of roles, including four years as the Governor and CEO.

“Richard is very experienced,” said Dr. Peter Anselmo, executive director of the Office of Innovation and Commercialization at NMT. “He can relate to academic people, which is important at New Mexico Tech. One of the things that sold us on him was that he really wanted to be a part of Tech and we really appreciated that. He has the qualifications and he’s a welcome member of the team.”

Dr. Richard Luarkie, executive director of the NMT University Research Park Corp.

Luarkie has a doctorate in Rural/Tribal Relations from Arizona State University. He earned his bachelor’s in economics at the University of New Mexico and his M.B.A. from New Mexico State University.

“What’s really exciting about this job is being able to engage and participate in contributing to the advancement of the New Mexico economy,” he said. “It’s not only taking the technology, but the genius of students and professors in the marketplace. Being a catalyst for this work is extremely exciting.”

“There’s some real challenges with changing the current midset of how economic advancement is done in New Mexico economy. We have the opportunity to influence a revolutionary mind shift to a STEAM inspired economy in NM,” he said. “As President Wells looks to make this an entrepreneurial campus, our office gets to be a part of planting the seed and cultivating this reimagined economy.”

Anselmo said this newly created position is important because the Research Park Corp. is becoming more active in managing intellectual property.

“There’s a lot of things to do in active management of our intellectual property efforts,” Anselmo said. “He’s the director of venture formation and we are to the point where we can talk seriously about spinning companies out of New Mexico Tech and the Office of Innovation and Commercialization.”

Luarkie and Anselmo will work together to develop different structures for the various spinoffs that can come from faculty research on campus – and to work on licensing deals. They will also be developing seed money to invest in new companies that are based on technologies developed at NMT.

– NMT –