Ambassadors
New Mexico Angels (NMA) is pleased to launch our Ambassador Program in 2024. It is in support of NM Angel Members and Sponsors interested to expand their personal/ professional reach, as well as support NM Angels at events.
Brad Armstrong
Brad is an angel investor based in Albuquerque. As an angel investor, Brad invests in and raises strategic capital globally for startups aiming to ramp up sales and scale. He is an active/strategic investor, mentoring and taking an active role in the development of his portfolio's businesses. Brad has over 25 years of experience in venture capital, private equity investing, sales, and strategic fundraising domestically and globally, with a strong track record of successful exits. With over 30 years of individual investing and advisory experience, he has driven revenue-based results in IT, telecommunications, network security, data storage, and healthcare industries (focusing on infectious disease and public health). Brad received his BA from Columbia University in New York City and went on to continue his studies in anthropology and ornithology in Asia. He has lived, studied and worked in Asia for most of his life with New Mexico as his base in the United States. He is fluent in Chinese and Japanese, he enjoys mountain biking and birdwatching in his spare time.
Tony Colucci
Tony is a strategic leader and team builder who has been responsible for more than $3 billion in transactions for communications satellites and space systems for U.S. and international governments and commercial companies. He has played key leadership roles in three space startups which raised over $100 million aggregate investment. He brings a deep understanding of space, the aerospace industry, international markets, and corporate governance to the space and technology companies he supports in New Mexico and beyond. He holds a BS in astrophysics from The University of New Mexico and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Casey Estes
Casey is an advisor and angel investor serving New Mexico based startups. His expertise spans strategy, operations, fundraising, IP and tech transfer, and FP&A. Most recently Casey was Principal at SRI Ventures, where he sourced and executed incubations, spinoffs, and early stage investments leveraging tech and IP from SRI’s research labs. Prior to that he held various management roles in Digital Solutions at Stanford Healthcare and was on the TMT/Business Services public equities investment team at Glenview Capital.
Corey Ford
Corey, MD, PhD is Professor of Neurology at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque. He has a PhD degree in Biophysics from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Dallas and attended medical school at the University of Virginia. He is the Sr. Associate Dean for Research at the UNM School of Medicine and established the MS Specialty Clinic in 1988 to focus on providing neurological evaluations and treatment for people with MS. His major academic focus is phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials for development of new treatments for multiple sclerosis. He has been an active member of the New Mexico Angels since 2014 and was appointed to the Board of Directors in July 2020.
Chris Japp
Chris is a seasoned C-suite executive with over 30 years of global experience in healthcare technology industries. He has held top leadership roles at large multinational companies, developing deep domain knowledge in multiple clinical fields alongside extensive corporate M&A experience. In addition, Chris has been active in various non-executive board positions, and is well versed in early-stage company development and operations throughout its life cycle. His journey of leading companies - from small startups to blue chip medtechs, intersected across multiple clinical domains – brings valuable insights and proven strategies to help Tramway and its portfolio companies adapt and scale. Chris holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University in Canada. He is also a managing partner at Tramway Ventures, New Mexico's leading venture capital group focused on investing in medtech, biotech, and health tech innovation.
Erin Kirk
Erin is originally from Los Alamos, New Mexico and moved down to Albuquerque to attend UNM. In college, she started her career in insurance and fell in love with helping and educating our community of the importance of insurance. After college, she became an agent with Farmers Insurance helping people all over New Mexico with all their insurance and financial needs. Her team and her built a successful agency from scratch and were given the opportunity to become District Manager. As a District Manager, she works with individuals who have the entrepreneurial mind and spirit and want to become a small business through Farmers Insurance.
John Rice
John is President of ASiQ, a firm specializing in executing business turnarounds, launching successful startups, and positioning firms for exit through sale to strategic merger or acquisition.
He is an experienced serial entrepreneur, executive, and venture capital investor. He frequently serves as CEO of start-up or turnaround ventures. His companies have provided capital and management assistance to start-up and/or under-performing companies and have negotiated spin-offs and sales for investor exit.
Successful companies have included enterprises in manufacturing of electronics, jet engine test equipment, black boxes, and industrial overhead cranes, as well as in radio, television, cable television, print media, home health care, electronic medical claims filing, Internet accessible medical information and services, distribution of foods, home improvement products, industrial security, and regional satellite communications. He received his BA with honors from Harvard University.
Peter Schmitz
As a Global Senior Leader, Peter develops and implements the innovative strategies that lead technology companies to profitability. With a well-rounded business background encompassing solid financial, business development, sales, operations and supply chain experience, he is both bicultural and bilingual and is well versed at wearing the many hats required to develop a growing organization.
Todd Schumacher
Todd is the founder, and Managing Partner of Vici Media. Vici is a Philadelphia based Digital Advertising Technology company that provides digital advertising services to Media Groups and Ad Agencies throughout the US and Canada. Vici Media has twice been named to Deloitte’s list of the 500 fastest growing tech companies in North America.
His corporate experience includes managing radio groups for leading media companies including Cox Media Group. Overall, Todd has 25 years of experience in management roles in media and advertising. Todd moved to the Land of Enchantment with his wife Leslye in 2020, where they built their forever house and plan on never leaving!
Paul Szauter
Paul is the founder and Chief Scientific Officer of EquiSeq, a company that develops and sells genetic tests for horses. He has a PhD in Genetics from the University of Washington, and has worked in mammalian genomics and bioinformatics since 2000. He founded EquiSeq in 2015, and received training in business development through ABQid and NMSU's Arrowhead Center.
Myrriah Tomar
Dr. Tomar is a trained scientist and tech ecosystem builder. She has extensive experience in evaluating technologies for commercial viability. She finds helping our state's technology companies traverse the arduous journey through the "valley of death" (i.e., the journey from a research idea to commercializing their technology and generating revenue) highly rewarding.
She received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical School. She leads the Office of Innovation Commercialization as the Executive Director for New Mexico Tech (NMT), and she is part of the NMT President's senior staff and cabinet committee. Some of her responsibilities in her role at NMT.
Michael Wald
Michael is a graduate of the Wharton School of Finance and Duke Law School, and also studied at the London School of Economics. He opened his own law firm in 1983. He was also among the first mediators in Texas and a heavy proponent of alternative dispute resolution, which he taught at the University of Texas in Dallas as an adjunct to his busy practice. Thinking he would retire from practice, Michael joined the Peace Corps at age 55 and served in rural Panama for two years which led to a successful book about his experience, available on Amazon under the title, Why Didn't You Call? He ended up returning to practice for another decade before fully retiring to Albuquerque. Along the way, he was a municipal judge; avid investor in startup businesses; an active philanthropist, serving on boards of several charities; a travel columnist; and sponsor of a Latin American dance festival.