Friday, December 3, 2010

Barela Named to Head Eco Devo Dept.

Gov.-elect Suzana Martinez this afternoon announced that she'll nominate Jon Barela, who lost a Congressional bid last month to incumbent Democrat Martin Henrich.

Barela is an Albuquerque businessman whose company Cerelink provides "cloud computing" services for the movie industry. In what might be a good omen for backers of the state's film incentives, Cerelink's website promotes the incentives.
Cerelink is based in New Mexico, which affords our customers--especially in digital media-- several cost savings: cheaper power and data center space, access to competitively priced ultra fast broadband networks and a 25% cash-back rebate on all motion picture production (including rendering) done in New Mexico.

Following his close race with Heinrich, there were some rumors that Martinez would hire Barela as her chief of staff. That talk stopped l;ast week when Martinez instead chose state Rep. Keith Gardner, R-Roswell, for that job.

Barela's appointment must be ratified by the state Senate.

He would replace acting Economic Development secretary Allan Oliver, who took the place of Fred Mondragon, who stepped down at the end of last month. Mondragon is a former legislator who headed Albuquerque's Office of Economic Development. He held the cabinet position since 2007. 

Gov. Bill Richardson's first Eco Devo secretary was Rick Homans, who previously had been a magazine publisher. Homans now is executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority.