Gov. Susana Martinez has announced the appointment of Dr. Tom Clifford to the Board of Regents for the University of New Mexico. Clifford recently retired from the position of Finance and Administration Secretary in the Martinez administration.
UNM President Robert G. Frank said he is pleased to have a new regent named at the start of the fiscal year and before the upcoming academic year.
“We’ve had the opportunity to work frequently with Dr. Clifford, in his role as secretary, over the past few years and have found him to have a great depth and breadth of knowledge, especially in financial and budgetary matters,” Frank said. “He is deeply ethical and well respected on this campus. He’ll be a great regent for UNM.”
Clifford brings 30 years of finance and tax policy experience to the position, 20 of them in state government. Martinez appointed Clifford to the Cabinet post in August 2011, and he retired from that position at the end of May.
Prior to his time as DFA Secretary, he was the policy and research director for the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department and the chief economist for the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee. Clifford also spent a decade working for the U.S. Government.
In addition to public service, he has taught budgeting and finance classes for the University of New Mexico and lectured on finance and economics at other institutions. Clifford holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Clifford will fill a spot on the board that has been vacant since the retirement of long time regent, Jamie Koch. Koch stepped down in December, after filling a portion of the term vacated by Conrad James, who resigned after being elected to the state House of Representatives in 2014.