Our Leadership

Mark Roper was named Acting EDD Cabinet Secretary by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in January 2024. He is a seventh-generation New Mexican with a long background in government, media, marketing, and community service.

Roper joined the EDD in 2014 as a community, rural, and business development representative and was named Division Director for Economic Development in 2019.

In addition to his work in economic development, Roper was a licensed
electrician and HVAC mechanic and worked in radio marketing and communications. He also served as an elected city official in Raton and on the New Mexico Municipal League Board of Directors.

At EDD, Roper has been involved in boosting development along New Mexico’s international borderplex; he has helped recruit companies to New Mexico from Germany, Taiwan, Singapore, and Australia, and has been involved in some of the agency’s biggest deals – Facebook, Intel, Netflix, Universal Hydrogen, Maxeon Solar, Hota Industrial.

He is a native of Raton, a former resident of Roswell, and currently lives in Albuquerque.