![[E-mail this article]](images/icon_email.jpg){kind=icon} E-mail this article | |
 | |
| Electrical engineering graduates Chris Ham, Leroy Gomez and Troy Scoughton make up the management team for TMC Design in Las Cruces. The rapidly growing company builds electronic warfare systems for the Department of Defense. |
When Leroy Gomez retired from the Army Research Lab at White Sands Missile Range in June 1997, he wanted to remain involved with what had been his field of work: developing systems to determine how vulnerable certain weapons are to electronic warfare, or “jamming.”
In the span of four months and with the help of two fellow NMSU electrical engineering graduates – Chris Ham and Troy Scoughton – Gomez created a new company called TMC Design Corp. In addition to building electronic warfare systems for the Department of Defense, the Las Cruces-based company puts on a variety of technical conferences for the agency.
“It was an opportunity to do the same type of work, but now as a contractor,” Gomez says.
In the past seven years the company has grown from a three-person operation to a multi-million-dollar company with 75 employees and offices throughout New Mexico, as well as in Smithfield, Virginia; Colorado Springs and the Pentagon. Last year, it was named to both the Hispanic Business 500 list and the list of the country’s 100 fastest-growing Hispanic-owned businesses. It also has been listed among the top 40 revenue- earning technology companies in New Mexico for four years running. Gomez was named the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2004 Minority Small Business Person of the Year for the Southwest region.
The company’s growth is expected to continue. It recently signed a $9 million contract with the U.S. Army for the manufacture of electronic warfare systems to counter remote-controlled improvised explosive devices and has a $12 million contract with Los Angeles Air Force Base to develop countermeasures associated with space communication.
Gomez says owning his own company has been a real challenge, but he has enjoyed it. He credits Ham, who serves as vice president and chief financial officer, and Scoughton, who serves as vice president and chief operating officer, with providing the entrepreneurial skills needed to build the company. Both worked at NMSU’s Physical Science Laboratory (PSL) before joining TMC Design.
“The training we all received from NMSU was critical to having a successful company,” Gomez says.
TMC Design has employed NMSU engineering students for the past five years, and Gomez says all of those students have since been hired by the company. Several faculty members from the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NMSU serve as consultants to the company.
Click here.
| Contact Us | |
| University Communications MSC 3K | |
| Address: | New Mexico State University; PO Box 30001; Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001 |
| Phone: | (505) 646-3221 |
| E-mail: | researchmag@nmsu.edu |
Copyright © 2005 | New Mexico State University