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Randy Sanchez ’83 “I like to say it’s like I’m the mayor of a little town called Coronado Center.” shopping center management and marketing in 1983. Soon after, at 22 years old, he landed a job in Dallas as an assistant general manager of the Galleria. “A lot of shopping center developers would recruit from Columbia College,” says Randy. “Seymour Helfant started the program there, and he knew a lot of bigwigs in the shopping center industry. It was more than just textbooks; they flew in experts to teach us.” After his time in Dallas, he worked in management positions in Laredo, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Freehold, New Jersey; and Mansfield, Ohio.
When Randy Sanchez ’83 was in high school and working part-time at Jeans West in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he attended a college fair at the mall. That’s when he learned about Columbia College’s shopping center management curriculum. “Columbia College was the only one that offered that program,” says Randy. “It became pivotal in my career choice.” That led to a 33-year career in the shopping center industry, including managing eight different malls throughout the country. Today, Randy is the general manager of Coronado Center, the largest shopping destination in New Mexico and the same place he worked while in high school. Randy graduated from Columbia College with a bachelor’s degree in Business with an emphasis on
In 1993, Randy and his wife, Angela, had their first child. Soon after, his mother, who lived back home in Albuquerque, found a want ad in the Albuquerque Journal for a marketing director at the mall. “She sent it in a manila envelope with a note that said, ‘Maybe you can find a job here,’” he says. “She just happened to be looking through the want ads, and it only ran once in the paper. It must have been meant to be.” He worked as marketing director for Coronado Center for three years before being hired in 1997 as the general manager. Today, after 20 years as general manager, he’s still passionate about his work. He says he loves that it’s never the same from day to day, and it keeps him engaged. “My team makes this place what it is,” he says. “I like to say it’s like I’m the mayor of a little town called Coronado Center, where we have 3,000 residents, or store employees, with 12 million visitors who come to our town every year.”
Saluting Our Alumni
P R O F E S S I O N A L A C H I E V E M E N T AWA R D