Carol Wight to retire after 25 years leading New Mexico restaurant group

Carol Wight will retire at the end of the year after 25 years as chief executive of the New Mexico Restaurant Association, closing a long run at the center of Albuquerque-area hospitality politics. Her departure comes as restaurants in Bernalillo County continue to face tight margins, labor pressure and the lingering effects of the pandemic.

The association said Wight became CEO in 2002, after spending 20 years owning and operating restaurants herself. During her tenure, the group said it represented New Mexico’s foodservice industry through a period of rapid change, from the COVID-19 shutdowns to wage policy fights that reshaped the way operators talk about costs and staffing. For a city like Albuquerque, where dining rooms, hotels and tourism feed into the same local economy, the leadership change carries more weight than a routine staff announcement.

The New Mexico Restaurant Association said it has represented the state’s foodservice industry since 1946 and now has more than 1,500 members statewide. It says restaurants in New Mexico employ over 82,000 people and generate more than $2 billion in annual sales, numbers that help explain why the group has been one of the most visible voices in debates over labor costs, regulations and tax policy. The National Restaurant Association’s 2025 data put New Mexico’s eating-and-drinking-place jobs at 72,700, with 92,400 total restaurant and foodservice jobs across the state.

Wight’s retirement also sets up a transition for an organization that has repeatedly found itself in the middle of policy fights. The association has been publicly involved in disputes over COVID-era restaurant rules, wage calculations and minimum-wage proposals, issues that hit Albuquerque operators especially hard as they tried to rebuild traffic and keep workers on payroll. Those fights are unlikely to disappear with one executive’s exit, and whoever follows Wight will inherit the same pressure points: staffing shortages, rising food and labor costs, and a business climate that has remained unsettled since the pandemic.

The association said its board will begin a formal search for the next CEO, and Wight will remain in the role during the transition to preserve continuity. For Bernalillo County’s restaurants, from neighborhood favorites to hotel dining rooms and visitor-facing businesses, the handoff will shape how aggressively the industry pushes its case in Santa Fe and how effectively it adapts to the next round of economic strain.