Commercial Gateway Chairman Mario Arriaga has been elected Advisory Committee chairman of the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

In 2011, Governor Rick Perry appointed Mario Arriaga to a six-year term on the committee, which provides advice and counsel to the nation’s largest publicly funded real estate research organization. The Center at Texas A&M is funded almost exclusively by a portion of the state fee paid by Texas real estate licensees. Arriaga, now chairman, serves as a commercial real estate representative.

Mario Arriaga is co-owner of First Group, a full-service commercial real estate company based in The Woodlands, Texas. He is the second vice chair of the Houston Association of REALTORS® Executive Committee, and for four years was trustee for the Texas Association of REALTORS® Political Action Committee.  He has also chaired the Houston Association of REALTORS® Governmental Affairs Advisory Group and served as Region 14 vice president for TAR. Arriaga is an officer of the Montgomery County Alianza Scholarship Organization and a past board member of the Montgomery County Association of REALTORS®.  He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston.