Summit Biographies

Keynote Address:

National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo,

Assembly of First Nations

National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo is a Hereditary Chief from the Ahousaht First Nation. In July 2009, A-in-chut was elected to a three-year mandate as National Chief to the Assembly of First Nations.

A-in-chut served two terms as Regional Chief of the BC AFN. In this time, he committed to the principles of working together through inclusion and respect. In March 2005, a historic Leadership Accord was signed, overcoming decades of discord among First Nations leadership in BC.

125 First Nations are partners in mining projects and First Nations will have a hand in $300 billion natural resource projects.

Chief Shane Gottfriedson, Tk'emlups (Kamloops)

Signed a Participation Agreement on the New Afton Mine in British Columbia and a mineral resource tax revenue sharing agreement.

Dr. Matthew Coon Come

Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Cree

Signed a ground-breaking framework agreement that will form the basis of a future Cree-James Bay government. It also gives the Cree governing rights over all of the 300,000 square kilometres of traditional native territory covered by the James Bay Agreement.

Stan Bharti, Chairman and CEO of Forbes and Manhattan

Mr. Bharti knows when to invest and how to create wealth from emerging companies. Stan Bharti is an entrepreneurial founder and leader of many mining, agricultural and energy companies. He has a strong technical background and a keen business sense. His experience has given him a very good understanding of what endeavors and companies are worth forming and developing. Stan and his company Forbes & Manhattan, Inc. a Toronto-based private merchant bank and resource powerhouse. An authority in the global mining industry, F & M understands matters of international finance. They pinpoint assets of the highest caliber and take them from exploration and discovery to production. Bharti has earned his reputation as a visionary with more than 25 years' experience in mining, markets and finance.

Honorable Minister Peter Penashue

Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and President of the Queens Privy Council for Canada

Former head of the Innu Nation, negotiated Innu participation in the $6.5 billion Muskrat Falls Hydro project. A deal reached to develop power from the proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric project in Labrador. In February 2010, representatives of the Innu Nation, Innu Band Councils, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nalcor Energy initialed the following documents contemplated by the Tshash Petapen Agreement:

• Bilateral NL-Innu Nation land claims agreement-in-principle (federal issues to be resolved)
• Lower Churchill Project Impacts and Benefits Agreement (IBA)
• Upper Churchill Redress Agreement

Chief Georges-Ernest Grégoire

Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam Innu Hydro-Québec's $6.5-billion La Romaine hydroelectric project has been cleared with the signing of an agreement in principle with Innu leaders.

Mr. Fred Carmichael, Chairman of Aboriginal Pipeline Group

One-third owner of the The McKenzie Valley Gas Project The Mackenzie Gas Project is a proposed 1,196-kilometre natural gas pipeline system along the Mackenzie Valley of Canada's Northwest Territories to connect northern onshore gas fields with North American markets.

The project is committed to continued efforts on progressing benefits and access agreements with Aboriginal communities, actively participating in the regulatory process and ongoing discussions with the government to achieve positive and long term benefits for the people of the North.

Fred Carmichael is a member of the Nihtat Gwich'in Council who serves as the chair of APG. He is also past President of the Gwich'in Tribal Council. He grew up as a trapper in Aklavik area and has been an aircraft pilot for 47 years. He has been a Director of the APG since 2001

Keynote Dinner Speaker:

Chief Jim Boucher, Fort McKay Group of Companies

In 2008 Chief Jim Boucher was recognized at the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards for his work in the field of Business and Commerce. This award recognized his tireless efforts to help his community develop and prosper all the while remaining sincere and honoring the traditions of the First Nations people.

Chief Boucher is considered one of the most influential people in Alberta, and one of the most successful Aboriginal leaders in Canada. Fort McKay is situated in the heart of Canada's Athabasca oil sands.

Mr. Harold Calla, Chairman, FNFMB

Chairman of the First Nations Financial Management Board (www.fnfmb.com),  which is also one of the four First Nation led national institutions legislated under the First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act.

Since 2001, Harold has served as the Chairman of the First Nations Financial Management Board Advisory Panel (FMB).  And in 2006, Harold was appointed by Governor-in-Council as the Chairman of the First Nations Financial Management Board.

The FMB is an institution created under the First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act, a First Nation led initiative to protect First Nations jurisdiction, support First Nations economic development, and provide First Nations with the opportunity to secure financing for their infrastructure needs.

Most recently, Harold assumed a leadership role in legislative development and Parliamentary of the First Nations Commercial and Industrial Management Act (FNCIDI), legislation that addresses the regulatory gaps on-reserve.

Mr. Blaine Favel, President & CEO of One Earth Oil & Gas Inc

Serves as the Chairman of One Earth Farms FN LP, a co-operative farming initiative involving First Nations from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. One Earth Farms is the largest farm in Canada.

One Earth Oil and Gas is an exploration corporation focused on oil and gas development. Both One Earth Oil and Gas, and One Earth Farms are subsidiaries of Sprott Resource Corporation.

He also served as Chief of the Poundmaker Cree Nation, and as Grand Chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations which represents the 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan.

The Enbridge Northern Gateway Project involves a new twin pipeline system running from near Edmonton, Alberta, to a new marine terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia to export petroleum and import condensate. This multi-billion dollar project represents an exciting opportunity for northern BC and Alberta.

Gateway is a project of remarkable scope and ambition, as befits a company that is in the top tier of pipeline companies in North America. It would cost an estimated $5.5 billion, making it the biggest project ever undertaken by Enbridge, and one of the biggest industrial projects mounted anywhere in Canada.

It would run twin pipelines-one for oil exports, another to import an oil thinner called "condensate"-across two mountain passes and 773 rivers, creeks and streams, and would carry up to 525,000 barrels of blended bitumen each day from Alberta to Kitimat, B.C., where the long arm of Douglas Channel delivers Pacific waters into a place that could serve as a terminal for supertankers.

Those ships would be the last link between the Alberta oil sands and Asia. They would, for the first time in Canadian history, provide a substantial new export market for the country's crude.

Mr. Dennis Smith, NativeOne Financial

Mr. Smith is a Native American owned Broker Dealer and the first American Indian owned company to become a member of the New York Stock Exchange.

NativeOne Institutional Trading, the first Native-owned company to become a member of the NYSE. "This is the heart of the food chain," Patrick Forbes, the 22-year-seasoned trader who helps operate NativeOne's trading desk, told Indian Country Today Media Network. "NativeOne is on Wall Street."

Don Lyons, the firm's chief executive and member of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, co-founded NativeOne with Dennis Smith, a Wall Street veteran since 1976. The firm, which officially debuted on Wall Street on Dec 28, 2010, gives a portion of its commissions back to the American Indian community in the form of scholarships, internships, job training and other charitable causes.

"We give a percent [of NativeOne's proceeds] back to an education fund for that tribe," Smith told ICTMN, adding that he hopes one day one of these Navajo youth will run NativeOne.

Similarly, giving back to Indian communities is the basis of NativeOne's charitable model and what impelled Everett Dearman, a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe in Maine, to join the company. "Native Americans have been taken advantage of by people in finance over the years," Dearman told ICTMN. "Tribes need someone they can trust, [someone] who knows the culture and values."

Dearman, who moved to New York City six-and-a-half years ago when he scored a job at Merrill Lynch through the firm's Native American network, never imagined he would be working with a Native-owned firm on Wall Street. "I did not expect to be in New York of all places. But I've survived, and I'm going to be with a great firm," Dearman said of NativeOne.

On August 25, NativeOne will ring the closing bell in honor of their membership on the NYSE.  Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly recently visited the NYSE and we hope he and many other Natives will attend this historical event.