National | Trust

Special Trustee Advisory Board to hold first meeting in August

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Vince Logan, the Special Trustee for American Indians. Photo from Native Legal Update

UPDATE: OST now says the meeting will take place August 4-5.

The Special Trustee Advisory Board is coming back to life after years of inaction.

Vince Logan, the new leader of the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians, selected nine people to serve on the board. The group's first meeting will take place August 3-4 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“I’m very eager to start the dialog with the Advisory Board; we have a lot of work to do,” Logan said in a press release. “They have a wealth of experience and knowledge that will shape policy and actions moving forward with the Office of the Special Trustee.”

OST provided biographical information about the nine members of the board. They are:

• Patricia D. Gerard brings four decades of professional experience working in the Native American field including over twenty years of experience on Indian financial trust management. Ms. Gerard’s trust management experience comes from the number of senior level roles she has held in the Office of Special Trustee for American Indians including working as a tribal account manager as well as a branch chief in OST Division of Quality Assurance. She retired from federal service in May 2014.
• Len Greenhalgh, is a professor of management, director of Native American Business Programs at the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. His areas of expertise include strategy and strategy implementation; entrepreneurial business; negotiation and strategic alliance formation; economic impact of globalization and changing demographics; and Native American tribally- and entrepreneurially-owned business. He has worked with Native American businesses in Oklahoma, North and South Dakota, Alaska, New Mexico, California, Florida, Arizona, Louisiana, Maine, Washington, Mississippi, New York, Minnesota, Alabama, and Montana.
• David Kimelberg is the founding Chief Executive Officers of Seneca Holdings, the private equity investment and operating firm owned by the Seneca Nation of Indians. His is charged with diversifying the Seneca Nation’s business holdings. He serves as chairman of seven boards related to telecommunications, technology, and real estate. He is an enrolled member (Bear clan) of the Seneca Nation.
• Henrietta Mann has recently retired as President of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College located at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. Dr. Mann has an extensive and distinguished career in intergovernmental affairs and Native American Studies and is Professor Emerita in Native American Studies, Montana State University. She has over 20 publications and has served on numerous advisory boards and councils related to American Indian affairs.
• Terry Mason Moore is an attorney and tribal judge with expertise in Class III and II gaming, taxation, internal controls, and compliance as well as commercial transactions, economic development, financing and contracts. He has nearly 30 years of professional experience in legal, financial and management issues. Most recently he served as Assistant Principal Chief of the Osage Nation in 2014. Terry Mason Moore is an enrolled member of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma.
• Tyler B. Pearson is with the Realty Management Division of Goldman Sachs, in Dallas, TX. A recent law school graduate, Mr. Pearson has expertise in equity research and analysis. Tyler B. Pearson is a member of the Cherokee Nation.
• Eldon Shiffman currently serves as the Treasurer and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. He has over thirty years of experience as a fiduciary, investment manager and real estate agent,
• Starlyn R. Tourtillott works as Senior Counsel for the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. She has special expertise in fee-to-trust processing, Tribal code development, as well as taxation and economic issues. She is a member of the Wisconsin State Bar Association, Indian Law Section, and has served as a past Board member of the National Tribal Land Association Board. Starlyn Tourtillott is an enrolled member of the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe of Montana and a direct descendant of Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and Stockbridge-Musee, Band of Mohican Indians.
• Leilani Wilson Walkush is a senior consultant at Breakwater Investment Group in Everett, Washington where she provides independent investment consulting to Native American communities. She is a fiduciary advisor to four west coast tribal communities on five separate retirement plans. Ms. Walkush is an enrolled member of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska and is a member of Champagne and Aishihik First Nations (Canada).

Logan, a member of the Osage Nation, oversees trust management and trust reform at the Interior Department. He was confirmed to the post in June 2014 after a five-year vacancy under the Obama administration.