Ian Cramer, B.Comm (Hons). Ian is CEO of First Peoples Economic Growth Fund, a not-for-profit organization with the mandate to provide lower cost financing to support Manitoba’s First Nation business community on their business plans that are economically viable.

After Ian received his Bachelor of Commerce with Honours degree from the University of Manitoba, he took over as Director of Economic Development for Southeast Resources Development Council (SERDC), a Tribal Council representing eight indigenous communities located in southeastern Manitoba, where he led a number of initiatives, including the creation of the South Beach Casino located on the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation.

After 21 years with SERDC, in 2004, Ian became the Senior Business Advisor for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs where he continued working on economic development issues including Gaming, Natural Resources and Energy. Working with the Grand Chief and the Manitoba Chiefs Committee on Gaming and Economic Development, he successfully negotiated an arrangement and the creation of First Peoples Economic Growth Fund, and a framework for a new Casino in Southern Manitoba.

Over his career Ian has contributed to many Boards and Committees including the federal government’s Access to Capital Task Force, Vision Quest Conferences Inc (founding member), and the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business for the Indigenous Business Education Program.

Provincial and National Education Leader:
Director of Aboriginal Education, Saskatchewan Education (1994-2004) • Led advancement of the provincial Aboriginal Education Agenda in collaboration with governance and educational advisory boards, provincially and nationally • Provided guidance and advice on provincial and western Canadian committees such as the provincial Representative Workforce Council and the Western Canadian Protocol for a national Aboriginal Languages Curriculum Framework with representatives from the western provinces, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. • Oversaw integration of Aboriginal content and perspectives in the provincial K-12 curriculum in collaboration with Saskatchewan education stakeholders. • Director of Research and Development (1987-90) Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, currently First Nations University of Canada (FNUC) • Served on the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations’ (FSIN) Legislation Commission (1988-91) as a team of drafters of The First Nations Education Act • Served as member of The Education Committee of the FSIN (from inception to 1991) in concert with Directors of Education of Band-controlled and Federal Schools. • Led Saskatchewan Education’s research support role in the development of Ahtahkakoop: The Epic Account of a Plains Cree Head of Chief, His People, and Their Struggle for Survival, 1816-1896 by Deanna Christiansen.

Volunteer:
Represented the Saskatchewan Library Association (SLTA) on the Senate, University of Regina • Member and Chair of the Regina Public Library Board (1986-2004). • Lifetime member of the Saskatchewan Library Trustees Association (SLTA). • Member of the Canadian Library Association (CLA) • Served as Trustee on the Mackenzie Art Gallery Board (1990s) and on the Regina Arts Commission

Author and Writer:
Author: Gifted to Learn (University of Alberta (2008) a retrospective on experience teaching in the public-school system in Regina • Adam’s Tree (Radiant Press 2019) a fictional account of how prairie farmers, townsfolk, and governance functionaries got along with ‘Indians’ from Cowessess Reserve during the war years spanning the 1940s and 50s. • Member of the Federation of BC Writers, The Saskatchewan Writers Guild, and The Writers’ Union of Canada.

Educator and Community Developer:
Teacher in the Regina Public School System (1962-1980).

Personal
Grew up on Cowessess First Nations Reserve, Saskatchewan. Lives in Nanoose Bay.
Recipient of the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal 2005: The Lieutenant Governor has bestowed the Medal on you in the name of the provincial Crown for your significant contribution to the people of Saskatchewan.

Fred Kelly is a citizen of the Ojibways of Onigaming of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty #3. Kizhebowse Mukwaa (Kind Walking Bear) of the Lynx Clan is an Elder in Midewin, the Sacred Law and Medicine Society of the Anishinaabe. He is also a Drum Keeper and Calumet Carrier and has been called upon to administer healing therapies among many indigenous people on Turtle Island, and to conduct ceremonies across Canada, in the United States, Mexico, Japan, Argentina, Israel and Switzerland. Elder Kelly heads the Nimishomis-Nokomis Healing Group, a consortium of Traditional Healers that provide therapy to victims of the trauma and legacy of the residential school system. He is a survivor of Indian Residential Schools in Kenora, Ontario and Lebret, Saskatchewan. He was a member of the Assembly of First Nations team that negotiated the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and continues to advise individuals in their healing journeys.

Kizhebowse is fluent in the Anishinaabe and English languages and is a sought-after speaker on the history, cultures, and pre-contact relations among indigenous nations on Turtle Island, as well as Treaties with the Crown. He is recognized as an eloquent leader and orator who has been the guest at numerous functions and assemblies, colleges and universities, and television and radio shows in Canada and the United States. Fred has lectured at the University of Minnesota, UCLA, and Harvard where he was also asked to be a Special Commenter on Tribal Constitutional and Governance Renewal by the Harvard University Native American Program.
Fred served as Chief of his own community and is Grand Chief Emeritus of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty #3 and was the Ontario Regional Director for the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. He continues to serve as a spiritual advisor to First Nation leaders in Canada including the Assembly of First Nations, Chiefs of Ontario, and Grand Council Treaty #3 for whom he still serves as the principal advisor on restoration of its traditional Constitution, governance, and jurisdiction.
In 1965, at the age of twenty-three in Kenora, Kizhebowse led the first protest march by First Nations – the first of its kind in the country – that has been referred to as the birth of the indigenous civil rights movement in Canada. He went on to be one of the organizers of the National Indian Brotherhood and assisted in its transition to become the Assembly of First Nations. He organized the Chiefs of Ontario in 1975 then served as a key technical advisor in the recognition and affirmation of Aboriginal and Treaty Rights in the Canadian Constitution (1982).

Fred is a consensus builder who, among other activities, enjoined Canada, Harvard, and Motorola University in the major overhaul of education in his community through technology infusion into its system. He has led family agencies within his Nation to develop written law in child care that harmonizes with Crown jurisdiction. He was the advisor in the founding of Bimose Tribal Council, Kenora Chiefs Advisory Council, and the Anishinaabeg of Kabapikotawangag Resources Council (AKRC). He developed the strategic plan for Treaty Compliance and Enforcement for the Assembly of First Nations. He also authored the strategic organizational plan for the Chiefs of Ontario to re-establish functional indigenous nations in the territory known as Ontario. On the international front, Fred serves as a special advisor to the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission based in Wisconsin.

As CEO of EDIP Sovereign Wealth Solutions Inc., Giles specializes in helping organizations formulate investment strategy and to bridge the gap that often exists between strategic intent and operational delivery of growth. He is an effective disruptive innovator within organizations and has considerable experience helping clients with efficiency, performance management and structural reform.

Giles Newman is also a senior international financial advisor with extensive experience in both the private and public sectors assisting organizations with financial advice, financing and funding support, strategic development, transformation and operational delivery with a focus on outcomes gained through working within the Boardroom for over 20 years.

Giles has developed a growing reputation for advising First Nations clients on Nation Building, finding solutions that build a vision, underpinned by significant and wholesale economic development. He has recently assisted a number of First Nations Governments across BC and Alberta with their strategic economic development and transformation planning.

Giles is committed to working with First Nations and business leaders alike to make things happen. He has been instrumental in changing the economic development activities in a number of First Nations concentrating on delivering returns from assets and structuring strategies that concentrate on maximizing profit and job creation. He specializes in businesses that have been neglected.

Giles is one of very few trusted advisors capable of facilitating big thinking and able to deal with the complexity of creating and structuring successful joint ventures between First Nations and industry. He has also been a trusted advisor to the BC Jobs and Investment Board and has led a number of Boardroom assignments in the public and not-for-profit sector within Canada, including being a strategic advisor and former Board member of the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance.

Giles was previously a partner in a large accounting firm in Canada and headed the national healthcare practice of another large accounting firm in the UK prior to moving to Canada in 2011.

In the UK, Giles was a trusted advisor for key political and organizational leaders, including within the UK Government and at the regional leadership level, where he was asked to restructure the health system in London, UK as part of small team created by NHS London, with the support of the Cabinet Office.

Giles is a qualified accountant from the UK and holds his institute’s FCA designation.

Gary Kissack is a partner with the law firm Fogler Rubinoff. Gary has extensive experience working as a lawyer and advisor in various industries. He practices in a number of areas of business law, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital, capital markets and securities, corporate finance, energy and technology. He regularly advises Canadian and international companies, underwriters, investors and professional advisors on a range of transactions, including IPO’s, private placements, RTO’s, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, corporate governance, compensation programs, private equity, venture capital, partnerships, joint ventures and reorganization transactions. He has managed many legal teams on significant, complex transactions. Gary represents a number of Indigenous Communities, and their institutions across Canada on business transactions, the formation of economic development groups and other matters focused principally on governance and wealth creation.

Gary often works as co-counsel to leading national law firms specializing in Aboriginal law who focus on land claims negotiations, aboriginal and treaty rights advocacy, and consultations with government and industry. Gary provides advice on major commercial and industrial developments and impact benefit agreements throughout Canada, including in respect of infrastructure, energy transmission, renewable energy generation, logistics and transportation projects. Gary has been a member of the Board of Directors of a number of publicly traded and private corporations in various industries. Currently, he is a director of a publicly-traded wireless technology company, a private utility company providing clean cogeneration (combined heat and power) solutions, and a private project management and service delivery platform company providing wealth generation systems for First Nations and their service providers. He has sat on various committees of these Boards, including the Audit and Risk Management Committee, Corporate Governance Committee (Chair) and Compensation and Human Resources Committee. As a result of his legal training and past involvement in various private businesses as an investor, owner and operator, he is actively sought out as a sounding board by his clients on both legal and business matters.

Mr. Phil Fontaine is Chair of the EDIP Advisory Board of First Nation Leaders and Elders. He was born at the Sagkeeng First Nation (formerly known as Fort Alexander) in Manitoba, about 150 kilometers north of Winnipeg. His first language is Ojibway. In his youth he attended a residential school operated by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate at Sagkeeng. He also attended the Assiniboia Residential School in Winnipeg and he graduated from Powerview Collegiate in 1961. In 1973, Mr. Fontaine was elected Chief of the Sagkeeng First Nation for two consecutive terms. Upon completion of his mandate, he and his family moved to the Yukon, where he was a Regional Director General with the Federal government. In 1981 Mr. Fontaine graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. After graduation, he worked for the Southeast Resource Development Council as a Special Advisor, which was followed by his election to the position of Manitoba’s Vice-Chief for the Assembly of First Nations. Mr. Fontaine was one of the Manitoba First Nation leaders instrumental in the defeat of the Meech Lake Accord. In 1991, he was elected Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and served for an unprecedented three consecutive terms. In 1997, he was elected National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. After one term as National Chief, he was appointed Chief Commissioner of the Indian Claims Commission. Mr. Fontaine returned to the Assembly of the First Nations as National Chief, for two more terms, in 2003 and held the post until 2009.

Among his many accomplishments as the longest serving National Chief, he will be most remembered for successfully negotiating the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which included financial settlements for survivors and the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Since September 1, 2009, Mr. Fontaine serves as a Special Advisor to the Royal Bank of Canada. His mandate is to “provide advice and counsel to RBC’s Canadian businesses to help the company deepen its relationships with Aboriginal governments, communities and businesses in Canada”. Mr. Fontaine is owner and President of Ishkonigan Inc., a successful consulting company he founded in 2009 specializing in Aboriginal relations, negotiations, government relations, mediation and advisory services. The national company has offices from Saskatchewan to New Brunswick, and employs over 20 specialized Aboriginal professionals with a diverse and growing client base. He is a Member of Order of Manitoba and has received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, the Equitas Human Rights Education Award, the Distinguished Leadership Award from the University of Ottawa, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and most recently was appointed to the Order of Canada. Mr. Fontaine also holds sixteen Honorary Doctorates from Canada and the United States.

Founder and Chairman of the Board, Howard Morry is also a partner with the law firm Pitblado Law, and is one of Canada’s most respected lawyers, ranking “AV”, the highest rating in legal ability and ethical standards by Lexis Nexis Martindale-Hubbell. Howard was a Governor of the Canadian Tax Foundation and the President of the Canadian Association of Estate Planning Councils. He was also the President of the Estate Planning Council of Winnipeg, the Chair of the Manitoba Bar Association’s Tax Section and the course head for the Bar Admission Course in Taxation. Howard has published a number of papers on wealth planning and taxation and has been a contributor to numerous financial and tax journals. He has also chaired national conferences for the Globe and Mail, the National Post and others. Howard has been recognized for his volunteer efforts, and is a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award. The Asper School of Business (where he graduated with a major in Finance) named him “honourary president” and holds an annual “leadership conference” in his name.

Howard was the Manitoba Chair of the Capital Campaign for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. He was also the co-founder of the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors and the Arab Jewish Dialogue. Howard is proud to have played a key role for the past three decades in promoting the full participation of aboriginal peoples in the Canadian economy having obtained the first income tax rulings in Canada for First Nations business and investment structures. Howard wrote the first peer-reviewed journal articles in Canada on First Nations taxation and he chaired the first aboriginal Tax and Finance conferences in Canada. Howard has been qualified in Ontario courts as an expert witness on First Nations economic development and investment structures. Howard has been on the Board of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business for almost a quarter of a century. Howard is the founder of EDIP Sovereign Wealth Solutions, a network of service providers dedicated to assisting First Nations achieve financial independence. Howard is widely recognized as a writer and speaker on taxation, estate planning, and business structuring.