Don Hunter - Chief Executive Officer & President of Westrock Group and Westrock Advisors
Having first met the Lower Brule Tribe more than three years ago, Don Hunter was an integral part of making Westrock the first Native American owned broker dealer and asset management company. He joined Westrock as a Managing Director in 1995 when the firm was formed and became Partner and Chief Operating Officer in 1997. Mr. Hunter began his career with Drexel, Burnham, Lambert. He then worked at major investment houses, including Oppenheimer & Co. and Shearson Lehman. Since joining Westrock, Mr. Hunter has been involved in every area of day-to-day business operations. Mr. Hunter received a B.A. in Psychology from Colgate University in 1989.
David Brown - Head of Institutional , Westrock Advisors
David Brown brings over 15 years of trading experience to Westrock. Most recently Dave was a senior proprietary trader at the Abbey Bank subsidiary of Banco Santander, where he built a proprietary pairs trading desk. From 1999-2002, Dave was a market maker at Herzog, Heine and Geduld, and from 1995-1999 served various trading and trading technology development roles with Merrill Lynch. From 1990-1995, he helped build an agency equity and option business at Jonathan Foster & Co. Dave holds a S.M. in Financial Mathematics from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in Economics from New York University.
Dennis Ickes - Head of Tribal Services, Westrock Group
Mr. Ickes is the Chairman of the Lower Brule Farm Corporation and Lakota Foods. He is the principal architect of the legal concept that leverages the Indian Reorganization Act and other federal and tribal sovereign rights. Mr. Ickes co-founded the Office of Indian Rights in the US Department of Justice in 1973. In 1976, President Gerald Ford appointed him Deputy Under Secretary of the Interior. In private law practice, Mr. Ickes has served as general counsel to tribes, individual Indians and to companies doing business in Indian Country. He is admitted to the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court, Utah Supreme Court, U.S. District Court for Utah, U.S. District Court for Arizona, the 8th, 9th, & 10th Circuit Courts of Appeal, U.S. Tax Court, Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and Indian tribal courts - including the Navajo Nation, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Ute, and Hualapai . He received a B.A. from Brigham Young University and a J.D. from the University of Utah.
Tony Fenton - Chairman, Westrock Group
Mr. Tony Fenton is the driving force and visionary of the Company. First associated with Windwright, LLC, Mr. Fenton was also first to architect a Tribal entity owning a Wall Street Broker Dealer — which efforts have become what the Company is today. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Fenton grew Wachovia’s insurance group from start-up to over $100 million through acquisitions and organic growth. He was responsible for 7 national agencies and over 200 licensed sales professionals attached thereto. Prior to the Wachovia assignment, he served as SVP at First Security Insurance Services, a division of First Security Bank, NA (now Wells Fargo Bank, NA). Prior to First Security, Mr. Fenton owned and managed his own full-service insurance brokerage firm for 15 years.
Dr. Gavin Clarkson - Director of Tribal Finance, Westrock Advisors
Dr. Gavin Clarkson is an Associate Professor at the University of Houston Law, where he conducts research in tribal economic development, including tribal access to capital markets. He is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and has consulted, written, and published on tribal sovereignty, tribal governance & court systems, tribal economic development, and tribal asset management. Dr. Clarkson was a contributing author for the most recent edition Felix Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law. Dr. Clarkson was on the faculty at Rice University from 1991-1998 and was a KPMG Fellow at the Harvard Business School from 1998-2003 and held the 1665 Harvard University Native American Program Fellowship. From 2003-2008, Dr. Clarkson was an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan where he grew the Indian Law program from 5 students in 2003 to 60+ by 2008. He holds a B.A. and a M.B.A. from Rice University, a Doctorate from Harvard Business School, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.