Webinar Title: Introduction to Indigena Capital
Webinar Description: Indigena Capital’s representatives will provide an introduction to their sector agnostic platform and discuss how for over 35-years they have partnered directly with Indigenous Nations across North America to deploy equity capital into Nation’s projects to unlock these opportunities. They will walk through their partnership model, provide a case study, and interact with participants through a Question and Answer session.
Participants:
John Jurrius, CEO, Indigena Platform
Christine Robertson, President, Indigena Platform
Susan Hammer, Vice President: Client Relations, Indigena Platform
Presenter Bios:
John Jurrius, CEO, Indigena Platform:
Mr. Jurrius has spent over 35-years developing projects and providing financial solutions exclusively in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis in Canada and Tribal Nations in the United States (“Nations”). His vision and determination to assist Indigenous Nations in using their rights and resources to create economies capable of sustaining their socio-economic needs has led to the creation of hundreds of millions of dollars of new long-term commercial revenue for Nations. These assets have provided above sector returns for investors while at the same time creating material wealth for the Nations.
While serving internally to Indigenous communities in the first 20 years of his career, as a business advisor and investment banker, Mr. Jurrius recognized that accessing equity capital is the most difficult barrier for Nations as they strive for independence and financial sovereignty. With this realization Mr. Jurrius set out to create an exclusive platform that would bridge private investment with Indigenous Communities. In 2008, Mr. Jurrius launched Native American Resource Partners (“NARP”), the first investment firm dedicated to serving the Indigenous space. As a portfolio company of Houston-based Quantum Energy Partners LLC, NARP’s investments, were strictly limited by its sources of capital to non-renewable energy projects. In 2016, with the recognition that Indigenous Nations needed a dedicated capital source that could partner to deploy across all commercial sectors, Mr. Jurrius founded Indigena Capital as the first sector agnostic capital provider in the Indigenous space.
Mr. Jurrius has been the architect in providing and sourcing more than $2.5 billion of capital to Indigenous projects that have spanned the infrastructure, energy, renewable energy, agriculture and real estate sectors. This includes over $200 million since 2012 into Canadian Indigenous partnerships. These activities led to the creation of two, billion-dollar Nation led commercial platforms, and the results included a AAA credit rating by a U.S. Indigenous Nation in 2001 from Moody’s and Fitch which the Nation continues to carry today.
Mr. Jurrius has received recognition of his unique and innovative ideas on the development rights and capabilities of Indigenous Nations and has been a champion of economic development that benefits both Indigenous and non-Indigenous interests. His advocation in educating both the investment and Indigenous communities in the generating power of working in partnership and the aligning of vision and interests have been instrumental in bridging the gap to equity funding for Nations.
Christine Robertson, President, Indigena Platform:
Ms. Robertson is the President and co-founder of the Indigena Capital platform. She brings diverse executive experience, having served on several senior management teams in her 30-year career. Her incomparable technical and business background enables her to seamlessly blend the skills necessary to direct the Indigena partnering model to actively deploy equity capital to empower Indigenous rights and resources, while achieving above sector returns on investments for all partners.
In 2019, Ms. Robertson was recognized by WXN as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the category of Trailblazers and Trendsetter – an award recognizing women who are first in their field and have made a great contribution to Canadian society.
Susan Hammer, Vice President: Client Relations, Indigena Platform:
Ms. Hammer has worked exclusively with Indigenous Nations for almost 20 years. She works closely with Indigenous Nations’ Chiefs and Councils, communities and their representatives, and has successfully helped organise and guide Nations through designation and referendum votes. Ms. Hammer has a thorough understanding and appreciation for the many challenges and complexities of endeavoring to create economically sustainable development within a federal regulatory framework.
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