Leadership

Management Team

Walter Hillabrant, Managing Director
Mr. Hillabrant is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma.  He is a co-founder of NAC, where he coordinates and networks among Federal economic development programs that target Indian Country and tribal communities. He also works with tribal government contractors and other entrepreneurial businesses in order to expand and enhance deal flow in Indian country.  Mr. Hillabrant works closely with both tribal communities and Federal, state, and regional governments to create and develop innovative business opportunities in Indian Country.  He has worked with tribes and tribal organizations and consortia on projects in such areas as business and economic development, development of natural resources, housing, welfare reform, health, and education.  He serves on the boards of the National Indian Youth Leadership Project (NIYLP), the District of Columbia Psychological Association (DCPA), and C-4 Recovery Solutions.  Mr. Hillabrant received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California.


Gavin Clarkson, Managing Director
Mr. Clarkson is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.  He is a leading authority on Indian business development and finance, as well as a specialist in information and data systems development and management.  Mr. Clarkson has consulted, written, and published extensively on tribal sovereignty, tribal governance systems, tribal economic development, and was also a contributing author for the most recent edition Felix Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law, providing material on tribal finance, tribal corporations, economic development, and intellectual property.

Mr. Clarkson holds the Series 7, Series 24, and Series 66 Securities licenses from the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). He recently testified before the Senate Finance Committee regarding discriminatory impediments to tribal access to capital markets, and he is currently studying tribal finance information systems with a grant from the National Science Foundation.

In addition to his position at NAC, Mr. Clarkson currently teaches at the University of Houston Law Center.  Prior to joining the University of Houston, Mr. Clarkson held the position of assistant professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan, both at the Law School and in the Native American Studies department. Mr. Clarkson holds both a bachelor's degree and an MBA from Rice University, a doctorate from the Harvard Business School in Technology and Operations Management, and is a cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School, where he was the managing editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology and president of the Native American Law Student Association.


Joseph L. Falkson, Senior Managing Director
Mr. Falkson is a co-founder of NAC, and manages all aspects of its day-to-day operations.  Mr. Falkson leads NAC's tribal financial services consulting; specifically, linking tribes to Federal financing programs such as the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund of the US Department of the Treasury.  He has linked several tribes to loan and loan guarantee programs at the U.S. Small Business Administration, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Department of the Interior.  He regularly works with tribes and tribal consortia on major, large-scale business ventures.  Mr. Falkson established Native American Pharmaceuticals (NARx), with PharMerica as an investor and McKesson Corporation as a strategic partner. NARx served as the U.S. Indian Health Service's prime vendor for the IHS southwest region. He also helped found – as an investor, fund raiser, and manager – four innovative health care technology companies. He served as a consultant to and board of directors' member of PharMerica, Inc., a billion-dollar, publicly traded, institutional prescription drug distributor, acquired by Bergen Brunswig Corporation in 1999.  Mr. Falkson earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan— Ann Arbor; and a B.A. in politics from Brandeis University.