Team
Chief Jim Boucher, AOC, CBHF
President and Co-Founder
Chief Jim Boucher is President and Co-Founder. He previous served as the long term Chief of Fort McKay First Nation. Jim has been and continues to be one of the most influential and successful Indigenous leaders internationally. Jim believes practice and preservation of one's traditional way of life can occur simultaneously alongside continuous and long-term sustainable energy development. Jim has effectively built relationships with the oil and gas industry and all levels of government. This has built Fort McKay's social and economic strength, facilitated proper consultation, and advanced the rights of his community and its people
Jauvonne Kitto
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
As a member of Saa Dene executive team, her role is to set the strategic vision and manage the daily operations of the companies.
She continues to be an entrusted chief negotiator for various First Nations Rights and Title based and major and critical economic reconciliation files, leading high-level discussions' and securing landmark agreements.
She is well respected for advocating Indigenous self-determination economic development, and meaningful consultation and collaboration with industry and government, grounded in the legal and constitutional foundations that recognize and affirm the rights of Indigenous peoples Constitutional, Treaty and Inherent rights.
Chief Charlie Weaselhead
Senior Advisor
Taatsiikiipoyii, former Blood Tribe Chief and Treaty 7 Grand Chief Charles (Charlie) Weaselhead Jr. was born on the Blood Indian Reserve in 1949. Since the early 1980's, Charles Weaselhead has worked hard to advance many health initiatives to improve the health care outcomes for the People, as Director of the treatment centres Napi Lodge and Poundmaker's Lodge; Director of the Blood Indian Hospital in the early 90's; and as Chief Executive Officer for the Blood Tribe Department of Health Inc. - a post he held until his successful election as Chief of the Blood Tribe and subsequent leadership from 2004-2016.
Charles continues to maintain an interest in working with the University of Lethbridge and the Lethbridge College in advancing the lifelong education goals of our Indigenous members.
During Charles term as Blood Tribe Chief he was appointed as the Treaty 7 Grand Chief and held the Health and Education portfolio for the Treaty 7 Chiefs. Charles served on numerous Boards and Committees including the Aboriginal Healing Foundation Board of Directors, Committee Chairman for Community Violence Prevention on the Blood Reserve, the First Nations Information Governance Centre (Ottawa), the AFN's Chiefs Committee on Health, the Alberta First Nation's Information Governance Centre's Chiefs Senate, the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre and the Alberta Health Co-Management Committee.
Charles was a signatory to the Alberta Protocol Agreement on Government-to-Government Relations (2008) and the Memorandum of Understanding on First Nations Education (2010). His priorities include: implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; long term planning initiatives to address education, health, economic, social and environmental issues; soliciting community participation and support; looking ahead to advancing the sovereignty of First Nations by protecting our inherent and treaty rights; exploration of new and innovative partnerships; and to the dire issues of housing, poverty, community violence and other social and health issues.
Currently Charles is a member of the Blood Tribe Department of Health Inc. Board of Directors, Aboriginal Liaison Red Cross, and Indigenous Knowledge Wisdom Centre Board of Director in partnership with the Treaty 6, 7 and 8, Provincial and Federal Education Departments.