Dave Tovey
Dave Tovey (Umatilla) is the Executive Director of the Umatilla Tribes’ Nixyáawii Community Financial Services, a Treasury-certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). He is also the former executive director for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeast Oregon. He has also served in top executive roles with the Siletz Tribal Business Corporation, Cayuse Technologies, the Coquille Indian Tribe, and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Economic Development Corporation (ATNI-EDC). Named Economic Development Leader of the Year for the State of Oregon by former Governor John Kitzhaber in 2001. He currently serves on the boards of two CDFI’s—the President of the ATNI-EDC and the Secretary/Treasurer of the Indian Land Capital Company. He was recently appointed to the board of directors of the Native CDFI Network and the Oregon Historic Trails Fund Advisory Committee. He spent the majority of his early career with the Umatilla Tribes as economic development director and executive director during their period of dramatic growth throughout the 1990’s. He is married to former Grand Ronde Tribal Council member Valorie Sheker and he has one son, J.D. III, now the Tribes’ Planning Director and finishing off his Ph.D.
