MCBCMCBCMCBC represents the business development interests of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN).
The corporation is wholly-owned by MCFN and is governed by a board of directors. Among them, three are non-voting directors, representing MCFN council, elder and youth constituencies respectively. Their ability to move and second board motions ensures their voices and constituencies are well represented.
Warren Sault
President and CEO
Warren Sault, B.A., E.E.T., is a member of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. He brings more than 30 years of expertise working with First Nations on development issues to his role as President and CEO of MCBC. Warren’s business experience is extensive, spanning finance, development, and administration, as well as governance roles on boards of First Nations business organizations. He has served as the Executive Director of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, Economic Development Policy Analyst with the Chiefs of Ontario, and Project Manager with First Nations Engineering Services Ltd. Warren has also served on the board of Two Rivers Community Development Centre (TRCDC), an Aboriginal Financial Institution, for the past 32 years and is the current Chairperson. He also serves as Chairperson of Aboriginal Impact Capital, an Aboriginal Financial Institution, serving a network of four Aboriginal Financial Institutions and providing administration of the Indigenous Business Financing Program (IBFP) within Southern Ontario. Warren is also a former Chairperson of the National Aboriginal Capital Corporation Association, an association of Aboriginal Financial Institutions from across Canada.
Warren graduated Summa Cum Laude from McMaster University with a B.A. in Sociology and graduated with Honours from the Radio College of Canada, as an Electronic Engineering Technician.
William Briscoe
Chief Investment Officer
William Briscoe is a seasoned and results driven leader with more than 30 years of experience and brings an extensive background in real estate investment, development, and platform building to his role as MCBC’s Chief Investment Officer. He has been a key member of executive teams at GWL Realty Advisors and Triovest. From 2016 to 2024, he held executive roles at Canderel, where he led the team responsible for establishing a partnership with Tsuut’ina First Nation, creating one of the largest master-planned development projects located on First Nations land, spanning 1,200 acres, adjacent to southwest Calgary. William is a graduate of the University of Calgary and holds a certification in Real Estate Leadership from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.
Lewis Staats
Director, Business Development
Lewis Staats brings more than four decades of First Nations focused economic development and strategic planning experience to MCBC as Director, Business Development. He is a member of Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation. Previously, Lewis was faculty at the Banff Centre in its Indigenous leadership programs, and he led the Best Practices in Nation Building and Indigenous Business Development programs for fourteen years. He is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and holds a certification in Strategic Planning and Organizational Development from the Banff School of Advanced Management. Lewis also has extensive experience in sports management, earning five Minto Cup championship rings as President of the Six Nations Arrows Jr A lacrosse team and three National Lacrosse League championship rings as President of the Rochester Knighthawks professional lacrosse team.
Sandra Smoke
Director, Finance and Human Resources
Sandra L. Smoke brings over 25 years of extensive experience in finance, accounting, and corporate governance across various industries in both private and public sectors in Canada and the USA. As a proud member of Six Nations of the Grand River, Sandra is deeply committed to supporting First Nation communities and fostering strong governance practices. She has held key roles as Director of Administration at Original Traders Energy, Assistant Financial Controller at Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation, Internal Auditor for the Seneca Nation of Indians, and Financial Assistant for the City of Hamilton. She has also served as a Gaming Commissioner with the Six Nations Gaming Commission, gaining valuable experience in regulatory compliance and decision-making. Her expertise includes financial reporting, audit coordination, strategic planning, and implementing corporate controls and procedures. Sandra is actively pursuing her RPA and Certified Aboriginal Financial Officer (CAFO) designation at McMaster University and has completed courses in Aboriginal Business Law and Strategy and Decisions through AFOA Canada. Her dedication to professional growth and her passion for contributing to the success of First Nation organizations make her a valuable asset to MCBC.
Neil Freeman
Director, Board Chair and Acting Chair of Audit Committee
Neil is CEO of NBF Group Inc., an energy sector business and market development consultancy. His long career in Ontario’s electric industry covered a succession of big-picture, industry-changing initiatives and innovations. He worked in corporate strategic planning during the breakup of Ontario Hydro, distribution business development during Hydro One Networks’ acquisition of 88 municipal utilities, the reintroduction of power system planning with the newly created Ontario Power Authority, and the creation of the second largest municipally owned utility in North America while at Horizon Utilities. He is most proud of having received the Canadian Electricity’s first Sustainability Leadership award, having earned a Canadian Urban Institute Brownfield Award, and being named a Privacy by Design Ambassador by Ontario’s privacy commissioner for his work on ‘big data’ projects. Neil graduated with a BA and MA from University of Waterloo, a PhD from University of Toronto, and a Chartered Director designation from McMaster University. He is the author of The Politics of Power: Ontario Hydro and its Government, 1906-95.
Scott, a graduate of Carleton University, has the distinction of having both been Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, where he was instrumental in the development of the Government’s response to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and a policy advisor to National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine, where he helped conceptualize and negotiate the Kelowna Accord. His 30-year career in the federal public service included being Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet, Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs, and President of the Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC), where, leading a period of human resource modernization, he was one of two Champions for Values and Ethics in the Public Service. Since retirement Scott has, among his many assignments, served as a board member and chair of the Institute of Governance and a member of the Auditor General’s Advisory Committee on Aboriginal Issues.
Lauren is a member of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. For several years, she been a policy advisor to Nishnawbe Aski Nation, the political body representing 39 First Nation communities across Treaty 9 and Treaty 5 in northern Ontario. Her career has also included Dilico Anishinabek Family Care, where she supported the Health Director and nine Program Managers, Indigenous Sport and Wellness Ontario, and a research assistant to the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice Indigenous at Osgoode Hall Law School. Lauren, who is currently enrolled in the accelerated MBA program of the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University, is a graduate of Conestoga College’s program in International Business Management and Rotman School of Business’s Negotiations Program.
Jesse Herkimer
Director (Non-Voting Council Representative)
Jesse is an elected councilor of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, where he leads the Inclusive Prosperity, Economic Growth and Job Creation portfolio for his council colleagues. Over the two-plus decades of his business career, he has made his mark in both real estate and equity investing, as well as in the bulk raw material delivery industry where he sailed the world as a wheelsman on lake freighters. With this experience in hand and politics running in the family through his grandfather’s long tenure on MCFN council, he met the call of using his skills and experience in service to the community and its members. Success for him is measured by the prosperity that can be generated from the opportunities across MCFN’s traditional and treaty territory and the economic growth closer to home.
Margaret Sault
Director (Non-Voting Elder Representative)
Margaret Sault, a member of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and a former elected councilor, served as the Director of Lands, Memberships and Research of MCFN for an astonishing 46 years, from 1977 until her retirement in 2023. During that time, she was on the negotiating teams responsible for successfully resolving four land claims, including the Toronto Purchase Settlement. In her service to MCFN, she was also deeply involved in developing numerous educational publications and the recent “Sacred Trust” video, all of which have been used to bring broader awareness to the rich history of MCFN. Following the enshrinement of a ‘duty to consult’ in the Canadian Constitution, Margaret helped in the creation of the Department of Consultation and Accommodation in 2015 and, more recently, the creation of the Governance Department for MCFN. While now retired, Margaret continues to be active as a personal support worker, a second career she has undertaken since graduating as a PSW in 2009.
James Lemoine
Director (Non-Voting Youth Representative)
James, a member of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, is a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at McMaster University, where he has a passion for studying heat enhancement and control and energy systems more broadly. At McMaster, where he also received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering, he is very involved supporting the needs of Indigenous students in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), and also serves as President of the university’s chapter of the American Indian in Science and Engineering Society. In his service to the community more generally, James is a volunteer at the Hamilton Regional Indian Center, where he helps elders with technology issues, and a volunteer with Clean Air Hamilton, where he ensures Indigenous values are followed in public programing.