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OUR PEOPLE

This organization exists because of communities, families, and individuals who deserved better from the systems around them. The people on this page chose to do something about that.

THE EXPERTISE THIS MISSION DEMANDS

short red-haired woman, CEO, Cynthia Tam

Cynthia J. Tam
Founder and CEO 
Harvard ALM, CFP®, Enrolled Agent, Registered Investment Advisor, Licensed Insurance Professional 

certified financial planner logo
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2024 Harvard Emerging Leadership Award Recipient

For over twenty years, I have worked at the intersection of federal tax law and tribal sovereignty, and what I witnessed in those years made the need for this organization impossible to ignore. The depletion of trust funds through social pressure and exploitation. Families navigating a financial system that had not been built for them. These are not abstractions. They are the experiences that made building something different not just worthwhile, but necessary.

We are not merely teaching finance — we are architecting a new economic legacy. By forging my life purpose into a Seven Generations framework, we can do much more than manage wealth. We are building financial tools that are, at long last, as resilient as the heritage they protect.

LEADERSHIP & TEAM

This team was built for the long game, professionals who bring depth of practice and clarity of purpose to an organization designed to outlast any one of us.

short red-haired woman, CEO, Cynthia Tam

Cynthia J. Tam
Founder and CEO

Eric Menzel
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

brown-haired woman, hair pulled back, COO

Shani Langford
Chief Operating Officer (COO)

BOARD MEMBERS

Our board brings together tribal leadership, community experience, and organizational oversight, the governing conscience of everything Native Catalyst™ and NFDC are built to accomplish.

long, brown-haired woman, board member

Teresa Martinez
Board Member

smiling man with dark hair and beard, board chair

James "Potts" Hill, Sr.
Board Chair Person

NFDC Co-founder

short, dark-haired man, board member

Rigoberto "Rigo" Ruiz
Board Secretary

ADVISORS

Our advisors contribute specialized expertise in technology, design, and enterprise systems — extending the organization’s capacity to grow with the integrity and precision this mission requires.

bald man in suit, advisor

Yeuk Yuan
Sr. Director, Product Marketing

Salesforce

short dark-haired man in suit, advisor

William Crawford
Enterprise Architect

Salesforce

short dark-haired man in dark suit, advisor

Bruce King-Shey
Design Innovation Leader

The New York Public Library

native finance development corporation main logo; multicolored eagle with wings outstretched.

Our work is guided by the Seven Generations Principle — a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) teaching that calls us to make decisions in service of the next seven generations. 

A 501(C)(3) Nonprofit Organization.

© 2026 by Native Catalyst, an initiative of Native Finance Development Corporation. All rights reserved. 

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