On September 21, President Barack Obama announced Vincent Logan, a member of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma, as his nominee for Special Trustee for American Indians. The Office of Special Trustee (OST) is an agency within the Department of the Interior established in 1994 to oversee and reform management and accountability of policies and practices regarding about $3.7 billion of Indian funds held in trust by the Federal Government. The position has been vacant since Ross Swimmer, a member of the Cherokee Nation who held the post for nearly six years, resigned in January 2009. If confirmed by the Senate, Logan would be just the fourth person to lead OST and only the second tribal member.
Born circa 1957 and raised in Norman, Oklahoma, Vincent Garfield Logan earned a B.S. in Political Science at Oklahoma State University in 1979, and a J.D. at the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1983. Relocating to New York in 1986, Logan attended Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Logan practiced law in the Antitrust Division at the United States Department of Justice from 1996 to 1998, and as a corporate finance attorney for Schulte, Roth, & Zabel from June 2001 to February 2006. Shifting gears, Logan worked as a “Private Wealth Associate” in the Private Banking and Investment Group at Merrill Lynch from March 2006 to March 2009, when Merrill Lynch, a casualty of the 2008 financial crisis, was taken over by Bank of America. Undaunted, Logan founded his own firm, The Nations Group, LLC, which works with Native American tribes on asset management, investment strategies, and financial education.
Logan was appointed to the Oklahoma State University Foundation Board of Governors in September 2010.
-Matt Bewig
What Should Tribal Nations Expect From Wall Street? (by Diane J. Schmidt, Indian Country Today Media Network)
