Dave Tovey

Mr. Tovey currently serves as the Economic Development Director for the Siletz Tribal Business Corporation based in Lincoln City, Oregon.  As the economic development arm of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, it oversees several enterprises and properties throughout western Oregon.

Prior to thisposition, Mr. Tovey served as Deputy Director of Cayuse Technologies, the Executive Director of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Economic Development Corporation (ATNI-EDC), the Executive Director of the Coquille Indian Tribe, and also the Executive Director of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeast Oregon. Serving from November of 1998 through February of 2002, Dave oversaw all Tribal governmental operations of roughly 1200 employees with an operating budget exceeding $90 million. Starting in 1986, he served for twelve years as the Director of the Umatilla Tribes’ Department of Economic and Community Development. His department initiated and oversaw all aspects of planning, financing, contract negotiations, design, construction, and management of the Wildhorse Resort, with its casino, hotel, golf course, RV park, and the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute, amounting to a $45 million overall development project with current employment exceeding 400.

He was recently appointed to and then elected as President of the initial Trust Board for the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute. In October of 2001, Tovey was recognized for his achievements by being named Economic Development Leader of the Year by Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, was later named to the Governor’s Economic Strategy Advisory Group, and later appointed to the Oregon Tourism Commission—the first Native American so chosen and just reappointed by Governor Ted Kulongoski.

He is a Umatilla Tribal member with Cayuse and Joseph Band Nez Perce heritage and he lives in Willamina, Oregon with his fiancé, Grand Ronde Tribal member and elected Tribal Council member Valorie Sheker. His son J.D. III works as a landscape architect while going to graduate school full-time at the University of Washington’s School of Urban Design and Planning.