George Arcand

George Arcand Jr. is a veteran Indigenous leader and administrator in Alberta with a career spanning more than 40 years across the federal government, First Nations administration, and community-owned business. He began in community development, serving as Community Development Director for Alexander First Nation in the 1980s, and later held a senior federal post as a Regional Director General — experience that gave him a working understanding of Crown–First Nation relations and intergovernmental negotiation.

He subsequently served as Chief Executive Officer of Fort McKay First Nation (and its administration/Group of Companies structure), the role reflected in the stub data. Fort McKay, in Alberta's oil-sands region, is well known for building substantial community-owned businesses serving the energy sector, and Arcand's tenure there placed him at the intersection of Indigenous governance and industrial partnership.

In the fall of 2020 he was elected Chief of Alexander First Nation, and on January 7, 2022 he was appointed Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations, acting as the primary political spokesperson for the member nations. As Chief and as Chairman of the Alexander Business Corporation (ABC), he now oversees a portfolio of roughly 14 community-owned businesses across fuels, energy services, manufacturing, and construction, with a model that returns up to 50% of profits to the Nation for housing, education, mental-health, and infrastructure programs. In 2025 he received the Canadian Fuels Association's Community Champion Award.

• Focus is Indigenous economic sovereignty through strategic industry partnership, not personal angel investing — building and scaling community-owned enterprises that are commercially competitive.
• Sectors: fuels, energy services, manufacturing, and construction, largely tied to Alberta's energy economy.
• Profit-reinvestment model: up to 50% of business profits returned to the Nation for housing, education, mental health, and infrastructure.
• In his own words: *"We're not asking for more. We're asking to be part of the opportunity that already exists."*
• On competitiveness: *"There's this belief that working with First Nations means it'll cost more, but we've shown that our businesses are competitive."*
• On purpose: *"Everything we do is about building something lasting our people can rely on."*