July 13, 2022
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Margee Higgins
July 13, 2021
The original story is available here.
By Brian Hallenbeck
Mashantucket — Last year, amid the COVID-19 pandemic that caused Foxwoods Resort Casino to temporarily shut down for the first time, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe stepped up its diversification efforts, hiring a chief executive officer to lead Command Holdings, a business-development company in the planning stages since 2017.
On Tuesday, the new entity stepped out of the shadows, announcing its acquisition of CeLeen LLC, an information technology company headquartered near St. Louis, Mo., and Quattro Consulting LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that provides services to government organizations.
“We’ve been looking to expand outside gaming since Day One,” said Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket chairman. “Having to shut down during the pandemic validated the theory — which we already knew to be hypothetically true — that we’ve got to be involved in other things.”
Butler said the tribe first pursued government contracting, without success, about 15 years ago, but Richard E. Sebastian, a tribal councilor, had revived interest in the concept. Sebastian was instrumental in the tribe’s gaining certification of Command Holdings as a tribal corporation separate and distinct from tribal government.
“We’re here to build a network of companies involved in federal and private, commercial contracting,” said Jon Panamaroff, Command Holdings’ CEO and first employee. “The federal government sends out billions of dollars worth of business to companies, and tribes have the ability to participate in that marketplace. … We’ll be creating jobs for the region and globally, and employees won’t necessarily have to live here. If we learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that people can work remotely from anywhere.”
Panamaroff said Command Holdings seeks to acquire small-business partners operating in areas in which the Mashantuckets have developed expertise while running Foxwoods and employing thousands of people: information technology; financial analytics; health care; and facilities, including HVAC, security and general maintenance.
A member of the Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak, Alaska, Panamaroff has served on the Native American Contractors Association’s board of directors. He said Command Holdings’ board of directors consists of five members, three of whom are members of the Mashantucket tribe: Angelina Casanova, the board’s chairwoman; Sebastian; and Bryan Hayes. The other board members are Bryan Smalls and Sean Harte, who are members of other tribes.
“We’re excited to see the board’s strategic direction — to make long-term investments in companies that add value and grow the tribe’s economy for generations to come — finally take shape,” Casanova said in a statement.