Financial adviser to the tribes.

• Author: LUSKY, HEATHER
• Position: Blue Buffalo Consulting - Brief Article

Duane Hopkins is getting used to dealing with sovereign nations.

Hopkins' Parker-based Blue Buffalo Consulting, founded in 1997, acts as in-house financial management counsel to Native American tribes, which hold sovereign-nation status with the U.S. federal government.

Unlike most governments, the tribes also own and operate such private enterprises as convenience stores, lumber mills, casinos and data processing centers.

Annual budgets of Hopkins' six current tribal clients run from $15 million to $62 million.

"It's unique, a government entity (that) functions like a business. A state government running a lottery is the closest thing to it," Hopkins said. "There isn't another firm in the country" focusing on financial services to tribal nations, he said.

Miguel Preciado, former treasurer of Arizona's Pascua Yaqui Tribe, is a past client and a fan. "When he (Hopkins) came in, we hadn't had a finance director in two years," said Preciado. "He did a tremendous job in putting the department together. There were a lot of policies and procedures that needed to be developed. He knew what needed to be in place."

From June 1996 to June 2000, Hopkins helped the tribe get out of debt, and, at the same time, triple the value of its investment portfolio.

Hopkins works on-site with one tribe at a time, and he hires consultants to handle additional projects. His qualifications as a turnaround specialist are drawn from his...