-: My name is Pete Carmen, I'm the chief operating officer
for the Oneida Indian Nation and its enterprises.
Well, I work very closely with the Oneida Indian Nation
leadership and helping them set strategies and priorities
and then implement them which includes helping them run
the day to day operations of multiple businesses
as well as the administration,
everything from human resources and legal,
to IT, and then the operation of the businesses themselves.
The Oneida Indian Nation has a lot of businesses
and including hospitality, entertainment,
recreation, and gaming.
And the Oneida Nation has a large resort
with a casino and then it has a second casino
and there's a discussion about whether
to build a third casino.
And so, I would be involved right from the beginning
of helping to shape the decision of whether or not
to build the casino and then once we decide to do that,
overseeing everything from the very beginning
of selecting architects and builders,
to hiring staff, to figuring out how to fund it,
and then you need to really get involved
in the strategic discussions about what kind
of a program you're going to have there
so we're not just duplicating the businesses
that we already have.
So, it's a lot of work involving a lot of people
and a lot of decisions.
The businesses that the Oneida Indian Nation runs
would be complex in any scenario
but now you add on to that the layer
that it's a sovereign Indian nation
and dealing with all of the principles
associated with that and the fact
that the sovereign Indian nation is interacting
with other governments from the United States,
to the State of New York, to local counties,
to the local town, the sewer district,
and you have to deal with all of these different governments
while still preserving the Indian nation sovereignty
and you need to get the project done.
And so, it does add a lot of complication
but it makes it a lot more interesting that way.