Financing From the Heart

Dawson Her Many Horses ’04 sees a beauty in banking that many may miss— the nuances, the opportunities, the bolstering of dreams. Growing up, he did not aspire to work in finance. In fact, at Columbia he earned a degree in political science. But, over time, he saw that investment banking could partly be a way to help tribes, and he grew passionate about how making deals could make a difference.

Beginning his banking career as director of Native American business development at Merrill Lynch in 2004 in New York City, he later became an investment banking analyst for them. Today, based in Las Vegas, Her Many Horses holds the role of Senior Vice President & Head of Native American Banking, Commercial Banking, at Wells Fargo.

“I grew up on Rosebud Reservation” he said. “As a tribal member, to walk into the room and have an understanding of the issues that our clients and prospective clients are contending with is helpful. Because of the maturation of the gaming industry across the United States, you don’t see a lot of building of new hotel towers or new casinos. The discussions I’m having with our clients right now are what is the next business? And how can we help our tribal clients diversify their businesses?”

Her Many Horses finds his Columbia political science education informs much more of his approach than he expected. “It’s helped me a lot because as I’ve worked as a banker and an advocate for my clients in whatever institution I’ve worked, a lot of my discussions center on and go back to tribes as sovereigns and tribes as governments with legal autonomy and distinction.”

Having participated in the Program for Academic Leadership and Service (PALS) at GS, Her Many Horses fondly looks back on his undergraduate days. He recalls how PALS, a scholarship designed to provide access to a Columbia undergraduate education for students who might not otherwise be able to attend an Ivy League university, offered him a chance to have an even more personalized experience as a student, through working with deans and staff who mentored him to opportunities such as programming events PALS scholars facilitated together. Another standout opportunity to him was being a student representative on the University’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing. Analyzing proxy statements and being part of offering advice on how the Columbia University endowment could be used with a sense of social concern is something that has informed his work in investment banking.

“It gave me an interest and understanding in how you can marry finance and social concerns, which later translated into what I do today. I bring in deals, but as a part of that process, we’re also helping tribal communities, tribal programs, and individual tribal members.”

This article appears in the Fall 2021 print edition of The Owl, the alumni magazine of the Columbia University School of General Studies, with the title "Financing From the Heart."