The Covid-19 pandemic last year, which closed down Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut for several months, speeded up what the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe had intended to do anyway, begin diversification efforts—or as Tribal Chairman Rodney Butler put it: getting “involved in other things.”
On July 13 the tribe unveiled Command Holdings, a business-development company the tribe had been planning for four years, which announced the acquisition of CeLeen LLC, a Missouri-based information technology firm; and Quattro Consulting LLC, company based in the nation’s capital that provides services to government organizations.
Rodney Buter, tribal chairman, told the New London Day “We’ve been looking to expand outside gaming since Day One. 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.”
The tribe has tried to acquire government contracts for 15 years, without success. Then a tribal councilmember, Richard E. Sebastian, led the efforts to gain certification for Command Holdings, which is an entity separate from tribal government.
Command Holdings CEO (and first employee) Jon Panamaroff commented, “We’re here to build a network of companies involved in federal and private, commercial contracting.” He added, “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.”
Command Holdings will seek to acquire companies that the tribe already has expertise in from running its huge casino resort. Examples would be HVAC, health care, and information technology.
