For immediate release:
Trevor Jang, a member of the Laksilyu (Small Frog) clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation and band member of the Witset First Nation, has been appointed CEO of ChinookX Technologies by the company’s board of directors. Jang assumes the role at a critical juncture in the ChinookX story, as an emerging leader in the Indigenous tech and innovation ecosystem.
The 30-year-old is a descendant of Mikhlikhlekh, Johnny David, the first Wet’suwet’en hereditary chief to give evidence in the historic Delgamuukw land claims court case. The monumental Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 1997 helped define Indigenous title in BC and validated Indigenous laws and oral cultures in the eyes of the colonial courts.
This ancestral legacy is something that drives Jang to continue the fight for Indigenous self-determination and nation rebuilding through ChinookX. He will lead the company’s vision of developing a distributed network of data centres and sovereign cloud servers on Indigenous lands across BC and Canada, creating a unique sovereign data jurisdiction.
“I am deeply humbled by the vote of confidence by our board of directors and my fellow co-founders. At ChinookX we believe in aligning our objectives with Creator’s Path. As a leader, all I strive to be is the person my ancestors intended for me to be. I look forward to this new chapter in my career and to taking our company to new heights,” Jang says.
Coming from a media and communications background, Jang’s focus as CEO will be on raising awareness amongst Indigenous nations and peoples of the social and economic benefits of data, data centres and supplementary technologies. Strengthening partnerships with key technology sector leaders, government ministries and private investors will also be a priority.
“Trevor brings leadership beyond his years, represents his nation and his culture in a good way and is poised to tell our story.” says Lee White, founding CEO who led the company through its formative years beginning in 2017. A restructuring in 2022 paved the way for ChinookX to be both Indigenous-owned and led.
“I look forward to continue working closely with Trevor as he frees me up to focus more deeply on research and development in the web3 and data sovereignty space, working across academia and the technology ecosystem on projects and partnerships that advance our vision,” White says.
Jang has developed and executed communications strategies for several Indigenous organizations, including his own community’s elected Chief and Council and economic development corporation. He is also a renowned journalist, having received award recognition multiple times for his in-depth reporting on Indigenous land rights.
For two years he led the communications division of the First Nations Technology Council, co-authoring the first ever Indigenous-led labour market report to examine Indigenous representation in the BC tech sector. This province-wide community engagement initiative in 2018 laid the foundation for the FNTC’s groundbreaking Indigenous Digital Equity Strategy.
In 2022, Jang co-authored #DataBack: Asserting and Supporting Indigenous Data Sovereignty, a digital eBook for Indigenous-focused organizations and governments published by Indigenous software development company Animikii.
For more information on Trevor Jang and to read his work, you can visit his personal website.
