IntroductionSince the 1970s, Inuit peoples in the Canadian Arctic have gradually expanded their autonomy through the successful negotiation of comprehensive land claims agreements and other devolutionary arrangements. A critical, yet understudied, aspect of this expansion has been the role that Inuit economic development corporations~IEDCs! have played in preparing Inuit regions, economically and politically for eventual selfgovernment. As the organizations which are responsible for managing and investing the funds obtained from the modern treaties signed by the Inuit and non-Inuit governments, IEDCs provide a range of valuable programs, services and economic opportunities at the regional and local levels. In addition to this important capacity building function, IEDCs have also represented their respective regions in self-government negotiations with other levels of government. As a result, they have become powerful and influential organizations in the regions they serve.This corporate-led governance approach, which we call Inuit corporate governance, offers a new perspective on the development of Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive suggestions for improving this paper. They would also like to acknowledge the assistance of their research assistants, Chantal Carriere and Steven Kennedy, as well as David Chandonnet for his help in translating the abstract into French. Both authors did an equal amount of work on this article and share equal credit.