MacKinnon faced a term limit after his fourth term on the Juneau Assembly, and he was also getting weary of his business and the copious paperwork he had to file. “The business stopped being fun, and in 2001 when I got off the assembly, I sold the business and retired.”
State Service His attempt to retire failed when he was asked to serve as Juneau’s Interim City Manager in 2002. He served ten months and then began his second government position in 2003, when former Governor Frank Murkowski asked him to serve as DOT&PF’s deputy commissioner for highways and public facilities. The political acumen acquired from his years on the Juneau Assembly made the transition to DOT&PF easy for MacKinnon. MacKinnon arrived at DOT&PF seasoned in politics and familiar with the workings of government. His experience in construction helped him “to get along well with the rank and file because he was basically a contractor and not a ‘suit,’” Simpson says. In his five years with DOT&PF
MacKinnon was involved in several significant projects including upgrades to the Dalton Highway, solutions to Anchorage’s road congestion, and the early phases of the Knik Arm Bridge. He was also responsible for all of DOT&PF’s administration and finances and, most importantly, getting legislative approval of the agency’s budget, which required building a good relationship with the Legislature. “I spent a lot of time in the Capitol, and I worked hard to build the trust to get our budget passed,” he says. Frank Richards, who was in-charge of maintenance operations at DOT&PF at the time and is now vice president for engineering and project management at the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, says MacKinnon understood the political process well, had a lot of friends, and knew to how work through the political arena. Richards singled out the Knik Arm Bridge as a project that MacKinnon worked to keep viable. “He worked it through the AMATS process [a state, local, and municipal transportation coordination group] with the Municipality of Anchorage. The bridge was
politically charged and it had to work its way through the federal, state, and municipal processes. There were a lot of folks who didn’t necessarily agree with the project proceeding.” In fact, the opponents of the bridge pushed to have the project taken off the AMATS priority list, which would have signaled a lack of municipal support that would have been a death knell at that early stage. MacKinnon helped get that turned around so that the bridge remained among Anchorage’s priorities, Richards says.
Public Service with the Private Sector In December 2006 MacKinnon became DOT&PF acting commissioner in Sarah Palin’s administration but eventually left the agency, and his departure coincided with the Alaska General Contractors of Alaska’s search for a new executive director. The construction community knew about MacKinnon and his efforts to improve the relationship between the agency and contractors. MacKinnon remembers those DOT&PF days well. “I was still new at
“We’re bringing in BDO. The partner’s already on it.” People who know, know BDO.SM
BDO provides assurance, tax, financial advisory and consulting services to a wide range of publicly traded and privately held companies. We offer a sophisticated array of services and the global capabilities of the world’s fifth largest accounting and consulting network, combined with the personal attention of experienced professionals. BDO 3601 C Street, Suite 600, Anchorage, AK 99503 907-278-8878 Accountants and Consultants www.bdo.com © 2014 BDO USA, LLP. All rights reserved.
www.akbizmag.com
April 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly
11