Alaska Business Monthly

September 2010

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Smith & “ Parker, Feek understands the complexity of our company and excels, in coordination with our employee benefits team, at providing outstanding service to our employees.

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SEPTEMBER 2010 TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

ABOUT THE COVER

D E PA R T M E N T S From the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Inside Alaska Business . . . . . . . . 8 Right Moves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Events Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Market Squares . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Alaska Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Ad Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Tlingit totem in Haines has its “Eye on the Future,” the subtitle of this year’s Alaska Native Corporations Review, which begins on page 76.

Photo ©2010 Vera Bogaerts.

R E G U L A R F E AT U R E S

ARTICLES (cont’d.)

VIEW FROM THE TOP Dr. Bruce J. Kiessling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

ALASKA NATIVE CORPORATIONS REVIEW: Eyes Toward the Future

Primary Care Associates. By Peg Stomierowski

ALASKA THIS MONTH Bonny Sosa Tuesday Night Races . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Nine weeks of trail running for families. By Nancy Pounds

HR MATTERS Getting In Sync with Your Employees. . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Identify and address value system differences. By Lynne Curry

REGIONAL REVIEW Yukon River Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Pathway to Rural Alaska tourism. By Tracy Barbour ARTICLES

CONSTRUCTION PCL Construction Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 North American company here to stay. By Heidi Bohi

TOURISM Alaska for Alaskans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Entrepreneurs offer new options. By Tracy Kalytiak

EDUCATION APU’s New President: Dr. Bantz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Looks to refine university’s deep learning potential. By Heidi Bohi

EDUCATION ISER Celebrates 50 Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Analyzing Alaska since 1961. By Heidi Bohi

ANCSA Alaska Native Regional Corporations Holding Strong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 Some losses, but gaining momentum. By Julie Stricker Regional Corporations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88 Village Corporations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95 8(a) Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98 History in the making. By Heidi Bohi Solving Rural Energy Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 A cooperative approach. By Heidi Bohi Native Corporations and Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Petroleum provides opportunities. By Vanessa Orr A Candidate’s Primer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Winning votes in the Bush . By Heidi Bohi Bush to Bayou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Shareholders travel for training. By Charles Fedullo Emerging Alaska Native Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Filling the leadership void. By Heidi Bohi AJ McClanahan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 From Nebraska to Alaska and back. By Heidi Bohi Legendary Leaders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Where are they now?. By Heidi Bohi Image courtesy of Shell

FINANCIAL SERVICES More Acquisitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Fewer mergers in Alaska. By Peg Stomierowski

OIL & GAS Alaska Gas Pipeline Open Season . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 No decision until mid-2011, maybe 2012. By Mike Bradner

▼

OIL & GAS Shell’s Multi-Billion Dollar Waiting Game . . . . . . . . . 42

Needs decision this year on Alaska OCS leases. By Heather A. Resz

(continued on page 6)

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42

SEPTEMBER 2010 TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

OIL & GAS Savant Alaska, ASRC and BP Restart Badami Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Two wells completed, flow testing begins. By Heather A. Resz

SERVICES Fleet Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 State contracts streamline process. By Tracy Kalytiak

TRANSPORTATION Air Cargo Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Corrections In July’s “Latest Cell and Satellite Phones,” the HTC Hero photo supplied by Alaska Communications Systems was incorrectly identified and credited on page 68.

In April’s “An Alaska Olympics?” the 2009 and 2010 U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships held in Anchorage at Kincaid Park were co-hosted by the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage and the Municipality of Anchorage, not Alyeska Resort, which hosted three U.S. (FIS) National Alpine Ski Championships over the latter part of this decade.

Making life better in rural Alaska. By Julie Stricker

TECHNOLOGY Mobile Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Getting more done on the go. By Tracy Barbour

HEALTH & MEDICINE Avante Medical Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Integrating naturopathic and traditional medicine.

By Jody Ellis-Knapp

An hour a day keeps obesity away. By Peg Stomierowski

▼

HEALTH & MEDICINE Winter Recreation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

©2010 Chris Arend

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FR Volume 26, Number 9 Published by Alaska Business Publishing Co. Anchorage, Alaska

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EDITORIAL STAFF Managing Editor Associate Editor Art Director Art Production Photo Consultant

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OM

THE

E

DITOR

Thanks Ted! S

hortly after hearing the tragic news of former Sen. Ted Steven’s death the morning of Aug. 10, 2010, the words “Thanks Ted” mysteriously appeared on the bulletin board of ABM’s kitchen. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

What do you say about a man who loved Alaska and brought fame and fortunes to the Great Land like no other in the history of the state?

As the world reeled at the news of his death – which happened the night before, resulting from a plane crash near Dillingham with eight others onboard, four of whom died in the crash with him: Dana Tindall, Corey Tindall, Bill Phillips and Terry Smith – ABM staffers grieved as well.

Press releases with memories and condolences poured in from government Sen. Ted Stevens officials and leaders around the world.

Nov. 18, 1923 – Aug. 9, 2010 Everywhere you went, people talked about it. And at a Toastmaster’s meeting I attended that afternoon, speaker Dawn Williams changed her prepared speech at the last minute to a more impromptu one memorializing Stevens and Black Monday in what she called one of the five most horrific days in Alaska’s history, along with the Good Friday Earthquake of 1964 and the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989.

“Thanks Ted.” For all you did and all you were.

About a day and a couple hours after his death was announced, a Google search on news on him and his death resulted in more than 3.6 million results (and growing by the second). The former senator was a healthy 86, and remembered as being as strong and stubborn as ever. Vibrant. Alive. Willing to bat for what was right and help the people he loved.

“Thanks Ted.” I don’t want to remember his death. I want to remember his life and all that he did for Alaska. But I am forced to face reality as I open my e-mail, read a newspaper, click on the Web, or go out in public.

“Thanks Ted.” Thank you for your work on making Alaska as great as it is, for your passion as a U.S. Senator, for your love of people and the state, for your generosity, for your knowhow, for everything.

“Thanks Ted.” – Debbie Cutler Managing Editor

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

Debbie Cutler

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INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS Eklutna Inc. Joins U.S. Study

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klutna Inc. was chosen to participate in a three-year national study with Gonzaga University School of Law aiming to examine economic issues at Alaska Native villages and American Indian reservations. The project is run

by Gonzaga’s Institute for Development of Economic Policy for Indigenous People. Three Pacific Northwest tribes also will participate. Efforts will coordinate meetings between Alaska Native and American Indian leaders with academic officials from Gonzaga Law School and students. Organizers aim to analyze how law can provide a foundation to support economic activity for Alaska Natives and American Indian people. Gonzaga officials believe this pilot project is the first combination of traditional and academic efforts to address economic conditions in Alaska Native villages and American Indian reservations using public policy and the rule of law as a foundation.

Other Alaska Native organizations participated in a June conference in Anchorage, including The Kuskokwim Corp., Alaska Peninsula Corp., Haida Corp. and Port Graham Corp.

Eklutna, based in Eagle River, is a major landowner in Southcentral Alaska. Gonzaga officials chose Eklutna for the study based on the Alaska company’s record of shareholder hire and economic growth, Eklutna officials said.

The Alaska Native village corporation has developed Powder Ridge subdivision in Eagle River. Eklutna worked on a joint venture with Cook Inlet Region Inc. to develop two new gravel pits for the Anchorage market. The

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project was part of a contract with Granite Construction and Alaska Interstate Construction and provided gravel for CIRI’s retail operations at Tikahtnu Commons near Muldoon Road.

Grants Buoy Marine Research

A

laska Sea Grant has donated $1 million to support two years of marine research projects, including studies of Southeast sea otters, Pollock fishery management and red and blue king crab genetics. Alaska Sea Grant is a partnership between the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The federal funding supports six projects, which were selected from 33 proposals first submitted in December 2008. The funding includes money to support graduate students working on these projects. Other grantsupported research projects include a study of plankton species that feed juvenile pink salmon in Prince William Sound, and a project to analyze cost management for small salmon fisheries using predetermined fishing periods rather than more expensive test fisheries and escapement surveys.

Alaska Groups Garner PR Awards

S

outhcentral Foundation and Rasmuson Foundation received Silver Anvil Awards at the Public Relations Society of America Awards Ceremony in New York City. Southcentral

COMPILED BY NANCY POUNDS Foundation received a Silver Anvil Award of Excellence for its 12th Annual Gathering in the category Events and Observances – Seven or Fewer Days.

Southcentral Foundation’s annual event, which drew 2,000 people last year, serves to unite employees, partners and customers and teach healthy lifestyles.

PRSA awarded a Silver Anvil Award of Excellence to Rasmuson Foundation in the category of Integrated Communications – Government, Associations or Nonprofits for its Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend Charitable Giving Campaign called Pick. Click. Give. The Rasmuson Foundation was joined by four agencies for the campaign: Nerland Agency, KD/PR – Kathy Day Public Relations, Conversity and the Foraker Group. Results for 2010 show 9,543 people donated $927,075 to charities between Jan. 1 and May 31.

Credit Union 1 Opens Mountain View Branch

C

redit Union 1 opened a new branch this summer in Mountain View at 115 N. Bragaw St. The new Anchorage branch is the first financial institution to open in Mountain View in more than 20 years, according to Credit Union 1 officials. The credit union’s new branch includes a police substation, community Internet access, a community room for group meetings and financial education classes, and utility payment drop boxes for residents to deliver important payments while becoming comfortable with using the credit union. It is open six days a week.

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS “Each of these features is aimed to inspire positive change and social progress in Mountain View. This community deserves our confidence and support,” said Leslie Ellis, Credit Union 1’s president and chief executive.

Program Supports Renewable Energy Projects

T

he Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority has qualified to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Section 1705 Loan Guarantee Program for Commercial Technology Renewable Energy Projects. Energy Department officials reviewed AIDEA’s underwriting ability and Alaska Energy Authority’s ability for technical analysis of renewable energy projects. The Alaska agencies met DOE criteria to participate in the program. The partnership will allow AIDEA and the Energy Department to offer loan guarantees of up to 80 percent of the cost of qualifying renewable-energy projects in Alaska.

These can include wind farms, geothermal projects and certain hydroelectric projects that add to an existing dam or installation. Loan guarantees may also be used for constructing interties that connect newly developed renewable energy to the grid.

Alaska Airlines Joins FAA Study

A

laska Airlines and three other aviation companies are working with the Federal Aviation Administration on a five-year, $66 million project to develop

computer technologies that reduce fuel consumption, emissions and noise.

Alaska Airlines will conduct test flights for the project, which also includes GE Aviation, Lockheed Martin and AirDat. Test flights later this year will establish a baseline to measure commercial aircraft fuel use, emissions and noise using current flight and air traffic management technologies. Future test flights will measure improvements from GE Aviation development efforts aimed at spacing airliners by time rather than distance so they can routinely fly more efficient cruise and descent paths.

Airline industry and federal officials aim to develop technologies that airlines can begin using in 2015.

Ketchikan Opens Group-Home Facility

A

Ketchikan group home for adults with developmental disabilities opened in late June. The new facility was funded partially through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Opportunity Inc. operates the eight-unit facility, which helps residents live independently while also receiving needed support. The new facility proved to be an economic boost to Ketchikan, requiring construction long-term staff jobs. Other agencies providing funding included the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Alaska Housing Finance Corp., The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, First City Rotary, Wells Fargo Bank, the Rasmuson Foundation and Ketchikan groups.

Alaska Film Company, BBC Earth Plan 3-D Series

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nchorage-based Evergreen Films and BBC Earth have inked a partnership to produce a series of films featuring dinosaurs in 3-D. BBC Earth is the British Broadcasting Corp.’s global natural history division. The series is set for release in 2012.

Evergreen Films, which operates offices in Los Angeles and Anchorage, owns and produces high-quality 3-D feature films and television series.

“This agreement creates the perfect team to tell this remarkable story,” said Evergreen CEO Mike Devlin. “With the recent advances in 3-D technology and the increased understanding of the dinosaurs and the world in which they tried to survive, now is the perfect time for collaboration between our two companies.”

DOT&PF Buys Ketchikan Mill Property for Ferry System

T

he Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has purchased 30 acres of property at Ketchikan’s Ward Cove veneer mill and sawmill for $2.64 million. The Alaska Marine Highway System will use the property to consolidate the ferry system’s warehouse and headquarters building, plus operate a ferry berth. The property location – near Alaska Ship and Dry Dock – was a selling point.

Most ferry fleet maintenance is performed at Alaska Ship and Dry Dock.

Transportation officials purchased the

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

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INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS property from the Ketchikan Gateway Borough. Plans are under way to pinpoint a site and design a new headquarters building at the property.

Grant Buoys McCarthy Internet Access

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opper Valley Telephone Cooperative received a $5.2 million grant/ loan from the federal government to add terrestrial wireless broadband service in McCarthy. The grant is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Funding also comes from private investments. About 20 McCarthy businesses will benefit from the new service.

The program is due to invest about $7.2 billion in broadband projects nationwide. More than $100 million already has been directed to Alaska broadband projects. The construction work on the Alaska projects is set to be under way this summer and fall.

and a bronze award in the Business-toConsumer campaign, “Rural Wireless.”

The Telly Awards honor the best local, regional and cable television commercials and programs, plus video and film productions, and work created for the Web. This year’s competition received 11,000 entries from ad agencies, production companies, TV stations, cable companies, interactive agencies and corporations from the United States and numerous countries.

Subway Opens 25th Anchorage Area Eatery

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ubway of Alaska opened its newest restaurant this summer in Anchorage at 751 E. Loop Road in Government Hill. The opening, held in mid-July, marked the franchise’s 25th Subway eatery in the Anchorage area. Steve Adams and Bobbie Scribner own the new location. There are 66 Subway stores in 19 cities statewide.

Alaska Aviation Museum Lands Donation

Porcaro Earns Awards

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orcaro Communications won three awards in the 31st annual Telly Awards, a competition for advertising and communications firms. The advertising firm won the highest award – a silver Telly – for its commercial produced for DigiTel, “Like a Rocket, Man.” Porcaro won a bronze awards in the visual effects category for its GCI commercial “Northern Lights”

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T

he Alaska Aviation Museum in Anchorage received a commitment for a $300,000 donation from the Sholton Foundation and Northern Air Cargo. The Sholton Foundation pledged $150,000 to the museum and challenged Northern Air Cargo to match the sum.

Under terms of the donation, the Sholton Foundation will donate $60,000

in 2010 and $10,000 annually for nine years. Northern Air Cargo will donate $15,000 annually for 10 years beginning in 2010. Museum officials will honor the contribution by naming the main hall the Robert & Rita Sholton, Northern Air Cargo, Pioneer Hall. Northern Air Cargo also donated a retired DC-6, which was moved to the Alaska Aviation Museum campus in June. Robert Sholton founded Northern Air Cargo in 1956, and Rita Sholton served as board chairwoman for more than 20 years.

Anchorage Museum Garners National Grant

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he Anchorage Museum has received a $61,360 national grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to evaluate items in the Alaska Gallery for possible future renovation. The survey is the first step in improving care of collection items and planning for a future Alaska Gallery renovation. The Alaska Gallery was installed in 1986. Many of its 1,300 artifacts – which span thousands of years of Alaska history – are considered the museum’s prize ethnographic and historic objects.

Monica Shah, Anchorage Museum conservator, will lead the project to identify objects need of care and prioritize future conservation treatment.

Work is scheduled to begin in spring 2011 and last about two months. During this period, museum visitors can observe the work in progress in the Alaska Gallery. ❑

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

VIEW

FROM THE

TOP

BY PEG STOMIEROWSKI

Dr. Bruce J. Kiessling

D

r. Bruce J. Kiessling of Primary Care Associates in Anchorage started the practice 25 years ago and is happy to reflect that it has matured into being the largest and most continuous primary care group in Alaska.

ABM: How’s the view from the top at Primary Care Associates?

Kiessling: Even with all the changes in technology and medical knowledge, our view is the same: We respect every person’s decision to trust us with their care. The professional staff meets every week, pooling our experience, know-how and resources to improve patient service.

ABM: Describe your business structure and PCA’s facilities and growth in Alaska.

Kiessling: In 1985, I started PCA after working as a physician in Alaska since 1974. In 1998, I sold the business assets to HealthSouth, which spun it off three years later to USHealthWorks.

All of the practitioners are a part of my professional corporation, which contracts with USHealthWorks. Patient care is decided by medical practitioners; USHealthWorks provides staff and facility management, marketing and growth support.

ABM: In strategic planning, how do you deal with current medical system ambiguities?

Kiessling: As proactively as possible. Our caregivers are active in the community, on legislative committees, and in professional organizations. We strive to contribute medical perspective in matters of policy formation or with third-party involvement in care and reimbursement. Good business means no surprises. So much intrudes already into the doctor-patient relationship that being “at the table” helps us both to advocate for patients and to anticipate how to do it best.

ABM: How are patients being better served?

Kiessling: In many ways, including these: Availability We have convenient hours, four locations (two in mid-town, one in Eagle River, and one in South Anchorage), and at Huffman, we’re open 13 hours a day, seven days a week.

Access We have 22 board-certified, conscientious and experienced practitioners.

Accountability We are constantly meeting and consulting on care issues within our group, online, or in the community and the Lower 48.

Community Involvement and Advocacy: Mary Ann Foland, MD, is an outstanding example of PCA’s standards of patient advocacy. Awarded every possible recognition for patient care spanning her 30-plus years in Alaska, she has been at the forefront of representing patient interests in the Alaska State Medical Association as president and trustee and the Alaska Academy of Family Practitioners as president and board member.

She has given numerous ad hoc presentations to legislators and community leaders. And Mary Ann is just one example – each of us tithes our time to the community and to organizations that represent us or our patients.

ABM: With employees, how do you manage change effectively?

Kiessling: Through timely, accurate and complete communication, with input from many sides. Everyone at PCA understands it’s all about the patients. Everyone pitches in.

ABM: What are your greatest challenges in the next 12 months?

Kiessling: The economy makes it difficult for many people to seek needed care because of lack of insurance and higher deductibles and co-pays. They suffer delayed diagnoses and more serious complications as a result.

Photo courtesy of Primary Care Associates

Primary Care Associates

Dr. Bruce J. Kiessling

The aging of Baby Boomers, and retirement of their aging caregivers, means more demand for services from fewer experienced physicians. Educating and encouraging patients to partner in their care is challenging.

There are no third-party payers who do not make presumptions about, or intrude into, the doctor-patient relationship. Generally government intrusions are more disruptive, arbitrary, and infuriating than those of insurance companies. There is no such thing as cost control without rationing. Yet most patients and their families have expectations of immediate access to full-spectrum, up-to-date care, technology, procedures, and consultants, and with continual medical support so long as necessary. Economically and logistically, this is unsustainable.

All the more reason why it is essential that people secure primary-care practitioners they trust both for their care and advocacy. ❑

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

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CONSTRUCTION

PCL Construction Services

North American company here to stay

BY HEIDI BOHI

Editor’s Note: Due to an e-mail snafu, an early draft version of the following article appeared in the August issue of Alaska Business Monthly. The corrected final version of the article appears this month.

Photo courtesy of PCL

PCL removing a tank, which is no longer in use, from an underground vault beneath the Alaska Railroad Depot.

This will allow PCL to relocate and update the mechanical and electrical systems currently located on the roof into the basement, restoring the historic lines of the 1940s architecture.

W

hen PCL Construction Services entered the Alaska market in 2005 after winning the contract for seismic and security retrofitting of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (TSAIA), it was not the first time the company had contributed to one of the state’s most important construction transportation projects. Just 48 years earlier in 1957, PCL – then known as Poole Construction Limited – was contracted to carry out the first paving of the Canadian section of the Alcan Highway.

Although a lot has changed since then, today PCL is regarded as one of the largest and most experienced construction firms in North America, this year ranking number 31 on Fortune Magazine’s “100 Best Companies

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to Work For.” As PCL develops relationships with the state’s community of vendors, and commits resources to making a long-term investment, one thing remains the same, PCL executives say: the company “aspires to be the most respected builder, renowned for excellence, leadership and unsurpassed value.”

Ernest Poole originally founded the PCL family of companies in 1906.

His first job was to build a large farmhouse in Stoughton, Saskatchewan, Canada, and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, became the site of the corporate office in 1932. In 1977, the employees purchased the company from majority shareholders John and George Poole, sons of the founder, and today the business remains

100 percent employee owned. The name of the company changed to PCL Construction Ltd. in 1979.

IMPRESSIVE PROJECT LIST Today, PCL has evolved from fourroom brick schoolhouses, banks and town halls to building almost any structure imaginable across North America, ranging from general and specialized building, to industrial, highway, marine and heavy civil construction. Some of the firm’s more familiar projects are Staples Center in Los Angeles, the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., and any Alaskan who has managed to get through the construction surrounding the Seattle airport in the past five years will be familiar with the Central Link Light Rail system, for which PCL

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

completed more than five miles of elevated track and the SeaTac Rail Station.

For non-standard building challenges, PCL has a Special Projects Division.

In addition, PCL Construction Group operates through a number of subsidiary companies in different construction sectors and geographic areas across North America with fullservice District offices in 25 locations, including Florida, Minnesota, Arizona, California, Hawaii and Washington.

Operations offices are located in Alaska and North Carolina. PCL Enterprises, headquartered in Denver, Colo., since 1975, is the parent company for all U.S. operations in more than 36 states, totaling more than $3 billion in annual U.S. construction volume.

RETURN TO ALASKA As the price of oil hovered around $60 and $70 a barrel between 2003 and 2008, PCL realized the Alaska economy was again “firing up,” says Scott Ivany, Alaska’s Construction Manager.

Since entering the market, the company has learned there also is a lot of construction opportunity that is not driven by the petroleum industry, including the development of sustainable and renewable energy resources that are being looked to for helping Alaskans lower the cost of energy, especially in rural communities.

“Construction development is something that will continue in Alaska and the ups and downs of the industry are something of the past,” Ivany says of the company’s decision to open a regional office in Anchorage, which has 21 full-time staff, all but one are Alaska residents, and employs up to about 40 sub-contractors depending on the project.

The first project that PCL took on was the TSAIA South Terminal Seismic and Security Retrofit, which was completed in June of this year. The four-year, $140 million project consisted of the remodel and retrofit of the A and B concourses. The scope of work included abatement of hazardous materials and demolition of portions of the existing structure, seismic upgrades, interior and exterior architectural finishes, roofing, installation of a new state-of-the-art baggage handling system and mechanical and electrical

system upgrades. The new upgrades were designed to bring the terminal and systems up to code, and to revise the architectural aspects to more closely match the C Concourse. The project employed laser-scanning technology to develop a 3-D computer model that saved time and money, Ivany says, adding that the seismic retrofit is the only project of its type in Alaska. After completing the second phase of the project, PCL was also contracted to implement a series of small change orders for additional modifications and improvements to jet passenger walkways, administrative offices and the first floor hexagonshaped area that opens up at the west end of the B concourse.

It is the company’s mastery of technically complex projects like the airport that offer the extra challenges where PCL excels and it is this technical expertise that sets the company apart from other competition in Alaska, Ivany says.

“The majority of competition in Anchorage only works in the Alaska market, which can limit the technology and expertise that is brought to the state,” Ivany says. “We can bring technologies to Alaska that the state hasn’t seen before, along with different ways of doing things.”

CURRENT PROJECTS One of the most significant and visible projects PCL is working on is the Alaska Railroad Historic Depot Renovation.

Restoring the white building that is currently being used to house some of the Alaska Railroad Corporation’s administrative offices, rail passenger lobby and tenant rental spaces involves everything from installing modern conveniences and environmental controls to moving outdated mechanical and electrical systems currently housed on the roof into basement spaces that originally housed one of the city’s first morgues.

The $5.5 million project is slated for completion in January of 2011. Besides practical improvements, PCL says it will restore the character of building to its full 1940s glory as much as the budget will allow, including the roof and windows. While the upstairs will be renovated so that they can continue to be used for administrative offices, the downstairs passenger areas will be restored so that construction activity does

not affect the railroad’s visitor season.

“It is with these not-so-run-of-themill projects – the ones that present extra challenges – where we excel,” Ivany says.

Other P CL projects currently underway in Alaska include the design-build delivery of three separate buildings for the Warrior In Transition complex at Fort Wainwright, providing housing for soldiers recuperating from injuries sustained fighting overseas.

The $21 million complex includes the primary facility, a 32-bed barracks that is 20,000 square feet, an administrative and operations facility of 8,200 square feet, a soldier and family assistance center that is 6,600 square feet, offices for counseling and a day care center.

Construction will be finished by the end of next summer.

The F-22A Field Training Detachment Facility at Elmendorf Air Force Base involves constructing a 13,000 square foot training facility for maintenance crews to support the bed down of the new F-22A Raptors fighter aircraft. Project elements of the steel frame structure include a concrete foundation that meets Alaska seismic and frost heaving requirements, insulated metal skin and a standing seam roof. The facility will include secure and unsecured offices, classrooms and two high bay maintenance-training areas. The scope of work also includes fire suppression and detection features, an intrusion detection system, environmental controls, communications, utilities, pavements, parking force protection, site improvements and contaminated soil remediation. The $4.7 million project broke ground this spring and is expected to be complete this March.

Looking ahead, Ivany says the firm hopes to get more projects through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the health care sector and with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities as well as private developers, building on its success at TSAIA. PCL also has its eyes on several projects in Southeast and rural Alaska.

The company has significant experience working in remote areas across the Arctic and in Canada and will continue to build relationships with Bush communities. “We’re here for the long ❑ haul,” Ivany says.

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

13

TOURISM

Photo courtesy of Knik River Lodge

Knik River Lodge guests eating outdoors in front of a yurt, with views of the Chugach Mountain range.

Alaska for Alaskans Entrepreneurs offer new options

BY TRACY KALYTIAK

T

ourists cruise, drive or fly to Alaska to do such things as haul in huge salmon or halibut, view wildlife and marvel at spectacular scenery.

They hire outfitters, venture out on fishing boats, relax in hotels and cruise ships, sample local cuisine, pan for gold and buy trinkets and sweatshirts and art to bring home.

Ferreting out a new kind of Alaska experience is a challenge for people who actually live here.

A trio of businesses – located in Mat-Su, Seward and Cordova – are examples of ways entrepreneurs are

14

carving out niches for themselves while providing new options to their clients.

ALASKA A LA EUROPA Peter Schadee first arrived in Alaska from Holland 26 years ago, and immediately felt this was where he wanted to live.

“Alaska is the home Holland never felt like,” Schadee said.

Schadee worked in the tourism industry, arranging accommodations and outings for Europeans traveling here.

What he learned from his clients helped Schadee form ideas for his own business enterprise.

“It took me a long time to crystallize the idea,” he said. “I wanted to open a semi-remote lodge. It took five years to find a good piece of property that met all my criteria.”

Schadee wanted his lodge to be located within an hour’s drive of Anchorage. He wanted to find a new area, so he would not be competing with existing hotels.

“I wanted to be on the road system, but have sort of a remote feeling,” Schadee said. “Girdwood fell off the map almost immediately; there was enough going on there. That left Eagle River, Eklutna and our little valley here.”

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

In August 2005, Schadee found a 20-acre parcel of land in Mat-Su, at the end of Knik River Road. The property is located about a six-mile boat ride away from Knik Glacier.

“The boat was here, I’d been out with (the boat operator) a couple of times,” Schadee said. “That’s why this valley appeared on my radar. This was definitely high up on my wish list.”

Schadee wanted visitors staying in the lodge’s 15 cabins to be able to eat at the Wi-Fi-equipped lodge and use it as a launching pad for activities.

He obtained a beer and wine license, and amassed a wine list he says compares to those of the better restaurants in Anchorage. Dinner is served in a 30-foot yurt with picnic tables.

“We have really good food, crystal glasses,” Schadee said. “It’s a balancing act between outdoors and elegant.”

Schadee takes visitors on airboat excursions to Knik Glacier. A permitted helicopter on site ferries people to guided hiking, kayaking, mushing, horseback riding, mountain biking and skiing opportunities at places that include nearby Eklutna Lake and, 20 miles away, Colony Glacier and Lake George.

“We almost always see goats and Dall sheep,” Schadee said.

Knik River Lodge has hosted not only visitors from Asia and Europe, but also people who live just a few miles away and, Schadee said, their VFRs – visiting friends and relatives.

“We get a lot of people from Anchorage and Palmer,” Schadee said.

“Weddings, family reunions – we flew 30 people to the Knik just a few days ago. It was one of the original Colony families, for a Colony Day celebration.”

Elaine Hedden and her family stayed in one of the cabins at Schadee’s lodge over Memorial Day weekend.

“We actually discovered it last year by accident,” said Hedden, an Eagle River physical therapist. “My husband and I and our daughter, we all went for a Sunday drive at the end of last summer. We usually cross the bridge and take the Old Glenn Highway, but we thought, ‘What’s down this road?’”

They drove to the end of Knik River Road, saw the cabins there and plucked a brochure for the business from a plastic container near the road.

During their stay at the lodge in www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

15

Photo courtesy of Sailing Inc.

Sailing Inc. clients enjoy sailing in Resurrection Bay and beyond.

May, the family took a helicopter tour of Colony Glacier, ate lunch and dinner in the yurt (guests can receive a European-style breakfast in their cabin), and explored the bucolic surroundings.

“It was awesome and it’s just right here!” Hedden exclaimed. “They make all their breads and have fruits, cheeses, croissants. I was just so enamored. It’s so clean. They do a really thorough job. It’s like a little bit of Europe in our own backyard.”

SAILING AWAY Like to spend time out on the water?

A 35-year-old Seward-based business not only teaches people how to sail, but also offers custom sailing trips and bareboat charters to people who want a more private way to explore Resurrection Bay. Sailing Inc. rents sailboats to qualified sailors who have either taken

16

classes offered by the company or to clients who have owned a boat in the past. People who do not qualify may go out on a skippered charter with a Coast Guard-certified, licensed captain.

Seward is an ideal place to spend a few hours or a few days aboard a sailboat, says Arin Ortman, Sailing Inc.’s office manager. “The winds are real consistent here in Seward. On a typical day we see 15 knots with the wind picking up almost like clockwork right around 11 am. – you don’t even have to wake up early to get a good day of sailing in.” She says sailing enables folks to go beyond the end of the road.

“We are constantly reminded of how fortunate we are to sail out of Resurrection Bay,” says Deborah Altermatt owner of Sailing Inc. with husband Randy. “Recently the owner of a new Beneteau 43 told us that after bringing their boat up from Seattle

through the famed inside passage, he and his wife still believe the best views and sailing can be had right here in Resurrection Bay.” The company operates four boats in its charter program: 30-foot and 47-foot Catalinas, and 32-foot and 37-foot Beneteaus. The boats contain safety equipment appropriate for the number of passengers on board. Clients bring their own provisions, but the company has pots and pans and other cooking supplies.

“It’s like going to a furnished B and B, except the views are constantly changing” Ortman said. “There are heads (bathrooms), galleys (kitchens), sleeping berths for up to six people, and refrigeration on each of the boats we charter.”

A 50 percent deposit is required. If the weather is bad at the time of the scheduled excursion, the company will

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

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either refund the deposit or reschedule the trip, Ortman said.

Two-day trips stay within Resurrection Bay. On a three-day trip, it’s possible to venture into Kenai Fjords National Park, Ortman said. “You’re on your own private charter versus being with a couple hundred people, or our boats you can take your time and get out and enjoy it,” Ortman said. “Resurrection Bay is sandwiched between Kenai Fjords National Park to the west and Prince William Sound to the east, but there’s so much to explore in Resurrection Bay some people spend years exploring right here in the bay.”

Clients on multiple day sailing excursions can see humpback whales, Dall’s porpoises, sea lions, mountain goats, black and grizzly bears, orcas and a variety of seabirds.

“People will put kayaks on our boats and go kayaking when they get to the coves and pick blueberries when they’re in season,” Ortman said. “Some people go to shore and have a bonfire in the evening. You can get to very remote hiking trails, see glaciers close up and beach comb the shores for treasures of the sea. We found some nice sized mussels at low tide the other day and cooked them up for an appetizer.”

The company’s excursions offer a completely different experience, Ortman said. “There’s nothing like being on the water, under sail.”

HORDE-FREE ADVENTURE On the eastern side of Prince William Sound, Robyn Irving of Alaska River Expeditions offers guided hiking and glacier hiking, river-rafting or iceclimbing for Outside visitors and Alaskans alike. Since 1995, the company has ushered more than 9,600 guests to the Chugach National Forest, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Copper River and Prince William Sound.

“It’s enough off the beaten path that we don’t get hordes of tourists, but it’s not too far,” Irving said of the company’s Cordova location.

Alaska River Expeditions offers hikes into the rain forest, with a naturalist who can instruct clients about the local ecology, plants and animals.

There are also theme trips, such as a raft trip on the Copper River with a guest geologist who gives lectures and

18

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

discusses the effect of tectonics on the landscape along the river, or an art trip on the Copper River, in which clients can learn to see the river in an artistic way and record it in their sketchbooks.

Families also may float the Copper River in guided excursions, which include all food, transportation from Cordova and lodging for a night in Cordova.

“The Copper doesn’t have a lot of whitewater on it,” Irving said. “We set up camp in places within the Chugach and Wrangell-St. Elias, with campfires, music, and fun and games on the river.”

It’s also possible to take a half-day raft trip to Sheridan Glacier, over two miles of fairly continuous rapids, followed with a snack of smoked Copper River salmon and crackers, Irving said. There are also guided hikes onto Sheridan Glacier.

People who take part in one of the company’s guided outings should be able to hike reasonably well – for at least 30 minutes at a time on uneven ground, Irving said. Those who are interested in learning how to climb ice do not need to have previous experience.

“The nice thing is that it’s warm.

You’re climbing on ice and it’s warm,” Irving said. “Even though you’re learning the technical skills, you’re not also fighting cold. It’s comfortable.”

The company provides ice axes and all the guides are trained in mountaineering skills.

“We spend some time with the clients, help them be comfortable with all the gear,” she said. “We give safety briefings, how to do self-arrest, what to do in case you fall out of a raft or if it flipps, what to expect and how to make yourself available for rescue.”

Irving recommends visitors take one of the State high-speed ferries to Cordova. The ferries run seven days a week.

Visitors may either stay at a bedand-breakfast or hotel and rent a car in Cordova, she said, or bring along a vehicle loaded with camping gear to make it easier to explore areas outside Cordova itself.

Visitors may drive 50 miles away to the so-called Million Dollar Bridge, watch Child’s Glacier calving huge chunks of ice, or simply check out downtown Cordova. The city presents spring and summer festivals dedicated

to shorebirds and salmon, and boasts the Prince William Sound science center; a museum where visitors can learn of the area’s Alaska Native, railroad, earthquake, and fishing history; an art gallery, and places to eat delicious fresh seafood, sandwiches or steaks.

“Cordova reminds people of rural America in the 1950s,” Irving said.

“There are no chain stores, no WalMart, McDonald’s, Kmart. It’s all small businesses with a real Alaska flavor. Kind of a mix of fishermen, artists, scientists.” ❑

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downtown Anchorage

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stunning views

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547 rooms, 96 suites

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four distinct restaurants, 12 shops

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pool and athletic club

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business center

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complimentary wifi

For more information contact: Alaska River Expeditions 907-424-7238 www.alaskarafters.com Knik River Lodge 907-745-5002 www.knikriverlodge.com Sailing Inc. 907-224-3160 www.sailinginc.com

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www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

19

EDUCATION

APU’s New President:

Dr. Don Bantz Looks to refine university’s deep learning potential

BY HEIDI BOHI

20

year, APU students are participating in a level of field science that is often only available to graduate students at other schools. “Here, they

have access to field work and the opportunity to engage in undergraduate research in close collaboration with their professors,” he says.

“There’s a contrast between taking notes and active field learning – being side-by-side with the professor.

That’s the kind of deep learning and development of neural networks that means you never forget – it sticks.”

Don Bantz, Ph.D. • President • Alaska Pacific University Dr. Don Bantz has taken up the reins as Alaska Pacific University’s ninth president.

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

Photo by Greg Martin/Courtesy of Alaska Pacific University

D

r. Don Bantz, the newest Alaska Pacific University (APU) president, is a breath of fresh air.

Literally.

As the school’s ninth leader, arriving in March from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., Bantz is responsible for developing and promoting an inherited agenda that is based on “a commitment to the natural world and sustainable development, and a practical liberal arts education.” At the same time, he is focusing on incorporating what he calls “deep learning” – as is the case with seven APU students.

They spent 17 days on a NOAA research vessel traveling from Honolulu to Guam working side-by-side with scientists to evaluate the occurrence of whales and dolphins along the transit route. Another 12 students have their classroom atop Eklutna Glacier so they can monitor the recession of the glacier for Anchorage utility Municipal Light and Power to help them determine how the receding water rate will effect water projections.

“Deep learning is the kind of learning that grows, fires up, and connects the neurons in your brain,” Bantz says of the school’s efforts to foster a learning environment that is more hands on, active, personalized and flexible. “If you’re not getting that every day, you’re not getting your money’s worth,” he says.

What’s happening is very unique, he explains. By their sophomore

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104 Center Ave., Suite 205, Kodiak, AK 99615 | (907) 486-2530 phone | (800) 658-3818 toll free | www.koniag.com www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

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REFINING APU At the same time, Bantz wants to use his experience from Evergreen – one of the top five green campuses in the country – to establish a sustainability council, chaired by him, that will be charged with developing a climate action plan to green the campus and the curriculum. Bantz is also focusing on other areas of improvement and growth at the 600-student liberal arts college by looking at undergraduate and graduate programs to see where the school has a distinct niche that it can strengthen and grow. This includes engaging the entire APU community in refining the university’s mission and setting strategic priorities while also developing new partnerships that will help strengthen the school’s curriculum, provide active experiential learning opportunities for students, and provide services to private and public business sectors.

Strategic enrollment growth to 750 students is a priority for financial stability while, at the same time, maintaining APU’s small class sizes and personalized student and faculty interactions. Recruitment efforts are targeted toward attracting more Alaskan students, including Alaska Native people. “Most large West Coast public universities are experiencing deep budget cuts such that class sizes of more than 600 students for one faculty are becoming common,” Bantz says. At APU, the president knows many of them by name. “They can e-mail me, come in to see me within a day, or talk to me in the classroom – that doesn’t happen on most campuses anymore,” he says of APU’s 8:1 student-faculty ratio, which is one of the lowest in the country.

UNANIMOUS SELECTION Before coming to the university, Bantz was at Evergreen for 22 years where he taught in the master’s of public administration program, serving three years as academic dean, and for the past seven years as academic vice president and provost. He earned his Doctorate of Public Administration and Master of Arts in Public Administration from the University of Southern California.

He also graduated from Fullerton State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Management and Marketing.

Although he is new to the university, this is the second time he has lived

22

in Alaska. From 1974 to 1986, Bantz worked in the community health field for the Alaska Federation of Natives, before becoming executive director for the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center. In 1984 he was recognized as Alaska Public Administrator of the Year.

Bantz was included in a handpicked list of 100 candidates professionally recruited nationwide before the selection committee narrowed the field down to five finalists. He was selected unanimously the board of trustees.

Charlie Fahl, presidential search committee chair and former academic dean of APU, says Bantz offered several areas of expertise that the school had identified as priorities during its strategic planning. His working familiarity and leadership with a student-centered, active-learning approach at a school that is about 10 times the size of APU was one highlight of his resume, Fahl says. Bantz’ management and administrative experience, including budgeting and financial planning, was also an area where he rose above the other candidates. Having been second in command at Evergreen, finding a candidate like Bantz who was strong academically and administratively was ideal.

Finally, Fahl says, his Alaska experience was considered very important to the trustees, along with his passion for higher education, and his contagious enthusiasm – all characteristics the new president would need to have to be able to sell APU to Alaskan students, the community and business partners.

“With the national recession, it’s important for private education to be able to maintain and increase enrollment to grow and be successful,” Fahl says.

“Bantz has a hands-on approach to admissions, which is even more important now. Being president is not just a job, it’s a way of life – my early reading from the feedback I’ve heard is that he’s very involved working with the staff and faculty that has greeted him as the ninth president.”

APU’S POTENTIAL Building on the trustee’s work before his arrival on campus, Bantz says one of his first jobs is to listen and learn, refocus and build on the university’s accomplishments so that the strategic plan can carry APU into the next several

years with an emphasis on upgrading investing in new existing facilities and expanding existing programs. The university has the potential to grow from 600 to 750 students, he says, and be recognized as one of the best liberal arts schools in the country.

The big challenge he faces is that APU is the best-kept secret in Alaska.

The most effective tool for recruiting continues to be word of mouth, Bantz says, and because the campus does not have a big marketing budget he will continue to focus on getting out in the community and “tooting our own horn.”

A Doctorate of Psychology program is going through the Alaska Postsecondary Education and Northwest Accreditation approval processes now, he says, which will make the master’s program for this discipline stronger.

If the process goes as planned, APU students will be able to enroll in the program next summer. The curriculum also will adhere to APU’s commitment to experiential learning as opposed to what Bantz calls a passive setting where faculty never know students’ names.

“There’s a contrast between taking notes and active field learning – being side-by-side with the professor,” Bantz says. “That’s the kind of deep learning and development of neural networks that means you never forget – it sticks.”

This intimate approach to learning is why APU is so popular with Alaska Native students and this is a population that he and the trustees will continue to have a top-of-mind awareness about when developing new programs and improving existing ones. The university is already known for its Rural Alaska Native Adult Program (RANA), which allows students from rural areas to earn a degree while living and working in their home communities by offering online degrees. There are also plans to expand RANA by putting a new emphasis on pre-professional health care and business programs.

Looking back on his first months at APU, Bantz says: “ The potential here is incredible. Everyone – the trustees, administration, faculty, staff, president – is in the process of crafting a shared vision of what they want APU to be. It’s not like I have to re-engineer things, I’m just deepening what we’re ❑ already doing.”

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

RIGHT MOVES

.

BUSINESS INSURANCE ASSOCIATES INC.

Paula Frackman joined Business Insurance Associates Inc. as commercial insurance and surety broker and senior account executive. Frackman has more than 15 years of commercial insurance industry experience in Alaska.

COMPILED BY NANCY POUNDS which handled technology upgrades, testing, training and business-process improvement.

Jason Hickerson joined the Anchorage office as a geographic information system programmer/ analyst. Hickerson earned a master’s degree in GIS from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.

PFEFFER DEVELOPMENT LLC

RASMUSON FOUNDATION

Sharity Sommer was chosen to serve a oneyear communications internship at the Rasmuson Foundation. Sommer worked for the organization last summer. She graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage last year. Last winter, Sommer traveled to Kenya for volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity.

Angela Cox was chosen to serve a six-month, part-time fellowship at the Rasmuson Foundation through an arrangement with Arctic Slope Regional Corp. Cox is director of foundation and endowment development at ASRC. At the Rasmuson Foundation, Cox is working . on the ongoing small-grants program. .

DENALITEK INC.

Mike Ronchetti joined DenaliTEK Inc. as advanced services manager. Ronchetti will handle long-term strategic technology planning, risk assessment services and electronic medical record systems.

Dave Schlesinger was hired as technical services manager. Schlesinger has 11 years of experience in the information technology industry.

RESOURCE DATA INC.

Christopher Sowa was hired as a senior programmer/analyst for Resource Data Inc. in Juneau.

Sowa has 25 years industry experience, including work as a project leader and manager, business analyst and programmer.

Joshua Norris joined RDI as a programmer/ analyst in the Juneau office. Norris, who recently graduated from Midwestern State University, completed several system design and analysis projects with large software engineering teams.

Kent Thompson was hired as a project manager/ senior analyst for the Anchorage office. Thompson most recently managed a finance technical group,

24

AUDUBON ALASKA

N i l s Wa r n o ck w a s chosen state director of Audubon Alaska.

Warnock most recently served as a wildlife specialist for the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at the University of California Davis. He has studied shorebirds and Warnock waterfowl across the state, from the North Slope to the Seward Peninsula to the Yukon-Kuskokwim and Copper River deltas.

PERKINS COIE

Romerdahl Daly Andrew Romerdahl joined Pfeffer Development LLC as a project manager. Romerdahl most recently served as a commercial real estate appraiser with Reliant Advisory Services in Anchorage. He has more than six years experience in real estate, appraisal, finance and property management.

Rob Daly was hired as an accounting associate.

He most recently served as a customer service representative, personal banker and business-banking specialist with Wells Fargo in Anchorage.

Four attorneys from the Perkins Coie Anchorage office were listed among top U.S. attorneys in Chambers USA. Eric Fjelstad and Brad Keithley were ranked for environment, natural resources and regulated industries specialties. Thomas Daniel was chosen for labor and employment work. Michael Kreger was recognized for work in construction litigation.

BUSINESS INTERIORS NORTHWEST

Sam Precie joined Business Interiors Northwest as a project manager specializing in health care. Precie recently worked for Providence Health and Services real estate department.

.

UKPEAGVIK IÑUPIAT CORP.

Forrest Olemaun was chosen president of Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corp.

He began at UIC as vice president of Barrow operations. Olemaun is a UIC shareholder, lifelong Barrow resident and a whaling co-captain.

He has served on the Olemaun UIC board of directors as chairman.

UIC also elected officers to its board: Raynita Hepa, chair; Doreen Knodeel, vice chair; Herman Ahsoak, vice president; and Anthony Edwardsen, treasurer/corporate secretary. Other directors are Fred Kanayurak, Max Ahgeak and Tara Sweeney.

Precie

U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS ALASKA DISTRICT

Lisa Rabbe received the national U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Water Resources Planning Excellence Award. Rabbe is a plan formulator in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District’s Civil Works Branch of Engineering Division. Rabbe led an interagency and academic team to design sustainable

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

RIGHT MOVES water t resources for the Missouri River floodplain.

She currently heads the Matanuska and Eklutna watershed studies for the Alaska District.

The Alaska Baseline Erosion team, led by Bruce Sexauer and Melanie Harrop, received . the Outstanding Planning Achievement Award.

The team collaborated with Alaska villages, tribes and associated agencies to produce the first comprehensive assessment of ongoing and potential erosion in every Alaska community.

KEYBANC CAPITAL MARKETS INC.

SPONSORED BY NORTHERN AIR CARGO of Alaska’s 40 House and 20 Senate districts based on 2010 Census population figures. Appointees include Robert Brodie of Kodiak, Albert Clough of Douglas and former state Sen. John Torgerson of Soldotna. Brodie is a former mayor of the City of Kodiak. Clough is a commercial pilot for Wings of Alaska in Juneau and a former deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. Torgerson is executive director of the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District. He served as a State senator for eight years.

Gov. Sean Parnell chose Katie TePas as the state’s first domestic violence and sexual assault response coordinator. The Legislature created the position in the governor’s office. TePas of Anchorage is a program coordinator for the Alaska State Troopers, where she manages statewide programs and services specific to domestic violence, sexual assault, child sexual abuse and stalking.

event is sponsored by Alaska Trucking Association.

Watts, who drives for FedEx Express, now qualifies to compete in the American Trucking Associations’ National Truck Driving Championships August 3-7, 2010 in Columbus, Ohio – also known as the “Super Bowl of Safety.” The winners from each of the five other categories are also eligible to compete in the national championship.

USKH INC.

Chris Edmond joined USKH Inc. as executive director of finance and chief financial officer.

Edmond’s financial experience includes work in the private sector, government contracting and the construction industry. Chris Linford was hired to lead the mechanical engineering department.

Linford has more than 32 years of mechanical engineering experience.

ALASKA SEALIFE CENTER

J. Urbana G. Urbana KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., the broker/dealer subsidiary and investment banking arm of KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY), has expanded its public finance capability in Alaska by naming John D.Urbina and Geoff A. Urbina managing directors.

The father and son, respectively, share a combined 45 years in proving investment services to Alaska municipalities, and will oversee KeyBanc Capital Markets’ local public finance team.

STATE GOVERNMENT

Several state lawmakers were appointed to serve on the new Joint Legislative Higher Education Scholarship Funding Task Force. The task force aims to study ways to fund financial aid and scholarships for Alaskans. Members include Rep. Chris Tuck, Rep. Paul Seaton, Sen. Johnny Ellis, Sen. Lyman Hoffman, Sen. Gary Stevens, Sen. Joe Thomas, Rep. Peggy Wilson, Rep. Wes Keller and Rep. Anna Fairclough, Sen. Kevin Meyer was appointed chairman.

Several Alaskans were appointed to the Redistricting Board, which will set the boundaries

Ian Dutton, president and chief executive of the Alaska SeaLife Center, received the 2010 Coastal America National Leadership Award. He was honored for his work to strengthen the National Coastal Dutton America Learning Center Network. The Alaska SeaLife Center is one of 23 designated Coastal Ecosystem Learning Centers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Dutton was recognized for efforts to develop stronger links between learning centers working on new initiatives that promote public involvement in ocean literacy and Arctic marine science.

ALASKA TRUCKING ASSOCIATION

Scott Watts of Anchorage was named the best professional truck driver in Alaska after winning the straight truck competition and receiving the highest overall score in the six competing categories at the 2010 Alaska Truck Driving Championships. The annual

Emond

Linford

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLD REGIONS DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Tom Krzewinski, a principal and senior geotechnical engineering consultant at Golder Associates Inc., was named president of the International Association of Cold Regions Development Studies (IACORDS). During his six-year term, he will oversee IACORDS as it focuses on organizing symposiums for experts to exchange ideas on scientific, technological and cultural expertise toward the development of cold regions. Krzewinski has served for 12 years on the IACORDS board of directors and was actively involved on the conference planning committees for ISCORD 1997 (Anchorage) and ISCORD 2007 (Tampere). ❑

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

25

EDUCATION

ISER Celebrates 50 Years Analyzing Alaska since 1961

BY HEIDI BOHI

D

©2010 Chris Arend

id you know that bear viewers spend 2.6 times as much per person per trip than the average Alaska visitor? Have you ever considered safety belt use patterns by Alaskans and how they differ between car and truck drivers? What drives the Alaska economy and why?

At first glance, these questions read like a list of cocktail conversation topics, or trivia categories for an Alaska game show. But to those who pay the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) money to investigate diverse and far-reaching subjects like these, the findings provide a lift-off point for helping them make marketing decisions, or offer critical data that leaders can use to help make Alaska the best it can be when tackling critical economic and social issues that will affect the state for decades.

If you live and work in Alaska, anything that affects your ability to make sense of life here has been gently guided by the work of the State’s only university public policy research firm, responsible for conducting research that spans a wide and often eclectic list of topics, and typically brings policy makers, private citizens, communities, school districts, universities, Alaska Natives and other private organizations into the fold.

The non-partisan institute also maintains the state’s largest economic database and makes projections about population and employment growth, publishing its research findings, which are available through its offices at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

In other words, if Alaska is the topic, ISER is the study guide.

As ISER prepares to celebrate its

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Public Policy Researcher Scott Goldsmith of ISER. www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

issues, and the Alaska Department of Labor is also relied on for supportive data published monthly in its publication Alaska Economic Trends, along with other State agencies that have expanded their capacity to do analysis.

“The value of the institute is that it informs the public and functions as a research arm for State government and federal agencies, as well as at the local level doing work on local issues on behalf of local government and other public agencies,” Fischer says. “Essentially, it is a research arm for the public sector that is also jointly funded with private support.”

Constitutional consultant and temporary secretary for Alaska’s Constitutional Convention, George Rogers spearheaded the idea for ISER and served as a faculty member there from 1961 to 1983. He is also known for writing one of the first comprehensive studies on statehood: “The Future of Alaska; Economic Consequences of Statehood.”

At the time ISER started, Alaska had just weathered the passage of statehood two years earlier, and it was the most active year in the history of

Photo courtesy of Vic Fischer

50th anniversary in 2011, while the mission of the institute has not changed since the Alaska Legislature founded it in 1961, the focus has, Vic Fischer, says.

An Alaska Constitutional Convention delegate who also served in the territorial House of Representatives and the Alaska State Senate, Fischer was ISER’s first full-time director (hired in 1966), and today is a professor emeritus there.

Since its inception, he says, the concept of ISER has been unique.

Although there are several similar institutes across the country that deal with economics, as well as business or social institutes and public administration centers, “We were known in the ‘60s and ‘70s as the ‘institute of everything’ because the scope of research covered all aspects of the economy,” Fischer says, ranging from mining and agriculture to forestry, tourism, transportation, health care, public policy, and politics, Alaska Native issues, education and social welfare. Although the organization is still the only think tank in the state, today it also works cooperatively with other research companies and consultants on specific

Professor Emeritus Vic Fischer was the first director of ISER.

Alaska’s petroleum industry: 25 exploratory wells were drilled, two new gas fields were discovered on the Kenai Peninsula, and the State received almost $900 million from competitive bid sales of oil and gas leases.

The next 10 years would prove to be equally exciting in the state’s development: in 1968 Prudhoe Bay was

UAA SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING Applied Engineering and Innovative Design With applied design through hands-on learning at the core of its curriculum, the School of Engineering recently acquired new lab space to provide students the facilities needed to apply their design skills. With plans for a new UAA engineering building underway, the School has arranged for temporary space to house an exciting new type of lab for students.

The 2,000-square-foot Rapid Prototype and Manufacturing Lab is equipped with milling and lathe machines, an injection molding machine, and several 3-D scanners and 3-D printers. Students learn and apply theory to design innovative projects that they manufacture in the new lab. The Lab will be a center for innovative design and manufacturing, teacher training and is a field trip destination for students of all ages.

UAA School of Engineering • Engineering Alaska’s Future Today • www.engr.uaa.alaska.edu • 786-1900

UAA IS AN EEO/AA EMPLOYER AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION.

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

27

discovered; three years later Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), settling Native claims on public lands and giving birth to the Alaska Native corporation.

Two years before the trans-Alaska oil pipeline was completed, Scott Goldsmith, a public policy researcher at ISER and former director, arrived at the institute, fresh out of graduate school from the University of Wisconsin. Since then, his primary research interests have been in regional economic analysis, Alaska fiscal analysis, and energy and natural resources.

When he was hired with several other faculty members to expand ISER’s capacity by helping provide analysis for the state’s future planning, it was an exciting time as Alaska moved into the Prudhoe Bay era, the Alaska Permanent Fund was established in 1976, and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter providing for the designation of 80 million acres of public lands. Although it was a time of tremendous growth in the public sector, ushering in economic and social change statewide, it was a very small state and there was almost no in-state capacity for analyzing what might be happening to the state and how these major developments might play out in the future, Goldsmith says.

“It was unusual in Alaska because no capacity had been built up in State government to do this kind of work,” Goldsmith says of the then 16-year-old state. “The economy was very small and thin – on the public side there wasn’t enough money to support analysis because it was all going to provide basic infrastructure and services, and there was very little capability in the private sector. People looked to the institute for guidance and support to monitor and take the temperature of the economy.

There was a real vacuum and ISER was filling that.”

Although ISER is one of the smaller research institutes across the country, proportionate to the size of the university, because of Alaska’s young age and remarkable history it has been able to make substantial contributions to the state in relatively little time. One example of this is ISER’s early contribution to the state by helping determine

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what the petroleum industry meant to Alaska just before the 1969 oil lease sale. ISER hosted the annual Alaska Science Conference – now known as the Arctic Science Conference – which typically drew a crowd of about 150 people. When the event focused on “Change in Alaska: People, Petroleum and Politics,” 1,000 people attended, including presidents of oil companies, Alaska Native leaders, bankers, international economists and politicians, including former Sen. Ted Stevens.

“The outcome was that it provided a much greater understanding for Alaskans about how the petroleum industry operated, the politics of petroleum, the economics and the projections as to what kind of revenues the State would be getting from the leases a month later,” Fischer says, adding that economist Gregg Erickson, a former ISER resources economist, made headlines when he said that the State should receive $3 billion for the oil lease sales, though it ultimately received only $900 million.

Other important work included the institute’s analysis for the legislature during the formation of the permanent fund, which contributed to setting the contribution rate and the resulting dividend amount by researching the best method for fund investment policies. The original Permanent Fund Dividend proposal based the size of the dividend on the number of years of residence up to a maximum of 25 “shares.” This feature, designed to reward longevity and instill some stability in a transient population, resulted in the program being declared unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the Alaska constitution. In response to the resulting political firestorm, the program as it is currently structured was passed by the Legislature with a special first year dividend of $1,000, funded by a special appropriation. Later ISER determined how people spend their dividends and public attitudes toward the fund.

An ongoing research topic is about the state’s future, especially in light of declining oil production, which has dropped to one-third of what it was at its peak in 1989 – with projections indicating it will continue to fall and the new fields being developed won’t

be enough to offset the declining output of the Prudhoe Bay field. To help Alaskans make informed decisions about the future, and to develop an awareness about how the public and private sectors can work together, ISER is producing a brochure and website that explains the Alaska economy in terms of being built on three legs that each account for one-third of the economy’s structure: petroleum, inflows of cash from the federal government, and other basic sectors such as seafood, tourism, mining, timber and international cargo.

At the same time, it emphasizes how critical petroleum is to the state’s prosperity and the need for keeping that leg strong by supporting responsible development efforts of this industry.

“We try to continuously look at emerging questions and issues within the state that are a high priority,” Goldsmith says. “At the moment, we are looking ahead to health care, energy policy, the State’s fiscal policy, and how to transition to a post-Prudhoe Bay economy.”

Its institutional memory is one of the reasons ISER had become such an asset to Alaska, which includes Fischer’s 45-year tenure and Goldsmith’s own 35 years there. It does not compete with entities in the public and private sectors, but instead works cooperatively with them to maximize resources and instead dedicate research time to answering questions that need to be addressed.

“There are always more questions that need to be looked at than there are resources to do that,” Goldsmith says.

One of the other strengths of the group is that ISER is out engaging the community, Goldsmith says – a success that it would like to build on when planning activities and events around the 50th anniversary. Although the agenda is still in the discussion stages, in addition to hosting celebrations for current and former employees and the university, Goldsmith says there will likely be an event that brings together all nine directors, and events that the general community can participate in.

“Somehow we want to broadcast and engage the community in a discussion or dialogue on where the state’s been and where it’s going,” Goldsmith says, adding that most of the series of events will likely take place in the summer. ❑

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

SEPT

EMB

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ALASKA THIS MONTH

BY NANCY POUNDS

Bonny Sosa Tuesday Night Races Clark James Mishler/Courtesy of MOA Parks & Recreation

Nine weeks of trail running for families

Tuesday Night at the Races runners at the October 2007 Costume Run, Kincaid Park, Anchorage.

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wift footfalls drum out the stillness on the birch-lined trail paved with bright yellow aspen leaves. Dozens of Anchorage’s elite runners bolt along the course at Kincaid Park. Scores of other runners follow. Another wave of participants comes next – they bring leashed dogs, various baby-jogging strollers with infants, while toddlers and school children trot along the path. The wooded corridor resounds with light-hearted chatter, children’s laughter and mischief, and encouraging words from parents and grandparents for little ones.

The Bonny Sosa Tuesday Night Race Series has developed into a community treasure after 42 years. The event, which casually began with small numbers, now draws hundreds for its nine races.

September marks the start of Anchorage’s longtime fall weekly trail-running races.

This year’s 43rd annual race series begins Sept. 7 at 6:30 p.m. in Kincaid Park. The races continue every Tuesday until the Nov. 2 finale with awards and a potluck. The Municipality of Anchorage Parks and Recreation Department coordinates the race series.

The Bonny Sosa Tuesday Night Race Series features three ability levels and distances between one and 12 kilometers.

The adventurous courses along forested trails are never

30

canceled for weather, adding elements of rain, snow and ice to the challenge.

“The event has become larger over the years,” said Margaret Timmerman, coordinator of recreation programs, Municipality of Anchorage Parks and Recreation Department. “When it started, 15 to 20 people would come out for untimed events. Last year we had over 7,000 people participate in the nine-week series.”

Longtime Parks and Recreation staffer Jerry Walton managed the event for 30 years, Timmerman said. She took the reins after he left the department. Volunteers are also a key to success, she noted.

Two years ago, the event was named for Anchorage businesswoman and youth health advocate Bonny Sosa, who died suddenly in 2008 due to a brain tumor, Timmerman said. Sosa helped start the city’s Healthy Futures program.

“My favorite part is that this is a multi-generational event,” Timmerman said. “People who ran the event 40 years ago are now bringing their children and grandchildren to the event.”

Gary Snyder, Rob Whitney and Tom Grenier ran the Tuesday Night Races as children and now set the race courses, Timmerman said.

Rich Wenrich, who began running in the Lightning League in the 1980s, now is the event’s timing guru. He ran

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

“It’s not unusual to see the old hot-shot runners out there with their kids passing on the Tuesday Night Series habit.� — Rich Wenrich with the speedsters until a motorcycle accident in 1997 led to the amputation of his right leg. Wenrich returned to the Tuesday Night Races after being fitted with a prosthetic leg. “I was quite a bit slower so I started running the Munchkin League with the little kids,� Wenrich said.

He ran with the kids for a few years then joined the timing crew. Wenrich has many fond memories from the Tuesday Night Races, but singled out one moment. “I guess my fondest memory is a Tuesday Night Race up at Hillside Park,� Wenrich recalled. “They matched Lightning Leaguers and Munchkins as teams. The Munchkins had to complete their loop before the Lightning Leaguers could start their loop.�

The duos’ times were combined for the official time.

Wenrich remembered how the adult speedsters carried or hauled the younger ones on the loop so they could start their timed loop.

“The thing that made it so funny and memorable was the fact that it had rained earlier in the day so some of the Munchkins ended up pretty wet and muddy from being dragged through puddles by some of the more competitive Lightning Leaguers,� Wenrich said.

The races have grown so large that organizers don’t offer such challenges, he said. But Wenrich enjoys seeing so many families enjoying the event. “It’s not unusual to see the old hot-shot runners out there with their kids passing on the Tuesday Night Series habit,�

Wenrich said.

The event is also special to Wenrich for its namesake. “My late wife and I were close friends with Bonny Sosa and I have no doubt that both of them are looking down every Tuesday in late summer/early fall and smiling at what the series has become,� Wenrich said.

Race Divisions Munchkin League Farm League Lightning League

Distance

Class

1-5K 3-10K 4-12K

Kids & Kids at Heart Recreational Runners Competitive Runners

For more information go to www.muni.org/Departments/parks/ Pages/TuesdayNightRaces.aspx. â?‘

Bed & Breakfast

(OHJDQWO\ UHVWRUHG *ROG 5XVK (UD PDQVLRQ RIIHUV GRZQWRZQ FRQYHQLHQFH ZDUP $ODVNDQ KRVSLWDOLW\ GHOHFWDEOH JRXUPHW EUHDNIDVWV FRPIRUWDEOH URRPV <RX ZRQ¡W ZDQW WR OHDYH 113 W. Fifth Street Juneau, AK Toll-Free: (888) 588-6507 Phone (907) 586-6507

www.alaskacapitalinn.com www.akbizmag.com â&#x20AC;˘ Alaska Business Monthly â&#x20AC;˘ September 2010

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S E P T E M B E R E V E N T S C A LE ND A R 1pm-6pm @ the Alaska Aviation Museum ~ $25/Adult & $15/Child â&#x2013;Ş BEER/WINE GARDEN â&#x2013;Ş FLY-BYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S â&#x2013;Ş LIVE MUSIC â&#x2013;Ş BOOK SIGNINGS â&#x2013;Ş LIVE/SILENT AUCTION â&#x2013;Ş SALMON, BURGERS & HOTDOG BUFFET

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Great Alaska Quilt Show

5 to 6

Anchorage Log Cabin quilters show their amazing works and auction off 60 special quilts. For more information, phone 907-279-2839 or visit www.alaskaquilts.org.

2 Friends Gallery

18 to 19

Local artist Ev Irvin will discuss and show her recent fiber work using â&#x20AC;&#x153;primitive hookingâ&#x20AC;? techniques, which allow for a looser interpretation of design and colors. Stop by 2 Friends Gallery between noon and 4 p.m. to meet the artist. For more information, phone 907-277-0404 or visit www.2friendsgallery.com.

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Cordova Fungus Festival

2 to 5

In-depth study of Copper River Delta fungi and mushrooms.

Workshops, forays, gourmet dining and experts from the world of mushrooms. For more information, phone 907-424-7661 or e-mail erinecooper@yahoo.com.

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Arthritis Walk

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Arthritis Foundationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual nationwide signature event raises funds and awareness to fight arthritis, the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most common cause of disability. Registration is free. For more information, phone 907-277-2784 or visit http://arthritis walkfairbanks.kintera.org.

Autumn Equinox Walk

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Come out and see the autumn splendor at Creamerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. Meet at the Farmhouse Visitor Center, 1300 College Rd., 10 a.m. until noon. For more information, phone 907-452-5162 or visit www.creamersfield.org.

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3, 10, 17, 24

Kenny Lake Harvest

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Local farmers market at the corner of Glenn and Richardson highways. 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.For more information, phone 907320-1067 or e-mail matt@loveofgardening.net.

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Mardi Gras

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Labor Day weekendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Saturday on the town â&#x20AC;&#x201C; costume prizes, Cajun music, face painting and refreshments. Mardi gras fun the Hainesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; way. For more information, visit www. haines.ak.us/.

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3 to 4

Tamamta Katurlluta

A gathering of Native tradition is a coming together of Alaska Native artists, elders, tradition-bearers, dancers, drummers and non-Native participants for cultural sharing and community-building. For more information, visit www. prattmuseum.org.

www.akbizmag.com â&#x20AC;˘ Alaska Business Monthly â&#x20AC;˘ September 2010

S E PTE MB ER E VEN T S C A L EN D A R Homer Theatre

30 to Oct 7

Seventh Annual Documentary Film Festival. Mark your calendars and invite your friends to town for the eight best documentaries of the year. For more information, phone 907-235-6738 or visit www.homertheatre.com. 106 W. Pioneer Ave.

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• • • • • • •

U N E A U • • • • • • •

51st Annual Fall Conference and Business Trade Show

20 to 22

Timely topics important to the future of Alaska business.

Centennial Hall and the Juneau Arts Center. For more information, phone 907-586-2323 or visit www.alaskachamber.com

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Kenai’s Saturday Market

4, 11

Shop the local farmers’ market at the Kenai Visitor & Cultural Center, Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, phone 907-283-1991 or visit www.visitkenai.com.

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Alaska State Fair

1-6

The final days of the fair. Come on out for giant veggies, family fun and concerts. Located at, Mile 40 Glenn Highway. For more information, phone 800-850-3247 or visit www.alaskastatefair.org.

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3450 Aviation Avenue Anchorage, Alaska 99502 Toll Free AK: 800-478-2233 Toll Free US: 800-544-0986 907-243-2233

E W A R D • • • • • • •

Blues Train

18 to 19

Live music/concert train from Anchorage to Seward, includes onboard live music, food, drinks, BBQ at the Pit Bar, hotel room and more live music at the Pit Stop. For more information, phone 907-265-2494 or visit www.alaskarailroad.com.

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Running of the Boots

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Join the fun in the visitors and fishing season’s end celebration with free food, lots of prizes, great shopping and the infamous Running of the Boots. For more information, phone 907-7478604 or visit www.sitkacoc.com. Sponsored by the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce.

Sitka Farmers Market

11, 25

Features wild local seafood, locally grown and harvested fruits and vegetables, baked bread, locally picked berries, jams and jellies, cooking demonstrations, live entertainment, locally brewed and roasted coffee, music, local arts and crafts, and a variety of other items gathered or made in Sitka. For more information, phone 907-752-0654 or visit www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org.

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9 to 12

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Valdez Quilt Festival

Plenty of workshops and classes offered through the four days of the festival. Pre-registration is required. For more information, visit www.valdezalaska.org or e-mail valdezquilt ❑ festival@gmail.com. www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

33

H R M AT T E R S

BY LYNNE CURRY

Getting In Sync with Your Employees Identify and address value system differences

Compassionate employees value a friendly supervisor who accepts them, who allows for group decision-making and who creates a harmonious working environment.

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ing resignation. Your disappointment and her hurt feelings over being confronted creates a rift between the two of you.

If you’ve had similar situations arise in your workplace, you may find valuable the work of Charles Hughes and Vince Flowers.

Briefly outlined on the Dallas-based Center for Values Research website and provided in detail in texts such as “Values Systems Analysis,” Hughes and Flowers created a tool managers can use to identify and address deep-seated value differences between managers and their employees.

©2010 Chris Arend

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ou and your employees don’t see eye to eye. You expect that work means work.

One of your employees, otherwise talented and hard-working, texts throughout the day, insisting it takes less than five minutes total time and “isn’t she allowed a break?”

Meanwhile your new sales manager, while getting great results, keeps his eye on Craigslist.

When you find out, you ask him “how come?” and he says “he’s perfectly happy with his job but he likes to stay tuned into the marketplace.”

While you realize there may not be a lot you can do about this unless you want to let him go, deep down his behavior strikes you as disloyal.

If these weren’t problem enough, you find out your tremendously likeable office manager knew four months ago that your past sales manager was job searching. You confront her, asking why she didn’t let you know. She explains she didn’t seem fair to “out” her colleague. “What about being fair to me?” you ask. “I didn’t want to get him mad at me and thought he should be the one to tell you,” she says. You’d assumed your office manager understood her role included keeping you briefed on issues as important as a key player’s pend-

COMPETITIVE, COMPASSIONATE, CONVENTIONAL

According to Hughes and Flowers, your sales manager fits the “competitive” value system.

Those with this value system push the envelope in a quest for new opportunities. While these managers and employees make great sales professionals and negotiators, those who manage them need to realize these individuals view winning the game as allimportant and believe money the measure of victory. The rub – you may see these individuals as overly opportunistic.

Can you successfully manage an individual more competitive than you? Yes – if you realize that they value a boss adept at politics and frequently remind them “this is how we make working hard for us worth your while.”

Your office manager embraces a more compassionate value system. In her mind, getting along and cooperation ranks above getting ahead and competition. No matter how loyal she feels to you, she won’t willingly head into a conflict situation. Further, when you confronted her, you affronted her.

Compassionate employees value a friendly supervisor who accepts them, who allows for group decision-making and who creates a harmonious working environment. If you want your office manager to keep you briefed when

Lynne Curry

she knows about potentially volatile situations, explain you need to know this type of information for the “good of the entire company” and let her know you won’t violate her confidentiality.

Your work ethic pegs you as someone with conventional values. Those who share your values have worked hard and expect that others should as well. These employees give their organizations loyalty, fairness, hard work and stick-to-itiveness. Favoritism and ambiguity irk these employees. Those who manage employees with conventional values need to provide consistency and evenly applied rules.

CONSCIOUS, CYNICAL, CLANNISH

According to Hughes, roughly 25 percent of all managers fit the conscious value system, however, these employees can be hard to hire as they refuse jobs that lack sufficient challenge, intellectual stimulation and opportunity. “Conscious” managers and employees value flexibility, initiative, spontaneity and work of their own choosing. They need no policing to work hard and may feel stifled by

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

rigid performance appraisal systems. Good problem-solvers, these managers and employees focus on the future and not the past and can irritate conventional â&#x20AC;&#x153;hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always been doneâ&#x20AC;? employees. If you supervise these employees, give them access to information and let them set their own goals and do their jobs in their own way.

Most managers find cynical employees the most difficult to manage. These rugged individualists have a â&#x20AC;&#x153;get off my backâ&#x20AC;? orientation and may wear their security badges on their backsides. If you manage them, give them a clear cut â&#x20AC;&#x153;this is it and measure upâ&#x20AC;? approach and realize theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll work hard and respect you if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re tough, but may walk all over if you use too soft an approach.

The final group â&#x20AC;&#x201C; clannish values â&#x20AC;&#x201C; wants stability, security, fair play and steady work.

They work well in organizations that have a friendly, compatible work group. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Clannishâ&#x20AC;? employees appreciate blue-collar supervisors who explain what to do, how to do it and who work alongside their employees. Conversely, they may band against a manager who considers himself above the work group.

USING THE KNOWLEDGE

How can you use this research into value systems?

First, if you hire an employee with radically different values than yours, realize that you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t assume theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll behave in the ways you would. Once you land a job you like,

you wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t waste your time on Craigslist.

Second, take the time to learn how your employees think. Managing when you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know your employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; thinking resembles playing racquetball without a wall â&#x20AC;&#x201C; no matter how well you hit the ball, it travels without striking the mark.

Third, while Hughes and Flowersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; research offers you a starting point for recognizing differences that create workplace misunderstandings, no employee neatly pigeon-holes into just one system. Once you realize your employee sees a situation differently than you, sit down and have a face-to-face discussion â&#x20AC;&#x201C; armed with the knowledge that your values and beliefs of â&#x20AC;&#x153;what should beâ&#x20AC;? may not be universally accepted. â?&#x2018;

About the Author

Local management/employee trainer and consultant and the author of Managing Equally and Legally, Won By One and Solutions, Dr. Lynne Curry regularly provides managerial, leadership and board training seminars.

For the last three decades Curryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s HR consulting and training firm, The Growth Company Inc., has provided more than 35,000 training and consulting sessions to board members, managers, supervisors and employees of more than 3,500 organizations in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Connecticut, Arizona, Texas, Washington, D.C., California, Hawaii, Japan and Mexico.

For more information on The Growth Company Inc.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s training and HR On-call services to companies needing help with recruiting, team-building, strategic planning, management or employee training, mediation or HR trouble-shooting, please visit www.thegrowthcompany.com.

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www.akbizmag.com â&#x20AC;˘ Alaska Business Monthly â&#x20AC;˘ September 2010

35

FINANCIAL SERVICES

MoreAcquisitions Fewer mergers in Alaska

BY PEG STOMIEROWSKI

A

laska companies, strategizing to survive and ride the waves of historic recession, are continuing to quietly troll for smart acquisitions and business combinations.

“I think we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg, Walter Featherly, a managing partner of Patton Boggs in Anchorage, whose clients include many Alaska Native corporations (ANCs), said of their involvement in the Alaska business marketplace. When asked about merger and acquisition (MA) trends, Featherly said while he’d noted an increase over the last couple of years, he’d observed more acquisitions than mergers on the ANC front.

One example he cited was Koniag Development Corp.’s 2009 acquisition of Dowland-Bach Corp., a specialty manufacturing and alloy distribution company servicing the North Slope oil industry. KDC is the wholly owned subsidiary of Koniag Inc., the Alaska Native regional corporation for the Kodiak area. With its acquisition of Dowland-Bach, Featherly reflected, Koniag was able to bring more capital and other resources to what already was a successful, but relatively small, business operation.

One reason for the perceived quickening, Featherly noted, is that many of the ANCs, as they have grown and matured, have the capital and infrastructure to diversify and expand into Alaska-based or other markets.

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©2010 Mark Stay

8(a) CHANGES Another factor in the increase has been changes in the government-contracting regulatory environment, particularly regulatory activities pertaining to the Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) business-development program.

Stricter interpretation and enforcement of SBA 8(a) rules, and greater scrutiny of the process, have made it harder for ANCs to expand their federal-contracting business operations by forming new 8(a) businesses from the ground up, Featherly said. For example, in recent years, he said, the SBA has granted many fewer waivers of the rule requiring concerns applying for 8(a) certification to have two years of successful business operations. In such a climate, picking up other small businesses, especially those with a proven

history of successful operations, can represent an attractive alternative to starting a business from scratch.

Even where a suitable target company exists, an ANC may choose to acquire only 51 percent of the equity because that’s all that’s required for stock or ownership interest in order to achieve 8(a) eligibility, he said. Only rarely, he added, would it make sense for an ANC-owned subsidiary to merge with a target company.

The motivation for greater expansion and diversification in home territory is inherent in the very foundational structure of the ANCs, he said. Citing aviation giant Boeing’s decision to move its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago, Featherly said ANCs “are never going to be moving their headquarters outside of Alaska,” and so

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

will always have a finger on business and development opportunities in the Alaska market and will always have the motivation to own and operate local businesses because they provide greater opportunities for their shareholders.”

The other attraction of Alaska-based businesses, he added, is the tremendous growth potential that Alaska offers compared to what’s available to companies in many Lower 48 or global locations.

Factors on the horizon that could negatively impact ANCs seeking growth mainly concern the increased 8(a) scrutiny, more competitive business climate and pressures to reduce the U.S. budget and government spending, he said.

“As we run through the stimulus money,” he said, “my belief is that ANCs will see a drop in volume in government-contracting activity.” This already is playing out, he said, in the general tightening that’s afoot through the various procurement reform initiatives that are under way or planned.

Those companies that are most adept at getting ahead of the change curve and adapting to new requirements will have the best chance of survival, he said. In this shifting field, knowing and anticipating the new rules of the game are key, and investing in smart advisors, information sources, and connections will be critical.

ACQUIRE OR MERGE? In general, economic observers suggest U.S. merger activity, which in many areas slumped after the 2008 meltdown, could be seeing an upswing in 2010. Over the last 20 years, Harvey Meier’s consulting firm, Harvey A. Meier Co., in Ashland, Ore., has been retained by about 15 privately held companies to facilitate mergers, but among his clients he’s noted a slowdown in recent years.

While the uncertain economy probably plays a role, he said, in Alaska, so might a relatively new accounting law, 141 (R), which changed associated recording and reporting requirements.

While previously in a merger, companies could compare book values before and after a business combination, the new standard required that the firm being acquired be assessed at market value.

Often, Meier says, this can change the

dynamics of a transaction; now one of the companies must be specified as the acquirer/survivor, which can be taken to infer that the company not being designated the survivor is being taken over.

In Anchorage, Featherly noted, however, that the rule change has had little impact on ANCs because most business combinations in which ANCs are involved are relatively straightforward acquisitions, in which it is clear that the ANC is the acquiring entity.

Mergers tend to be more psychologically complicated than acquisitions, involving competing interests and emotional agendas that can test even the best of leadership skills, Meier says.

While the rewards of a merger can be substantial, advises one CEO with substantial merger and acquisition experience, attaining and listening to the expertise of a professional merger team often is essential in what can be a bruising arena. Definitely, “whoever stands up there (as the face most associated with the merger) has to be willing to take a beating.”

Companies combine for many reasons, including economies of scale and the desire to achieve financial and management efficiencies. The process can be arduous, expensive and timeconsuming, Meier said. While getting to the point of voting can take six to nine months, often that’s just the start of it.

In practicality, it takes longer – perhaps another year – to see the effective integrating/merging of the financial, management and operating functions of the companies. This can be pretty intense, and “that’s where management teams can get nervous about their positions.”

While blending cultures is challenging and many unexpected things can scuttle a deal, the name of the new entity can be one of the most contentious and distracting issues, Meier said; often he will form a committee to start coming up with names from the start.

In addition, the location of the headquarters office, designation of the CEO, and seating on the new board can be sensitive matters.

TRANSACTION ESSENTIALS Some companies use in-house attorneys to identify and analyze the main legalities and issues involved in a merger, often including the updating of bylaws

and laws of incorporation. While mergers typically require a vote of shareholders of both companies, boards of the acquiring entities typically approve acquisitions without shareholder approval, although in Alaska, the approval by the shareholders of the selling company, as well as the board of directors, is in most cases required. Some firms will hire outside facilitators, attorneys and accountants that understand the industries well to assist with merger and acquisition transactions.

A facilitator should be able to demonstrate a track record of successfully facilitating merger transactions. Key factors, Meier said, include the facilitator’s personality, conflict-management skills, ability to separate fact and emotion, and ability to keep the process on track and moving forward without undue delay.

Generally, when facilitating, Meier said, he brings two or more boards together to review ground rules. He may break them into groups to address such questions and objectives as what’s in it for their shareholders if they merge.

The same day, he meets with the boards separately to review the objectives and ascertain that the board members are in alignment with the process.

If such alignment exists, he said, they may execute a letter of intent to merge that begins the due diligence process.

The next step usually is a legal feasibility study. That study may be conducted by a steering committee convened for that purpose, including three board members – the chair, vice chair and another member – and the CEO. This committee often is assisted by the facilitator who guides the process, a CPA, and an attorney. A letter may be sent to shareholder/stockholders and employees of both companies attempting to openly explain the process that is only beginning.

The best time to consider a merger is when economic reasons don’t demand it, he said, that is, when two strong companies bring something to the table for their mutual betterment. Sometimes, Meier said, companies that have been working together for awhile in strategic alliances, partnerships or joint ventures will decide to take things a step further – an approach that tends to results in ❑ smooth merger transactions.

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

37

OIL & GAS

Alaska Gas Pipeline Open Season No decision until mid-2011, maybe 2012

BY MIKE BRADNER

O

pen seasons for the longawaited Alaska natural gas pipeline are at last under way, and one, by TransCanada and Exxon Mobil Corp., concluded July 30 while the second, by the Denali consortium of BP and ConocoPhillips, is to conclude in early October.

People are anxious to hear any results, but they’re likely to have to wait.

The bids for capacity in the pipeline are confidential matters between the pipeline company and its potential customers, says TransCanada Vice President Tony Palmer. If there are no bids, TransCanada will probably announce this, he said. But this is very unlikely.

There are quite likely to be conditional bids, Palmer said, with details to be worked out, for which the company has allowed a period of months, hopefully by year-end, so formal “precedent agreements,” or the first stage in a more detailed shipping contract, can be signed.

Denali President Bud Fackrell says the situation is the same for his company, except that everything will be later. Since Denali started its open season later than TransCanada, the date by which the pipeline company hopes to have precedent agreements signed is in early spring, 2011.

It is when the precedent contracts are signed that the pipeline company notifies regulatory agencies, and the public,

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that contracts are pending. There is a provision in the State’s agreement with TransCanada under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA), which applied to TransCanada, not Exxon as yet, that the commissioners of natural resources and revenue can request a status report from TransCanada.

TransCanada has agreed to certain State terms on the pipeline under the AGIA statute and is receiving a $500 million State subsidy. Any information from the pipeline company

EARLIEST DECISION MID-2011 The biggest condition, however, on capacity and gas-shipping contracts on the Alaska pipeline, either TransCanada or Denali, will be that producers want a long-term agreement with the State on tax and royalty terms, which requires action by the State Legislature.

Since that will take a year, the final deals won’t be struck until after the Legislature acts and the governor approves the changes. That will be mid-2011 at the earliest, or possibly even 2012.

It is when the precedent contracts are signed that the pipeline company notifies regulatory agencies, and the public, that contracts are pending. must be held confidential, however, said revenue commissioner Pat Galvin. It is not known whether Galvin and Tom Irwin, the natural resources commissioner, will ask TransCanada for any information.

This provision did lead to a minor flap in the primary election race, however, where Republican candidate Bill Walker asked Gov. Sean Parnell, also a candidate in the race, to release the results of the open season before the August primary election. Parnell said he could not do this, even if he had the information.

It is believed precedent agreements can be signed with the pipeline company with tax and royalty issues still outstanding because these are issues between the producers and the State.

The pipeline company is not involved.

The open seasons are hugely important. They are periods in which the pipeline developers solicit customers, who in this case will be mostly the North Slope gas owners, to lease capacity to ship their gas to market.

The pipeline company just transports the gas for the shippers. The sales of the gas are between the producers

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

and “downstream” buyers. Either a producer or buyer can contract for capacity with the pipeline but in the case of the Alaska pipeline, because of its huge expense, the shippers are likely to be the gas producers.

When the pipeline companies get signed contracts, with the necessary financial commitments too, they do the actual design of the pipeline to fit the amount contracted for, complete the permitting, complete the financing, and begin construction.

Signed contracts and financial guarantees are absolutely essential. Those are what the pipeline company takes to the bank to get the construction financing.

The process is not unlike a commercial developer planning an office building on speculation. The developer lines up prospective tenants, gets longterm leases signed and the guarantees, and goes to the bank to get money to construct the building.

PIPELINE REGULATIONS One important difference with pipelines is that the procedure is carefully regulated by the Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission (FERC), which sets out rules on how the open season is to be conducted. Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) conducts a similar process for pipelines in Canada. Since the Alaska gas pipeline crosses both U.S. and Canada it will be regulated by FERC for the U.S. portion and NEB for the Canada portion.

The regulatory agencies also approve the “tariffs,” or shipping charges, the pipeline levies on its customers, and also approves a guaranteed rate of return for the pipeline. It is a process similar to how utilities, from electric cooperatives to telephone companies, are regulated on the State level.

With pipelines, however, and particularly the $30 billion-plus Alaska gas pipeline, the capacity contracts signed by shippers are “take or pay,” meaning the shippers guarantee to make the payments even if something happens and the gas cannot be shipped. Because of this, it is the shippers – in this case the North Slope producers – that are really on the hook, not the pipeline companies. They must pay even if the pipeline winds up costing more to construct.

These financial commitments will run to more than $100 billion, all charged against the balance sheets of the gas shippers. It is for this reason the producers on the North Slope are so concerned the pipeline be built efficiently at the lowest possible cost. The State of Alaska has a stake in this, too, because its revenues are based on the value of the gas on the North Slope, with transportation costs deducted. The more costly the pipeline, the higher the tariff and the lower the value of gas, and taxes and royalties paid to the State.

2020 GAS FLOWS Meanwhile, what is the likelihood that this giant project will actually move forward? We’ll know a lot more early next year when results of the open season are releases. The big worry Alaskans have now is that Lower 48 gas prices are so low, and the new supply of gas from shale drilling seems so large, that the pipeline could be postponed once again.

TransCanada’s Tony Palmer says companies looking at this pipeline know they must take the long view. Today’s

reach new horizons. $ 0(0%(5 2) 7+( 8.3($*9,. ,f83,$7 &25325$7,21 )$0,/< 2) &203$1,(6

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

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markets are not good, but this pipeline won’t be transporting gas for 10 years – 2020 is now the commonly accepted completion date – and things undoubtedly will be different then, Palmer has said in presentations to Alaska business groups. Also, once built, the pipeline will operate for 50 years or more. In making these commitments, industry will have to look into a crystal ball and think what markets, and prices, might be over the next six decades.

Palmer points out, however, most gas price forecasts see a gradual increase in prices that puts them in the range TransCanada thinks will make the project viable in a few years. Also, the shift in the nation’s demand for energy toward low-carbon fuels will, in the long run, favor natural gas, Palmer said.

As for shale gas, it was indeed a surprising development that caught most energy market analysts off guard. It has long been known that tight shale rock, which is abundant in the U.S., can contain methane, the main component of natural gas. The technological revolution has been that companies have sharply improved their ability to fracture shale and allow the gas to flow.

The improvement resulted in a lot of new gas being produced.

There are limitations to shale like anything else, however. Mark Myers, the State’s coordinator on gas pipeline

HISTORY SINCE 1970 Still, how many times have we attempted this pipeline? And over how many years?

The first efforts were made in 1970, just after crude oil was discovered on the North Slope. Alaskan Arctic Natural Gas, a consortium of U.S. and Canadian oil and gas transmission companies, planned a pipeline running east from Prudhoe to the MacKenzie River delta over what is now the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The pipeline would have tapped gas then being discovered in the MacKenzie delta, and would have then run south along the river valley eventually to Alberta. Aboriginal groups protested the pipeline, arguing that their land claims were unresolved, and Canada’s government did not approve the project.

In 1974 the first proposal for an “allAmerican” pipeline was made, by El Paso Natural Gas, a major U.S. transmission company. This would have been a pipeline to an undesignated port in southern Alaska – Valdez was only one option – to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. The LNG would have been shipped to a regasification plant on the U.S. west coast, and the gas would have been used in domestic markets.

The U.S. and Canadian governments, however, decided to support a new all-land pipeline proposed by

In 1974 the first proposal for an “allAmerican” pipeline was made, by El Paso Natural Gas, a major U.S. transmission company. matters, has pointed out that shale drilling requires large amounts of water and chemicals, and takes a lot of activity, equipment, people and noise. There are impacts, environmental and social, which over time will raise public concerns, he said. Also, the better shale rock will be tapped out and companies will drill into less productive rock, which will cost more and produce less gas. Myers says he believes shale gas will make an important contribution to the nation’s energy supply, but that Alaska gas will still be needed, and will be able to compete against shale.

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Northwest Energy, a Utah-based transmission company. Northwest formed a consortium that included Canada’s Foothills Pipe Lines (now TransCanada) and by 1978 was proposing a gas pipeline parallel to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline through Interior Alaska, and then branching southeast through Yukon Territory along the Alaska Highway. It is essentially the route proposed today

by TransCanada and Denali.

A great deal of work was done on this project, including the signing of a U.S.Canada treaty governing an Alaska gas pipeline that has provisions still in

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

effect, and which TransCanada says aids its project because of certificates from the 1980s project held by Foothills. By the early 1980s, this project collapsed when Congress deregulated U.S. gas markets and a flood of new gas supplies came on the market, depressing prices.

Seeing the project stalled, a group of Alaska businessmen, led by former Gov. Walter Hickel, formed Yukon Pacific Corp. in 1983 to pursue a transAlaska gas pipeline to an LNG plant in Valdez, with the LNG to be shipped to markets in Asia. YPC worked for years on this project and secured important permits, including an LNG export license that has no termination date. The project could never get the backing of North Slope producers, and also stalled.

The idea remained alive. In 1992, two North Slope producers, BP and Arco, formed a consortium that included Foothills Pipe Lines, and initially Yukon Pacific, to study an all-Alaska pipeline with an LNG plant in either Valdez or Cook Inlet. It was concluded Asian markets could absorb only a small amount of Alaska LNG

and the project would be too small to be economic.

In 2000, all three Slope producers, this time including Exxon, turned anew to the idea of an all-land pipeline along TAPS and the Alaska Highway. A $125 million study of the project produced a cost estimate of $20 billion.

The companies concluded the project was uneconomic unless ways were found to reduce risk.

In 2004 and 2005, negotiations were under way with the State on a complex agreement that would have resulted in a long-term agreement on taxes and royalty administration and would have had the State take a 20 percent ownership of the pipeline, thus sharing risk but also profits. The Legislature did not approve this complex proposal. Its architect, then Gov. Frank Murkowski, was defeated in the 2006 elections by Sarah Palin, who took a different approach.

Instead of forming a business partnership with the industry, Palin set out a set of terms the State desired, mostly in the structure of tariffs and financing that would give security to the State, and

offered a $500 million subsidy to any pipeline company accepting the terms.

AGIA TERMS UNACCEPTABLE TO PRODUCERS TransCanada Corp. did accept the terms, while the North Slope producers did not. In late 2008, the State awarded TransCanada a “license” under AGIA, and agreed to pay TransCanada $500 million. Two North Slope producers, BP and ConocoPhillips, meanwhile formed Denali to proceed with a competing pipeline initiative on their own, outside the AGIA framework.

Exxon opted to join TransCanada, and has participated with the pipeline company in cost studies and engineering leading to the open season. Exxon points out it is not a party to the AGIA license and does not support the terms of AGIA accepted by TransCanada.

The three producing companies share the same views on this.

The issues, first identified by the companies in 2004 and 2005 and again in 2007 and 2008 when AGIA was being debated by the Legislature, remain ❑ to be resolved.

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Fleet Vehicles | Industrial Equipment | Remote Camps & Facilities www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

41

OIL & GAS

Images courtesy of Shell

Shell has started designing Arctic platforms, a bottom-founded platform, specially designed to force massive sea ice to break or “fail” against its own weight, as shown in an artist rendering.

Shell’s Multi-Billion Dollar Waiting Game Needs decision this year on Alaska OCS leases

BY HEATHER A. RESZ

T

remendous treasure likely lies buried beneath a couple hundred feet of water in the outer continental shelf off Alaska’s northern coast.

The petroleum resources estimated to be here are among the largest known sources of oil remaining in the nation, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, formerly the Minerals Management Service.

Shell paid the two groups to study the “potential economic benefits to the state and local communities from developing OCS oil and gas resources.”

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Developing the resources contained in this gently sloping plain that separates the continent from the deep ocean could provide thousands of jobs, billions in wages, delay the need for a State income tax, and extend the life of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, according to a March 2009 report.

Prepared for Shell by researchers at Northern Economics and the Institute of Social and Economic Research, the report, titled “Economic Analysis of Future Offshore Oil and Gas Development: Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, and North Aleutian Basin,” considers

potential economic benefits to the State and local communities of developing OCS oil and gas resources.

“OCS-related employment growth could more than offset losses from the decline of petroleum production on State lands and could help sustain the economy for several decades,” according to the report.

In terms of jobs, OCS development could generate an average of 35,000 jobs annually with a total payroll of $72 billion over 50 years, according to the study.

It could also generate billions for

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

State and local governments, change the size of a natural gas pipeline project, and extend the number of years it would have gas to ship.

The Chukchi and Beaufort seas contain an estimated 34 billion to 36 billion barrels of oil and 150 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to the 2009 report “Alaska’s North Slope Oil and Gas: A Promising Future or an Area in Decline?” commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy.

MONEY AND PATIENCE Since returning to Alaska in 2005, Shell purchased billions in leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, spent half a billion more on pre-exploration work to drill on those leases and hundreds of millions more defending its plans against a string of legal challenges.

“I don’t think we have an endless supply of patience,” said Shell’s Alaska Venture Vice President Pete Slaiby. “We need a decision this year.”

After receiving its final air quality permit April 1, he said the company was optimistic drilling would begin in July. But disaster struck April 20 when a drill rig exploded, caught fire, killed 11 and blew millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

As a result, Shell was asked to respond to questions from the Obama administration in mid-May about its plans to prevent a similar accident in the Arctic. Then Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued a deepwater drilling moratorium, which was appealed and overruled by a New Orleans judge June 22.

Salazar countered July 12 with a revised federal ban that suspends most deepwater drilling through Nov. 30 while investigators can determine the cause of the April 20 explosion.

“We’re the most disappointed people in town,” Slaiby said. “We don’t want to be in a position where we repeat 2010.

We really want to drill in 2011, but we don’t know if that’s possible.”

CLEAR, BLUE-WATER DIFFERENCE Where Shell’s leases lie in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, the depth ranges from 150- to 180-feet of water. The reservoir pressure is about 5,000 pounds per square inch, compared to reservoir pressures of 15,000 psi where the

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The Nanuq, pictured here in Valdez, Alaska, is an ice-class anchor handler purpose-built to be the centerpiece of Shell’s Arctic OSR fleet.

Deepwater Horizon was drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Why is pressure important?

When the blowout preventer failed on April 20, the well had enough pressure to spew an underwater geyser of oil and gas for 86 days.

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Slaiby says in the case of Shell’s Arctic drilling plans, the weight of the drilling mud itself would be sufficient to stopper the hole.

“We’ve never said these wells are without risk,” he said. “But there is a clear, blue-water difference between

the wells in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.”

Shell is no stranger to the Arctic’s ocean challenges and solutions, Slaiby said. The company pioneered offshore drilling in Alaska back in the 1960s and installed the first platform in Cook Inlet in 1964, he said.

And it previously explored leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in the 1980s and 1990s, Slaiby said. But no one has done much exploring in offshore Alaska using current technologies, he said.

Slaiby said Shell has used 3D seismic vessels to map the area since 2007.

“We like what we’ve seen and that keeps us in the game,” he said.

“That’s why we’re not bolting for the door. We’re excited about the potential of offshore in Alaska. As my boss said on April 21, ‘The oil hasn’t gone anywhere.’”

PROJECT’S ODDS IMPROVING The Anchorage Economic Development Corp. releases an annual list of resource extraction projects with more than a 50 percent chance of

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

being developed in the next 10 years.

Before the Gulf of Mexico disaster occurred, this looked like the year Shell’s plans to drill would make the list, according to Bill Popp, the group’s president and chief executive officer.

The “10-Year Resource Extraction Projects Projection” released in May by Petroleum News, the North of 60 Mining News and Anchorage Economic Development Corp., cites challenges such as “revenue sharing, regulatory and social compact issues that must be resolved to improve its odds.”

“We were thinking we’d be moving them up to the 50 percent case, but then the Gulf of Mexico happened,” Popp said. “They still face significant permit challenges and litigation, but it’s an improvement from a year ago.”

The 2009 review gave the project a 25 percent chance.

“OCS has the potential to put a very significant volume of oil through the trans-Alaska oil pipeline,” Popp said.

“We can invest the resources we’ve been endowed with in our state and create an economy that can eventually

take over from the oil and gas industry. But if we’re not allowed to develop those resources, then our future is pretty bleak.”

The pipeline is onethird full now and throughput continues to decline annually, he said. If the pipeline reaches a point where it is inoperable due to low volumes it would have to be disassembled, according to State Shell is no stranger to offshore success in Alaska, and law, Popp said.

Developing Alaska was the first to install platforms in Cook Inlet in the early 1960s – platforms that are still producing today.

OCS oil could fill the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and fuel the state’s SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS economy for the next 50 years, he said.

“They’ve just spent billions be- But disasters like the Deepwater Horizon cause they feel they have the op- and the grounding of the Exxon Valdez portunity to monetize it,” Popp said. are evidence of the social and environEven if Shell drills in 2011, it will be mental considerations also associated at least another decade before any oil with oil and gas development. And the from the project could enter the trans- risks associated with drilling offshore in the Arctic are too high, according to some Alaska oil pipeline system, he said.

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environmental and Alaska Native groups.

“As we’ve seen in the Gulf (of Mexico), things can go terribly, disastrously wrong,” said Rebecca Noblin, Alaska Director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “They have thousands of ships in the Gulf and hundreds of thousands of people working to clean this up. We just don’t have those resources in the Arctic.”

Arctic drilling has its own portfolio of risks, including darkness, remoteness, ice, high seas, endangered and threatened species, and few vessels and people to help if disaster occurred, Noblin said.

“The Arctic is home to animal species found nowhere else on the earth, and cultures that are thousands of years old that are based on these species,” she said.

Climate change is increasing pressure on the Arctic’s threatened and endangered species, such as including polar bears, Steller’s eiders, spectacled eiders and bowhead whales, Noblin said. Oil and gas development could make survival harder for the animals, she said.

“The center’s position is that it just shouldn’t be done,” Noblin said. “We don’t think there is any way it can be done safely.”

Because the leases are in federal waters, most of the revenue generated would go to federal coffers.

U.S. Sen. Mark Begich introduced the “Alaska Adjacent Revenue Sharing Act, S. 1560” to help the “State and local communities put in place emergency response, mitigation and infrastructure to address the potential effects of development.”

“Alaskans must be able to continue their history of sharing in revenue from oil and gas development by receiving a fair share from federal waters off the Arctic coast,” Sen. Begich wrote in a July 14 letter to President Barack Obama.

WORK CONTINUES ON DRILLING PLANS Although, Shell won’t begin drilling this season – a loss of 600 to 800 jobs – it still had about 400 people working this summer surveying shallow water hazards and gathering biological and

ocean data for an eventual Environmental Impact Statement.

“We’re proud of our safety record,” Slaiby said. “We want to get in and demonstrate what we can do safely.”

But a decision July 21 by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Ralph Beistline halted work on the Chukchi leases, pending further environmental review by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

Beistline found the federal government failed to follow environmental law, but he did not vacate the leases.

Companies such as Shell and ConocoPhillips paid $2.7 billion for drilling rights on Chukchi leases in 2008.

In late July, Shell spokesman, Curtis Smith, said the company was still analyzing how the court ruling might impact the non-drilling work – such as science programs and shallow hazard surveys – under way in the Chukchi Sea at the time of the ruling.

“We are also unsure as to how it might impact our aspirations to drill ❑ in 2011,” Smith said.

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www.akbizmag.com â&#x20AC;˘ Alaska Business Monthly â&#x20AC;˘ September 2010

47

OIL & GAS

Photos courtesy of Erik Opstad

A spool of electrical cable for hookup of the Savant Camp being delivered to the Badami dock.

Two wells completed, flow testing begins

BY HEATHER A. RESZ

S

But based on the success of an exploration well, B1-38, and a sidetrack well, B1-18A, Greg Vigil, executive vice president of Savant Alaska, said the company is optimistic.

A subsidiary of independent Denver-based Savant Resources, Savant Alaska, ASRC and BP have been

48

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

avant Alaska LLC and its local partner, Arctic Slope Regional Corp., may have cracked the code that has kept an estimated 120 million barrels of oil (MMBO) locked in Badami’s sands. Locked so tight, the Arctic Energy Office revised its original estimate down to 60 MMBO.

working together to restart the Badami plant to resume some production and conduct flow testing.

“We’re well on the way to beginning production in September,” Vigil said.

The three companies announced a cooperative agreement in July 2008 to drill additional wells to

bring Badami back to production, and possibly expand the field. The plan, they announced then, included several wells, including the two wells drilled to date. Savant has a 90 percent working interest in the wells and ASRC Exploration owns the other 10 percent.

Vigil said the venture’s first exploratory well – B1-38, or Red Wolf – found enough oil to be completed for production. And the B1-18 sidetrack well looks very promising based on initial flow-backs, he said.

By drilling through the sands horizontally, Vigil said, each well could connect more of Badami’s discontinuous sands.

“We wanted to apply different technology to Badami’s sands,” he said.

“We were the first ones to try drilling in a horizontal manner.”

“It’s tough to swim upstream against the big guys.”

– Tim Ryherd • Commercial Analyst Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas

TURBIDITE RESERVOIR PROVES PROBLEMATIC When Conoco discovered the Badami pool on Mikkelsen Bay east of Prudhoe in 1990, it had an initial drill stem test in excess of 4,000 barrels of oil per day.

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www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

49

But producing the North Slope’s first turbidite reservoir has proven problematic for BP. The formation is a series of channels, like fingers, and the puzzle has been how to get the oil and gas to travel from channel to channel.

BP acquired the field in 1994 and began production in August 1998.

Back then, it anticipated production of 35,000 barrels a day from as many as 30 wells, but by that October, production from seven was only 4,000 to 5,000 bpd. By the time BP put the field into warm shutdown in 2003, it was producing just 1,350 bpd. In 2005, BP tried again to produce the field seasonally. It produced 851,355 barrels from 2005 to 2007 before production was halted for a second time.

Vigil said he is optimistic horizontal drilling techniques will finally unlock Badami’s stubborn sands. “We’re excited to exploit a known accumulation with new technology,” he said.

RED WOLF Next, Vigil said, Savant plans to drill more sidetrack wells and new wells.

Sidetrack wells use a vertical section of an old well, cut out a section of the pipe casing and continue drilling horizontally. And the vertical pipe in the original well is sealed below the new horizontal shaft, he said.

“Horizontal technology allows us to drill many more wells in the field,” Vigil said. “We’re really excited about the opportunity in front of us at Badami.”

INDEPENDENTS PARTNER IN NORTH SLOPE MARKET Savant came to Alaska in 2006 after acquiring leases in a North Slope sale. But it’s far from the usual North Slope player. It’s small – five to 10 North Slope employees at any time, Vigil said.

That’s smaller than the kitchen staff at one of the giant camps ConocoPhillips and BP operate on the North Slope. By comparison, ConocoPhillips has about 1,200 employees working there.

“You’re seeing more and more independents active on the North Slope,” Vigil said.

In Savant’s case, it liked both Badami’s potential reserves and its existing infrastructure.

50

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

“The fact that there was already infrastructure in place was a huge competitive advantage for us,” Vigil said.

Steve Rinehart, a spokesman for BP Alaska, said the company invested million in its Badami plant and pipeline assets and is glad to see them in operation.

Tax credits also played a role in Savant’s decision to invest in Alaska, Vigil said.

Alaska’s various exploration incentive credits, such as the Exploration Tax Credit in Alaska Statute 43.55.025, the Production Tax Credits in Alaska Statute 43.55.023(a), offer some of the best incentives in the world, according to Paul Decker, chief of the resource evaluation section of Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas. “We think the explorers especially are taking notice,” Decker said.

Savant noticed.

“That was a big incentive for us to spend additional risk capital in the state,” Vigil said.

Joe Balash, a special assistant to the governor, said Savant is just the type of company the State’s production tax incentives are designed to attract.

“We are pleased to see Savant enjoy success in their pursuit of Badami,” he said. “We hope their entrance, along with a handful of other newer smaller players, signals the movement toward development of a number of smaller opportunities on the North Slope.”

Super-major companies need big fields to justify the dedication of staff and resources, but smaller companies can bring new energy and excitement to some of the smaller players and opportunities that have been passed over by the big guys, Balash said.

Drilling company rig No. 15 to finish the Red Wolf exploration well and the B1-18 sidetrack well. He said initial results from the wells are promising.

The Red Wolf well also is significant because it was drilled deeper and accesses a different geological formation than previous wells, Vigil said.

“We’ve been glad to hear reports of Savant’s success at Badami,” Rinehart said in an e-mail.

Both Decker and Division of Oil and Gas Commercial Analyst Tim Ryherd said smaller companies, like

Savant, are smart to cooperate with big companies, like BP. “It’s tough to swim upstream against the big guys,” Ryherd said.

Rinehart said partnering with Savant is a good fit for BP, too.

“The exploration prospects near Badami don’t meet our investment or strategic criteria,” he said. “We are focused more in Alaska on new technologies with the potential to unlock large resources, such as natural gas and heavy oil, and the continued develop❑ ment of light oil.”

INITIAL RESULTS ARE PROMISING To help restart Badami facilities, BP is shipping some 15 million cubic feet of natural gas from the nearby Endicott field on the Badami oil pipeline, according to Rinehart. The field and its facilities have been inactive since BP shut it down to recharge reservoir pressure in August 2007.

But in accordance with Savant’s agreement with BP, Vigil said, the Badami plant was scheduled to resume operations in September to produce four pre-existing and two new wells.

Vigil said the company used Doyon www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

51

REGIONAL REVIEW

Photo by Karen Lundquist

Yukon River Communities Cliff Adams, who owns Beaver Lodge Tours, shows off a small fish wheel model.

Pathway to Rural Alaska tourism

BY TRACY BARBOUR

Galena at a Glance Population: About 675 Location: On the north bank of the Yukon River about 270 air miles west of Fairbanks Government Structure: Mayor-council form of government Key Contacts: Mayor Russ Sweetsir and Doyon Limited President and CEO Norman L. Phillips Jr. Main Industries: Government, trade transportation and utilities and construction Hospital/Clinic: Edgar Nollner Health Center Airport: Edward G. Pitka Sr. Airport (the former Galena Air Force Base field)

52

T

he Yukon River is the longest river in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory. At 1,980 miles in length, it also has the distinction of being the third-longest river in North America.

The river – which flows northwest across the Yukon border into Alaska, continues southwest across Central Alaska and empties into the Bearing Sea – has played an important role in Alaska’s history. During the Klondike Gold Rush from 1896 to 1903, it served as an important means of transportation for paddle-wheel riverboats.

Even the name of the river conveys a sense of importance; Yukon means “great river” in Gwich’in. The river was called Kwiguk or “large stream” in Yupik.

Over the years, a number of small communities have originated along the path of the Yukon. The river flows past Circle, Fort Yukon, Beaver, Stevens

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

Village, Tanana, Ruby, Galena, Nulato, Grayling, Holy Cross, Russian Mission, Marshall, Pilot Station, St. Marys and Mountain Village. After Mountain Village, the waterway splits into various channels that run into the communities of Alakanuk, Emmonak and Kotlik.

Emmonak, with nearly 800 residents, is the largest of these communities. Its gravel airstrip serves as the regional hub for flights.

Photo by Evan Rainey

GALENA, SAFE FOR KIDS Galena is another key Yukon River community, serving a population of about 670 residents.

Long-time mayor Russ Sweetsir is happy to be counted among them. When he went to Galena almost 40 years ago just to visit, he was “captivated” by the personality of the community and its people. “The majority of the people are hardworking, forward-thinking, easy to get along with, and they take ownership of their community.”

Galena residents also possess a willingness to work together, Sweetsir says.

“A lot of our successes, I believe, can be attributed to the collaborative working relationship between the city, the Galena Village Tribe and the school district,” he said. “People in leadership are willing, wise enough, and able to set aside personal agendas to stay focused on what is best for Galena for, hopefully, generations to come.”

For these and other reasons, Sweetsir feels Galena is a great place to raise children. In fact, one of the city’s top priorities is to provide quality education and activities for young people.

“Many people here are committed to maintaining a community that is safe for children and where children are valued and come first,” Sweetsir said.

He is also concerned about improving the city to benefit all its residents.

Currently, a number of construction projects are under way to enhance the city. Environmental cleanup is taking place at the now-closed Galena Air Force Base, and will continue over the next few years. The old Air Force gym and dining hall at the facility are also being remodeled.

There’s also some work being done to repair sections of the local airport.

And several roads in the city are being resurfaced to promote dust control.

Cliff Adams Adams, the owner of Beaver Lodge Tours Tours, greets visitors arriving in Beaver Beaver.

In 2011 and 2012, there should be a new road construction project to correct river erosion issues affecting the landfill, according to Sweetsir.

Galena is located on the north bank of the Yukon River. The river is a vital source of year-round transportation, as there are no connecting road systems outside Galena. During the summer, the river facilitates travel by boats and barges between neighboring communities. During winter, it also allows for less conventional travel of all terrain vehicles, snowmachines and dog sleds.

In addition, the Edward G. Pitka Sr. Airport provides air traffic service, accommodating daily flights from Fairbanks and Anchorage.

Galena is a hub for a number of smaller surrounding communities that depend on the city for health, education, cultural, social and other services, as well as conveniences. A first-class city, Galena offers access to retail stores, medical care through the Edgar Nollner Health Center and a University of Alaska Fairbanks rural campus.

In terms of its history, Galena was established in 1918, near an Athabascan fish camp called Henry’s Point. It became a supply point for nearby lead-ore mines that opened in 1918 and 1919.

In 1920, Athabascans living upriver at Louden began moving to Galena to sell wood to steamboats and to work hauling freight for the mines. A school was

established in Galena in the mid-1920s.

In 1941 through 1942, during World War II, a military air field was built adjacent to the civilian airport, and the two facilities shared the runway and flight-line facilities. The air field was later designated Galena Air Force Station. During the 1950s, additional military facilities were constructed at Galena, causing economic growth for the area.

Following the end of the Cold War, operation of Galena Air Force Station was turned over to a contractor in 1993, and all military personnel were withdrawn. In October 2008, Galena Air Force Station was completely closed.

All of its equipment and facilities were given either to the City of Galena or the Galena Interior Learning Academy.

YUKON-KOYUKUK CENSUS AREA Many of the communities along the Yukon River are scattered throughout the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, which covers most of Alaska’s Interior region. The Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area is an immense landscape that stretches more than 145,899 square miles across the Canadian border to the lower Yukon River. It encompasses five national wildlife refuges and several mountain ranges.

Despite its enormous size, the YukonKoyukuk Census Area had a population of only about 5,603 people in 2009,

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

53

Photo by Karen Lundquist

Cliff Adams, the owner of Beaver Lodge Tours, shows a tour group the grave of Beaver’s founder, Frank Yasuda.

according to the Alaska Department of Labor. That’s a loss of about 907 people since the 2000 Census. The population loss may be due, in part, to the area’s lack of economic opportunity, according to Alaska Department of Labor Economist Neal Fried. “The unemployment rate is pretty much high all year long,” he said. “There’s a lack of industrial or any kind of wage and salary activities.”

The economy of Yukon-Koyukuk is marked by high poverty and little change. Communities along the Yukon River have a lack of private-sector activity. “Employment has changed very little for a long time,” Fried said.

There’s also very little seasonal work in the Yukon River communities, which don’t have large fishing or tourism industries like other small communities in Alaska. In fact, many communities in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area experience higher employment during winter, since school districts represent a major source of employment.

However, Fried says, the unemployment rate is underestimating what’s really happening in Yukon-Koyukuk. The communities have a significant number of what’s referred to as “discouraged workers.” These are typically workers who become disheartened because they believe there are no jobs available or none for which they qualify. “When you don’t think there are opportunities, you don’t make an effort to look,” Fried explained.

Local government and nonprofits are major drivers of the economy of the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, which has more workers employed as construction laborers than any other occupation. Teacher assistants and janitorial workers are also primary occupational

54

categories. Top employers in the area are Tanana Chiefs Conference; Yukon Koyukuk, Yukon Flats, Iditarod Area and Galena City school districts; and Tanana Native Council.

RURAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT As part of its efforts to boost rural tourism, the Alaska Department of Commerce has several programs to promote tourism in the communities along the Yukon River. For example, Tourism Mentorship Assistance Program (TMAP) is helping to create new tour businesses, as well as support existing ones. Participants work with a successful business owner for about a year and receive help with insurance, marketing and other aspects of running a business.

They can also take advantage of networking and other valuable opportunities. “We provide a basic website for those who don’t already have one,” said Dru Garson, a tourism business development specialist with the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development Office of Economic Development. “It gives them an opportunity to feature their tourism products on a much more level playing field.”

The program assists about 10 businesses a year. Current participants include Yukon River Lodge and Tanakon Tours in Tanana. “Rural tourism is a way for them to share their lifestyle, their culture and their way of life with visitors to Alaska,” said Juneau-based Garson. “It’s another way to diversify the economy and a great way to bring visitors in on a short-term basis.”

TMAP, established only a few years ago, has helped several groups of tourism-related businesses. And Garson

feels the program has a great deal of potential to stimulate tourism in rural Alaska. “We have quite a few people throughout the state involved in the mentorship program,” he said. “They realize the importance of partnering together and marketing this area.”

Another State-operated program that is helping stimulate tourism in Yukon River communities is Developing Alaska Rural Tourism (DART). The program is designed to offer visitorindustry training aimed at boosting rural businesses and employment.

Last year, DART brought an instructor out to Galena to conduct the Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessel (OUPV) course. The training prepares students to meet the qualification requirements for a U.S. Coast Guard OUPV License, which enables individuals to take up to six passengers for hire on an uninspected vessel.

“For many people in that area, it’s expensive to go out to Anchorage to take the class,” Garson said. “Six participants have gone on to complete the requirements for obtaining the “six-pack” license, which includes the application, screening and physical.”

As vice president of marketing for Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau, Karen Lundquist is also a proponent of rural tourism. Fairbanks, which also sits along the Yukon River, serves as a gateway to tourists visiting nearby communities. Small tour groups often leave out of Fairbanks to take one-day trips to Fort Yukon or Beaver, where they can often see villagers involved in traditional activities such as hunting or trapping.

“People are always fascinated about how people live here in Alaska,” she said.

There are tour options for everything from drive-through bus tours to walking tours, kayaking trips and air tours. Tourism is increasingly taking place on a small scale in the communities along the Yukon River. However, Lundquist said, transportation costs and a lack of infrastructure present a challenge. Still, she feels tourism – with further development – could be very viable in Alaska’s rural communities. “I think there are folks who really want to experience the Alaska Native culture,” Lundquist said. ❑

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

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State contracts streamline process

BY TRACY KALYTIAK

W

hat do police departments, boroughs, car-rental outlets, North Slope companies, the Alaska Railroad and countless small businesses of all types have in common? They all need vehicles to accomplish their various tasks.

Private entities that choose to buy new cars, SUVs and trucks can acquire them through dealerships’ fleet or commercial departments, while nonprofits and municipalities nowadays can either buy directly from dealerships or piggyback onto State contracts.

CAL WORTHINGTON FORD “The benefits of buying through the commercial department are pricing, of course, and the streamlined process we use to accommodate business,” said

56

Teresa Winter, commercial sales manager for Cal Worthington Ford in Anchorage. “A lot of our clients aren’t here, so we provide quotes via e-mail and fax, install bedliners and Arctic gear, and make transportation arrangements for them using airplane, barge or truck.”

Winter says the dealership sells to states, cities, local governments, the Alaska Railroad, car-rental companies, oil companies and numerous small businesses.

“We understand time is money,” Winter said. “We save them time. I like the process when you’re dealing with business customers. They’re looking for the tool to do the job. Dealing with businesses is a lot easier because you know what they’re looking for. They want a vehicle to do the job; they’re

not looking for a particular color truck.”

She says the dealership sells specialty items such as telephone boom trucks, $200,000 welding trucks and dump trucks, as well as pickups, SUVs, cars and vans.

Winter says fleet sales flattened during the economic downturn.

“We’re not growing, but we haven’t been losing business,” she said.

KENDALL FORD Darryl Hornbeck manages commercial sales for Kendall Ford of Wasilla, which sells fleet vehicles to the State of Alaska, boroughs, North Slope companies, the Mat-Su school district, MEA and MTA. “If you want to buy a truck with a specific application to it, I want to get you in that right truck,” he said. “I just

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

ask questions about the application.

What body do you want put on the vehicle, say itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a cab chassis. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a plumber, you need a body application. You need a certain box on there, certain ladder racks.â&#x20AC;?

A significant part of Kendallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fleet business is funneled through the State of Alaskaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website, which is becoming an increasingly more appealing option for thrift-minded public agencies and nonprofits.

STATE CONTRACTS The State negotiates contracts for a variety of vehicles and equipment, and qualifying entities can simply find what they need online.

Catherine Dwyer, a State contracting officer, facilitates these transactions.

She says they are a great way for public and nonprofit agencies to save money on new vehicles and equipment. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Historically, I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t tell you when (the website-aided process) began, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been doing for quite a while,â&#x20AC;? Dwyer said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re fleet vehicles, so the pricing is substantially less.â&#x20AC;?

Dwyer said buying via the State website is best for organizations that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need their vehicles immediately. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It takes longer to receive them, since theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re actually building those fleets,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It can take up to six months to get these. Dealers, when they give us this fleet pricing, the profit is very minimal, but they sell more.â&#x20AC;?

A new, three-quarter-ton pickup, for example, can be had for â&#x20AC;&#x153;the low $20,000s, which is unheard of,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not using the contract, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s certainly costing them more. I recently bought a new pickup for myself personally. If Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d bought it on the State contract, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d guesstimate it would have cost a third less.â&#x20AC;?

The vehicles offered on the State contract award site are basically outfitted. They have all the necessary safety features, but little to nothing in the way of luxurious appointments. Spreadsheets, however, allow potential buyers to choose certain options to upgrade their vehicle. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We make it clear theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the ones making it happen, they have to ask the vendors,â&#x20AC;? Dwyer said.

A significant part of Kendallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fleet business is funneled through the State of Alaskaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website, which is becoming an increasingly more appealing option for thrift-minded public agencies and nonprofits.

Light-duty vehicles are the ones purchased in the highest volume and consistently appear on the website, with contracts rebid and awarded on a revolving basis. The dealership that wins most of those light-duty contracts, Dwyer said, is Kendall Ford. Alaska Sales and Service and Cal Worthington

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Ford also consistently receive a high number of awards, she said.

The State itself bought 566 pieces of model year 2010 equipment, said Dwyer, who buys vehicles and other equipment for the Alaska Department of Transportation. Those purchases included everything from graders to sedans. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Because we purchase statewide, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be tough to beat,â&#x20AC;? Dwyer said.

It is also possible to purchase used vehicles at State auctions, but Dwyer said buyers should be cautious. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When (the State) gets rid of vehicles, we figure weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got the best we can out of it,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t pick and choose too much at auctions. It is what it is.â&#x20AC;?

CITY OF WASILLA Josie Judd, the city of Wasillaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s purchasing and contracting officer, uses the State website for the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public works and police departments. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If we utilize the State contract, I write a purchase order for whatever vehicle is on contract,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If the specifications on the State contract are not what we needed, we would go out to bid.â&#x20AC;?

Judd said going out to bid independently requires time to advertise the bid in the newspaper and on the State website. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very streamlined if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ordering off the State contract,â&#x20AC;? she said.

Wasilla now uses Dodge Chargers for its police fleet. Sometimes, however, police need to venture into areas where four-wheel-drive vehicles are necessary.

A Look at One Fleet Dealer

A

Seekins Ford-Lincoln-Mercury

laska-owned and -operated, Seekins Ford-Lincoln-Mercury has been one of the top commercial vehicle sales and service dealers in the Pacific Northwest for years. Established in 1977, Seekins Ford has sales locations in both Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay â&#x20AC;&#x201C; providing a good selection of in-stock vehicles at both locations without any additional freight charges.

Commercial sales and leasing manager, Steve Angel (25 years with Seekins), and his crew are veterans in properly upfitting vehicles for all kinds of commercial and specialty service in sub-Arctic and Arctic environments.

Knowing that vehicle downtime is costly, Seekins Ford inventories a huge parts inventory.

For example, the dealership is currently ranked the second highest Ford dealer in the Pacific Northwest for wholesale parts sales, and well up in the top 100 Ford dealers in the nation.

Ford authorized repair facilities in Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay provide for speedy repairs by certified technicians â&#x20AC;&#x201C; further reducing vehicle down-time.

Judd recently supplemented the Charger fleet with three Tahoes by soliciting bids, since the State website didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the specific four-wheel-drive vehicle the city wanted at that time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If we need more replacement vehicles, we may get some Dodge Chargers,â&#x20AC;? Judd said.

ALASKA RAILROAD CORP. The Alaska Railroad Corp. currently operates 209 owned and leased vehicles. Most are owned, unless there is a specific short-term project that requires the ARRC to lease for a given period. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our projected replacement plan for the next eight years is to invest $1.7 million or replace approximately 20 vehicles annually,â&#x20AC;? said ARRC Fleet Manager David Thompsen in an e-mail. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Due to the downturn in the economy, we have been

Transportation Tank & Trailer Service Center Before

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accomplishing about half that much.â&#x20AC;?

Except for a few exceptions, most of the Railroadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s purchases are made through companies in Alaska, including Cal Worthington Ford, Kendall Ford, Alaska Sales and Service, Lithia Chevrolet of South Anchorage, Cascadia, Kenworth Alaska, Trailercraft, Quality Equipment and Delta Leasing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We do the majority upfitting of these vehicles, including the installation of hyrail gear, at two Alaska companies â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Truckwell and Bobâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Services,â&#x20AC;? Thompsen said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Purchasing from fleet dealers through the ARRC procurement process generally allows us a $5,000 to $10,000 cost reduction per vehicle over (the manufacturerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suggested retail price).â&#x20AC;?

The ARRC uses a wide variety of vehicle sizes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have no passenger cars,â&#x20AC;?

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Thompsen said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Most all our vehicles up to 26,000 (pounds, in gross vehicle weight) do have four-wheel or all-wheel drive. We have SUVs for hauling crews and staff transportation.

The majority of the work trucks are one ton. We have a fleet of 25 that require commercial drivers licenses.â&#x20AC;?

Thompsen said hyrail gear is installed on 85 vehicles, giving them the ability to travel on road as well as rail.

Most of the trucks also have specialized gear for the many different railroad functions, including special service boxes for storage, hydraulics for tools, cranes to lift, welders, torches and storage for specialized tools. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We also have a small police force with the police packages,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have developed special packages that we have installed on each vehicle.

Each vehicle gets a standardized winterization, safety and light package. All our vehicles do have backup alarms on them. We also believe in several lights, as we work out in dark conditions most of the year. These include strobe lights, backup lights, extra driving lights, work lights, spotlights, and lights on stairs and walkway areas.â&#x20AC;?

Thompsen says the Alaska Railroad has made great advancements in downsizing over the past few years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have cut the fleet by about 10 percent and have downsized several of the replacements,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;An example is several Chevrolet Suburbans are now Ford Escapes.

We have enforced not being overloaded. We have even converted some vehicles to (compressed natural gas) and have a slow-fill station.â&#x20AC;?

CITY OF PALMER Jonathan C. Owen, the city of Palmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s director of public safety, buys vehicles for the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fire and police departments.

Last winter, he used grant money to purchase two Dodge Chargers through the Stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Just the basic vehicle, $26,318 per vehicle,â&#x20AC;? said Owen, who has also used the website to buy fire command pickup trucks. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You can go through that contract without a bid. Bids have already been done. It saves local entities having to write up (requests for proposal). Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a tremendous help to local governments.â&#x20AC;? â?&#x2018;

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www.akbizmag.com â&#x20AC;˘ Alaska Business Monthly â&#x20AC;˘ September 2010

TRANSPORTATION

Air Cargo Mission Making life better in rural Alaska Photo by Russel

Smail

Photo courtesy of Northern Air Cargo

Astroturf destined for the Barrow High School football field on the tarmac at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, ready for a Northern Air Cargo flight to Barrow. Inset above left: A happy customer in Anaktuvuk Pass after ERA delivered an ATV via Sherpa aircraft.

BY JULIE STRICKER

H

ere is a story that may sound familiar: An epidemic threatens a remote Alaska village and vaccines are desperately needed.

The village is hundreds of miles off the road system, so alternate transportation must be arranged. Many people work together to come up with a solution and by their efforts, the vaccines reach the village and potential illnesses are averted.

While it is a familiar scenario – think of the deadly 1925 diphtheria outbreak in Nome in which heroic mushers and sled dog teams famously battled bliz-

zards to deliver the serum – few realize a similar vaccine delivery happened with little fuss or fanfare just last year.

The vaccine was needed to stave off a feared pandemic of H1N1 flu. It was part of an Alaska Air Cargo shipment, one of the more notable deliveries out of thousands. The need was the same as in 1925, says Joe Samudovsky, director of cargo sales for Alaska Air Cargo, “only instead of sled dogs, we used our fleet of planes.”

It’s an illustration of how much has changed, and how much hasn’t, in rural Alaska in the past century.

AIR CARGO MISSION Airplanes long ago displaced dog teams as the main mode of transportation, and air cargo carriers are a lifeline for people in rural Alaska. But Alaska is still huge, with extreme terrain and unpredictable weather. Airplanes and fuel are expensive, business is unpredictable and the rules governing air cargo carriers are often in flux. For the carriers, however, serving rural Alaska is more than business, it’s a mission to raise the quality of life for people living in remote areas.

“We realize air service and cargo service in Alaska is not a luxury, it’s

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

61

a necessity,” says Torque Zubeck, managing director for Alaska Air Cargo. “Our workers feel a real sense of mission. They’d rather fly cargo; they know how people rely on it.”

No other place in the US is so dependent on air cargo. Some statistics from the Alaska Air Carriers Association: ✮ Alaska is one-fifth the size of the Lower 48, but only 18 percent of the state is accessible by road. ✮ Almost 1 ton of freight per Alaskan is shipped each year, 39 times higher than the rest of the country. ✮ Alaska has six times as many pilots and 16 times as many aircraft per person in comparison with the United States in general. ✮ Aviation employs 10 percent of Alaska’s total work force and contributes $3.5 billion to the state economy. ✮ The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities owns 253 rural airports. Hundreds of other airports and landing strips are registered with the State. ✮ There are more than 300 commercial operators in the state.

62

SUBSIDIZED SHIPPING Carriers transport almost anything that can be moved, from staples such as groceries, soda pop, diapers and construction materials to cars, generators, Astro-Turf, vaccines, a baby walrus, horses and portable toilets. The cost of shipping would be prohibitively expensive if it wasn’t for a federal program that subsidizes air carriers for part of the cost.

Commonly called bypass mail, the program is unique to Alaska. It was proposed by then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens in the 1970s as a way to keep costs down in rural Alaska. It allows bulk shipments of goods and materials to be sent on private air carriers at parcel post rates, bypassing normal postal sorting processes. The system is subsidized by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) – at a cost in excess of $100 million per year.

The bypass mail system was designed to improve mail delivery to rural residents and provide better passenger service to remote areas. The bypass system helped stabilize the markets and provided consistent service to customers, Zubeck acknowledges, but

some problems were soon apparent.

Loopholes allowed mom-and-pop carriers to get subsidized for carrying the mail, which meant some small communities were getting deliveries from multiple carriers.

In 2002, Stevens revised the program, giving more mail to airlines carrying more passengers and requiring carriers to boost their safety certifications. The Rural Services Improvement Act (RSIA) designated four carriers – Alaska Airlines, Air Cargo Express, Lynden Air Cargo and Northern Air Cargo – to carry the bulk of the mail on “mainline” routes between Anchorage or Fairbanks and regional hubs such as Bethel or Kotzebue.

From the regional hubs, smaller carriers take the mail to outlying villages. These carriers have a strong regional presence. They are supplemented by hundreds of other carriers that don’t have mail contracts, but still deliver passengers and freight to isolated communities.

For instance, Bethel-based Ryan Air has been in operation since 1953 and serves 73 villages in Southwest

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

Alaska. Nome-based Bering Air has scheduled flights to 32 villages in Western Alaska and offers charter flights throughout Alaska and to Canada and the Russian Far East.

Warbelow’s Air Ventures, based in Fairbanks, serves villages in Alaska’s vast Interior and Arctic regions. In the Southeast archipelago, Juneau-based Alaska Seaplane Service runs a fleet of floatplanes that travel to many of that region’s remotest areas.

INDUSTRY REDEFINED The 2002, RSIA bypass mail changes forced many air carriers out of business.

In the following years, bankruptcies, buyouts and mergers have dramatically reshaped the air cargo industry in Alaska.

Era Aviation, which was floundering financially, was bought by Frontier Flying Service in 2005.

Frontier also absorbed Cape Smythe Air, Hageland Aviation Services and Arctic Circle Air. It rebranded itself as Era Alaska and is Alaska’s largest regional airline, serving communities such as Anchorage, Aniak, Barrow, Bethel, Cordova, Fairbanks, Kenai, Kodiak, Homer and Valdez.

To Don Singsaas, director of cargo and logistics for Era Alaska, it’s a pattern that has been repeated throughout Alaska’s aviation history: smaller carriers getting rolled into larger ones.

Some fail. Others take their place and the process repeats. It’s a trend he welcomes. Bigger companies are able to take advantage of economies of scale when it comes to negotiating fuel and insurance prices, he says.

Now Era Alaska has a larger range of aircraft and expertise to work with and Singaas says it can mix and match passenger and cargo capacities to suit the customers’ needs.

“It’s fun, challenging, exasperating, all rolled into one,” Singaas says. “It’s always interesting to hear the phone ring because you never know what’s on the other end and what kind of a solution you’ll have to come up with.”

Connecting Alaska’s Communities.

For more than 75 years we’ve served Alaska’s urban centers and remote villages. Alaska Air Cargo employees like Mary understand the unique challenges of delivering shipments across the Last Frontier.

With same- and next-day service ervice to 19 Alaska destinations and beyond, yond, Alaska Air Cargo is proud to serve our state and the people who ho live here.

TM

EXPENSIVE PACT Another criticism of the bypass mail system is its cost – estimated at well more than $100 million per year. The USPS, which is mandated to operate

U N B E A T A B L E

F R E Q U E N C Y

I

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

63

Every journey ends with a homecoming No matter where you travel across Alaska, coming home can be the best part of your trip. With routes to more than 100 communities, Era Alaska connects you to all corners of the state and — more importantly — back to where you call home.

For more information, visit us online at

flyera.com or call 800-866-8394

in the black, is still looking at ways to cut costs, often by changing the routes or regulations, which leads to greater uncertainty for air cargo carriers.

“It definitely affects our ability to plan for the future,” says Blake Arrington of Northern Air Cargo. “The aircraft we fly are expensive, and the less certainty we have about the future, the harder it is to evaluate the financial risk.”

Northern Air Cargo, which has been in business for 55 years, tries to keep the lines of dialogue open with the postal service.

“We don’t always agree on the best ways to save money,” Arrington says, but “we understand their need for increased efficiency.”

The most efficient way to serve the 20 communities in its namesake state required Alaska Air Cargo to invest $100 million in a fleet of aircraft designed for rural Alaska, says Alaska Air Cargo’s Zubeck. The five 737 “combis” carry a mix of cargo and passengers and are supplemented by a dedicated freight plane for Alaska routes.

Alaska Air has been serving the state for 75 years and its network encompasses the width and breadth of the United States. “We can take something from Barrow and take it all the way to Miami,” Zubeck says.

Its Goldstreak service also allows customers to ship critical parts or documents with same-day delivery. Alaska Air is successful because it works to understand its customers’ businesses, says director of cargo sales Samudovsky.

“We try to understand their business inside and out, from seafood to petroleum to mining,” he says.

That led to a partnership with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute to develop a program that would boost seafood quality during shipping. Alaska Air employees are trained to follow a “cool chain” program to provide a temperature-controlled environment to keep fish as fresh as possible from ocean to stores and restaurants, says Zubeck. The higher quality fish keep longer with stores.

MONKEY WRENCH All of Alaska’s air carriers face a challenge that outstrips handling exotic or hazardous cargoes, rising costs and everchanging regulations – Mother Nature.

64

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

Photo by Russel Smail

Alaska’s difficult terrain – along with rain, sleet, snow, extreme cold, fog, ice fog and the occasional volcanic eruption – can throw the best-laid plans off-kilter.

Alaska’s weather has always been extreme and unpredictable, but today’s pilots have better tools to handle it, says Singaas, who started his Bush pilot career 30 years ago in Fort Yukon.

“We’ve come a long ways from those days when you had to maneuver by trees and rivers.”

Planes are equipped with Capstone or NextGen technologies that incorporate Global Positioning Systems and maps that show pilots in relationship to the terrain. Some planes include collision avoidance systems. The GPS alone is a wonderful navigation aid, Singaas says. It allows pilots to reach their destinations more directly and helps save fuel and time.

Alaska Air is using Required Navigation Performance (RNP) technology to land planes in several towns that have topographical or weather-related challenges (or both), such as Adak, Ketchikan, Kodiak and Juneau. The

Loading L di h horses iinto t an ERA Sh Sherpa aircraft i ft att L Lake k Mi Minchumina h i

technology provides computer-plotted landing paths with better accuracy by using GPS and onboard navigation technology. Airline officials say it is safer and more reliable than groundbased navigation aids.

Singaas’ favorite new technology is the Federal Aviation Administration webcam system (akweathercams.faa.gov/).

These cameras show a real-time image of airports and terrain features such as mountain passes. Now pilots can see for themselves what the weather is like at a given destination, instead of relying on a sometimes

overly optimistic verbal report from a village agent who might be waiting for a particular shipment.

Northern Air Cargo employees may sympathize with what that eager agent though. They know what it means to live and work in remote places, Arrington says.

“It is a great source of pride for our personnel, especially in sales, when they can walk through a town and identify a building based on the fact that most of the materials were hauled

by NAC,” he said. “We are proud to be able to say ‘we helped build that.’” ❑

Shipping to Alaska might seem complicated, but Span Alaska has spent over 30 years finding the right solutions for our customers.

With decades of experience moving freight to and throughout Alaska, no one is better equipped to handle all your transportation needs. Across the country or across the state, we know how to get the job done. And get it done right. Because we don’t just move freight – we deliver satisfaction.

Mike Landry, President 1.800.257.7726 www.spanalaska.com www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

65

TECHNOLOGY

Mobile Applications Getting more done on the go

Photos courtesy of AT&T

BY TRACY BARBOUR

HTC Aria

iPhone

Samsung Captivate

Blackberry Bold 900

Photo courtesy of ACS

I

n today’s business world, work isn’t always restricted to an eighthour day. At least not at Pacific

Anand Vadapalli Chief Operations Officer ACS

66

Alaska Freightways. The company’s six or so Alaska-based salespeople use Blackberries, iPhones and personal digital assistants to get business done when they’re away from the office.

“We don’t shut off at 5 o’clock,” said Bill Meszaros, vice president Alaska.

“We’re always connected.”

The sales team employs mobile applications – mostly for e-mailing and texting – to respond to customers’ needs. “If they get an e-mail from a client for pricing or to ship a product, they can answer them immediately,” Meszaros explained. “It enables them to stay out on the road longer, which allows them to do more sales calls.”

Pacific Alaska Freightways is among a growing number of businesses relying on mobile applications to squeeze more tasks into the work day. Mobile applications – basically mini computer programs designed to perform specific tasks – allow users to handle various functions, from communications and information access to computing and

LG Incite

business process solutions. Mobile apps enable companies to turn laptops, cell phones and other wireless devices into powerful tools that can enhance their efficiency, productivity and the bottom line.

USE, IMPORTANCE INCREASE Wireless applications give companies more control over where they engage in business, as well as decrease costs and increase revenue, according to Anand Vadapalli, chief operations officer of Alaska Communications Systems.

“Mobility allows the conduct of business on your terms – where you want and when you want,” Vadapalli says.

“Clearly there are the benefits of improved productivity when employees who travel a lot or work substantially outside an office environment are able to access their data and business applications from mobile devices. However, companies can also drive significant revenue opportunities by making their business more mobile. As an example,

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

AlaskaRealEstate.com provides an application to be downloaded to your Smartphone that allows you to search for properties in and around the area you are currently at. This is an excellent revenue opportunity for Realtors.”

Wireless applications for business are growing in importance. In market research completed earlier this year

by ACS, nearly all of the businesses surveyed said they have remote workers who rely on mobile applications.

And in an October 2009, ACS hosted business roundtable discussion on the topic of business mobility; some of Alaska’s top information technology leaders indicated they had made a number of business functions mobile, such as e-mail access, network monitoring, remote access and some dispatch tasks. They also said they wanted to make many more business functions mobile in the next 12 months, including inventory tracking, asset tracking, videoconferencing and sales tools. “It’s no longer just about mobility or connectivity,” Vadapalli says. “It’s about what you can do with that mobility.”

SMARTPHONE-DRIVEN DEMAND So what’s driving the adoption of mobile applications for business? In a single word: smartphones.

“Our integrated smartphone sales are what’s fueling the expansion of mobile applications,” says Patrick Fraser, director of sales, AT&T Mobility Alaska. “AT&T business solutions have increased by 4 million customers over a year ago. One out of two business customers are purchasing the integrated devices.”

Fraser says mobile application spending is rapidly growing on the national level, increasing from $241.8 million in 2008 to a projected $616 million by 2012. Two mobile applications, in particular, are generating a great deal of attention: ProntoForms and Xora GPS Timetrack. ProntoForms enable companies to convert paper forms, such as timesheets, into data. Xora is an enterprise-grade mobile work force management software that helps businesses keep track of their workers and vehicles to reduce overtime and fuel costs.

Smartphones – like the BlackBerry Bold, iPhone, HTC Aria and Samsung

Captivate – offer advanced computing capabilities, which makes them high-powered, versatile tools for business. “What these latest devices have in them is the equivalent of what PCs had five years ago,” says Marc Faucher, a partner with BlackBerry Partners Fund, a Toronto, Canada, venture capital firm. The Fund invests in North American companies developing applications that make smartphones a compelling platform for commerce, media, enterprise, entertainment and lifestyle applications.

Modern smartphones can do almost anything a personal computer can do, Faucher adds. They have large, multi-touch screens, an intuitive interface and fast network feeds. However, these phones are best used for tasks that don’t require a large screen for input or output. “It’s a device form factor,” he says. “You’re not going to browse a spreadsheet or create a PowerPoint presentation on a smartphone.”

REMOTE MANAGEMENT According to Vadapalli of ACS, the most pervasive use of mobile applications is checking e-mail on the go. But that’s just a starting point, he says. Businesses are using smartphones for hundreds of mobile applications, from expense tracking to checking medical reference information. “Increasingly, IT professionals are using Smartphones to remotely manage their corporate hardware and applications from anywhere,” Vadapalli says.

“Over time, we expect companies to start extending more applications they use in running their businesses to their mobile devices.”

Sales forces are among the primary users of mobile applications. The sales team at Pacific Alaska Freightways, for example, relies on e-mail to respond quickly to clients. “Our customers do a lot of emailing,” Meszaros says. “They don’t want to wait a day or two for responses.”

In the near future, Meszaros says, Pacific Alaska Freightways anticipates expanding its use of mobile applications beyond e-mailing and texting to include software that is more specific to their business.

GCI Commercial Applications Consultant Greg Schlabaugh says mobile

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67

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e-mail is a key mobile application for business. Not only can it affect productivity, but it also can impact the overall effectiveness of an organization. For example, a mechanic out in the field could snap a picture of a broken part, e-mail it back to the office and have someone order the exact part, pick the part up later and make the necessary repair â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all without having to log onto a computer or make a trip back to the office. â&#x20AC;&#x153;E-mail is critical for a business â&#x20AC;&#x201C; no matter what size,â&#x20AC;? Schlabaugh said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It gives the small business owner or manager a leg up on the competition.â&#x20AC;?

The real estate industry was one of the early adopters of using mobile e-mail, according to Schlabaugh. Realtors in aggressive markets can preview a house that has just hit the market, take a photo of it with their smartphone and e-mail it to a customer. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You need to leverage technology and increase your responsiveness to your customers,â&#x20AC;? Schlabaugh says.

Schlabaugh points out many of the mobile apps being used today arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t entirely business-centric, but they do have an important role to play in business. Travel apps are a good example because workers can use them to book hotels, keep track of their itinerary and other administrative tasks. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Any company that has mobile employees can really benefit from mobile apps,â&#x20AC;? he says.

FINDING MOBILE APPS

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68

As smartphones become more integrated and the demand for mobile apps increases, developers are making apps more useful for a variety of business tasks. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re also making them more accessible. Mobile applications can come from a variety of sources.

Large companies, like FedEx, have the capital to spend on custom-built applications that integrate into their specific back-end systems. These solutions are more tailored, comprehensive and expensive.

Small- and medium-size businesses with lower budgets tend to stick with off-the-shelf apps, according to Schlabaugh. Where users get their applications generally depends on the type of device they have. â&#x20AC;&#x153;BlackBerryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s apps can be purchased on the handset,â&#x20AC;? he explains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you have an iPhone, you use the app store. If you have an

www.akbizmag.com â&#x20AC;˘ Alaska Business Monthly â&#x20AC;˘ September 2010

Android phone, you can open up the market application on your phone.”

Another way to obtain mobile applications is through software developers that make business-specific applications – whether for desktop PC or mobile use. An application developer that creates financial, accounting or sales software may create an extension of that for mobile use. “What they’re realizing is that they have to wrap mobile application into their package to be competitive,” Schlabaugh says.

A big avenue for applications is mobile carriers such as AT&T, GCI and ACS. These companies don’t develop specific mobile applications. Instead, they work through third-party partners to offer solutions that address their customers’ needs. Take, for example, AT&T’s recent agreement to offer AprivaPay and AprivaPay Professional. These mobile applications enable users to process credit and debit card payments through the browser on their smartphones. They essentially allow workers to turn their cell phones into mobile point-of-sale devices, creating a “virtual storefront” in the field.

“Apriva would be fantastic for smallto medium-size businesses, especially merchants,” Fraser says. “It would be extremely efficient for workers, and it would enhance their productivity, as well.”

Apriva applications provide small businesses with a reliable and secure way to seamlessly tap into what is projected to be a growing market. According to independent research firm Generator Research, the worldwide mobile payments market is expected to expand from $68 billion in 2009 to more than $600 billion by 2014 – a compound annual growth rate of more than 50 percent over the next five years.

As another alternative, Google Apps is quickly gaining favor with more price-sensitive business users. In fact, the popular applications are now being preloaded on some Android-powered mobile phones. More than 2 million businesses run Google Apps, which compete with Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes.

Intuitive applications like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs can help reduce a company’s IT costs and help employees collaborate more effectively for just $50 per user per year.

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Google Apps is designed to provide users with seamless access to information regardless of location or device. It supports access to Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs and Contacts from most common types of smartphones, including BlackBerry, iPhone and Android devices. For example, individuals who download Google Calendar can receive two-way wireless synchronization from Google Calendar to their BlackBerry, including the ability to accept/decline meetings, schedule new meetings, move meeting times and add/remove attendees. They can sync information in Google Calendar with their BlackBerry calendar, so whether they add new appointments from their phone or from their computer, they always have access to their up-to-date schedule.

APP CHALLENGES While mobile applications present a tremendous opportunity, they also create challenges. One of the main challenges is device fragmentation. Unlike with computers, which are commonly built around Microsoft Windows, different smartphones run off a number

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of operating systems: Android, Apple and Windows. In addition, there are also different carriers in the mix.

A lack of mobile strategy is another issue. Large enterprise customers have developed a strategy and standards for the use of mobile technology, Schlabaugh of GCI says. They typically have stipulations on what type of smartphones employees can use and how they access company data. But for many smaller businesses, the end user drives mobile adoption, and no such protocols are established. That’s where Schlabaugh comes in. “My job is to work with our customers, find out their needs and point them in the right direction when it comes to mobile applications,” he says. “I’ll sit down with them and try to help develop their mobile strategy.”

Schlabaugh says it generally doesn’t matter what type of smartphone workers use for their mobile applications.

However, he recommends that employees check with their IT department regarding capabilities, security and other issues. “Before you go out and spend a lot of money on the latest,

greatest handset and software, focus on your goals and requirements,” he says. “Let that drive the purchase of a smartphone, not what’s cool and hip.”

Schlabaugh also advises employees to focus on security when using their devices. A smartphone represents a huge liability because it has the ability to access the company’s system. Therefore, employees should safeguard their smartphone like their wallet. Schlabaugh strongly advocates using a password-protection system and changing the password regularly.

“When you have a smartphone, it’s more than just a phone,” he says. “In some instances, it’s more valuable than a wallet.”

In addition to meeting with a consultant like Schlabaugh, companies that need help choosing mobile applications can take advantage of AT&T’s Small Business Mobile Application Recommender Tool. Known as SMART, the tool lets users explore different products and get recommendations on what will best meet their needs. SMART can be accessed online ❑ at www.att.com/smart.

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

HEALTH & MEDICINE

Avante Medical Center Integrating naturopathic and traditional medicine

BY JODY ELLIS-KNAPP

©2010 Chris Arend

I

t wasn’t long ago that the idea of combining naturopathic and traditional medicines was unheard of.

Traditional doctors were likely to discount holistic treatments, while naturopathic doctors wanted to steer patients away from what they considered unnecessary medications and procedures. As researchers and doctors have learned more about different aspects of medical techniques on both fronts, integrated medicine has become a normal part of health care, with patients today enjoying the best of both worlds and doctors utilizing a variety of options.

Avante Medical Center is one of the premiere providers of integrated medicine in Anchorage. Built by Dr. Jason Harmon, ND (Naturopathic Doctor), and Bethany Buchanan, ANP (Advanced Nurse Practioner), in 2002, Avante was created to specifically focus on comprehensive, integrated medical care and give patients a wider range of choices in health care.

Harmon, a fourth generation Alaskan, was drawn toward naturopathic medicine after a back injury led him to seek out alternative methods of treatment. Working with acupuncture and other natural methods, he found his injury healed more quickly than anticipated. His interest led to his attending Bastyr University in Seattle, a private, accredited institution of natural medicine.

“I chose Bastyr,” Harmon says, “because they focus on bringing science and research to the forefront of the naturopathic field.”

Harmon returned to Anchorage after finishing school and built Avante. He specializes in integrative oncology and diabetic pathology, also working with cases involving integrative internal medicine.

Avante Medical Center founder Dr. Jason Harmon, ND, and Sue Tollefsen, director of HR and business development.

“The main focus for me was to bring together the different fields, creating a progressive practice,” Harmon says. He has seen many changes in the integrated health field over the last 10 years, what he calls a “fusion of care.”

“The term ‘holistic’ has become a little outdated, but still applies, as it refers to treating the whole person,” he says. “Patients don’t have to choose one or the other anymore. Avante can treat from a traditional primary care setting, in addition to the naturopathic treatments.”

Avante showcases this fusion of care in a myriad of ways, with specialized services that include acupuncture, myofascial trigger point therapy, IV therapy, allergy testing and treatment,

and pulse light therapy. Services also include primary care, integrative whole family care, and integrative oncology care. “Offering all of this under one roof is very beneficial.” Harmon says. “It helps create a continuity of care, with providers working as a team.”

Harmon ensures the atmosphere of the medical center is not sterile or cold, instead providing a warm, soothing environment with plants and flowers, soft colors and a large beautiful fish tank in the lobby. Its offices house 15 providers, with 10 exam rooms, two separate lobbies, an allergy department, lab and IV area, and its own supplement room where patients can pick up their supplements before they leave the medical center.

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In regards to how integrated care can make a difference for various ailments, Harmon offers several examples. “Sometimes, especially during treatments such as chemotherapy, the conventional therapies cannot move forward because the patient’s body is unable to tolerate it. Integrated medicine works as a support to conventional medicine, with treatments that help physical pain and weakness, strengthening the body so the patient can get through treatment.”

Avante’s IV therapy has proven to be especially helpful to chemotherapy patients, as well as being used in postand pre-operative treatments. The IVs consist of several different “cocktails” that provide high doses of different vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, specially combined to address certain health issues.

“IV treatments have shown to reduce recovery time significantly,” Harmon says. “Also, conditions such as high blood pressure are another great example of how integrated medicine works. A patient must have medication to treat the high blood pressure, but also needs to know what other things they can do to help reduce the high blood pressure, and be given the tools to do so.”

Avante’s natural therapies can also help patients with high blood pressure, chronic pain, menopause and fertility. Women’s health support and integrative oncology are two of the primary specialties at Avante. Eight practitioners specialize in women’s health, including routine annual exams, bio-identical hormone treatments and pregnancy care. The integrative oncology practice offers support on several levels for cancer patients, combining the best in natural and traditional medical treatments, working safely with oncologists’ treatment plans and giving patients more control.

Avante also gets involved on the community level, offering several classes and lectures each month, both at their offices and other places around Anchorage. Events include nutrition lectures, food allergy classes, introduction to raw foods and a book club.

Many are free to the public or only charge a nominal fee.

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Sue Tollefsen is the director of HR and business development at Avante.

She previously worked for Providence Heath and Services, coming to work for Avante upon retirement and after being a patient herself. She has seen first-hand the benefits of integrated care.

“In 1998, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer that had metastasized to all of her lymph nodes,” she says. “The oncologist she was seeing in Florida said she had three to six months to live. He said that chemo might prolong her life a few more months. She opted for the chemo and we immediately called Harmon. He referred us to a naturopathic oncology doctor in Chelmsford, Conn. Harmon and Dr. Belanger reviewed all her scans and tests. They immediately prescribed several natural supplements and Chinese herbs, as well as adjusting her diet with a highly nutritional program for cancer. She religiously followed the protocols and within a year her cancer was in remission.”

Tollefsen states her mother continued with an adjusted protocol and lived for eight more years, enjoying an excellent quality of life, additional years she would not have had if she had not made the choice to utilize integrated medicine.

Clinic Director Kathe Boucha also worked for Providence Health prior to coming to Avante. She was invited to join the Avante team by Harmon after she retired from Providence, bringing with her more than 25 years of experience. Boucha’s background includes integrated health care from a business perspective, which has helped her continue to build Avante’s reputation.

“It’s exciting to see that most insurance companies now pay for naturopathic therapies, making it easier for patients to seek treatment,” she said.

Boucha provides an overview of how patients are treated at Avante.

“The initial consultation with patients is usually at least an hour, up to an hour and a half,” she says. “We take sincere, intimate time with patients, asking in-depth questions. Our goal is to empower people in managing their care. We have had patients tell us that they have never been asked so many caring, open-ended questions, or had such an in-depth history taken. When a patient leaves our offices, they should understand not only what we can do for them, but also what they need to do to participate in their own care. All of the information I’ve been reading about health care reform, that’s something Harmon has already been working toward, with his continued work toward self-care, better diagnoses, prevention and overall wellness.”

Harmon and his staff are especially excited about a new branch of the Avante offices. Located in the Providence Hospital U tower, this 2,500-square-foot satellite office is a first of its kind in Alaska, and the result of many years of working to open doors and minds to the importance of integrated medicine. There are six providers at the new location, giving patients access to both traditional and naturopathic medicine in one location.

Never before has Alaska had such a strong showing of the alliance between traditional and naturopathic medicine.

“Patients are now enjoying a much broader scope of care,” Harmon says.

“More and more providers take into account the importance and benefit of integrated medicine. Patients have more choices, can choose less invasive forms of therapy while combining traditional treatments, and have more control over their health care.”

Every day, research uncovers new treatments, cures and advances in medicine. With Avante leaning toward comprehensive care, the concept of integrated medicine is no longer considered unusual or off-the-grid.

Modern science is now realizing naturopathic medicine can successfully treat many health issues, and Avante Medical Center has proven that combining the best in scientific research and advances, alongside proven natural healing methods, gives us more choices, more options and most impor❑ tantly, a better quality of life.

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

HEALTH & MEDICINE

Winter Recreation An hour a day keeps obesity away

Photo by Cathryn Posey/ACVB

Each geocache can range in size, from just a 35mm film case with a logbook, to a five gallon bucket packed with trade items.

BY PEG STOMIEROWSKI

W

inter recreation is more than a spectator sport in Alaska. Given that overweight and obesity figures are a growing statewide concern, getting out of the house or office and staying active and engaged through the winter months can be a matter of good health and emotional balance.

STAYING ACTIVE Dr. Michael Orzechowski, who practices family and sports medicine in Anchorage, also practices what he preaches to his patients about the benefits of indoor and outdoor exercise in building strength and endurance, avoiding the obesity epidemic and slowing the aging process.

In the winter, he stays active in volleyball and fencing, two sports that

enjoy widespread appeal and offer many role models in Anchorage, and he works out in two-hour sessions at least twice a week. Hundreds of medals and dozens of trophies attest to his athletic passions. He also enjoys racketball, and in the summer, hiking.

Even in winter, Orzechowski’s physician assistant, Gerald Kidd, bikes to work (on studded tires) and has been known to strap on skies and navigate a few cross-country trails nearby before work, at lunch or before leaving the office at day’s end. Anchorage, he says, is one of the very do-able cities for this kind of workday athletic pursuit.

“There are tons of trails here,” Kidd said, especially around Alaska Native Medical Center and Alaska Pacific University facilities. Many trails aren’t far from homes.

If you come to work prepared, taking a run on foot or skis for lunch, or before or after hours, is feasible. Sometimes all it takes is mapping out a strategy and sticking to it whether or not the physical results are immediately visible. For many people, that can be a challenge, but perseverance matters.

Generally it takes about three weeks, Kidd emphasizes, to develop a new habit. Many people tend to quit or interrupt a new routine prematurely because they don’t drop pounds or see positive results as fast as they’d want.

It’s best, he recommends, to view exercise as a form of budgeting that one needs to incorporate into the daily routine for the sake of general health and balance. “If you don’t budget for it,” he warns, “it will catch up with you.”

When he was younger, Orzechowski

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sought different thrills. “I don’t have the need for speed anymore,” he says.

Some years back, he injured his shoulder in an accident while he was snowmachining with his kids. He was flying along at 50 mph when it happened, and the injury required months of hard rehab to heal.

WINTER PURSUITS The trail system in Anchorage is first class, says Jack Bonney of the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB). The trails, many of which are well-groomed and lighted, stretch more than 100 miles through the city’s parks and green areas. Popular areas include the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, Kincaid Park, Russian Jack Park, Campbell Tract and Hillside Trails.

Besides cross-country skiing and winter biking, area residents in the long winter season embrace skijoring, dog mushing and snowshoeing. Anchorage also is home to many ice rinks and ponds offering competitive and recreational hockey leagues, as well as to figure skating, curling and speed skating. Activities range from hockey in the Ben Boeke Arena to afternoon skates on the pond in Town Square. If you don’t fancy a treadmill jaunt at one of the city’s many indoor athletic clubs, Bonney said, some indoor ice rinks also feature running tracks.

And whatever the season, such indoor facilities as the Dome and the O’Malley Sports Complex in Anchorage offer soccer fans, lacrosse teams and track-and-field enthusiasts icefree expanses.

Competitive girls volleyball is big in Anchorage – so big it’s the No. 1 female sport here and is becoming that as well in the Matanuska-Susitna (MatSu) Valley, says Orzechowski. While Midnight Sun teams snap up the most elite players – girls who may get full college scholarship rides for their skills – programs through the Anchorage Sports Association and the Boys and Girls Club draw from many talent levels.

On many busy nights, at the AT&T building at O’Malley and Old Seward behind the Alaska Club South, four games are going on at once, with a dozen girls on each team and many parents watching the action.

“It’s a hoot,” and it’s fairly cheap to

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participate, Ozechowski said of the Sports Association program. Meanwhile it provides “a lot of good exercise and a lot of good camaraderie.”

Fencing programs, including those at the Fencing Center of Alaska and the Anchorage Fencing Club (better for nonbeginners), he said, are especially good for high-intensity interval training. In other words, they alternate sweat-inducing workouts with pauses to catch one’s breath and restore one’s wits. Besides sharing some of the dojo elements the martial arts are known for, they are great, the doctor says, for getting the most bang for your buck in terms of cardiovascular workouts.

While to the uninitiated a fencing display may seem genteel or even chivalrous, being faced with an opponent who is trying to poke you with a sword is enough to trigger anyone’s flight-orflight impulses, Orzechowski says. “I could fence five minutes,” he added, “and have you sweating and gasping” for fear of being stabbed.

Geocaching, an adventurous pursuit that combines the passion for treasure hunting with interest in technology, including GPS units, is another comparatively new pursuit that gets people out and moving, even in winter. The ACVB has capitalized on interest in this latest activity. It’s best to learn the ropes in the summer, sources said, and dress for the weather if you participate in winter games.

MEDICAL NECESSITY According to “The Burden of Overweight and Obesity in Alaska,” a report issued in February by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, “Overweight and obesity are on the rise in Alaska, affecting individuals of all ages, from all areas of the state, of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, and with all levels of education and income.

This relatively rapid increase in obesity rates will have lasting impacts on the health and quality of life of Alaskans, as well as on the health care system long into the future.”

The report found “two out of three Alaska adults are overweight or obese, and many of these adults are already or will soon be dealing with obesity-related health issues, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure.”

Some of the key findings from “The Burden of Overweight and Obesity in Alaska” executive summary follow: ■ Between 1991 and 2007, the percent-

age of adults above a normal weight went from about half (49 percent) to nearly two-thirds (66 percent) of the adult population. During this time, while obesity rates doubled (from 13 percent to 27 percent), overweight rates remained relatively flat.

■ 27 percent of high school youth are above-normal in weight, with 11 percent obese.

■ 36 percent of K-12 students in the largest school district in Alaska are above a normal weight, including 33 percent of kindergartners and first graders.

■ Overweight and obesity are seen in all demographic subgroups in Alaska; however, disparities do exist. Adults with the highest rates of obesity are: ● American Indians/Alaska Natives (31 percent), compared to White Alaskans (25 percent). ● Older Alaskans (for example, 55- to 64-year-olds, 33 percent, compared to 18- to 24-year-olds, 13 percent). ● Women with low household incomes (less than $15,000 annually, 39 percent, compared to women with incomes over $75,000, 22 percent). ● Women with little educational attainment (less than high school, 33 percent) compared to women who have graduated from college (22 percent). ● Alaskans living in rural Alaska (30 percent), compared to all other regions (25-26 percent).

■ 75 percent of adults and 84 percent of high school students eat less than the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables daily.

■ Awareness of the recommendations regarding fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with sex, race, income, education and region of the state.

■ Access to healthy food in local stores is judged to be difficult or impossible for 15 percent of Alaska adults; 30 percent rate access to healthy food in local restaurants as difficult or impossible.

■ Only 19 percent of high school students are getting the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity daily.

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

Š2010 Chris Arend

Children should Child h ld b be active ti ffor att lleastt 60 minutes i t ad day.

AN HOUR A DAY While many people realize they should exercise more, Orzechowski said, often they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good for their physical and mental functioning; the latter, he said, grows in importance with age. His sports medicine patients who have embraced active lifestyles are much more compliant than his average patient.

As for the general health benefits of exercise, research suggests it takes as much as 120 minutes of regular aerobic exercise a week to improve a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lipids panel (cholesterol testing) , Orzechowski says.

Research also suggests a link between obesity and loss of sexual function, he said. The good news, he added, is that substantial improvement can be experienced upon losing even 10 pounds.

Children, he said, should be active for at least 60 minutes a day; research suggests that for Americans of all ages, only those who do about an hour of exercise a day have any chance of not

gaining weight unless caloric intake is restricted. Orzechowski encourages use of Nintendoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wii (pronounced â&#x20AC;&#x153;weâ&#x20AC;?) video game system for exercise at home in the winter months, but warns game users, as he does with any exercise, to be safe and careful and listen to their bodies.

Being strategic about budgeting oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s physical activities boosts the chances of success, Kidd added, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important, since success breeds success. He advises people to select activities they enjoy and some that they can do year-round. If itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not enjoyable, he said, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re more likely to falter in their exercise programs early on. In Anchorage, he said, skiing is good; good coaches and affordable gear are easy to find. Hilltop, Arctic Valley and nearby Alyeska are available for downhill and the city is traversed with Nordic trails.

When walking, a shorter stride in general burns more calories, Orzechowski says, and while a longer stride may enable you to move faster, it can take a â?&#x2018; greater toll on the body.

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www.akbizmag.com â&#x20AC;˘ Alaska Business Monthly â&#x20AC;˘ September 2010

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NATIVE BUSINESS SPECIAL SECTION

ANCSA Alaska Native Regional Corporations Holding Strong

Some losses, but gaining momentum

Photo by Clark James Mishler

BY JULIE STRICKER

Native dancers perform outside the new museum addition in downtown Anchorage.

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www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

©2010 Chris Arend

Pike is a subsistence staple in the NANA region.

U

ncertain times. Challenges. Opportunities. The title pages of annual reports from Alaska Native regional corporations attest to the difficulties of the recent economy and a rapidly changing world. Caught by

the national financial crisis that began 2007, many corporations suffered steep losses, but today are emerging from the Great Recession stronger and more diversified than ever.

The 12 Alaska-based corporations

Ahtna, Incorporated

have operations around the globe in such diverse fields as construction, government services, tourism, mining, oil field operations, hospitality, clean energy and technology. They are economic engines, creating thousands of

Corporate Headquarters: Anchorage Office: PO Box 649 406 W. Fireweed Lane Glennallen, Alaska 99588 Anchorage, Alaska 99503 Phone: (907) 822-3476 Phone: (907) 868-8250 www.ahtna-inc.com Ahtna, Inc., an Alaskan Native Corporation, is a global company providing exceptional construction and integrated services to both government and private sector clients.

Corporate Capabilities: • Civil Construction • Environmental Remediation Services • Facilities Support Services • Food Service Contractors • Fuels Management • Government Contracting • Janitorial Services • Oil & Gas Pipeline Construction • Surveying • Tourism • Vertical Construction For more information on Ahtna and our subsidiaries, visit us online at www.ahtna-inc.com. www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

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jobs in Alaska alone and pouring millions of dollars into scholarships and cultural programs for shareholders.

Based on annual revenue, 11 of the 15 largest private companies in Alaska are Native corporations and 21 of the top 40. In 2009, total revenues for the 12 Alaska-based regional corporations exceeded $7.2 billion.

They are a unique group, created by Congress under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act with dual financial and social mandates. Under ANCSA, Alaska’s Natives ceded

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control of 320 million acres of land in return for title to 44 million acres and $962.5 million, which was divided between 12 regional and 200 village corporations. A 13th corporation was later created for Alaska Natives living outside the state.

Not only are the corporations expected to create profitable businesses to support shareholders, they are also tasked with supporting shareholders’ cultural, educational and social needs.

After a rough start, Alaska’s Native regional corporations and many vil-

lage corporations have grown exponentially in the past decade, mainly due to government contracting. Under the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program, socially and economically disadvantaged groups receive preferences on government contracts.

Unlike others in the SBA 8(a) program, Alaska Native corporations are not limited on the number of subsidiaries they can have, are exempt from restrictions on size and minimum time in business, and have no ceilings on many sole-source contracts. Alaska Natives aren’t the only group benefiting from the program, but their success has made them the most visible. Robin Kornfield, vice president of communications and marketing for NANA Development Corp., says, “the program is allowing Native entities across the United States and in Alaska and Hawaii to get a seat at the $500 billion federal-contracting table and get some parity for our businesses and our people.”

According to the SBA, the corporations won $13 billion in contracts between 2000 and 2006. For some Alaska Native corporations, 8(a) businesses account for more than half of their annual revenues.

Congress, however, is proposing some regulation changes that could curtail contracting activity by Alaska Native corporations by removing some of advantages they currently enjoy. A 2006 General Accounting Office report recommended increased oversight to 8(a) contracts and a series of hearings was held in late 2009 by a committee headed by Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. Alaska Native groups and corporations are fighting the changes. A final version of the regulations and an implementation schedule is expected by the end of 2010, according to Kornfield.

“What I can tell you is that Native 8(a) is working and helps our communities, our state and our country,” Kornfield says. “The attacks on the program are often misperceptions and misguided.”

Barney Uhart, president of Chugach Alaska Corp., which has found tremendous success with government contracting, said a periodic review of any program is good. He supports some of the changes, but doesn’t agree with

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

Another challenge is the Obama administration’s increasing use of “insourcing,” or having federal agencies provide government serAHTNA INC. vices instead of contracting with 2009 was a struggle for Ahtna Inc., with some sectors holding their own while outside companies. all of them. Uhart doesn’t think they will have a major impact on Chugach Alaska, which has broadly diversified its holdings and successfully competes for government contracts outside the 8(a) program.

There is still a cost, however: “The fight to protect our rights to participate in the SBA 8(a) program still continues and also takes valuable time away from our focus to build the company,” Chugach Alaska management wrote in a letter to shareholders.

Another challenge is the Obama administration’s increasing use of “insourcing,” or having federal agencies provide government services instead of contracting with outside companies.

That would likely increase competition for fewer available contracts.

others floundered. Ahtna has 10 operating subsidiaries with primary lines of business in civil construction, environmental remediation, facility support services, government contracting, tourism and fuels management. Headquartered in Glennallen, its 1,500 shareholders live mostly within the Copper River Valley region of Alaska.

“What we saw in 2009 were increases in competition, delays in contract awards and negative trends in government spending in certain sectors,” wrote president/CEO Ken Johns in a letter to shareholders. Ahtna implemented strict spending and hiring controls and tightened oversight of its subsidiaries.

It closed its tourism business, Copper River Adventure Tours, and consolidated other subsidiary operations.

Despite the challenges, Ahtna

recorded $231 million in revenues, an 18 percent increase, with a profit of $1.7 million. “Once again we were able to keep our heads above the waves of the economy,” Johns said. Shareholders received dividends of $2.79 per share.

Ahtna also declared its first-ever elder distribution, with $300 going to each elder.

The corporation also is looking to exploit natural resources on its lands, exploring for natural gas and entering an agreement with Raven Gold Alaska to search for minerals. It was also awarded a contract through the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority to find a location for a potential industrial park near Glennallen.

In 2009, Ahtna opened enrollment to lineal descendants of original Ahtna shareholders, one of five Alaska regional corporations to do so. The others are NANA, Sealaska, Doyon and Arctic Slope. ■

THE ALEUT CORP. The Aleut Corp. continued its efforts to diversify and strengthen its operations in 2009. The corporation, with a land

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base in the Aleutians, has subsidiaries in government operations and maintenance contracting, fuel delivery, real estate and sales. The Aleut Corp. has about 3,500 shareholders.

In 2009, the corporation reported $146 million in revenue, with net income of $43.5 million, an increase of 19 percent. Seventy percent of its revenues are through government contracts. It declared a dividend of $6 per share, for a total of $1.95 million. It also paid a $500 dividend to each of its 770 elders.

In its 2009 annual report, then-CEO Troy Johnston noted the negative trends likely to affect its core revenue sources: less military spending, volatile oil and mineral prices, and an uncertain commercial real estate market.

In response, TAC is looking for possible mergers and acquisitions that will provide sustainable income, active real estate opportunities, and expanded use of its Adak tank farm, port services and spill response in the western Aleutians. It also is looking for new service divisions in government contracting through its subsidiary Aleut Management Services.

TAC has created a division called Aleut Industrial Services LLC, which is focused on non-government industrial products and services. In June 2009, the corporation acquired Alaska Instrument Co., an Anchorage-based firm specializing in industrial instruments. C&H Testing Services LLC, a California-based service company specializing in oil and gas well testing services, was acquired a few weeks later. The corporation is evaluating other potential acquisitions. In August, David Gillespie was named CEO. ■

ARCTIC SLOPE REGIONAL CORP. Representing the Inupiat on Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope, the Barrow-based corporation is Alaska’s largest private corporation, in terms of revenue. It has holdings in oil and gas support services,

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petroleum refining and distribution, engineering, construction and government services, with offices and operations around the world. It also owns a share of Alpine oil field on the North Slope. ASRC has approximately 11,000 shareholders.

In 2009, the corporation generated $1.94 billion in revenue, the highest for the 12 Alaska regional corporations, but down 15 percent from its record $2.3 billion in 2008. Profits rose to $169 million, an 8 percent increase. Arctic Slope officials said reduced fuel sales spurred by a lagging market, drops in commodity prices and a December 2008 fire that shut down its refinery in Valdez for nearly a year were behind the revenue decline.

The corporation also noted a 57 percent decline in cash flow from ongoing business operations.

ASRC shareholders received dividends totaling $54.39 per share from its fall 2009 and spring 2010 distributions, a total of $60.9 million. The average shareholder owns 100 shares. Since its incorporation, ASRC has distributed approximately $423.8 million in dividends to shareholders.

In July 2010, Arctic Slope announced it was bringing back former president Jacob Adams as chairman of the board, replacing Rex Rock. Jacobs, who retired three years ago, was president for 20 years. Rock was named president of ASRC, replacing Bobbi Quintavell. ■

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BERING STRAITS NATIVE CORP.

BERING STRAITS REGIONAL CORP. Fiscal year 2009 was one of growth for Bering Straits Regional Corp. The Nome-based corporation earned a profit of $8.1 million on revenues of $162.3 million. Government contracts comprised approximately 88 percent of total revenues. It is the fifth consecutive profitable year for the corporation.

Rapid growth in government contracting boosted net income per share for the approximately 6,300 shareholders from $1.65 in 2005 to $12.75 in 2009, an increase of nearly 800 percent. The board of directors, however, noted they are mindful of “increased

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pressures to reduce or eliminate the government-contract advantages that we have as Alaska Native corporations under the SBA 8(a) program, which we have used to the fullest extent possible.â&#x20AC;?

Operations include government contracting, real estate management and development, tourism, construction, mining services and sales of rock, sand and gravel. Bering Straits has nine subsidiaries under the SBA 8(a) program. The company also faced a setback when Alaska Gold Co. curtailed operations at the Rock Creek and Big Hurrah gold mines.

The corporationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s investments took a hit in the recession, losing $1.6 million in the fiscal year. Construction revenue declined 32 percent. A record payment of $12.1 million from other Alaska regional corporations under the 7(i) resource-sharing clause helped balance the losses and will provide cash for the corporation to expand its contracting businesses.

Its construction sector is growing and Bering Straits is working with Neeser Construction to build a new hospital in Nome, says Bruce Hellenga,

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subsidiary operations manager. Despite economic challenges, unaudited figures for fiscal year 2010 show revenues of $190 million. Hellenga says the corporation hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t added any big contracts, â&#x20AC;&#x153;weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re just doing a better job at what weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing.â&#x20AC;?

Gail Schubert was named CEO in 2010, with Tim Towarak remaining as president. â&#x2013;

BRISTOL BAY NATIVE CORP. Longtime Bristol Bay Native Corp. chairman, president and CEO Hjalmer Olson retired in 2009, sparking a transitional year for the Dillingham-based corporation. Olson remains on the board of directors. Joseph Chythlook was named chairman of the board and Jason Metrokin took over as president and CEO. The corporation has about 8,500 shareholders with a land base in Southwest Alaska.

The economic downturn took a 30 percent chunk of BBNCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s marketable securities portfolio, one of its largest assets. Its petroleum distribution business was flat, but its subsidiaries with operations in contract services and natural resources showed strong growth.

Overall, Bristol Bay generated nearly $1.4 billion in total revenue in 2009, the third consecutive year in which revenues exceeded $1 billion.

The biggest revenue producer is its Pacific Northwest petroleum distribution subsidiary, PetroCard.

Shareholders received a $3 per share dividend in 2009. Bristol Bay has paid more than $80 million in dividends since 1978. â&#x2013;

CALISTA CORP. Calista Corp., based in Bethel, is the second largest of the Alaska Native regional corporations, with a land base the size of Oregon and 13,000 Yupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ik, Cupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ik and Athabascan shareholders.

It includes 56 villages, none of which are connected by roads, power grids or railroads to other parts of Alaska.

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Calista subsidiaries specialize in aerospace and technology services; construction, engineering and telecommunications; hospitality, camp and support services; and marketing and communications. It employs more than 1,500 people and has one of the highest shareholder-hire rates of the regional corporations.

It posted its 16th consecutive profit in 2009, although it was lower than its strong performance in 2008. For 2009, Calista declared total revenues of $203 million with a net income of $18 million, down from $224 million and $26.5 million in 2008. A dividend of $2.25 per share was announced. For the past three years, Calista has paid dividends to its shareholders, some of

whom live in the poorest communities in the state. It also put $1 million into its scholarship endowment, which awarded 226 scholarship in 2009.

Exploration continued on the Donlin Creek gold prospect, which would employ 600 to 800 people for its 20year lifespan. Calista leased additional property to operator Donlin Creek LLC, jointly owned by Nova Gold and Barrick Gold, for locating a proposed mill and other infrastructure. Permitting for the open-pit mine, which contains an estimated 33.6 million ounces of gold, is expected in 2011. ■

CHUGACH ALASKA CORP. Chugach Alaska Corp. reached a milestone in 2009, recording more than $1 billion in revenue. The corporation, with a land base in the Prince William Sound area, has about 2,300 shareholders. It fielded a net revenue of $33 million – lower than the past two years due

to increased expenses, including the costs associated with its move to new headquarters in 2008. A $40.72 dividend was declared in 2009.

Its $1.1 billion in revenue was a $150 million increase over 2008, continuing a decade-long growth trend.

Chugach Alaska found early success in government contracting and continues to show strong performance in that sector, which makes up 60 percent to 70 percent of total revenue, according to Barney Uhart, Chugach Alaska president.

Its main operations are focused on base operation support, environmental management, construction management and information technology.

The 2009 growth is attributed chiefly to more work on government contracts and the completion of a large construction project. Chugach has base operations contracts around the world, with the largest in Louisiana, Florida, Maryland, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Uhart said he doesn’t believe proposed SBA 8(a) regulation changes will have much effect on Chugach Alaska’s current holdings, and “it remains to

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be seen what effect the future holds.

“As I read the proposed regulations, I suspect there will be some effect at agency levels and we will likely have to reconfigure some of the things we do within the program as well,” Uhart says.

Chugach Alaska plans to focus on restructuring the company to improve diversification and growth efforts in the future. It recently split the duties of CEO and president. Ed Herndon was named CEO, while Uhart continues in the role of president. Uhart says the company is looking at a wide variety of direction for investments, both passive and active.

“The energy sector obviously interests us, as does anything we can take our core competencies and easily convert to commercial activities,” Uhart says.

He foresees continued change and challenges, but believes Chugach Alaska is well positioned to weather them.

“I expect we will stub our toe occasionally, but I see nothing in the future but success for Chugach,” he says. ■

COOK INLET REGION CORP. In 2009, Cook Inlet Regional Corp. rebounded from losses suffered in 2008. The Anchorage-based corporation declared revenues of $79.9 million, up substantially from $11.1 million in 2008. Net income improved to $24.5 million in 2009, well above the $22.8 million loss in 2008.

In 2009, CIRI sold a substantial portion of its marketable securities portfolio. As a result, the corporation received a sizable income tax return, and re-invested in the stock market, taking advantage of 2009’s recovery.

CIRI business interests include energy and resource development, oil field and construction services, tourism, real estate, telecommunications and environmental remediation services. It is has 7,300 shareholders, who received a dividend of $35.24 per share in 2009.

In the energy sector, CIRI is continuing work on its Fire Island wind project,

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which is expected to generate enough electricity for 18,000 households. Work on its underground coal-gasification project on the west side of Cook Inlet is also progressing. Following the clean technology trend, CIRI also invested in Codexis, a California-based biotech company.

In 2009, CIRI acquired North Wind Inc., which specializes in cleaning up hazardous materials sites. A highly visible project in Anchorage, Tikahtnu Commons, a retail and entertainment center that includes the state’s only IMAX theater, opened in June 2010. ■

holders and is the largest private landowner in North America.

Despite taking losses in the stock market, Doyon’s total revenues jumped from $145.5 million in 2008 to $238.1 million in 2009. Net income rose to $17 million. A $3.08 dividend per share was declared. Sixty percent of Doyon’s revenues come from oil field contracting.

In summer 2009, the first deep hydrocarbon exploration well was drilled in the Nenana basin, although results are unknown. New reports also have upgraded the hydrocarbon potential of some of Doyon’s lands in the Yukon Flats. With gold prices still high, Doyon also is trying to generate interest in several gold prospects on its lands. ■

DOYON LTD. Fairbanks-based Doyon’s business diversity was a strength in 2009. It recorded its 25th year of profitability in 2009. Its holdings include oil field services, government contracting, land and natural resource management, engineering, facility management, utilities and construction. It has 17,550 share-

KONIAG INC. Kodiak-based Koniag Inc.’s performance in fiscal year 2009 can best be described as a mixed bag, president and

CEO Will Anderson told shareholders.

Securities suffered a loss of $6.9 million, but its operating companies continued to perform well.

In fiscal year 2009, Koniag had overall revenues of $115.6 million, up from $101.2 million in 2008, and a net income of $6.1 million, compared with $12 million in 2008. The decrease in earnings is attributed to losses in the investment portfolio and real estate declines. Koniag’s approximately 3,600 shareholders received dividends of $8.73 per share.

Koniag acquired the Alaska-based stainless steel fabrication firm DowlandBach. Two years after Koniag moved its main headquarters operations to Kodiak, it has broken ground on its new headquarters building on Near Island. “The new building is a testament to the financial strength we’ve been able to achieve, and a signal both to our shareholders and the community that we’re back in Kodiak to stay,” Anderson states.

Koniag is also a leader in defending Alaska Native corporations’ participation in the SBA 8(a) program. ■

YOU KNOW US, BUT DO YOU KNOW ALL THAT WE DO? Calista Corporation is the second largest of the 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations.

We are dedicated to our Shareholders, our customers, and our mission.

We are the parent company of 15 subsidiaries, providing services ranging from telecommunications and marketing to construction and facility management.

Delivering excellence in the projects we build, the services we offer, and the jobs we provide.

301 Calista Court, Suite A, Anchorage, AK 99518 + t: (907) 279-5516 + f: (907) 272-5060 + calista@calistacorp.com

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

85

NANA REGIONAL CORP. Kotzebue-based NANA Regional Corporation is reaping the benefits of strategic decisions to diversify in the 1990s.

Once heavily invested in the petroleum sector, NANA has developed into a company that serves the oil and gas industry, and also works in mining, health care, hospitality, federal contracting and airline maintenance, says NANA Development Corp.’s Robin Kornfield.

In 2009, NANA reported $1.26 billion in revenue and is the third-largest private employer in Alaska. One strategic piece is the giant Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska, which brought in $38 million in royalties last year.

“We now have at least eight businesses providing operational support and services at the mine,” Kornfield says. “We do trucking, drilling, food service, security and other work to assist in mine operations. It has allowed us to learn new businesses, train our shareholders and use the experience

86

at Red Dog to build better businesses.”

Red Dog zinc and lead mine is a major industry and employer in Northwest Alaska. It is the world’s largest zinc mine, run by Teck Alaska, a subsidiary of Teck Resources. It provides nearly 5 percent of the world’s zinc supply. Environmental groups appealed a water discharge permit, which threatened to close down the mine this fall.

In May 2010, mine operator Teck Alaska said it would begin development of its Aqqaluk Deposit, which is expected to double the mine’s lifespan.

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved work to continue at Aqqaluk, although it has not provided new water discharge limits.

Just more than half of the work force at the Red Dog Mine is made up of NANA shareholders. NANA also declared $17.2 million in dividends to more than 12,000 shareholders, as well as payments of $2,000 per elder.

Among other projects, the corporation is building the $40 million Nullagvik Hotel in Kotzebue, which is expected to open in 2011. It also opened a 11,200-square-foot facility in Dead-

horse, the NANA Oilfield Services Co. operations center. In 2009, NANA also bought Pegasus Aircraft Maintenance because of the expansion opportunity and shareholder jobs, Kornfield says.

In 2009, NANA contributed $3.7 million to its Aqqaluk Trust, a nonprofit organization to encourage education and cultural preservation. The trust provided scholarships to 290 shareholders for education and vocational training.

In July 2010, NANA Development Corp. announced it is partnering with Lockheed Martin to compete for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s groundbased missile defense system contract. ■

SEALASKA CORP. Juneau-based Sealaska Corp. showed strong growth in 2009, announcing revenues of $201 million and a net income of $20.3 million, a turnaround from the $125.8 million and $40.9 million net loss in 2008. It distributed a dividend of $2.15 per share.

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

Sealaska is also involved in

A proud member of the NANA Family of Companies

a contentious proposal to claim the final land entitlement it is owed through ANCSA. Sealaska has holdings in natural resources, manufacturing, services and gaming.

In 2009, Sealaska celebrated the enrollment of its 20,000th shareholder. It is working to provide more jobs for shareholders in the region and created a subsidiary, Haa Aani LLC, to focus on economic development activities, especially those related to renewable energy. One pilot project is to power its headquarters, Sealaska Plaza, with wood pellets. If successful, it could form the foundation for a biomass industry in the region. Smaller ventures include hydroelectric and tidal energy projects.

The corporation is fostering “green” business practices. Eight subsidiaries hold ISO 14000 environmental certification, demonstrating their success in reducing pollution and waste, Sealaska executives wrote in a letter to shareholders.

Sealaska is also involved in a contentious proposal to claim the final land entitlement it is owed through ANCSA. Although backed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, some Southeast Alaska residents are protesting the land claims. ■

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THE 13TH REGIONAL CORP. The 13th corporation, created for shareholders living outside Alaska, has not filed any reports or had any communication with shareholders for several years. Efforts by shareholders to get information from directors and to get State and federal officials to investigate the corporation have yielded no information. ❑ www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

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2010 ALASKA NATIVE REGIONAL CORPORATIONS DIRECTORY

Ahtna Inc.

Subsidiaries: Ahtna Construction & Primary Products Corp.

Ahtna Contractors LLC Ahtna Engineering Services LLC Ahtna Development Corp.

Ahtna Enterprise Corp.

Ahtna Facilities Services Inc. Koht’aene Enterprises Co. LLC Ahtna Forest Products Inc. Ahtna Government Services Corp.

Ahtna Support and Training Services LLC Ahtna Minerals Co. Ahtna Technical Services Inc. Barricades Safety and Equipment

Ken Johns, Pres./CEO PO Box 649 Glennallen, AK 99588 Phone: 907-822-3476 Fax: 907-822-3495 Info E-Mail: rtansy@ahtna.net Web Address: www.ahtna-inc.com Acreage: 1,556,670 Shareholders: 1,547 Alaska Employees: 354 2009 Revenue: $231,010,916 2008 Revenue: $196,141,378

2009 Revenue Sources: Construction and Equipment Service Contracts Real Estate Other Natural Resources

$98,088,886 $129,106,299 $110,179 $3,705,552

Arctic Slope Regional Corp.

Subsidiaries: ASRC Energy Services SKW/Eskimos Inc. Petro Star Inc. ASRC Federal Holding Co. LLC ASRC Construction Holding Co. Alaska Growth Capital Tundra Tours Inc.

Rex Rock, Pres./CEO PO Box 129 Barrow, AK 99723 Phone: 907-852-8633 Fax: 907-852-5733 Web Address: www.asrc.com Acreage: DND Shareholders: 10,445 Alaska Employees: 4,689 2009 Revenue: $1,945,058,000 2008 Revenue: $2,297,341,000

2009 Revenue Sources: Petroleum Refining and Marketing Government Technical Services Energy Services Construction Other

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29.2 percent 34.4 percent 27.9 percent 6.9 percent 1.6 percent

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

2010 ALASKA NATIVE REGIONAL CORPORATIONS DIRECTORY

Bering Straits Native Corp.

Subsidiaries: Bering Straits Development Co. Eagle Electric LLC Eagle Eye Electric LLC Inuit Services Inc. Sound Quarry Inc. Stampede Ventures Inc. Bering Straits Technical Services LLC Bering Straits Information Technologies LLC Ayak LLC Iyabak LLC Global Support Services LLC Bering Straits Logistics Services LLC Bering Straits Aki Golden Glacier Inc.

Gail R Schubert, CEO PO Box 1008 Nome, AK 99762 Phone: 907-443-5252 Fax: 907-443-2985 Info E-Mail: info@beringstraits.com Web Address: www.beringstraits.com Acreage: 2,300,000 Shareholders: 6,334 Alaska Employees: 289 2009 Revenue: $162,300,000 2008 Revenue: $113,335,070

2009 Revenue Sources: Investment Income Government Contracting Construction Information Technology/Communications Facilities Support Property Management Aerospace Support Services

DND DND DND DND DND DND DND

BERING STRAITS NATIVE CORP.

One People

One Region

One Future

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2010 ALASKA NATIVE REGIONAL CORPORATIONS DIRECTORY

Bristol Bay Native Corp.

Subsidiaries: Bristol Environmental & Engineering Services Corp.

CCI Inc. PetroCard Systems SpecPro Inc. BBKP Kakivik Asset Management Vista International Operations

Jason Metrokin, Pres./CEO 111 W. 16th Ave., Ste. 400 Anchorage, AK 99501 Phone: 907-278-3602 Fax: 907-276-3924 Web Address: www.bbnc.net Acreage: 3,052,000 Shareholders: 860 Alaska Employees: 473 2009 Revenue: $1,391,571,000 2008 Revenue: $1,294,854,000

2009 Revenue Sources: Petroleum Sales Operations Contract Services Investment Earnings Natural Resources Other

DND DND DND DND DND

Calista Corp.

Subsidiaries: Brice Inc. Tunista Inc. Tunista Services LLC Tunista Construction Inc. Tunista Pacific Rim Yulista Management Services Inc. Yulista Aviation Inc. Y-Tech Services Inc. Chiulista Services Inc. Alaska Telecom Inc. Alaska Newspapers Inc. Camai Printing Co. Solstice Advertising

Matthew Nicolai, Pres./CEO 301 Calista Ct., Ste. A Anchorage, AK 99518-3028 Phone: 907-279-5516 Fax: 907-272-5060 Info E-Mail: communications@calistacorp.com Web Address: www.calistacorp.com Acreage: 6.5 million entitled, 6 million conveyed Shareholders: 13,000 Alaska Employees: 348 2009 Revenue: $203,023,390 2008 Revenue: $224,090,000

2009 Revenue Sources: Contracting and Professional Services Construction Services Rental and Property Management Printing and Newspapers Ad Agency Camp Services and Catering Communications Calista Region Resources Other Region Resources

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2010 ALASKA NATIVE REGIONAL CORPORATIONS DIRECTORY

Chugach Alaska Corp.

Subsidiaries: Chugach Support Services Inc. Chugach Industries Inc. Chugach McKinley Inc. Chugach Management Services Inc. Chugach Education Services Inc. Chugach Systems Integration Inc. Chugach Information Technology Inc. Chugach World Services Inc. Wolf Creek Fabrication Services Inc. Chugach Federal Solutions Inc. Chugach Alaska Services Inc.

Ed Herndon, CEO 3800 Centerpoint Dr., Ste. 601 Anchorage, AK 99503-4396 Phone: 907-563-8866 Fax: 907-563-8402 Info E-Mail: bwelty@chugach-ak.com Web Address: www.chugach-ak.com Acreage: 797,983 Shareholders: 2,002 Alaska Employees: 886 2009 Revenue: $1,105,265,000 2008 Revenue: $951,945,000

2009 Revenue Sources: Contract Revenues

DND

Cook Inlet Region Inc.

Subsidiaries: Alaska Interstate Construction LLC ANC Research & Development LLC CIRI Alaska Tourism Corp.

CIRI Land Development Co. North Wind Inc. Peak Oilfield Service Co.

Margie L. Brown, Pres./CEO 2525 C St., Ste. 500 Anchorage, AK 99509-3330 Phone: 907-274-8638 Fax: 907-279-8836 Info E-Mail: info@ciri.com Web Address: www.ciri.com Acreage: 605,947 surface; 1,344,427 subsurface Shareholders: 7,693 Alaska Employees: 74 2009 Revenue: $79,893,000 2008 Revenue: $11,100,000

2009 Revenue Sources Real Estate Construction Government Services Telecommunications Tourism and Hospitality Natural Resources and Energy Private Equities Investment Securities

DND DND DND DND DND DND DND DND

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2010 ALASKA NATIVE REGIONAL CORPORATIONS DIRECTORY

Doyon Limited

Subsidiaries: Doyon Drilling Inc. Doyon Development Corp.

Doyon Services Corp.

Doyon Properties Inc. Doyon Tourism Inc.

Norman L. Phillips, Pres./CEO One Doyon Pl., Ste. 300 Fairbanks, AK 99701-2941 Phone: 907-459-2000 Fax: 907-459-2060 Info E-Mail: info@doyon.com Web Address: www.doyon.com Acreage: DND Shareholders: 17,974 Alaska Employees: 1,427 2009 Revenue: $308,500,000 2008 Revenue: $295,560,000

2009 Revenue Sources Oil Field Contracting Natural Resource Development Government Services Tourism Real Estate Equity in Earnings of Unconsolidated Subsidiaries

DND DND DND DND DND DND

Koniag Inc.

Subsidiaries: Angayuk Construction Enterprises Inc. Angeles Composite Technologies Inc. Clarus Environmental Services LLC Clarus Fluid Intelligence LLC Clarus Technologies LLC Digitized Schematic Solutions LLC Dowland-Bach Corp.

Frontier Systems Integrator LLC Karluk Wilderness Adventures Koniag Development Corp.

Koniag Services Inc. Koniag Technology Solutions Inc. LUGO LLC Professional Computing Resources Inc. Radient Technologies Inc. Washington Management Group FedSources XMCO Inc.

William Anderson, Pres./CEO 194 Alimaq Dr. Kodiak, AK 99615 Phone: 907-486-2530 Fax: 907-486-3325 Web Address: www.koniag.com Acreage: 935,351 Shareholders: 3,695 Alaska Employees: 65 2009 Revenue: $115,569,000 2008 Revenue: $101,266,000

2009 Revenue Sources: Contract Revenue Earnings From Interest in Affiliates Investment Income Natural Resources Lease Income

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DND DND DND DND

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

2010 ALASKA NATIVE REGIONAL CORPORATIONS DIRECTORY

NANA Regional Corp. Inc.

Subsidiaries: Akima Construction Services LLC Akima Facilities Management LLC Akima Infrastructure Services LLC Akima Intra-Data LLC Akima Logistics Services LLC Akima Management Services Inc. Akmaaq LLC Cazador LLC DOWL HKM Five Rivers Services LLC Ikun Energy LLC Ki LLC Kisaq LLC Nakuuruq Solutions LLC NANA Construction LLC NANA Lynden Logistics LLC NANA Major Drilling LLC NANA Oilfield Services LLC

Marie N. Greene, Pres./CEO PO Box 49 Kotzebue, AK 99752 Phone: 907-442-3301 Fax: 907-442-2866 Info E-Mail: info@nana.com Web Address: www.nana.com Acreage: 3,085,532 Shareholders: 12,400 Alaska Employees: 2,955 2009 Revenue: $1,257,803,772 2008 Revenue: $1,175,496,000

2009 Revenue Sources: Red Dog Mine Resource Development Business Operations

DND DND DND

Sealaska Corp.

Subsidiaries: Sealaska Timber Corp.

Synergy Systems Alaska Coastal Aggregates Sealaska Environmental Services Sealaska Heritage Institute Nypro Kanaak Guadalajara Nypro Kanaak Alabama Nypro Kanaak Iowa Kingston Environmental Managed Business Solutions Olympic Fabrication Sealaska Global Logistics Sealaska Constructors

Chris E. McNeil, Pres./CEO One Sealaska Plaza, Ste. 400 Juneau, AK 99801-1276 Phone: 907-586-1512 Fax: 907-463-3897 Info E-Mail: webmaster@sealaska.com Web Address: www.sealaska.com Acreage: 289,800 surface, 600,000 subsurface Shareholders: 20,594 Alaska Employees: 580 2009 Revenue: $201,005,000 2008 Revenue: $125,774,000

2009 Revenue Sources Natural Resources Manufacturing Investments Services Gaming Corporate and Other Income

NANA Pacific LLC NANA Services LLC NANA WorleyParsons NMS Paa River Construction LLC Pegasus Aircraft Maintenance Services LLC Portico Services, LLC Qivliq LLC SAVA LLC Sivuniq Inc. Synteras LLC TKC Global Solutions LLC TKC Integration Services LLC Truestone Communications LLC Truestone LLC WHPacific Inc. Wolverine Services LLC WorkSafe Inc.

DND DND DND DND DND

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2010 ALASKA NATIVE REGIONAL CORPORATIONS DIRECTORY

Subsidiaries: Cold Bay Land Development Inc. Northwest Business Services LLC The 13th Regional Heritage Foundation The M. Kennedy Co. Inc. World Alaska Development Corp.

NW Business Services Group LLC

The 13th Regional Corp.

Jacqueline Rashleger, Pres./Acting CEO 1156 Industry Dr. Tukwila, WA 98188 Phone: 206-575-6229 Fax: 206-575-6283 Info E-Mail: info@the13thregion.com Web Address: www the13thregion.com Acreage: 12.5 Shareholders: 6,188 Alaska Employees: DND 2009 Revenue: DND 2008 Revenue: DND

2009 Revenue Sources Editor’s Note: Despite numerous attempts to get information from The 13th Regional Corp., ABM was unable make contact with this corporation, which serves Alaska Natives who were not permanent residents of one of the 12 regions on the date they applied for enrollment under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. There is no address of record that we could find, and e-mails were returned unopened.

The Aleut Corp.

Subsidiaries: Aleut Enterprises LLC Aleut Management Services LLC Aleut Real Estate LLC Alaska Instruments LLC C&H Testing LLC Midtown Estates Water Utility LLC

David Gillespie, CEO 4000 Old Seward Hwy., Ste. 300 Anchorage, AK 99503 Phone: 907-561-4300 Fax: 907-563-4328 Info E-Mail: info@aleutcorp.com Web Address: www.aleutcorp.com Acreage: 1,638,000 Shareholders: 3,656 Alaska Employees: 141 2009 Revenue: $146,058,000 2008 Revenue: $116,051,000

2009 Revenue Sources Operations and Maintenance Contracts Fuel Sales Rental Properties Section 7(i) Permanent Fund Earnings Gravel Sales Water Utility Other

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$111,450,000 $25,393,000 $4,542,000 $6,372,000 $216,000 $334,000 $145,000 $404,000

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

NATIVE BUSINESS SPECIAL SECTION

Village Corporations

Industry seeks to become better environmental stewards Company

Top Executive

Mailing Address

Afognak Native Corp.

Ahtna Development Corp.

Akhiok-Kaguyak Inc. Akiachak Ltd. Akutan Corp.

Alakanuk Native Corp.

Alaska Peninsula Corp.

Aleknagik Natives Ltd. Alexander Creek Inc.

Richard Hobbs, CEO Pamela Finnesoad, Pres.

David Goade, Pres.

Willie Kasayulie, Pres.

Darryl Pelky, Pres.

Shelby Edmund, Pres.

Ralph Angasan Sr., Pres.

Bobby Andrew, Pres.

Stephanie Thiele Thompson, Pres.

Helen Kilbuck, Chairperson James Akererea, Pres.

Peter Waska Sr., Pres.

Jimmy Nayukok, Pres.

Mark Snigaroff, Pres.

Marvin Agnot, Pres.

Felix P Hess, Pres.

Linda Evans, Pres.

Edgar Shangin, Pres.

Mike Fleagle, Pres.

Greg Hope, Pres.

Hazel Nelson, Pres.

Simeon Kuzakin, Pres.

Ana Hoffman, Pres./CEO Reggie K. Barr, Pres.

Stanley Jonas, Chief

215 Mission Rd. Ste. 212 406 W. Fireweed Lane, Ste. 101 1400 W. Benson Blvd., Ste. 425 P.O. Box 51010 P.O. Box 8 P.O. Box 148 111 W. 16th Ave. Ste. 101 P.O. Box 1630 8128 Cranberry St.

Mike Brown, Pres.

Margaret Ward, CEO

Arviq Inc. Askinuk Corp.

Atmautluak Ltd. Atqasuk Corp.

Atxam Corp.

Ayakulik Inc. Azachorok Inc. Baan O Yeel Kon Corp.

Bay View Inc. Bean Ridge Corp.

Beaver Kwit’chin Becharof Corp.

Belkofski Corp.

Bethel Native Corp.

Brevig Mission Native Corp.

Canyon Village Traditional Council Cape Fox Corp.

Caswell Native Association Chalkyitsik Native Corp.

Chaluka Corp.

Chefarnrmute Inc. Chenega Corp.

Chevak Co. Corp.

Chickaloon-Moose Creek Native Association Inc. Chignik Lagoon Native Corp.

Chignik River Ltd. Chinuruk Inc. Chitina Native Corp.

Choggiung Ltd. Chuloonawick Corp.

Council Native Corp.

Cully Corp.

Deloy Ges Inc. Deloycheet Inc. Dineega Corp.

Dinyea Corp.

Diomede Native Corp.

Dot Lake Native Corp.

Eklutna Inc. Ekwok Natives Ltd. Elim Native Corp.

Emmonak Corp.

English Bay Corp.

Dora Johnson, Pres.

Robert Panruh, Pres.

Charles Totemoff, CEO/President James Ayuluk, Pres.

Gary Harrison, Pres.

Rhonda Gregorio, Pres.

John Lind, Pres.

Mike Joe SR, Pres.

Anne Thomas, Pres.

Bryce Edgmon, Pres.

Tim Akers, Pres.

Barbara Gray, Pres.

Elsie M. Hendrix, Pres.

Ernest Demoski, Pres.

Rudy D Walker, Pres.

Kathryn Kangas, Pres.

Randy Mayo, Pres.

Thomas Soolook, Pres.

Roberta Hamilton, Pres.

Michael E. Curry, Pres./Chairmen Luki Akelkok Sr., Pres.

Joseph Murray Jr., Pres.

Douglas Redsox, Pres.

Don Emmal, Pres.

Phone

Fax

Kodiak, AK 99615 Anchorage, AK 99503 Anchorage, AK 99503 Akiachak, AK 99551-0010 Akutan, AK 99553 Alakanuk, AK 99554 Anchorage, AK 99501-5109 Dillingham, AK 99576-1630 Anchorage, AK 99502

907-486-6014 907-272-7961 907-258-0604 907-825-4328 907-698-2206 907-238-3117 907-274-2433 907-842-2385 907-243-5428

907-486-2514 907-247-6614 907-258-0608 907-825-4115 907-698-2207 907-238-3120 907-274-8694 907-842-1662 907-243-5428

P.O. Box 9 P.O. Box 89 P.O. Box 6548 Tikiglyk/Akpik St P.O. Box 47001 3741 Richmond, Ste. 5 P.O. Box 32213 P.O. Box 74558 P.O. Box 233407 P.O. Box 81645 P.O. Box 24090 1225 E. Int’l Airport Rd., Ste. 135 P.O. Box 46 P.O. Box 719 P.O. Box 85024 P.O. Box 13

Platinum, AK 99651 Scammon Bay, AK 99662 Atmautluak, AK 99559 Atqasuk, AK 99791 Atka, AK 99547 Anchorage, AK 99514 Mountain Village, AK 99632 Fairbanks, AK 99708 Anchorage, AK 99523-3407 Fairbanks, AK 99756 Beaver, AK 99724 Anchorage, AK 99518 King Cove, AK 99612 Bethel, AK 99559 Brevig Mission, AK 99785 Fort Yukon, AK 99740

907-979-8113 907-558-5411 907-553-5428 907-633-6414 907-839-2237 907-279-7911 907-591-2527 907-456-6259 907-561-6493 907-672-3331 907-456-4183 907-561-4777 907-497-3122 907-543-2124 907-642-4091 907-662-2502

907-979-8229 907-558-5412 907-553-5420 907-633-6213 907-839-2234

P.O. Box 8558 12020 Old Seward Hwy. P.O. Box 53 P.O. Box 104 P.O. Box 70 3000 C St, Ste. 301

Ketchican, AK 99901 Anchorage, AK 99515 Chalkyitsik, AK 99788 Nikolski, AK 99638 Chefornak, AK 99561 Anchorage, AK 99503

907-225-5163 907-345-6626 907-848-8112 907-576-2216 907-867-8115 907-277-5706

P.O. Box 276 P.O. Box 875046

Chevak, AK 99563 Wasilla, AK 99674-1105

907-858-7920

907-858-7311 907-745-7154

P.O. Box 169 P.O. Box 48008 P.O. Box 90009 P.O. Box 3 P.O. Box 330 2635 Draper Dr P.O. Box 1183 405 East Fireweed Ste. 203 P.O. Box 150 P.O. Box 228 P.O. Box 68028 P.O. Box 71372 P.O. Box 7040 P.O. Box 2271 16515 Centerfield Dr., Ste. 201

Chignik Lagoon, AK 99565 Chignik Lake, AK 99548 Nightmute, AK 99690 Chitina, AK 99566-0031 Dillingham, AK 99576 Anchorage, AK 99508 Nome, AK 99762 Anchorage, AK 99503Anvik, AK 99558 Holy Cross, AK 99602 Ruby, AK 99768 Fairbanks, AK 99707 Diomede, AK 99762 Dot Lake, AK 99737-2279 Eagle River, AK 99577

907-840-2225 907-845-2212 907-647-6115 907-823-2223 907-842-5218 907-562-7008 907-443-7649 907-833-2705 907-663-6396 907-476-7177 907-468-4405 907-474-8224 907-686-3221 907-882-2755 907-696-2828

907-840-2263 907-845-2217 907-647-6126 907-823-2202 907-842-5462 907-4435965 907.833.2715 907-663-6355 907-476-7176 907-468-4403 907-474-8224 907-686-3222 907-882-2775 907-696-2845

P.O. Box 1189 P.O. Box 39010 Kwiguk St 1637 Stanton Ave.

Dillingham, AK 99580 Elim, AK 99739 Emmonak, AK 99581 Anchorage, AK 99508

907-464-3317 907-890-3741 907-949-1411 907-281-2208

907-464-3305 907-890-3091 907-949-1412 907-281-2220

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

907-591-2127 907-456-4486 907-345-9017 907-672-3232 907-561-4778 907-497-3123 907-543-2897 907-642-2060 907-662-3047 907-225-3137 907-848-8114 907-867-8895 907-277-5700

95

Company

Top Executive

Mailing Address

Phone

Fax

Evansville Inc. Eyak Corp.

Far West Inc. Gana-A’ Yoo Ltd. Golovin Native Corp.

Gwitchyaa Zhee Corp.

Haida Corp.

Healy Lake Trade Village Corp.

Hee-Yea-Lingde Corp.

Huna Totem Corp.

Hungwitchin Corp.

Igiugig Native Corp.

Iliamna Natives Ltd. Iqfijouaq Co. Inc. Isanotski Corp.

Kake Tribal Corp.

Shirley Lee, Pres.

Nancy Barnes, Pres.

Margie Macauley Waite, Pres.

Betty Huntington, CEO Nina Jane Patkotak, Pres.

Clarence Alexander, Pres.

Samuel Mooney, Pres.

Fred Kirsteatter, CEO

122 First Ave., Ste. 202-B 901 LeFevre St., P.O. Box 340 P.O. Box 124 6927 Old Seward Hwy, Ste. 200 P.O. Box 62099 P.O. Box 329 P.O. Box 89 P.O. Box 60300, Healy Lake No. 19

Fairbanks, AK 99701-4871 Cordova, AK 99574-0340 Chignik, AK 99603 Anchorage, AK 99503 Golovin, AK 99762 Fort Yukon, AK 99740 Hydaburg, AK 99922 Fairbanks, AK 99706

907-451-8008 907-424-7161 907-235-7981 907-569-9599 907-779-3251 907-662-3056 907-285-3721

907-451-7695 907-424-5161 907-235-7981 907-569-9699 907-779-3261 907-662-2646 907-285-3944

Gabriel Nicoli Sr., Pres.

Lawrence Gaffaney, Pres.

Adelene Galen, Pres.

Dallia Andrew, Pres.

Lorene Anelon, Pres.

Steven White, Pres.

Ken Smith Jr., Pres.

Bertha Cavanaugh, Vice President Philip Tikluk Jr., Pres.

Howard R Tinker, Pres.

Louis A Thompson, Pres.

Karen E Stickman, Pres.

Karl Potts, CEO Dean Gould, Pres.

Marilyn Koezuna-Irelan, Pres.

Patricia Rowon, Pres.

Les Katzeek, Pres.

Theodore Garcia, President Ivan Ivan, Pres.

Herman Nelson, Pres.

Mary Unok, CEO

P.O. Box 9 9309 Glacier Hwy., Ste. A-103 P.O. Box 81927 P.O. Box 4009 P.O. Box 245 P.O. Box 49 101 Isanotski Dr. P.O. Box 263

Grayling, AK 99590 Juneau, AK 99801 Fairbanks, AK 99738 Igiugig, AK 99613-4009 Iliamna, AK 99606 Eek, AK 99578 False Pass, AK 99583 Kake, AK 99830

907-453-5133 907-789-1773

907-453-5151 907-789-1896

907-533-8001 907-571-1246 907-536-5211 907-548-2217 907-785-3221

907-533-3217 907-571-1256 907-536-5733 907-548-2317 907-785-6407

010 A St. P.O. Box 39 P.O. Box KXA Kasaan 4155 Tudor Centre Dr., Ste. 104 P.O. Box 1050, 373A Second Ave. P.O. Box 38 P.O. Box 992 P.O. Box 129 P.O. Box 209 P.O. Box 872130 P.O. Box 52147 C/O Jerry L. Liboff P.O. Box 20037

Kaktovik, AK 99747 Kasigluk, AK 99609 Ketchikan, AK 99950 Anchorage, AK 99508 Kotzebue, AK 99752 King Cove, AK 99612 Nome, AK 99762 Klawock, AK 99925 Haines, AK 99827 Wasilla, AK 99687-2130 Akiak, AK 99552 Dillingham, AK 99576 Kotlik, AK 99620

907-640-6120 907-477-6113 907-542-2214 907-561-4487 907-442-3165 907-497-2312 907-443-5494 907-755-2270 907-766-2211 907-376-2845 907-765-7228 907-596-3434 907-899-4232

907-640-6217 907-477-6026

Peter Naoroz, Pres./Manager Peter Elachik, Pres.

Geraldine Simon, Pres.

Darin Douglas, Pres.

Carl Dock, Pres.

James K. Roberts, Pres.

Isaac Nukapigak, Pres.

James M Nicori, Pres.

Noah Andrew, Pres.

Carole Pagano, Secretary Raymond Apokdak, Pres.

Sandy Williams, Pres.

Victoria Woodward, Pres.

Michael Alakayak, Pres.

Richard Komok, Pres.

Timothy Andrew, Pres.

Gary Lee, Pres.

Janet Daniels, Pres.

8585 Old Dairy Rd., Ste. 104 P.O. Box 20207 1603 College Rd. P.O. Box 53050 P.O. Box 36 P.O. Box 150 P.O. Box 89187 P.O. Box 109 P.O. Box 50 3055-127 North Red Mountain P.O. Box 109 P.O. Box 92813 P.O. Box 1962 P.O. Box 149 P.O. Box 630 P.O. Box 90 457 Cindy Dr. 630 Price St.

Juneau, AK 99801 Kotlik, AK 99620 Fairbanks, AK 99709 Koyuk, AK 99753 Kipnuk, AK 99614 Goodnews Bay, AK 99589 Nuiqsut, AK 99789 Kwethluk, AK 99621 Kwigillingok, AK 99622 Mesa, AZ 85207 Levelock, AK 99625 Anchorage, AK 99627 Kodiak, AK 99615 Manokotak, AK 99628-0149 Teller, AK 99778 Marshall, AK 99585 Fairbanks, AK 99701 Anchorage, AK 99688

907-790-2992 907-899-4014 907-452-8119 907-963-2424 907-896-5414 907-967-8428 907-480-6220 907-757-6613 907-588-8112 480-471-8213 907-287-3040 907-526-5228 907-486-4833 907-289-1062 907-642-3731 907-679-6512 907-452-3094 907-733-2337

907-790-2995 907-899-4528 907-452-8148 907-963-3552 907-896-5140 907-967-8226 907-480-6126 907-757-6212 907-588-8313 480-471-8213 907-287-3022 907-526-5235

Vicki Otte, Pres./CEO Carl Motgin, Pres.

Phillip G Nicholai Jr, Pres.

Paul Gunderson, Pres.

William Alstrom, Pres./Manager Larry Charles, Pres.

Louis C. Hala Jr., Pres./CEO Gary Oskolkoff, Pres.

P.O. Box 309 P.O. Box 34030 P.O. Box 6069 General Delivery P.O. Box 87

McGrath, AK 99627 Napakiak, AK 99634 Napaskiak, AK 99559 Nelson Lagoon, AK 99571 Saint Marys, AK 99658

907-524-3391 907-589-2227 907-737-7413 907-989-2204 907-438-2332

907-524-3062 907-589-2412 907-737-7128 907-989-2233 907-438-2919

P.O. Box 5528 P.O. Box 52 P.O. Box 39130

Newtok, AK 99559 Mekoryuk, AK 99630 Ninilchik, AK 99639

907-237-2512 907-827-8636 907-567-3866

907-237-2227 907-827-8639 907-344-8634

Diana L Ervin, Pres.

Francis Sipary, Pres.

Larry Burris, Pres.

Anna M. Kamkoff, Chair Franklin Brink, Pres.

Patrick Kosbruck, Pres.

Charlie Boots, Pres.

P.O. Box 401 P.O. Box 37068 P.O. Box 21009 Hamilton TC P.O. Box 20102 251 7th Ave. P.O. Box 84 P.O. Box 28

Northway, AK 99764 Toksook Bay, AK 99637 Anaktuvuk Pass, AK 99721 Kotlik, AK 99620 Bethel, AK 99641-0129 Perryville, AK 99648 Lower Kalskag, AK 99585

907-778-2298 907-427-7929 907-661-3220 907-899-4027 907-527-5717 907-853-2300

907-778-2266 907-427-7326 907-661-3025

Kaktovik Inupiat Corp.

Kasigluk Inc. Kavilco Inc. Kijik Corp.

Kikiktagruk Inupiat Corp.

King Cove Corp.

King Island Native Corp.

Klawock Heenya Corp.

Klukwan Inc. Knikatnu Inc. Kokarmuit Corp.

Koliganek Natives Ltd. Kongniglkilnomuit Yuita Corp.

Kootznoowoo Inc. Kotlik Yupik Corp.

K’oyitl’ots’ina Ltd. Koyuk Native Corp.

Kugkaktlik Ltd. Kuitsarak Inc. Kuukpik Corp.

Kwethluk Inc. Kwik Inc. Leisnoi Inc. Levelock Natives Ltd. Lime Village Co. Litnik Inc. Manokotak Natives Ltd. Mary’s Igloo Native Corp.

Maserculiq Inc. Mendas Cha-ag Native Corp.

Montana Creek Native Association MTNT Ltd. Napakiak Corp.

Napaskiak Inc. Nelson Lagoon Corp.

Nerkilikmute Native Corp.

Newtok Corp.

Nima Corp.

Ninilchik Native Association Inc. Northway Natives Inc. Nunakauiak Yupik Corp.

Nunamiut Corp.

Nunapiglluraq Corp.

Nunapitchuk Ltd. Oceanside Native Corp.

Ohog Inc.

96

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

907-562-4945 907-442-2165 907-497-2444 907-443-3620 907-755-2966 907-789-3525 907-376-2847 907-765-7619 907-596-3462 907-899-4461

907-289-1007 907-642-2189 907-679-6740

907-527-5229 907-853-2301

Company

Top Executive

Mailing Address

Phone

Fax

Old Harbor Native Corp.

Olgoonik Corp.

Olsonville Inc. Ounalaska Corp.

Emil Christiansen Sr., Pres.

John Hopson Jr., Pres.

Dennis Olson, Pres./CEO Wendy Svarny-Hawthorne, Pres./CEO Michael O’Connor, Pres./CEO Franklin Napoleon, Pres.

Abe Williams, Pres.

Norman Jacko, Pres.

Cecelia Meyers, Pres./CEO Arthur Heckman Sr., Pres.

Anna Tinker, Pres.

Feodoria Pennington, Pres.

Lyoyd H. Stiassny, Pres./CEO Pauline Matthew, Pres.

William Igkurak, Pres.

Cecilia Housler, Pres.

P.O. Box 71 P.O. Box 29 P.O. Box 571 P.O. Box 149

Old Harbor, AK 99643 Wainwright, AK 99782Dillingham, AK 99576 Unalaska, AK 99685

907-286-2286 907-763-2614 907-842-3511 907-581-1276

907-286-2287 907-763-2926 907-842-3512 907-581-1496

P.O. Box 89 P.O. Box 209 P.O. Box 61 P.O. Box 47004 2950 Telequana General Delivery P.O. Box 184 1321 Oxford Dr. P.O. Box 5569 P.O. Box 69 General Delivery P.O. Box 48

Ouzinkie, AK 99644 Hooper Bay, AK 99604 Naknek, AK 99633 Pedro Bay, AK 99647-0015 Wasilla, AK 99654 Pilot Station, AK 99650 Saint Marys, AK 99658 Anchorage, AK 99503 Port Graham, AK 99603-5569 Quinhagak, AK 99655 Kongiganak, AK 99559 Russian Mission, AK 99657

907-680-2208 907-527-4915 907-246-4277 907-850-2323 907-376-0658 907-549-3512 907-438-2953 907-563-1848 907-284-2212 907-556-8289 907-557-5529 907-584-5885

907-680-2268

907-284-2219 907-556-8814 907-557-5711 907-584-5311

Joseph Clark, Pres.

Florence Busch, Pres.

Penny Carty, Pres.

George Gunderson, Pres.

Morris Toolie Jr., Pres.

Myron Naneng, Pres.

Lillian Elvsaas, Pres.

P.O. Box 4 P.O. Box 149 P.O. Box 2682 P.O. Box 194 101 W. Benson Blvd. Ste. 304 P.O. Box 87 Drawer L

Clark’s Point, AK 99569 Saint Marys, AK 99658 Kenai, AK 99611-2682 Sand Point, AK 99661 Anchorage, AK 99769 Hooper Bay, AK 99604 Seldovia, AK 99663-0250

907-236-1235 907-438-2961 907-283-7864 907-383-6075

907-236-1450 907-438-2315 907-283-6470 907-383-6074

907-758-4015 907-234-7625

907-758-4815 907-234-7637

Melvin Charlie, Pres.

Leona Casey, Pres./CEO Theresa Perry, Pres.

Percy Nayokouk, Executive Director Arleen M. Gardner, Pres.

Lois Stover, Pres.

Robert Fagerstrom, Pres.

Aaron Iworrigan, Pres.

Rose Ann Timbers, Pres.

Laurence Lestenkof, Pres./CEO Alberta Steve, Pres.

Nora Tom, Pres.

Peter Christopher Sr, Pres.

Joseph Afcan, Pres.

Robert Brean, Pres.

Anthony Philemonoff, Pres.

John Alsworth, Pres.

Roy Totemoff, Pres./CEO Roger Meadowbrook Sr., Pres.

Maver Carey, Pres./CEO Herbert Kinneeveauk, Pres.

Ernest James Sr., Pres.

Alfred R Ketlzer Sr, Pres.

Stanley Active Jr., Pres.

Nina Heyano, Pres.

Joseph Alexie, Pres.

Archie Andrew, Gen. Manager Frank Flynn, Pres.

John Sharp, Pres.

Connie Burnell, Pres.

Forrest Olemaun, Pres.

Martha Aarons, Pres.

Benjamin Johansen, Pres.

Gabriel McKilly Jr., Pres.

Winton Weyapuk Jr., Pres.

Roy Ashenfelter, Pres.

Cindy Bremner, Pres.

Franklin Benjamin, Pres.

P.O. Box 56 P.O. Box 690 P.O. Box 46 General Delivery

Minto, AK 99758 Craig, AK 99921-0090 Shaktoolik, AK 99771 Shishmaref, AK 99772

907-798-7181 907-826-3251 907-955-3241 907-649-3751

907-798-7556 907-826-3980 907-955-3243 907-649-3731

P.O. Box 189 P.O. Box 727 400 Bering St P.O. Box 101 P.O. Box 243 4000 Old Seward Hwy., Ste. 104

Sand Point, AK 99661 Kodiak, AK 99615 Nome, AK 99762 Gambell, AK 99742 Nome, AK 99762 Anchorage, AK 99503

907-383-3525 907-486-3842 907-443-2632 907-985-5826 907-443-7526 907-272-9886

907-383-5356 907-486-5097 907-443-3063 907-985-5426 907-443-7527 907-272-9855

P.O. Box 59049 General Delivery P.O. Box 50 General Delivery P.O. Box 76029 P.O. Box 88 2425 Merrill Field Dr. P.O. Box 650 P.O. Box 509

St. Michael, AK 99659 Stebbins, AK 99671 New Stuyahok, AK 99636 Sheldon Point, AK 99666 Tanacross, AK 99776 Saint Paul, AK 99660 Anchorage, AK 99501 Cordova, AK 99574-0650 Teller, AK 99778

907-923-3143 907-934-3074 907-693-3122 907-498-4227 907-883-4130 907-546-2312

907-923-3142 907-934-2399 907-693-3148 907-498-4242 907-258-4129 907-546-2366

907-424-3777

907-424-3773

4300 B St., Ste. 207 2121 Abbott Rd. P.O. Box KBC P.O. Box 249 P.O. Box 150 P.O. Box 77129 P.O. Box 65 P.O. Box 8106 P.O. Box 89 P.O. Box TWA 1689 C St., Ste. 219 P.O. Box 890 P.O. Box 100 P.O. Box 130 P.O. Box 31 P.O. Box 529 P.O. Box 81 P.O. Box 416 P.O. Box 108

Anchorage, AK 99503 Anchorage, AK 99507Fort Yukon, AK 99740 Nenana, AK 99760 Togiak, AK 99678 Tanana, AK 99777 Tuluksak, AK 99679 Tuntutuliak, AK 99680 Tununak, AK 99681 Twin Hills, AK 99576-8996 Anchorage, AK 99501-5131 Barrow, AK 99723 Unalakleet, AK 99684 Sand Point, AK 99661 Chignik, AK 99615 Wales, AK 99783 White Mountain, AK 99784 Yakutat, AK 99689 Shageluk, AK 99665

907-243-2944 907-365-6299 907-221-2212 907-832-5461 907-493-5520 907-366-7255 907-695-6420 907-256-2315 907-652-6311 907-525-4327 907-272-0707 907-852-4460 907-624-3411 907-383-3681

907-243-2984 907-365-6250

Ouzinkie Native Corp.

Paimiut Corp.

Paug-Vik Inc. Ltd. Pedro Bay Native Corp.

Pilot Point Native Corp.

Pilot Station Inc. Pitkas Point Native Corp.

Point Possession Inc. Port Graham Corp.

Qanirtuuq Inc. Qemirtalek Coast Corp.

Russian Mission Native Corp.

Saguyak Inc. Saint Marys Native Corp.

Salamatof Native Assoc. Inc. Sanak Corp.

Savoonga Native Corp.

Sea Lion Corp.

Seldovia Native Association Inc. Seth-De-Ya-Ah Corp.

Shaan-Seet Inc. Shaktoolik Native Corp.

Shishmaref Native Corp.

Shumagin Corp.

Shuyak Inc. Sitnasuak Native Corp.

Sivuqaq Inc. Solomon Native Corp.

St. George Tanaq Corp.

St. Michael Native Corp.

Stebbins Native Corp.

Stuyahok Ltd. Swan Lake Corp.

Tanacross Inc. Tanadgusix Corp.

Tanalian Inc. Tatitlek Corp.

Teller Native Corp.

The Kuskokwim Corp.

Tigara Corp.

Tiheet’ Aii Inc. Toghotthele Corp.

Togiak Natives Corp.

Tozitna Ltd. Tulkisarmute Inc. Tuntutuliak Land Ltd. Tununrmiut Rinit Corp.

Twin Hills Native Corp.

Tyonek Native Corp.

Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corp.

Unalakleet Native Corp.

Unga Corp.

Uyak Inc. Wales Native Corp.

White Mountain Native Corp.

Yak-Tat Kwaan Inc. Zho-Tse Inc.

907-664-3641 907-638-3651 907-784-3335 907-473-8229

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

907-246-4419 907-850-2221 907-797-2228 907-549-3234 907-438-2276

907-832-1077 907-493-5554 907-366-7122 907-693-6932 907-256-2441 907-652-6315 907-525-4820 907-274-7125 907-852-4459 907-624-3833 907-383-5215 907-664-3641 907-638-3652 907-784-3622

97

NATIVE BUSINESS SPECIAL SECTION

8(a) Advantages History in the making

BY HEIDI BOHI

I

t’s like cooking a pot of crabs on the beach – when one crustacean tries to make a break and climb out of the pot of boiling water to safety, the others grab on and pull him back down to the demise of everyone.

Call it the Alaska Native version of “one bad apple spoils the whole bunch,” authored by Carl Marrs, former president and CEO of CIRI, and incidentally, an Aleut from Kodiak Island who’s cooked his share of crab on the beach. He uses this analogy to make a point about the Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) program – an area he also knows a lot about. As he and most business and Native leaders will tell you, it’s the best thing to happen to Alaska Native corporations (ANCs) and their shareholders in contemporary history, though the program’s existence continues to be slammed at every turn for reasons that range from outsiders not understanding how it works, to those who are simply narrow minded.

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©2010 Chris Arend

STEVENS LEGACY Through legislation spearheaded by former Sen. Ted Stevens, ANCs can win sole-source contracts of unlimited value – the biggest complaint by non-Native competitors. Although for other 8(a) firms they are capped at $3.5 million for services, or $5.5 million for manufacturing, the advantage for these non-Native entities is that the entire sum goes to one person, while for ANCs, the contract profits must be spread among thousands of shareholders, depending on the size of the corporation. And while other small business owners can have only one 8(a) company at a time, ANCs

Ron Perry

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

are allowed to have multiple affiliate businesses in the program if they are all in different sectors. ANCs have made sound use of these competitive advantages, rotating new subsidiary firms into the 8(a) program after nine years, which is the maximum time companies can stay in the program.

When the program first took off, certain companies abused the 8(a) structure, winning large contracts with the departments of Defense or Homeland Security, and sometimes creating complex business partnerships with firms that had no ties to the SBA program or Alaska. Although these past instances where a Native or other 8(a) firm entered into a business relationship with a non-8 (a) firm in good faith – only to learn that they intended to fraudulently manipulate it – in many of these cases there was not dishonest intent and the problems were caused by Outside firms, not the ANCs, Marrs says.

That’s when the program first came under scrutiny, he says, and a few tarnished the program’s reputation at everyone else’s expense – pulling the reputation of the program into the pot of boiling water with them. But, that was then. Today, the program is a showcase business model. In the past decade, ANCs have scored billions of dollars in no-bid government contracts created to provide economic benefits to the state’s Alaska Native populations.

Alaskans, of course, celebrate the windfall.

ENEMY IGNORANCE Opponents say the special designation is a loophole that exploits taxpayers nationwide because ANCs are receiving enormous contracts with no competition. Currently, the tribal community sees the program’s No. 1 enemy being Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, the chair of a Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight.

“Nobody begrudges giving small, disadvantaged businesses a chance to win federal contracts,” she says. “But the Alaska Native corporations have used their special preference to bust the door down.”

Marrs and others in the Alaska Native business community, known for their expertise in the world of 8(a) contracting – Marrs currently consults with

ANCs to help identify new opportunities – belittle her argument, saying it is linear and closed minded.

“She doesn’t understand Native corporations or tribes, she doesn’t understand ANCSA, the reservation system or even minority contracting in general,” says Ron Perry, president of the National 8(a) Association and president of Teya Technologies. Teya, a subsidiary of Salamatof Native Association, was listed as the Alaska Native Corporation of the Year in 2006 by Northwest American Indian Development and National Center of American Indian Enterprise Development.

McCaskill’s assertion that the program is a handout and that taxpayers are the ones who ultimately pay the price for the benefit of a few is also tenuous, Marrs says.

“This has nothing to do with taxpayers,” Marrs says, emphatically. “These politicians say it’s costing taxpayers all this money? The government is going to carry out those contracts one way or another. It’s not just handing out a welfare check – to get these contracts, the corporations must be qualified and prove due diligence. It actually saves the taxpayer millions of dollars because the government gets a product for the work the corporations are doing.”

Dividends that are paid to many Alaska Native residents, both in Alaska and on Lower 48 Indian reservations – many who live in below-povertylevel conditions – mean that much less money the government would be handing out and getting nothing in return, Marrs adds. “It would cost the government money not to have this kind of program.”

While most small businesses do not begrudge the government’s efforts to provide relief to citizens in Alaska’s most impoverished regions, their anger stems from the competitive advantages provided to ANCs. The ongoing lashings so far have been variations on a theme, but ultimately they all point back to non-Native critics saying that ANCs receive unfair advantages compared to other small businesses because they create preferences for economically disadvantaged small businesses that are grossly imbalanced. First and foremost, they contest, Native corporations can go after federal contracts

without facing competition while nonNative companies fight it out through competitive bids. Native corporations are exempt from limitations on the number of qualifying subsidiaries, they do not have to prove restrictions on the required size of the company and the minimum number of years in business, and there is no ceiling on amounts for sole-source contracts. They can also subcontract to larger companies that aren’t Native-owned but have the expertise to fulfill the contracts. Critics argue this unique arrangement has unfairly generated billions of dollars in revenue for Native companies.

NEW RULES In the meantime, the SBA has modified parts of the program. It proposes preventing large firms from partnering with Native corporations for non-competitive bids, one of the most controversial provisions in the current program.

The SBA also proposes that when joint ventures are created between Native corporations and partners, 40 percent of the work be done by the Nativeowned 8(a) firm. The idea is to ensure that the economic development benefits the disadvantaged corporation and its shareholders as intended, rather than operating as a legal loophole through which to pass government awards to non-Native companies.

GOOD NUMBERS While businesses worldwide struggle through the recession, for this business sector the books have never looked better.

Sen. Mark Begich’s office asked Institute of Social Economic Research (ISER) for assistance assembling information to document the social and economic status of Alaska Natives and the benefits of the 8(a) program. The purpose of the report, called “Benefits of Alaska Native Corporations and the SBA 8(a) Program to Alaska Natives and Alaska,” was to brief McCaskill and her committee, as they prepared to review the status of ANC contracts awarded under the SBA 8(a) program, as directed by a 2006 General Accounting Office (GAO) report that recommended increased SBA oversight to contracting activity.

Alaska Native companies have 74

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“Here’s a federal program that the government actually got right for Native people. The program is making a difference.”

– Sarah Lukin Executive Director Native American Contractors Association

Construction and General Contracting Logistics Services Sign Manufacturing and Installation Culture and Language Training Linguist Services Information Technology Services Military Pre-deployment Training Food Services Facilities Management and Operations Janitorial Commercial and Residential Contracting Advantages An Alaska Native Village Corporation (ANC) 8(a) Certified

Supporting Our Shareholders Through a Tradition of Excellence 561 East 36th Avenue • Anchorage, Alaska 99503 Phone: (907) 278-4000 • Fax: (907) 278-4050 www.tatitlek.com

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percent of federal 8(a) awards on the books, according to a 2009 report by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight. Between 1988 and 2005, the number of 8(a) qualified ANC subsidiaries grew from one to 154 owned by 49 ANCs, representing a dollar amount of 8(a) contracts that grew from $265 million in FY 2000 to $1.1 billion in 2004. About 80 percent of this was in sole-source contracts, which are typically valued under $5.5 million for goods, or $3.5 million for services. ANCs, which are exempt from this restriction, received $6.3 billion in 8(a) contracts valued at more than $3.5 million each between 2000 and 2008.

No-bid contracts awarded to ANCs ballooned from $508.4 million in 2000 to $5.2 billion in 2008, according to an analysis of the 19 largest ANCs prepared by McCaskill’s office.

From this amount, ANCs paid about $615 each per year in benefits to the 130,000 Alaska Natives who are ANC shareholders. At the same time, these 8(a) firms donate millions of dollars to scholarships, internship programs and other civic organizations, providing economic assistance Alaska Natives might otherwise not receive.

“Here’s a federal program that the government actually got right for Native people. The program is making a difference,” says Sarah Lukin, executive director of the Native American Contractors Association. “To cut the program that got us this far is absolutely wrong.”

EXPONENTIAL BENEFITS Marrs agrees. “Why should they do away with a program that is benefiting

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hundreds of thousands of people who have not had anything for thousands of years?”

This 8(a) program’s success, Perry says, may explain why nobody was challenging ANCs 30 years ago when the program was first starting, but now that Native Corporations have shown how successfully the program can work, everyone wants in on the mega-business contracting opportunities presented by the program.

“Nobody fights over an empty bucket,” Perry says. “Contractors like the program, government likes it, shareholders like it – but anyone who doesn’t have a piece of it, doesn’t like it.”

If success really is the cause of jealousy and resentment by the non-Native business community, then ANCs can expect to continually have to justify the program.

So far, the attempts at derailing the program have yet to result in anything more than another frenzy of meetings, hearings, and paperwork on Capitol Hill and in ANC offices across the state. Although the Alaska congressional delegation is fairly certain the program is safe from being dismantled, still there’s too much at stake for business leaders and elected officials to just hope that the extra attention will simply go away and Alaska’s congressional delegation watches the program and takes precautionary measures.

The program is here to stay, Perry says. In the meantime, the best safety belt for the program is education. “We have to provide information above and beyond the call of duty,” Perry says.

For example, most people don’t know that ANCs are the second highest tax-paying entity after the oil companies, creating more jobs than all industries collectively. “They are an economic force that helps drive this state.”

The intent of ANCSA was for the corporations to be self-sufficient, Perry reminds. Because of the 8(a) business model, “We’re standing on our own. We were given the tools, and most people decided to pick them up and use them.

“Fifty years ago, Alaska Natives couldn’t get hired in hotels, now Alaska Natives own the hotels – they are the economic power,” he says. ❑ “This is history in the making.” www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

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NATIVE BUSINESS SPECIAL SECTION

A cooperative approach

BY HEIDI BOHI

W

hen the price of oil peaked at $147.30 per barrel two summers ago, the expression “village energy crisis” circulated through rural communities along the Gulf of Alaska with the same intensity that the Aleutian current rips through the chain during the late fall season.

Industry experts attributed the price increase to factors ranging from a decline in petroleum reserves to Middle East tensions and oil price speculation.

Diesel prices in Bush Alaska climbed to $7 a gallon and electricity to more than 50 cents per kilowatt-hour – the two primary sources of energy in these rural areas – and utility bills averaged $7,000 to $10,000 for the winter season.

To Alaskans in the villages, analyzing the source of their plight was pointless as they watched 40 percent of their annual income go toward their energy bills, compared to 4 percent for the average urban Alaskan’s household.

Few decision makers can say with any certainty how many years it will take for communities to have energy infrastructure in place that will measurably improve this. What is accepted as fact is that if the generation, delivery and management of energy in rural Alaska does not change, these communities and cultures will perish.

“If we’re going to survive in rural Alaska, we need to control our energy destiny,” said Larry Cotter, Aleutian Pribilof Islands Community Development Association (APICDA) CEO. “Otherwise people will not be able to afford to live and work there. Throughout rural Alaska people are moving

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out of the villages, partly In Nikolski, the community is capturing waste heat and using because of the it to heat the lodge, the school and a community greenhouse, high cost of shown here with vegetables growing in July. fuel and energy. We need to reverse this one factor that seems to be forcing as the communication point for the people out of small communities and team. The communities represented are Attu, Amchitka, Adak, Atka, Unalaska, into the cities.”

Nikolski, Akutan, False Pass, Pauloff THE A TEAM Harbor, King Cove, Belkofski, Unga, As is the case with most challenges Sand Point, St. George and St. Paul. facing rural Alaska – social, political, Each of the six organizations repreenvironmental, economic – organizing senting the communities had been indeas a regional presence is the most prag- pendently working on coming up with matic approach to fixing anything. So a plan for resolving issues and needs when 15 communities stretching from related to the energy crisis, including Nelson Lagoon to Adak (and encom- delivery and fuel-storage challenges, passing the Pribilof Islands) realized and the idea of developing potential the overwhelming challenge of trying renewable resources. APIA was in the to independently resolve energy issues process of putting together a regional ranging from delivery and storage chal- energy position paper that could evolve lenges to increasing efficiencies and re- into a comprehensive plan, but when newable alternatives, they inventoried the groups realized they were all dotheir common concerns and as a unified ing the same things, Cotter stepped up group are now cooperatively taking and said, “Let’s corral the problem and on a lofty goal: to develop an energy work on it together.” plan that will ultimately result in an 85 percent reduction in the consumption EARLIER EFFORTS of fossil fuel.

Prior to the A Team formally banding, Known as the “A Team,” six organ- other regions in the state had already izations comprise the group that takes started developing efforts to relieve on various projects benefiting resi- the life-threatening consequences of dents of coastal communities in the the energy crisis. The inconsistent supSouthwest Region: APICDA, The plies and staggering price increases also Aleut Corp. (TAC), Aleutian Pribilof threatened the Alaska Native subsisIslands Association (APIA), Eastern tence lifestyle prevalent in the villages Aleutian Tribes (EAT), Aleutian Hous- because the cost of diesel was making it ing Authority (AHA), and the Aleut cost-prohibitive to fuel boats and snowFoundation (TAF), with TAC acting machines for fishing and hunting trips.

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Photos courtesy of The Aleut Corp.

Solving Rural Energy Problems

“This has reached a critical point to where we will now have to decide if we are going to feed our young or keep them warm,” said Ron Hoffman, president and CEO of the Association of Village Council Presidents Regional Housing Authority, when the crisis first hit in 2007.

One of the regions the A Team turned to for expertise and guidance is the Norton Sound Economic Development Corp. (NSEDC), which represents 15 villages: Brevig Mission, Diomede, Elim, Golovin, Gambell, Koyuk, Nome, Saint Michael, Savoonga, Shaktoolik, Stebbins, Teller, Unalakleet, Wales and White Mountain. Energy plays a critical role in economic development and quality of life there and NSEDC has responded by developing energy programs and a safe and reliable energy infrastructure in the Norton Sound Region.

“Our goal is to help alleviate some of the pressure on our residents, be it financial, emotional or otherwise, that arises with the increased costs of energy,” says Paul Ivanoff, NSEDC community development coordinator.

ENERGY SUMMIT Under Cotter’s direction, in April, the A Team developed and hosted the first 2010 Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Energy Summit in Anchorage, drawing 80 attendees from the region’s communities,

tribes, nonprofit and for-profit organizations, business leaders, elected officials and residents from the region. The two-day summit was organized around a broad goal: “To implement the objectives to make energy accessible, sustainable, reliable and affordable.”

The two supporting objectives are to: 1) adopt a comprehensive energy policy and implementation plan for the region no later than spring 2011; and 2) to identify and implement tasks that will directly contribute to reduction of fossil fuels in the communities as soon as is practical.

Recognizing that the plan is a first attempt at inventorying community and regional needs and setting priorities, the group set out to also evaluate logistical challenges and other energy resources so that it could use this ground-level information to identify potential solutions to the energy-related issues faced by the region. Dividing its work into short-, medium- and long-term needs was the practical starting point.

The reality, says Bruce Wright, APIA senior scientist, is that for the short-term, the communities will need to still rely on fuel while other issues are resolved, such as limited storage capacity, excessive prices and unreliable fuel deliveries. At one point last winter, St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands was down to its last 20 gallons of fuel.

“We structured the conference so the focus was on what our situation is today, where we want to be, and what we need to do to get there,” Cotter says.

The committee for the summit consulted with NSEDC to learn about the energy plans it was already investing heavily in that it might also consider for the Southwest Region. NSEDC launched three energy initiatives in 2008: the vertical access wind turbine project, a bulk-fuel program, and an energy subsidy. Even before the 2007 spike in heating fuel costs, it had explored the possibility of alternative energies to displace fuel costs for its member communities.

One of those, a vertical axis wind turbine project (VAWTP), has the combined features of a wind generator, water heater and a thermal radiator for offsetting the use of heating fuel. Partnering with the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, NSEDC is positioned

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to have these wind turbines tested in Nome and Unalakleet to determine if they will produce enough heat to justify the investment. If the pilot project is successful, residents in these communities will have an affordable alternative to diesel-generated residential boilers for its communities and those along the coast of Alaska where Class IV and V winds make this alternative method for renewable energy ideal.

To avoid being held hostage by volatile and unpredictable fuel prices, NSEDC also started its consolidated bulk-fuel program four years ago, a model that could also work for the Aleut region. The corporation acts as a purchasing agent on behalf of participants, making bulk purchases for any member business that sells fuel or gasoline, and for all city entities that rely on heating fuel for their buildings.

In addition to coordinating orders and issuing requests for proposals to suppliers, NSEDC is the single point of contact between the fuel supplier and the participant.

As NSEDC continues to invest in these assistance efforts, its member communities are also looking at several different options for renewable energy, including making upgrades to existing diesel generator plants to make them more efficient, and using waste heat that comes off of generators to warm surrounding buildings.

One of the most significant features of this and the other NSEDC energyrelated programs, Ivanoff says, is the potential for each community to make a difference by providing benefits to residents. The advances in diesel, wind, solar and geothermal technology make each option a viable solution for energy improvements in this and the Aleut regions, as well as in communities throughout the state.

BULK FUEL COOPERATIVE Since April, bulk fuel, conservation and renewable energy task groups have been meeting regularly to prepare for the October summit.

Forming a bulk-fuel cooperative, an idea borrowed from NSEDC, would lower prices and streamline logistics and deliveries so they are more reliable.

The A Team is considering the organizational structure, purchasing com-

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www.akbizmag.com â&#x20AC;˘ Alaska Business Monthly â&#x20AC;˘ September 2010

ponents, bid processes, transportation issues and participation requirements.

Still in the planning stages, Cotter says it is hoping to have the cooperative in place by winter 2012.

The conservation group is focusing its discussion on what constitutes conservation in the home, workplace and community while identifying actions that can start being implemented immediately to reduce energy consumption region-wide, such as improved insulation and light fixtures, more efficient heating and better insulation so residents are more comfortable and their houses are safer to live in, Cotter says, adding that these efforts will save people money and reduce the use of fossil fuels.

“We need to determine how each building is using and losing energy and evaluate the energy profile of each building in each community so we have the knowledge to attack,” and implement conservations efforts across the region, Cotter says.

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PLETHORA OF RENEWABLE ENERGY In the area of renewable energy, the group is identifying sources, and evaluating how to develop them while considering what barriers need to be overcome. “If we can’t pull off renewable energy in the Aleutians, then nobody in the world can do it,” Cotter says, referring to that area’s unlimited geothermal, tidal, wind and hydro sources. Several of these developments are getting ready to come online, including a wind turbine project in St. George that is expected to decrease fuel consumption by 40 percent in the next year, and another in St. Paul that includes three of the largest turbines in the state. In Nikolski, the community is capturing waste heat and using it to heat the lodge, a community greenhouse and the school, and extra electricity created by the wind turbine will be used to heat hot water for heating facilities.

Cotter says the group also recognizes that besides setting up the infrastructure needed to tap the renewable energy sources, and at the same time considering ways to help the region make money as an energy supplier, “All of this is about taking care of our communities and making them viable for ❑ the future.”

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NATIVE BUSINESS SPECIAL SECTION

Photo courtesy of TCC LLC

Tatitlek, Chenega and Chugach (TCC) originally formed a joint venture to provide oil spill response and maintenance teams to Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. to protect the waters of Prince William Sound. The JV later changed to a limited liability company (TCC LLC). TCC teams practice oil spill response by laying boom in the waters of Prince William Sound out of Valdez.

Native Corporations and Oil Petroleum provides opportunities

BY VANESSA ORR

O

il is big business in Alaska, and a lot of people make a living from this precious natural resource. From the companies that explore and drill for it, to the workers who maintain the

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trans-Alaska oil pipeline, to the crews helping prevent and clean up oil spills, black gold is an economic lifeline for many communities. A number of Native corporations profit from oil as well.

CHUGACH ALASKA CORP. Chugach Alaska Corp., for example, has two companies involved in the oil industry: Chugach Alaska Services Inc. (CASI) and TCC LLC. CASI is the company’s first commercial

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subsidiary and TCC (previously a joint venture of Tatitlek, Chenega and Chugach corporations) is managed

by CASI for day-to-day operations.

“Chugach has had several projects in the oil industry,” said CEO Ed Herndon. “For example, TCC has nearly 20 years of experience in oil spill response in Prince William Sound as a contractor to Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. (APSC). Chugach Alaska Services had the TAPS baseline maintenance contract for three years with APSC from November of 2006 to January of this year.”

Chugach provides four types of services to the oil industry – pipeline and equipment maintenance; pipeline construction; oil spill response; and maintenance and personnel services.

Chugach currently has 157 full-time employees working in the oil industry.

According to Herndon, oil services work performed by CASI and TCC represents approximately 2 percent of Chugach’s total revenue.

“We have four current contracts: two with the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., which include oil spill prevention, response and support maintenance services provided by TCC LLC, and administrative personnel services provided by CASI,” he said.

TCC also has a contract with Swift Oil and Gas supporting the Gulf of Mexico oil spill response effort, and CASI has a master services agreement with ExxonMobil for Point Thomson.

ARCTIC SLOPE REGIONAL CORP. Arctic Slope Regional Corp. (ASRC) is involved in the oil industry through its wholly owned subsidiary ASRC Energy Services (AES). Headquartered in Anchorage, AES is the largest Alaska-based oil and gas services company in the state and has more than 4,500 employees working in or supporting the oil industry.

“Our success is built on a foundation of subsidiaries that provide a full range of services for all oil field life cycle phases,” said Mark Nelson, president and CEO, ASRC Energy Services.

AES is involved in every aspect of oil field services, including regulatory and technical support; engineering, procurement and construction/ construction management and project www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

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management; multidiscipline production facility engineering services; single source multi-craft specialty contracting; module fabrication and installation; union building and trades construction; infrastructure, facility and pipeline maintenance; drilling engineering and exploration operations support; fleet services; operations support; oil spill response management and equipment; and decommissioning.

“Engineering News-Record” consistently ranks AES in the upper 30 percent of the top 400 contractors in the United States, and in April 2010, AES was ranked 175 out of 500 companies for top design firms in the United States.

ASRC also has two other subsidiaries involved in the oil industry: Petro Star, the only Alaskan-owned refining and fuel-marketing operation in the state, and ACHC, which manages the construction for the petroleum reserve program.

DOYON LTD. Doyon Ltd. has four subsidiaries that operate in the oil and gas industry.

These companies employ approximately 1,500 of Doyon’s 3,000 employees worldwide. The largest subsidiary in the Doyon family of companies, Doyon Drilling Inc., conducts drilling operations and owns and operates a fleet of rigs on the North Slope. Doyon Universal Services security division provides security services to critical infrastructure throughout Alaska, and its facilities division provides remote camp services that include everything from catering to housekeeping to facility maintenance and operations.

Doyon Emerald is a full-service engineering firm that provides consulting and technical services to resource development companies, and Doyon Industrial Group (and joint venture company Doyon Associated LLC) are involved in pipeline and other oil field infrastructure construction.

“Roughly half of our operating business revenue comes from our subsidiaries in the oil and gas industry,” said Aaron Schutt, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Doyon Ltd. “While the majority of our work is done on the North Slope and some work is done in Cook Inlet, a very small part is performed in the U.S. outside of Alaska.

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Internationally, we’ve done some technical consulting work through Doyon Emerald in Australia, Norway and Southeast Asia.”

SHARING EXPERTISE OUTSIDE While most Native corporations’ oil field work takes place in Alaska, some companies are taking their expertise out of state as well. Chugach, for example, is heavily involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill efforts, and AES works for multiple oil companies in Alaska, Canada and the Lower 48.

“Our services are not limited to Alaska’s North Slope,” Nelson said.

“We offer oil field services throughout Alaska; in Calgary, Alberta; and in Louisiana and California. Our network of subsidiaries allows us to capture efficiencies by drawing resources from appropriate locations.”

“The Trans Alaska Pipeline System is our primary work location, and most of our efforts are in Valdez supporting APSC,” said Herndon, adding that the company also has administrative support personnel at trans-Alaska oil pipeline pump stations and in Fairbanks. “Additionally, with the Gulf of Mexico project, we have personnel working in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.”

The recent oil spill on the Gulf Coast provided opportunities for Chugach to share its knowledge with spill response workers and even fishermen in southern states.

“Due to our experience and expertise in oil spill response, we offered our services to BP and they accepted,” Herndon said. “Initially, we provided four trainers to teach local fisherman general oil spill response tactics and boom use. The need was larger than four trainers, so we quickly ramped up to 47 personnel. Our scope also increased from providing trainers to task force leaders, vessel of opportunity management, and assisting in maintenance and boom repair.”

Unfortunately, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has had negative effects on some Native corporations, including AES subsidiary Omega, which is based in Louisiana.

“Omega has been hindered; the delay of offshore work is impacting AES in both Alaska and Louisiana,” Nelson said.

While the spill has not directly affected Doyon or its subsidiaries, Schutt says every company who has BP as a client has been impacted in some way.

“The industry has been distracted worldwide,” he said. “A lot of Alaska’s oil executives and others have been helping with the spill response in the Gulf. The spill will clearly have a much broader impact on the industry as a whole in terms of regulating onshore and off-shore work. We can expect to see direct regulatory changes made in the way that companies implement the regulations, though those changes have yet to be determined.”

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BENEFITS Despite the negative effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the industry provides many positive benefits as well.

According to Herndon, Chugach’s involvement in the oil industry assists its shareholders in a number of ways.

“Because most of our work is in Alaska, it offers a tremendous benefit to our shareholders by way of employment opportunities,” he said. “In fact, TCC LLC has 40 percent Alaska Native employment; our APSC personnel contract has 20 percent Alaska Native hire, and our TCC LLC Gulf of Mexico project has 22 percent Alaska Native hire.

Another benefit is that we get to be a part of an industry that operates on our land and in our waterways. Protection of the environment, and particularly of our communities, is very important to our way of life.”

According to Nelson, benefits to ASRC shareholders and the Native community include jobs, careers, dividends, training, internships and scholarships.

“The oil industry benefits our shareholders in three ways,” Schutt said.

“First, it creates many job opportunities. We demonstrate shareholder preference in hiring, as do most Native corporations. Of the 400 shareholders who work for Doyon, approximately 350 of them are working in the oil and gas industry at one of our subsidiaries.

This is the biggest opportunity for us to hire shareholders to work on the North Slope. Second, it provides dividends.

While we don’t split our dividends according to industry, with half of our operating business provided by oil and

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gas, a good chunk of our annual profits comes from the oil field. This is a direct benefit to shareholders.”

As a result of its involvement in the industry, Doyon is also able to provide a lot of training to its employees, and has already hosted approximately 30 roustabout training courses in support of Doyon Drilling. The company provides financial support for security trainings at the Tanana Valley campus, and provides internal training opportunities for current employees as well.

“We are an Alaskan company, and we are here to stay. As long as there is an oil and gas business in Alaska, we anticipate being a part of it.”

– Aaron Schutt Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Doyon Ltd.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? While the oil business is often turbulent, the benefits that come from being involved in the industry make it well worth the effort. “When the oil industry grows, so does AES,” Nelson said.

“We believe that there is potential growth for us in this industry and Chugach has a great deal to offer,” Herndon said. “TCC LLC has been a single-project company for nearly 20 years. With our Gulf of Mexico work, the industry now knows what it can offer in marine oil spill response – for example, vessel of opportunity

near and off-shore, and training and maintenance, among other things. Additionally, our experience with pipeline construction and maintenance is valuable and can be used to highlight our experience in this industry. As a land stakeholder in Alaska, Chugach will position itself to seek opportunities with the expected gas pipeline and continued oil exploration activities. Additionally, our efforts in the Gulf of Mexico may yield a long-term contract to provide the needed services post-spill. There will be new regulatory requirements

similar to those put in place in the Gulf of Alaska after the Exxon Valdez spill that the Gulf Coast region will need to address. TCC LLC has the knowledge and experience to effectively support that transition to long-term protection of the Gulf of Mexico.”

Despite a downturn in the Alaska economy over the past couple of years, all of Doyon’s business sectors are still growing, including its oil and gas subsidiaries.

“Things have been a little slower in Alaska in the last year or two than in years past, especially when you compare it to the growth that the state saw in the five years preceding,” Schutt said.

“Still, our businesses have grown. We are an Alaskan company, and we are here to stay. As long as there is an oil and gas business in Alaska, we anticipate being a part of it. We are active in exploring our lands and the State lands near our lands, which we hope will be a growing segment of our business in the future. We also see Doyon expanding outside of the state as we diversify our support businesses to take advantage of oil fields outside of Alaska.” ❑

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NATIVE BUSINESS SPECIAL SECTION

A Candidate’s Primer Winning votes in the Bush

Photo by Bill Zervantian/Bill Z Photography

Former Gov. Tony Knowles at a downtown Anchorage coffee shop.

BY HEIDI BOHI

F

for lieutenant governor at the same time, decides to see what his friend Knowles is made of and says with a big grin on his face, “Tony, you need to dip the muktuk in this seal oil – it’s one of our traditions.”

“All the women were looking at this guy from Anchorage,” Knowles says laughing. “Dipping that muktuk in seal oil was the real dividing line.

After I put it in my mouth, for about 15 seconds, I didn’t know which direction it was going to go – up or down. But I managed to put the big swallow on it. And I think I won some votes there.”

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ar be it from a good old Oklahoma boy to ever tell a table of sweet Yupi’k elder women he’s just introduced himself to that he’s not going to eat the plate of food they are offering him. Even if it is muktuk, whale blubber and skin that is a delicacy to many Alaska Natives.

“It looked like the whitewall of a Goodyear tire,” former Gov. Tony Knowles says, reflecting back on his visit to a Messenger Feast in Bethel while he was there campaigning to try and win the 1990 gubernatorial race.

Just when he prepares to pop it in his mouth, Willie Hensley, campaigning

NO MAGIC FORMULA Stumping Bush Alaska for votes – it’s one of the most critical components of any campaign strategy in a statewide race, as candidates are judged by their stance on issues ranging from major resource projects in rural Alaska to the village energy crisis and suicide prevention. The Bush can account for up to about 20 percent of the total vote, so a good showing in rural communities can mean the difference between victory and loss.

Ask Knowles. He has four statewide races on his vitae – three gubernatorial and one congressional – and when he

“I look at rural Alaska as the heartbeat of our economy in many ways.”

– Bill Walker, 2010 Gubernatorial Candidate

won the 1994 race for governor, it was undeniably because of this bank of voters, which he describes as “enormously supportive.” The night of the election he went to bed thinking he had lost, though the Nome District had not been counted, which comprises about 8,500 voters. Ultimately, after three recounts, Knowles carried 80 percent of the vote in rural Alaska and won the general election with 536 votes to spare.

POLITICS IS PERSONAL Nobody has ever studied or written about Knowles’ popularity in rural Alaska. Among pollsters and cronies, though, he is known for having the touch. Issues aside, even in the elections he did not win, he had a strong showing of support in the villages. It was his successes that made statewide candidates look at campaigning here differently.

“In rural Alaska, politics is personal,” Knowles says of what he believes is the fundamental strategy behind success with rural voters. “They want to get to know you, see you, look you in the eye – you have to show respect by going there. You have to engage them in conversations, not in slogans and TV ads.”

There’s no magic formula, he says, even for him: “People watch you over a period of time to see how you react in different circumstances. It doesn’t happen with one handshake.”

SAME THREE ISSUES Knowles and three candidates from last month’s election cite the same issues that are consistently important to the Bush contingency: subsistence, education and economic development.

The one issue that “transcends” all others is subsistence, Knowles said, and to really understand the people, a candidate has to genuinely appreciate that it is not just about hunting and fishing – it is at the core of the Alaska Native culture and lifestyle that involves sharing, family, hunting, gathering, sewing, arts and crafts, and celebrations.

CRITICAL ROLE Ethan Berkowitz also understands the critical role rural communities play in the outcome of statewide elections.

When he ran against U.S. Rep. Don Young in the 2008 congressional race, he says the senior statesman edged him out of the Bush with 45 percent of the vote, a lesson he took to heart.

While campaigning in July for governor, Berkowitz talked about his commitment to rural Alaska, in terms of wanting to win the vote, hoping to have the opportunity to represent these communities because rural Alaska is such a big part of the state’s identity.

“Close your eyes and imagine something about Alaska – then open your eyes. I bet you didn’t see Fourth Avenue in downtown Anchorage,” he says.

While on the campaign trail this summer, Bill Walker, a lifelong Alaskan who has lived in several rural communities, including Delta Junction and Valdez for 30 years, says one of the topics he spent the most time discussing while meeting with locals was ways to create jobs, especially in light of the energy crisis.

“I look at rural Alaska as the heartbeat of our economy in many ways,” Walker says, though the only way to keep it healthy will be for villagers to find a way to survive so they can stay in rural communities. Mining, fishing, oil and gas are responsible for a lot of incomes statewide, he says, but important value-added applications that would mean jobs for locals are limited because of the high cost of energy.

UNDERSTAND EDUCATION AND JOBS The famous 1976 case Tibeluk versus Lind, known as the Molly Hootch case, revolutionized education in Alaska Native villages when the court ruled in the plaintiffs’ favor and 126 villages were granted high schools. Still, Knowles says, across the board, education falls short of what is available in rural areas. In areas where there are 50 percent to 70 percent unemployment rates, he says for a candidate to be successful they have to understand how education and jobs fit together so that students can benefit from higher education opportunities.

Economic development is another top-of-mind issue for those living in rural communities where Alaska Natives make up most of the population of 60,500 residents in 150 small communities. Local residents depend on government for more than 70 percent of their personal income. Although most of the state’s natural resource wealth is produce in these remote areas, it is in places like the North Slope, and outside these enclaves isolation limits economic growth and resource wealth bypasses local and regional economies, making cash incomes low.

THE FRENCH VIEW Because there are so many Democratic voters in rural communities, it is especially important for candidates on this ticket to make a credible showing in both the primary and general elections, says Hollis French, candidate for governor. At the same time, it is “one of the more challenging puzzle pieces” for candidates, he says.

Recognizing cross-cultural considerations that need to be taken into account, French made three trips to Bethel, and from there went up river by skiff to some of the surrounding communities, stopping in at the bingo hall, fire department, post office, school and general store to meet people.

As a former prosecuting attorney in Bethel, Dillingham and St. Paul, he says he already had a feeling of what it was like to try and get to know people in the villages.

“You have to let some moments of silence enter into the conversation, and speak more slowly so they don’t get the feeling that you are rushed,” he said in July, just weeks before last ❑ month’s primary.

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NATIVE BUSINESS SPECIAL SECTION

Bush to Bayou

STORY AND PHOTOS BY CHARLES FEDULLO SPECIAL GUEST AUTHOR PIECE

Photos by Charles Fedullo, NANA Development Corp.

The petrochemical plant Alaska Native corporation shareholders worked on in Louisiana through a partnership between NANA Development Corp. and Turner Industries.

Shareholders travel for training

T

he sun is slowly burning off the morning fog in Gonzales, La. The smell of sausage, gravy and biscuits helps wake the four dozen or so men and women heading to a petrochemical plant to do maintenance work.

They slowly emerge from their rooms in a small hotel located off Route 30.

Duke Burns looks tired, but the middle-aged man is ready to get at it.

He’s been away from his Noatak home for about two weeks. “My snowmachine needs fixing, and gas costs about $10 a gallon,” Burns says. “This work will help me get it going and keep it running.” He is one of about 90 people from Northwest Alaska doing maintenance work on a Turner Industries facility in Louisiana.

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SHAREHOLDERS GAIN SKILLS, CASH New skills, on-the-job training and cash; that is what these Alaska Native corporation shareholders, predominately from the NANA region, receive as part of a partnership between NANA Development Corp. and Turner Industries, a Baton Rouge-based industrial maintenance, turnaround and construction company.

Most of the workers are NANA shareholders; however, Bristol Bay, Koniag and Afognak Native corporations also have shareholders on this job After completing five days of safety and skills training in Anchorage, the workers are in Gonzales, a small industrial town about 45 miles from New Orleans. They are there to remove and

replace catalysts and provide other cleanup services to the facility. Two weeks were scheduled, but Turner, impressed with the crew’s skill, speed and efficiency on the job, asked that the workers stay another week. More than half will.

The partnership between Turner and NANA is part of NANA’s goal to provide training and a chance for villagers to experience a job outside their region. Turner has struggled to find a work force for this type of employment in recent years and has found the Alaska workers to be efficient, effective workers.

About a 15-minute car ride from the camp, one of the Turner project managers is done for the day. “Work hard,

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get it done; that’s what they do,” says Turner Maintenance Manager Barry Woods about the Alaska crew. “We hope this opens up their eyes to other opportunities.” Woods clearly likes what this Alaska group brings to Turner.

TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE The crew helps Turner, but also themselves. They are now trained, certified workers with experience doing refinery turnarounds. Turner and NANA will provide more opportunities for these folks and others like them. The training and short-term employment provides skills they can use to help themselves find future work.

Back at the camp, Burns and his crew have finished their 12-hour shift. After a short bus ride back to the hotel and a meal of salmon and salad, served by a local caterer, some workers head to their rooms. Others, like Justin Williams, start up a basketball game on a makeshift court with hoops bought a few days earlier. Williams moves easily on the uneven asphalt. He grew up in Ambler, but lives in Noorvik, and his jump shot is a thing of beauty, rarely hitting anything but net. “The job is long hours and hard work, but I like it,” he said.

Some workers are homesick and can’t wait to get home. About 50 others, including Williams, decide to stay.

“I’m young; I can do this for a long time,” he says. “I’m already thinking I’d like to come again.” He wants to make his mom and dad proud, save a few dollars and help buy gear for the upcoming hunting and fishing season.

NANA provided the workers with transportation to and from their home villages, ground transportation, meals and lodging both during training in Anchorage and on-site in Louisiana, as well as compensation for the work.

While the basketball game gets intense, a few blocks away there is a pro game on the TV at a local restaurant.

Turner Maintenance Manager David Eastridge is one of the lynchpins of the NANA-Turner project. Over dinner with NANA Vice President of Business Development Clyde Gooden, Eastridge says, “This is the second time we have partnered with NANA in this capacity.

We see it as a win-win. NANA brings trained workers to help our company.

Alaska Native corporation shareholders Camille Milroy, Penny Schaeffer and Leon Stephen head to the bus after their 12-hour shift at the Louisiana petrochemical plant.

They use local hotels, caterers and ground services, so we help the local economy too.”

SIMILARITIES The Louisiana native says there are a lot of similarities between Cajuns and Alaska Natives. “We live off the land and fill our freezers with fish and meat.”

However, he realizes there are more economic opportunities for his community than there are for those in rural Alaska. “I’m going to go biblical on you now,” Eastridge says. “With NANA’s help, we are not giving the shareholders fish, we are teaching them how to fish.”

NANA Operations Manager Sandy Shroyer Beaver knows how to fish.

Known for being direct, she keeps the workers focused and the clients happy.

The Kotzebue resident and NANA

shareholder manages the workers on the project. She stays in the hotel with them and helps organize the six teams.

Three teams work the day shift, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; three work at night from, ]=7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Shroyer Beaver, with her NANA colleagues, Naomi “Munick” Chappel, and Mamie Karmun help manage logistics.

Gooden is particularly impressed with Sandy. “We all worked our tails off, but she was the boss demanding good work habits, positive attitudes and full effort. And she gets it.”

The logistics group creates and manages a store for goods and kept information flow to and from Gonzales. “Simple things like pilot bread crackers and a good word from family and friends go a long way to ease homesickness and keep attitudes good,” says Chappel.

After a hard day at work, crew members play basketball before heading to sleep.

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OPPORTUNITY TO GROW No one would blame Katherine Snyder if her attitude stunk. The 20-something from Selawik paid for training to be a Head Start teacher, but when she was ready to start work, the program in her town closed. Now she looks at this Louisiana job as an opportunity to grow.

While the job is tougher physically than she thought it would be, she says, “It will help me become a better leader.

This is a good learning experience.”

It is Friday morning and a few days left has turned into about 10. Gooden and Karmun wipe the sleep out of their eyes. Breakfast with the team is pancakes and eggs. The day ahead is long, but spirits are good. The project is going well.

There will be more of them. The workers, and others from villages in rural Alaska, look forward to similar situations. All indications are this will become a regular thing, thanks to Tuner and NANA; that’s a good thing for Alaska and Louisiana. It is also good for a lot of people like Burns, Williams and Snyder, who want to broaden horizons, learn skills and earn a paycheck ❑ they can take home.

Charles Ch l F Fedullo d ll Public Relations Director NANA Development Corp.

About the Author Charles Fedullo is the public relations director for NANA Development Corp. in Anchorage. He is a former journalism professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. With his wife Shannon McCarthy, he has three children: Tony, Callahan and Quinn.

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NATIVE BUSINESS SPECIAL SECTION

Emerging Alaska Native Leaders Filling the leadership void

BY HEIDI BOHI

I

n the world of business, Western values continue to dominate the corporate culture, setting the standard for what it takes to rise through the ranks and once at the pinnacle of success, what it takes to hang on.

Despite an emerging trend that encourages the touchy-feely approach to leadership, when you talk to those who have already arrived, whether it was clawing and scampering that got them there, an expensive degree, or their last name, while they may tell you that while “there is no I in the word team,” there is definitely an I in the word “win,” the continuation of a Western way of thinking where assertiveness is encouraged, self-promotion is rewarded and loyalty, while it may be endearing, is archaic.

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Photo courtesy of Lena Jacobs

THE NATIVE WAY Although Alaska Natives share many of the tenants of effective leadership with the white man’s school of thought – the need for shared values, the importance of visualizing, and the ability to motivate people toward a greater goal – the way in which many learn and exercise leadership is the discerning line drawn between the non-Native and Native way of accomplishment. Westerners aspire to leadership, and then hold onto it for as long as they can. In the world of Alaska Natives, it is traditionally given or awarded for the amount of time it takes until a particular goal is reached.

Recognizing this disconnect, corporations and nonprofit organizations in Alaska Native business are investing in filling this leadership void so emerging Alaska Native leaders are postured for success in corporate America. This is especially important in Alaska where Alaska Native corporations (ANC), as just one example, say their No. 1 goal is to be 100 percent run by shareholders, or other Alaska Natives. As the second highest tax paying entity after the oil

Lena Jacobs

companies, creating more jobs than all industries combined, the need for Alaska Native leaders will only continue to grow.

Instead of trying to force the white man’s ways on the next generation of brass, the leadership mentors, teachers and advisers working with Alaska Native youth understand that successful leadership development lies in tapping into their heritage, traditions and values that their people have relied on to survive for thousands of years.

FINDING HER VOICE Lena Jacobs, a 26-year-old Athabascan who is from Ruby and was raised

all over the state, has attended the First Alaskans Institute (FAI) Elders & Youth Conference, preceding the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) Convention, every year since the eighth grade. Although she had attended for years, it was when she came back to Alaska from Willamette University in Oregon to attend an education summit hosted by FAI during AFN week that she discovered her calling. As a sophomore, she was studying cultural anthropology with an emphasis on indigenous peoples, with plans of earning her master’s degree in public policy (focusing on education

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and youth policy) before pursuing her ideal job that would combine policy research and administrative functions, with time spent directly engaging with youth and students in Alaska.

She listened to Cathy Rexford, an Inupiaq from Barrow, who has worked extensively in Native education, as she gave a speech in Inupiaq, which she was learning at the time, tell about her journey and how she came to reconnect with her Alaska Native culture. Surrounded by the room full of several hundred youth, Jacobs remarked to herself how brave she was to stand up in front of a strange crowd, an example she took as, “You can do it.”

Evon Peter, then chief of the Neetsaii Gwich’in people in remote Arctic Village, was next up at the podium. He grew up carrying water to his one room house, without energy from gas or oil and now travels worldwide speaking about his cause. He spoke publicly about things that he was passionate about, ranging from subsistence to the spiritual and social level of Alaska Natives, about standing strong for the justice for Alaska Natives and to do anything less would be to accept the oppression of our people.

“That was the moment I found my voice,” Jacobs says, and for the first time, instead of listening, she decided it was time to step up and start participating more actively in her community.

“I just remember the feeling I had of being in a room with so much positive energy and so many passionate people, and for the first time standing up and saying ‘this is something I care about, too, when it comes to the education of Natives,’” Jacobs says.

As another part of the education summit, Jacobs also participated in a small group work session. For their project they developed the idea of a Native language center, including the funding, branding and curriculum.

Although the exercise itself was interesting, she says, what really rang true for her was what occurred when different Alaska Natives worked together.

Alaska Native leaders and provide research and information to policy makers and elected officials that can be used to understand and improve the lives of Alaska Natives especially.

The Leadership Development program, one of FAI’s main initiatives, now hosts the Elders & Youth Conference, which precedes AFN’s annual gathering. The two-day event drew 1,300 participants – ages 12 and up – from across the state last year, and focuses on the transfer of knowledge from elders to youth to help prepare

them for the future. In addition to keynote speakers and plenary sessions, the group passes resolutions that it forwards onto AFN, says Liz Medicine Crow, FAI vice president and director of the organization’s Alaska Native Policy Center.

Cultural leaders, elders and professionals speak before the group, sharing their experiences and discussing the importance of being a leader in their communities, not only as an Alaska Native, but also as an Alaskan, she says.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS It is this voice and connection to their culture and each other that FAI works to provide as it gets ready to celebrate 10 years of developing www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

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Photo courtesy of Liz Medicine Crow

SUMMER INTERNSHIPS Another leadership development component is the summer internship program, which matches Alaska Native college students with statewide employers in their fields of interest. Interns spend eight weeks with employers in a substantive position and two weeks with FAI learning from current leaders, discussing important community issues, learning how to lead and connecting with their Alaska Native culture. Recent presenters have included Willie Hensley, Diane Benson and Wilson Justin, an elder from the upper Ahtna area, talking about significant historical developments, personal journeys and the importance of leadership in communities and tribal relationships.

The program not only teaches students leadership skills, Medicine Crow says, but opens their minds and encourages them to think about how they can contribute to their culture and community. “They see an opportunity to develop themselves and their skills in a way that addresses their culture and community,” she says, adding that 99 percent continue in college, go on

Liz M Li Medicine di i C Crow

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The demographic for this part of the program is high-performing younger Alaska Native leaders. to get their degree, seek advanced degrees, or join the work force.

The FAI Public Policy Fellowship, one of only two approved by the Alaska Legislative Ethics Committee, focuses on providing fellows in-depth experience with the State government to increase their knowledge of how public policy works so they understand the channels to go to and through for being a voice and affecting change. The demographic for this part of the program is high-performing younger Alaska Native leaders. Fellows are placed with an Alaska legislator and serve as key members of the staff.

MISSING GENERATION Through the Alaska Native Policy Center, FAI also hosts the Native Emerging

Leaders Forum, a gathering of young Alaska Native leaders, generally between the ages of 20 and 40 years old.

This demographic has been referred to as the â&#x20AC;&#x153;missing generation,â&#x20AC;? Medicine Crow says, and comprises many born after the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) passed in 1971.

Those who participate are working people, professionals, and cultural and community leaders. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We try to create an avenue for this portion of the population and engage them in issues in a way that captures the young Alaska Native voice,â&#x20AC;? Medicine Crow says.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT Since first getting involved with FAI, Jacobs has been engaged in almost all of the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leadership development opportunities and is currently a fellow at the Alaska Native Policy Center. She has an undergraduate degree from Willamette University and a masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s from the University of California, Berkeley, both considered two of the best universities in the country. Despite the many professional opportunities available to her, Jacobs

says working for FAI is aligned with her personal values. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have a personal goal: I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to take a job I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do for free,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The work Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m doing matters to someone and it matters to me.â&#x20AC;?

Part of that work is helping participants in the program find a balance between keeping their traditions while also trying to navigate Western business structures. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Indigenize It!â&#x20AC;? the theme of this fallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Elders & Youth Conference, captures this very idea: taking experiences that may not necessarily be indigenous and learning how to adapt them so they fit into that personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lifestyle and livelihood.

At the same time, she says she attributes her success as a student to her parents and different mentors and she wants to help advance those Alaska Natives who may not have the support system she has. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nobody does anything by themselves â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they need the support of their community and mentors,â&#x20AC;? Jacobs says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They need to be able to share their story and collaborate on what it means to be a leader.â&#x20AC;? â?&#x2018; EHULQJVWUDLWV FRP

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NATIVE BUSINESS SPECIAL SECTION

Photo by Jim Kilpatrick

AJ McClanahan

From Nebraska to Alaska and back AJ McClanahan working on her Nebraska farm.

BY HEIDI BOHI

FOLLOWING DREAMS The following year, 2002, she bought a run-down farm with the dream of

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Photo by Peter Williams

A

s she stared 50 in the face, like so many of her friends and colleagues who had struggled with half-century birthdays, Alaska author, journalist and Alaska Native historian Alexandra J. “AJ” McClanahan had the predictable meltdown.

Happy marriage, beautiful daughter, rewarding career, a rich life and close friends – she knew she had everything to be thankful for, but there was, she says, the “usual mid-life stuff of wanting to do some crazy things before it was too late,” along with the realization that “someday” dreams were not going to happen unless she set some specific goals for herself.

Buy a motorcycle, get a master’s degree, buy a farm – though any one of those would have seemed like a reasonable mid-life crisis reward to most, in short order McClanahan – then the historian for CIRI – ticked off all three items on her wish list, formidably going from one of the state’s most respected authorities on Alaska Native culture and social issues, to an organic farmer in the heartland of Orchard, Neb., a small community in the northeast region where she and many of her neighbors make their living farming cattle, potatoes, tomatoes, soybeans and corn.

First came the motorcycle: a bloodred Kawasaki 175 that, she says, was appropriately named “The Eliminator.”

While practicing, she ended up breaking her shoulder and sold it after two months. “It did eliminate me from being a motorcycle rider,” she says, laughing.

John Shively and AJ McClanahan at their 25th wedding anniversary celebration and the celebration of their daughter’s graduation from high school, summer 2009.

eventually replacing her midtown Anchorage office with a farmhouse and a tractor. The decision caught many of her colleagues and friends by surprise, but in fact, she says, the leap was intuitive and in many ways a logical next step for the second half of her life.

“After writing about the land after all these years, and listening to people talk about their relationship with the land, I realized that I had my own relationship with it,” she says of the 80-acre parcel she discovered online and where, at 58, she farms 55 acres of soybeans, rye and buckwheat since moving there full-time two years ago.

At first, she spent most of the year in Alaska, while completing her master’s degree in Alaska Native Studies

through Alaska Pacific University’s special program for working professionals. Her thesis, the book “Sakuuktugut” – suh-KOOK-to-ghut – an Inupiaq word that means, “we are working incredibly hard,” is about how Alaska Native corporations are successfully creating their own form of capitalism, through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971. This, she says, is possible in part because ANCSA is an act of Congress, and can be changed, as opposed to a treaty.

The fact that Alaska leaders chose this business model, though Indians in the Lower 48 states did not have that option, is instrumental to understanding the difference between Alaska Natives and Lower 48 Indians. In the context

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of Alaska’s history and economic and social issues, the book also documents how Alaska Natives are writing an epic story in cultural and economic development, focusing on their intimate tie to the land. It also explains why Native leaders and corporation shareholders struggle daily with the tension between focusing on bottom-line success and honoring traditional values and preserving cultures.

Photo by Jim Kilpatrick

EARLY YEARS The book was not her first foray into Alaska Native culture and history. After graduating from the journalism program at the University of Nebraska in 1975, she launched her career editing a smalltown newspaper in Crete, Neb., then writing for the state capital’s Lincoln Journal-Star as the first woman to ever be the farm editor. This led to covering water and irrigation issues for the Omaha World Herald, she says, in a state where water is oil and the Ogallala Aquifer, a huge underground source of water, is a major supplier for agricultural, municipal and industrial development. From there she went on to

AJ McClanahan and daughter Natasha pose with singer-songwriter Aaron Tippin.

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cover the Nebraska Legislature before landing at the Anchorage Times, where she wrote about federal issues. In spring 1982, she moved to Anchorage, only to be introduced to Carol Murkowski, with whom she ended up rooming – McClanahan’s first week in Alaska – Carol’s father, then a U.S. Senator, former Gov. Frank Murkowski, fixed his daughter and her new friend breakfast.

In 1982, when a ballot initiative threatened taking away subsistence preference for Alaska Natives, nobody else on the staff wanted to cover the story, or any other fish and game issues, including meetings of the Alaska Board of Game and Board of Fisheries. It was this, she says, that piqued what would become a fascination with Alaska Native issues.

FIGHTING BACK “I realized the fight over resources in Alaska was similar to the fight over resources in Nebraska,” she says.

“Rural people whose livelihood depends on them, while the urban population continues to try and restrict usage and mandate it, creating the tension between urban and rural people.”

That June, when the ANCSA Section 7(i) Settlement Agreement was signed, though she had no idea what it was, she knew it was big. Everyone told McClanahan to talk to John Shively who was working on the revenuesharing provision for NANA. She asked him to lunch to discuss the story. He was a good source, she says, but the love at first sight connection she felt was clearly in her mind only. When they bumped into each other after that and agreed to have lunch again, she took a girlfriend’s advice to keep canceling the date until he finally invited her to dinner. The couple recently celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary.

TAKING THE PLUNGE In 1986, as The Tundra Times was going bankrupt, McClanahan accepted the position as president and publisher.

Looking back, she says, she did not take her husband’s advice to look into the operation more closely before agreeing to accept the position. Her first day on the job, she says there was no staff – everyone had been laid off – the paper was $100,000 in debt, and there were

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five weeks worth of issues on the floor that had not been mailed due to lack of postage funds.

“The editor and the advertising sales guy were hanging around just because they didn’t have another job to go to,” she says. “Basically, we were going to close on the first day I started.” When she left the paper five years later to return to the Anchorage Times, it had $50,000 in the bank and health insurance for its employees, the result of scrappy fundraising and making some modest investments.

Although the new couple wanted to start a family, McClanahan was not able to complete a full-term pregnancy.

On a Sunday evening in February 1991, long-term friend Abbe Hensley called and asked if they would be interested in adopting a baby. Shively was away on a business trip in San Antonio, Texas.

Relying on her reporting prowess, McClanahan called every hotel in the city until she tracked him down. Five days later on Valentine’s Day, the couple met with the birth mother and took the Inupiaq baby Natasha Marie Hensley Shively home with them that night.

A MOM AT HEART Today, she says, Natasha – now 19 and a sophomore at the University of Nebraska – is one of the biggest influences in her life, along with her mother, father and husband.

“From my daughter, I have learned the importance of being an example,” McClanahan says. “Lack of self-confidence has been a problem for me, and I was terribly unsure of my ability to be a good mother. As I looked at the world through my daughter’s eyes, however, it gradually dawned on me that as her mother, it was my job to set an example, whether I consciously chose to do so or not. So at a certain point, I realized I needed to work at being the best me I could be. While I did it for her sake, it has had amazing ramifications for me.”

While working for Petro Marine Services as the communications manager from 1994 to 1998, McClanahan renewed her contact with Carl Marrs, former CEO of CIRI, which eventually led to her being hired as the first historian for one of the state’s largest Alaska Native corporations. Her

first project was to write the history of ANCSA, resulting in “Growing Up Native in Alaska,” a critically acclaimed collection of personal reflections by 27 Alaska Native young professional men and women about what it means to be an Alaska Native and the impact of ANCSA on their lives. It was the beginning of a tenure that would result in other acclaimed books. “A Reference in Time, Alaska Native History Day by Day,” supports the history of Alaska Natives with at least one key event for every day of the year.

Now one of her closest friends, Marrs says she has become known as an expert on issues related to the history, culture and social issues surrounding Alaska Natives, and is revered as an ally by those who know her in this far-reaching community. As an Alaska Native himself, Marrs says it is safe to say that many Alaska Natives consider her to be a kindred spirit.

“She really has always had their interests and culture at heart – it has always been her No. 1 priority; she is always thinking about it and always ❑ protecting these people.”

Doyon, Limited provides high-quality • oil field services • security • engineering management • construction • facility management • tourism

LEADER in

All We Do

Doyon Values • financially responsible • pride and respect in Native ownership • socially and culturally responsible • commitment to the long-term • honesty and integrity • commitment to excellence • respect for employees

WWW.DOYON.COM Doyon, Limited (907) 459-2000 Doyon Drilling Inc. (907) 563-5530 Doyon Universal Services (907) 522-1300

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

123

NATIVE BUSINESS SPECIAL SECTION

Where are they now?

Photo courtesy of Willie Hensley

Willie Hensley: legislator, author, commissioner, government liaison and Alaska Native leader.

BY HEIDI BOHI WILLIE HENSLEY

W

illie Hensley has just returned from auditioning for a part in the movie “Everybody Loves Whales,” the Universal Pictures movie that begins filming in Anchorage and Barrow this fall.

If he gets the part, he’ll play a whale hunter who helped deal with the press when it descended on Barrow during the 1988 attempt to rescue three gray whales trapped in sea ice there.

“I’m trying to become a movie star,” he says laughing.

Legislator, author, commissioner, government liaison, Alaska Native leader – at 69, celebrity is one of the few professional gigs he hasn’t landed yet, but if history’s any indication, don’t be surprised if you see his name in lights

124

soon. Since retiring two years ago, he’s been promoted in the grandfather and household helper departments – his wife Abbe still works – and he never turns down the chance to go fishing, berry picking and hunting, but even in retirement, he can’t seem to stop himself from always looking ahead to the next idea or involvement.

Since the national and statewide promotional tours for his book “Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People,” have slowed down some, he now has the time to think about taking on new projects such as recording a personal reading of his book in Inupiaq, and maybe even writing a second book, this time a novel. Although, he says,

he’s not one of those people who are compelled to write, if he keeps telling people about the idea enough he will have to follow through with actually writing it. In the meantime, he says, he’ll keep plugging away at the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle.

What’s on his mind these days, he says, is Alaska’s future. “We have come a long way since the territorial days and we are fortunate to have enjoyed a good quality of life, but it’s a lifestyle that in the long run is unaffordable.

Since the ’70s, we have been blinded by good fortune, but it has been going downhill since 1988 and I’m afraid if we dilly dally too long, our options will only decrease.” ■

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

Photo courtesy of Alice Petrivelli

ALICE PETRIVELLI

A

fter 36 years of giving her heart and soul to The Aleut Corp. (TAC), Alice Petrivelli, former president and CEO of one of the state’s most successful Alaska Native regional corporations, says despite holding several top positions there for many years, looking back, her favorite job was her first one

working as the receptionist in 1972.

“I loved it because I knew everything that was going on and learned so much,” she says from her home in Anchorage.

Four years and two promotions later, while working for the Aleutian Island Pribilof Association, she decided she didn’t like the way the corporation was being managed, so she ran for the board of directors – and to her surprise, was elected. From that post, there was no stopping her and in 1990 she became president of the corporation, a promotion that she describes as an accident. “Nobody really wanted the position and they were surprised I did,” but with the support of good staff and other Alaska Native leaders she was motivated to succeed.

And succeed she did, rising through the ranks to hold many senior positions with the corporation, including chair of the corporation, and board member of the Alaska Trust Co. She also served as president of The Aleut Foundation and Atxam Corp., and represented TAC on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, Alaska Native Heritage Center

Academy Board, and Aleutian Pribilof Islands Cultural Heritage Program Advisory Board. She served on TAC board until 2008 when she retired.

One of her biggest accomplishments was leading TAC into 8(a) government contracting and launching several subsidiaries that secured large contracts across the country, ultimately contributing to the establishment of annual shareholder dividends, which continue to be paid out today.

Her success as a leader, she believes, comes from the fact that her colleagues knew she was serious, “But I don’t have an ego problem.”

Now looking back on the career that made her a legend, especially among Alaska Native entities, she says, “Certain things happen certain ways that make me believe I had help all along the way.”

A respected elder – Petrivelli turns 82 in November – she helped raise eight children with her late husband Frank, and now enjoys her seven grandchildren and being a great-grandmother to a two-year-old grandson who she delights in watching scold her. ■

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

125

Photo courtesy of Doyon Ltd.

had to make appointments to see my own children. They’d just see the back end of me going out the door.”

Being a spokeswoman for Alaskans who “don’t have a voice” regardless of their political affiliation is how she hopes Alaskans measure her success, she says. “I was a stateswoman – I like to feel that I represented the whole state and cared about everyone, even if they weren’t in my district,” she says. ■

GEORGIANNA LINCOLN

O

nce she gets the hang of retirement, ultimately, retired legislator Georgianna Lincoln would like to be a rocker – sans the skinny jeans, piercings and leather.

In fact, a “rocker” is a hospital volunteer who comforts babies who are sick or lonely because their parents have to return to their home community and cannot afford to stay with the child during their recovery. Her other goal for retirement is to sit with people who are dying.

But, she says, before she can commit to these two goals, “I must learn to say ‘thank you, I’m most honored, but I must pass that up.’”

Since stepping down from the legislature in 2004 after 14 years in office – she was the first and only Alaska Native woman to be in the Alaska Senate – Lincoln, 67, says her so called “retirement” years have been busier than ever. She was chair of her Alaska Native corporation board, Doyon Ltd., for three years, and also served as the chair for all the corporation’s subsidiaries. She is a trustee for First Alaskans Institute, and was also on the board for the Alaska Native Heritage Center for about five years until recently resigning. She is currently starting her second year as a board member for the Alaska Federation of Natives.

Not having a life comes naturally to her, she says. As a representative and then a senator of the largest district in the state, comprising almost 200 communities, she traveled non-stop in order to be able to meet with constituents and likened the job to being governor.

“That was my family – I practically

126

Photo courtesy of ASRC

OLIV LIVER L IVER ER LEA EAVITT EAVI VITT TT

I

n addition to his accomplishments as a long-term leader of Arctic Slope Regional Corp. (ASRC), the largest Alaska Native corporation in the state, between meetings and cross-country flights from Juneau to Washington, D.C., Oliver Leavitt has always successfully kept one foot in the board room, and the other on the shores of the Beaufort Sea, where he is also known as a successful Barrow whaling captain, one of the most highly regarded positions in the community.

Since retiring two years ago, Leavitt continues to walk in two worlds, doing business consulting work for ASRC and captaining the Oliver Leavitt crew, which has seven members who are family and close friends.

“You balance it,” he says of his Inupiaq heritage from his home in Barrow, where he spends most of his time these days. “You step in one room with a suit and tie on, and the other in traditional garb for whaling and hunting.”

And when he’s not out on the spring or fall hunt, he is making preparations for the following season.

Leavitt began his career with ASRC when it was first created. Before becoming chairman, he was treasurer from 1972 to 1983, when the corporation made the transition from a start-up company to a well-established entity, as he helped determine the corporation’s first investments, subsidiaries and joint ventures.

As chairman of the ASRC board, vice president of government affairs, and prior to that vice president of lands, under his direction he managed the corporation’s 5 million acres of land on the Arctic Slope, working to plan the exploration and development of rich oil, gas and coal resources on this land.

This included exploring the Western Arctic Coal Field, an area believed to contain up to one-tenth of the world’s coal supply. He also guided the efforts to open the coastal plain area of the 19 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas exploration and development, considered to be the most promising on-shore site for oil and gas discovery in the nation, and an area where ASRC owns the subsurface rights to 92,000 acres of land.

Although the numbers measuring ASRC’s success continue to be staggering, helping change 8,500 shareholders’ everyday lives by developing programs that transition them into the western world is what Leavitt says has been his biggest accomplishment, while at the same time balancing subsistence needs and environmental concerns with development opportunities. As recently as the early 1970s, he reminds, things most Americans wake up to every day and take for granted were not there for ASRC shareholders, such as running water, health clinics, fire and police services, and airports.

Revenues from ASRC resource developments used in part to establish training programs and scholarships for youth have been especially critical for advancing the region.

But, he says, you never keep score of accomplishments when you’re a leader.

“You have a mission,” Leavitt says.

“You don’t think of yourself, you think of what you can do to ensure safety and security in people’s lives. It’s just a matter of earning their trust and leading people toward what will help them to ❑ have better lives.”

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

ALASKA TRENDS

BY JOEL AINSWORTH

Alaska Trends, an outline of significant statewide statistics, is provided by the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development.

Alaska’s Unemployment Rate Better than the U.S. average

S

ince November 2008, Alaska has tended to fare better than the U.S. average unemployment rate. Alaska reached a short-run unemployment peak of 8.6 percent in December 2009.

Since that time, it has slowly edged downward at a slightly faster rate than the U.S. unemployment average. The graph illustrates the Alaska unemployment rate against the U.S. average from 2006 through June 2010, a period which captures unemployment trends before, during and after the most recent recession.

The unemployment rate is derived by subtracting the total number of employed individuals from the total labor force. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployed persons are considered to be individuals who “do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the past four weeks, and are currently available for work.” Individuals who have quit looking for work beyond that point are dropped from the labor force count and not included in

the primary unemployment rate. To account for these changes in the labor force, BLS publishes several variants of the unemployment rate, allowing researchers to capture more precise data, based on their research needs.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

ALASKA TRENDS HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU THIS MONTH COURTESY OF PACIFIC PILE & MARINE

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

127

ALASKA TRENDS Indicator

Units

GENERAL Personal Income – Alaska Personal Income – United States Consumer Prices – Anchorage Consumer Prices – United States Bankruptcies Alaska Total Anchorage Total Fairbanks Total EMPLOYMENT Alaska Anchorage & Mat-Su Fairbanks Southeast Gulf Coast Sectoral Distribution – Alaska Total Nonfarm Goods Producing Services Providing Mining and Logging2 Mining Oil & Gas Construction Manufacturing Seafood Processing Trade/Transportation/Utilities Wholesale Trade Retail Trade Food & Beverage Stores General Merchandise Stores Trans/Warehouse/Utilities Air Transportation Truck Transportation Information Telecommunications Financial Activities Professional & Business Svcs Educational & Health Services Health Care Leisure & Hospitality Accommodation Food Svcs & Drinking Places Other Services Government Federal Government State Government State Education Local Government Local Education Tribal Government1 Labor Force Alaska Anchorage & Mat-Su Fairbanks Southeast Gulf Coast

128

Period

Latest Report Period

Previous Report Period (revised)

Year Ago Period

Year Over Year Change

US $ US $ 1982-1984 = 100 1982-1984 = 100

1st Q10 1st Q10 2nd H09 2nd H09

30,560 12,167,340 193.46 215.94

30,051 12,099,289 193.46 215.94

29,371 12,037,360 191.335 216.177

4.05% 1.08% 1.11% -0.11%

Number Filed Number Filed Number Filed

May May May

101 78 17

89 70 5

86 60 25

17.44% 30.00% -32.00%

Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands

May May May May May

334.416 183.427 44.222 37.314 36.25

338.165 181.192 42.469 39.613 38.601

324.92 182.10 41.81 36.05 32.62

2.92% 0.73% 5.78% 3.50% 11.12%

Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands

May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May

325.2 44.8 280.4 16.6 16.3 12.2 17 11.2 6.9 64.5 6.4 37 6.5 10.3 21.1 5.7 2.9 6.4 4.2 13.9 24.8 40.1 28.8 33.3 7.3 20.5 11.1 86.3 18.8 25 6.6 42.5 24 3.7

314.9 41 273.9 15.6 14.3 12.2 14.7 10.7 7.7 61.7 6.2 35.6 6.4 10.2 19.9 5.7 2.9 6.3 4.1 14 23.9 40.1 29 29.3 6.6 18 11.1 87.5 17.4 26.6 8.1 43.5 25.5 3.6

313.6 41.1 272.5 15.4 15.2 13.2 14.4 11.3 7.6 61.4 6.2 34.7 6.2 9.7 20.5 5.9 3 6.6 4.3 14.4 25.5 38.8 27.8 28.1 6.3 17.7 11.4 86.3 17.1 26 8.1 43.2 24.7 3.4

3.70% 9.00% 2.90% 7.79% 7.24% -7.58% 18.06% -0.88% -9.21% 5.05% 3.23% 6.63% 4.84% 6.19% 2.93% -3.39% -3.33% -3.03% -2.33% -3.47% -2.75% 3.35% 3.60% 18.51% 15.87% 15.82% -2.63% 0.00% 9.94% -3.85% -18.52% -1.62% -2.83% 8.82%

Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands Thousands

May May May May May

362.75 197.75 47.45 40.18 39.67

367.99 196.13 46.00 42.65 42.21

354.76 196.54 45.11 39.41 36.50

2.25% 0.61% 5.17% 1.96% 8.67%

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

SPONSORED

Indicator

Units

Unemployment Rate Alaska Anchorage & Mat-Su Fairbanks Southeast Gulf Coast United States PETROLEUM/MINING Crude Oil Production – Alaska Natural Gas Field Production – Alaska ANS West Cost Average Spot Price Hughes Rig Count Alaska United States Gold Prices Silver Prices Zinc Prices REAL ESTATE Anchorage Building Permit Valuations Total Residential Commercial Deeds of Trust Recorded Anchorage – Recording District Fairbanks – Recording District VISITOR INDUSTRY Total Air Passenger Traffic – Anchorage Total Air Passenger Traffic – Fairbanks ALASKA PERMANENT FUND Equity Assets Net Income Net Income – Year to Date Marketable Debt Securities Real Estate Investments Preferred and Common Stock BANKING (excludes interstate branches) Total Bank Assets – Alaska Cash & Balances Due Securities Net Loans and Leases Other Real Estate Owned Total Liabilities Total Bank Deposits – Alaska Noninterest-bearing deposits Interest- bearing deposits FOREIGN TRADE Value of the Dollar In Japanese Yen In Canadian Dollars In British Pounds In European Monetary Unit In Chinese Yuan

BY

PACIFIC PILE & MARINE

Period

Latest Report Period

Previous Report Period (revised)

Year Ago Period

Year Over Year Change

Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent

May May May May May May

7.8 7.2 6.8 7.1 8.6 9.7

8.1 7.6 7.7 7.1 8.6 9.9

8.4 7.3 7.3 8.5 10.6 8.6

-7.14% -1.37% -6.85% -16.47% -18.87% 12.79%

Millions of Barrels Billions of Cubic Ft. $ per Barrel

May May May

17.03 9.19 74.23

17.01 10.87 74.23

19.58 12.09 46.56

-13.02% -23.94% 59.44%

Active Rigs Active Rigs $ Per Troy Oz. $ Per Troy Oz. Per Pound

May May May May May

9 1513 1204.88 18.50 0.98

9 1479 1,148.58 18.10 1.18

9 995 891.43 12.51 0.74

0.00% 52.06% 35.16% 47.79% 32.71%

Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $

May May May

36.42 19.94 16.48

25.31 13.54 11.77

33.53 10.72 22.81

8.63% 86.04% -27.74%

Total Deeds Total Deeds

May May

878 316

735 298

1443 346

-39.15% -8.67%

Thousands Thousands

May May

409.75 82.91

319.31 64.14

312.46 61.61

31.14% 34.56%

Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $

May May May May May May May

34,648.3 36,260.4 276.6 (1,569.5) (42.1) (18.3) (1,606.4)

36,138.7 36,415.8 179.6 277.1 63.4 (70.5) 143.5

28,982.4 29,419.5 (108.3) 1,508.9 127.2 26.8 1,377.1

19.55% 23.25% 355.40% -204.02% -133.10% -168.28% -216.65%

Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $ Millions of $

1st Q10 1st Q10 1st Q10 1st Q10 1st Q10 1st Q10 1st Q10 1st Q10 1st Q10

1,961.82 32.13 137.69 1,156.64 20.34 1,727.68 1,690.30 428.10 1,262.20

1,961.82 32.13 137.69 1,156.64 20.34 1,727.68 1,690.30 428.10 1,262.20

1,953.70 48.62 84.94 1,202.89 14.17 1,739.91 1,658.29 417.74 1,240.54

0.42% -33.92% 62.12% -3.85% 43.51% -0.70% 1.93% 2.48% 1.75%

Yen Canadian $ Pounds Euro Yuan

May May May May May

92.04 1.04 0.68 0.79 6.83

93.44 1.01 0.65 0.74 6.82

98.99 1.23 0.68 0.76 6.83

-7.02% -15.27% -0.01% 4.68% -0.07%

Data compiled by University of Alaska Center for Economic Development.

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

129

ADVERTISERS INDEX Afognak Native Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Ahtna Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Alaska Air Cargo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Alaska Growth Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Alaska Native Heritage Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Alaska Native Professional Association . . . . . . . . . . 84 Alaska Sales & Service Fleet Elite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Alaska State Chamber of Commerce. . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Alaska USA Federal Credit Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Alaska’s Capital Inn Bed & Breakfast . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Alutiiq Oilfield Solutions LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 American Marine/PENCO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-10 Anchorage Chrysler Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Anchorage Opera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Arctic Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Arctic Office Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Arctic Slope Telephone Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Arctic Transportation Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 ASRC Energy Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 AT&T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 B2 Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47, 67 Bering Straits Native Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Bethel Native Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Brice Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Bristol Bay Native Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Calista Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Carlile Transportation Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Chandler Corp./Puffin Inn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Chiulista Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Chris Arend Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Chugach Alaska Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Construction Machinery Industrial LLC . . . . . . . . . 131 Craig Taylor Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Credit Union 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Crowley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

130

Cruz Construction Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Delta Leasing LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 DenaliTEK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Dimond Center Hotel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Dowland-Bach Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Doyon Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 EDC Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Eklutna Native Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Energy Laboratories Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 ERA Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 ERA Helicopters LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Fairweather LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 First National Bank Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Floyd & Sons Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 GCI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Great Originals Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Green Star Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Hotel Captain Cook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 International Data Systems Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Judy Patrick Photography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Koniag Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Landye Bennett Blumstein LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Lawes Project Management Office. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Lounsbury & Associates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Lynden Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Mikunda Cottrell & Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Moss Adams LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 MTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Muzak - Sound Tech LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Nana Construction LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 NANA Regional Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 NANA/WorleyParsons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 NCB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Nenana Heating Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Northern Air Cargo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-25 Northern Reclamation Services LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Northrim Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Northwest Ironworkers Employers Assoc. . . . . . . . 114 Olgoonik Development Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 OPTI Staffing Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Pacific Pile & Marine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Parker Smith & Feek. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Peak Oilfield Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Pen Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Premier Business Center LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Rent A Wreck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Rosie’s Delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Seekins Ford Lincoln Mercury Fleet. . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Shoreside Petroleum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Span Alaska Consolidators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Stellar Design Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 STG Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Sunshine Fitness & Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Susitna Energy Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 TDX Tanadgusix Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 TecPro Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 The Aleut Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 The Coast International Inn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 The Growth Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Tatitlek Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Tongass Substance Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Totem Ocean Trailer Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Trans Northern Aviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 UMIAQ LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 University of Alaska Anchorage/Engineering . . . . . . 27 University of Alaska/Statewide Corp. Programs . . . . 47 Washington Crane and Hoist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Wells Fargo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 West-Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 WHPacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • September 2010

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