A Message from the Chairman

New challenges tested our region, our residents, and our resolve in 2022. With Typhoon Merbok making landfall in September, flooding displaced homes and washed away vital boats, motors, and gear that many rely on during the fall gathering season. Disaster response is not part of CVRF’s formal mission, but our staff rose to the occasion to provide aid to some of our most devastated communities. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Mary Peltola, along with CVRF staff, flew to Hooper Bay and Chevak to witness the aftermath first-hand and meet with residents. I would like to recognize all our staff for their efforts and highlight the quick leadership of our executive director. Climate change is not going away, and we remain on the front lines facing rising water levels, erosion, and increasingly severe storms like Typhoon Merbok. We continue to build on this experience and ready ourselves as a resource to our community should crisis strike again.

Last year marked a pivotal moment in CVRF history, as it capped a decade of growth and maturity. We submitted our decennial review to the State of Alaska for the period between 2010 and 2020. CVRF began that decade as an industry partner leasing quota and finished it as the sole owner and operator of our pollock, crab, and cod vessels and quotas. We are still the only CDQ group to do so. In the same period, we grew from primarily an Anchorage-staffed operation to having facilities and full-time staff in the majority of our 20 communities. We created more jobs and delivered more benefits throughout our region. We’ve added more western Alaskans to our headquarters staff in Anchorage, too, where they are taking on senior roles. Coming from the region with ties to our culture and traditions, they provide valuable insights that guide our operations and strategic direction.

My experience with CVRF began when we were just beginning to provide meaningful in-region services. I began my journey as a deck hand on a partner vessel, fishing for pacific cod in the late 1990s. I attended college with the help from the CVRF scholarship program in the early 2000s. After school, I sought office experience, so I applied for an internship with CVRF in the spring of 2004. My internship turned into a full-time job, first with Coastal Villages Seafoods and later as the quota manager. I returned to Scammon Bay to start my family in 2010, but my passion for CVRF’s mission stayed with me. I won a board seat in 2016 and now I am blessed to write to you as chairman and a servant to our people, with the desire to grow the company and our programs in the years ahead.

As I have grown and learned from CVRF, CVRF has grown too. What started with a single community service center is now a network of shops and facilities in almost every village. We employed approximately 20 staff in Anchorage, and even fewer in the region in the early 2000s. Today, we employ 161 in-region staff and board members across our 20 communities and Anchorage. We plan to continue this impressive growth so we can do more for our people by providing new jobs, infrastructure support, and other opportunities we’ve yet to discover.

We will continue to meet hurdles head on and work to grow the company so our communities thrive. We owe much to our predecessors on the board and in the company who have stewarded this growth. With dedication and commitment, we can build on their success, and expand CVRF’s role to bring more services to our region.