Ron Unger has been chairman and CEO of Koniag—the Alaska Native corporation for the Kodiak Island region—for only four years, yet he’s already joking about retirement. He expects someone like Kailer Hegna or Keelin Rice, both young Koniag shareholders, will take his place someday. This summer, Hegna has been an intern at Afognak, the corporation for his mother’s home village, but he benefits from Koniag’s college scholarship program. So does Rice, studying pre-law at Willamette University when she’s not interning at Koniag’s Anchorage headquarters. A scholarship from Koniag helped Unger, too, when he completed his MBA. As he says in this month’s cover story, Native corporations focus on the future by empowering youth to be leaders and by building on the wisdom of elders.
