Alaska Business April 2020

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CONTENTS APRIL 2020 | VOLUME 37 | NUMBER 4 | AKBIZMAG.COM

FE AT UR E S 8 EDUCATION

84 MINING SPECIAL SECTION

Continuing Medical Education

The Electrification of Everything

Enhancing professional development and patient care

Graphite One seeks to establish first US-based graphite supply chain

By Tracy Barbour

By Amy Newman

18 HEALTHCARE

The Pulse of Cardiology in the Last Frontier Heart health requires lifelong attention

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

26 ENGINEERING/ ARCHITECTURE

Moving Air: The Joys of HVAC If you’re warm in the winter and cool in the summer, thank a mechanical engineer

By Vanessa Orr

32 CONSTRUCTION Bidding to Building

Cornerstone provides a ‘walkthrough’ of the pre-construction process

By Brad Joyal

98 OIL & GAS

Anticipated ANWR Lease Sale Profits Included in Trump 2021 Budget Optimism remains for development even with delays

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

104 TRANSPORTATION Push & Pull

Tug and barge services keep Alaska on course

Graphite One

By Brad Joyal

112 TOURISM

Growth in cruise market and other segments boost Alaska’s tourism industry

By Tracy Barbour

Visit Anchorage

More Boats, More People, More Money

80 MINING SPECIAL SECTION

92 MINING SPECIAL SECTION

Updates on Alaska’s operating and highly prospective mining projects

Assaying and refining in Alaska

Mining Activity Overview

Turning Rock into Revenue

By Joy Choquette

Alaska Business (ISSN 8756-4092) is published monthly by Alaska Business Publishing Co., Inc. 501 W. Northern Lights Boulevard, Suite 100, Anchorage, Alaska 99503-2577; Telephone: (907) 276-4373. © 2020 Alaska Business Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Alaska Business accepts no responsibility for unsolicited materials; they will not be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self addressed envelope. One-year subscription is $39.95 and includes twelve issues (print + digital) and the annual Power List. Single issues of the Power List are $15 each. Single issues of Alaska Business are $4.99 each; $5.99 for the July & December issues. Send subscription orders and address changes to circulation@akbizmag.com.

To order back issues ($9.99 each including postage) visit simplecirc.com/back_issues/alaska-business.

4 | April 2020

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CONTENTS APRIL 2020 | VOLUME 37 | NUMBER 4 | AKBIZMAG.COM

C O R P O R AT E 10 0 S P EC I A L S EC T I O N 40 THE TOP 5 OF THE TOP 100

42 A FIFTY-YEAR LOVE AFFAIR

Keeping Alaskans at work

Charles Dillard is living his dream everyday at the Alaska Railroad

48 CORPORATE 100 DIRECTORY

By Vanessa Orr

72 100 YEARS IN THE LAST FRONTIER

Midtown Mall Charles Dillard

Carrs|Safeway is locally grown and nationally strong

Greens Creek | Hecla

76 GREENS CREEK’S GREEN LEGACY

Hecla focuses on employees, safety, and environmental stewardship

Correction: In the February 2020 Alaska Trends, Singapore and Indonesia were mislabeled on the map titled Growing Trade Partners. The map has been corrected in the digital edition of Alaska Business and can be seen here: https://digital.akbizmag. com/issue/february-2020/alaska-trends/.

ABOUT THE COVER We like jobs here at Alaska Business. We like our own jobs, we like the jobs held by the professionals we use as sources, we like the jobs held by our vendors and partners, and we like all the other jobs that allow Alaska’s economy to function.

Thus in our annual Corporate 100 special section, we honor the companies that provide the most jobs to Alaskans; in fact, we’ve ranked 100 of them to give our readers insight into the industries and corporations that keep so many of us gainfully employed.

QUICK READS 118 COMMUNITY EVENTS

120 BUSINESS EVENTS

122 I NSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS

124 RIGHT MOVES

126 ALASKA TRENDS

128 OFF THE CUFF

6 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

VOLUME 37, #4

FROM THE EDITOR

EDITORIAL STAFF Managing Editor Kathryn Mackenzie 257-2907 editor@akbizmag.com

Associate/Web Editor Tasha Anderson 257-2902 tanderson@akbizmag.com

Digital and Social Media Specialist Arie Henry 257-2906 ahenry@akbizmag.com

Art Director Monica Sterchi-Lowman 257-2916 monica@akbizmag.com

Art Production Linda Shogren 257-2912 production@akbizmag.com

Photo Contributor Kerry Tasker

BUSINESS STAFF President Billie Martin VP & General Manager Jason Martin 257-2905 jason@akbizmag.com

VP Sales & Marketing Charles Bell 257-2909 cbell@akbizmag.com

Senior Account Manager Janis J. Plume 257-2917 janis@akbizmag.com

Advertising Account Manager Christine Merki 257-2911 cmerki@akbizmag.com

Accounting Manager Ana Lavagnino 257-2901 accounts@akbizmag.com

Customer Service Representative Emily Olsen 257-2914 emily@akbizmag.com

CONTACT

Press releases: press@akbizmag.com

Postmaster: Send address changes to Alaska Business 501 W. Northern Lights Blvd. #100 Anchorage, AK 99503

AKBusinessMonth

The 2020 Corporate 100 T

he Corporate 100 rankings are an annual tradition at Alaska Business that spans nearly three decades.

There are a handful of companies that appeared on our inaugural Corporate 100 in 1993 and appear again on the list today including Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, Bristol Bay Native Corporation, First National Bank Alaska, GCI, Lynden, NANA, Providence, and Usibelli Coal Mine to name a few of the companies that have been keeping Alaskans employed and feeding the economy, year after year, decade after decade.

Because the 100 companies in this directory employ workers in Alaska’s staple industries, it is not an overstatement to say that without them, the state’s economy would suffer deeply. Economists are once again predicting that the state is emerging (some say has emerged) from its years-long recession in 2020 and, if it does, it will be in large part thanks to the companies and employees on this list.

The State Department of Labor and Workforce Development reported in January that Alaska added about 1,600 jobs in 2019 after losing more than 11,000 jobs during the recession of the past three years. The state has forecast that trend would continue in 2020, but at a slower rate of 0.3 percent (compared to 0.4 percent the prior year) or about 1,100 new jobs. However, that forecast is largely dependent on what is expected to be another record year for tourism, particularly for cruise line visitors. The effects of COVID-19 (aka the coronavirus) on tourism remain to be seen but, given that the cruise ship season sets sail this month, we’ll likely see a hint of what’s to come as Alaska’s port towns start welcoming the season’s first ships.

For now, we continue with our celebration of Alaska’s top 100 companies ranked by employee numbers. Each has worked diligently to create an environment that appeals to job seekers and inspires workers to stay with them even in a highly transient state like Alaska. Congratulations to the 2020 Corporate 100.

alaska-business-monthly AKBusinessMonth akbizmag

Kathryn Mackenzie Managing Editor, Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 7

estherhelen | Twenty20

E D U C AT I O N

8 | April 2020

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Continuing Medical Education Enhancing professional development and patient care

By Tracy Barbour

I

t’s vital that medical providers stay current with recent developments and the latest threats in the healthcare field. Challenges like the coronavirus outbreak—which emerged in China in December and has since spread across the globe—require that medical professionals stay current on the latest prevention and treatment options available. This is pertinent to making decisions and providing care to the community while keeping providers and their staff safe by reducing transmission, according to Susan Gorba, medical educator for Providence Health & Services Alaska.

That’s where continuing medical education (CME) comes into play.

CME allows healthcare professionals to maintain competence and learn about new and developing areas of their field. “By offering continuing medical education, we are bringing current information to our providers and helping them to remain current with their medical knowledge,” Gorba says.

CME refers to educational activities that serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships that an individual uses to provide services for patients, the public, or the profession. The content of CME is the “body of knowledge and skills generally recognized and

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Alaska Business

accepted by the profession as within the basic medical sciences, the discipline of clinical medicine, and the provision of healthcare to the public,” according to the American Medical Association (AMA), which authorizes CME credits.

CME is closely associated with physicians who seek to demonstrate that they have participated in educational activities and obtained CME credit to document meeting the requirements of state medical boards, medical specialty societies, specialty boards, hospital medical staff, the Joint Commission (formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations), insurance groups, and others. In practice, CME allows doctors—who typically spend four years in medical school and three to five years in residency training—to expand their expertise throughout their professional career. It can help them drive improvements in practice and optimize the care, health, and wellness of patients. “Whether physicians work in clinical care, research, healthcare administration, executive leadership, or other areas of medicine, accredited CME is designed to be relevant to their needs, practice-based, and effective,” the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) states on its website.

April 2020 | 9

Dr. Hanley and Dr. Greenwood practice their intubation skills in a manikin head while the simulation nurse causes the head to "vomit," a reality when intubating a real patient.

Foundation Health Partners

However, CME is mandatory for many medical professionals, not just physicians. Most US state and territory medical boards have compulsory CME requirements for license renewal. CME requirements for licensure and license renewal vary for different individuals according to the jurisdiction. In Alaska, for example, all medical professionals must have a minimum number of professional continuing education credits to renew their professional licenses, according to Jennifer Gehrke, clinical educator for Foundation Health Partners in Fairbanks. Foundation Health Partners includes Tanana Valley Clinic, Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, and Denali Center. “Physicians need fifty hours every two years, and two of those hours must be in pain management and opiate use and addiction,” Gehrke says.

10 | April 2020

“Registered nurses need thirty continuing education hours every two years to renew their professional licenses. Many nurses and physicians have additional certifications in their specialty, which require additional hours.”

As another example, the state of Alaska also requires emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to complete CME for their recertification. EMTs can earn CME in a variety of ways, depending on their needs and interest. They can take certain amounts of CME training courses per certification period, including advanced cardiac life support, advanced burn support, basic trauma life support, CPR, anatomy, and physiology.

EMTs can also receive up to twelve hours of CME per certification period for serving as an examination proctor, simulated patient and/or certifying

officer, according to the Public Health Division of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. Another option is self-study CME that includes internet-based CME training, as well as EMS-related videotapes and magazines.

Importance of CME Clinical education experts indicate that the importance of continuing medical education cannot be overstated. Keeping up with continuing professional education is crucial, according to Gehrke. “Medicine is a field that is constantly changing as new research is done, and it is important for medical professionals to provide current evidence-based practice to give our patients the best care possible,” she explains.

Jennifer Fielder has a similar

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“Whether physicians work in clinical care, research, healthcare administration, executive leadership, or other areas of medicine, accredited CME is designed to be relevant to their needs, practice-based, and effective.”

Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education

perspective. “Maintaining a knowledge base of current, up-to-date best practice is needed by all medical professionals to ensure the best patient outcomes from our united operations and execution of care,” says Fielder, a nurse educator with the Clinical Education/Continuing Education Department at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC). “Outside of collegiate classrooms, by having local or online education opportunities available, when in collaboration with multiple medical professions, the learners will experience a more broadbased learning—especially as multiple professions come in contact with any patient during any treatment,” she says.

Continuing education is essential in all industries and relevant material is needed to support ongoing learning, Gorba says. “In order to be knowledgeable and current in your specialty, the education for that gap must come from somewhere,” she says. “Advances are made very quickly in healthcare and maintaining relevance can be a challenge…To get our providers to engage with continuing education, www.akbizmag.com

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 11

we need to provide content that will improve the knowledge, competence, and performance.”

To Shane Coleman, continuing education is about staying current and effective, among other things.

“It’s brushing up on things that you’ve already studied to make sure you have a good knowledge base to ensure you’re providing good care,” says Coleman, a psychiatrist and medical director of the Behavioral Services Division for Southcentral Foundation.

Benefits of CME From a practical standpoint, most professionals focus on CME because they need units for their maintenance of certification. When physicians obtain their medical license it sets a minimum competency to diagnose and treat patients. Board certification is voluntary and demonstrates exceptional expertise in a particular specialty or practice. “By doing specific activities or taking specific training, they are showing continuous development,” Gorba says. “Physicians who use CME for [maintenance of certification] can provide a higher quality of care.”

While CME allows professionals to maintain their medical license and credentialing at the hospitals where they see patients, it also offers added benefits. For instance, it fosters the improvement of a provider’s daily medical practice. “We accomplish that by promoting new technologies, rapidly changing advances and treatments in their fields,” Gorba says. “CME can also provide [professionals] the ability to network and advance their careers.”

There’s also the less obvious benefit that comes from interprofessional CME: the reduction of the length of hospital stays and hospital readmission rates for patients. Gorba explains: “When an educational event combines providers, nurses, and other staff, it becomes interprofessional and promotes team learning. It will improve care and communication between the entire team which, in turn, will improve patient safety.”

For Coleman, one of the key benefits of CME is having the ability to interact with peers on a professional and social level. This allows him to build networks within his specific field, which can be extremely helpful. He explains, 12 | April 2020

Dr. Kenneth Starks in a simulation lab practicing procedures on a modified chest covered in pigskin for realism.

Foundation Health Partners

“Building that network is important because there are times when you might have questions, or you might see something unusual.”

Like most professionals, Coleman engages in CME to meet board and state-level requirements. He typically attends at least one conference a year, which often affords him the opportunity to spend multiple days dedicated solely to continuing education. “So if you’re required to get twenty-five CMEs a year, you might be able to knock out all your requirements in a single conference,” he says.

Accredited CME Providers The AMA is a premier accredited CME provider, and it assigns CME credit to

two categories: AMA PRA Category 1 Credit and AMA PRA Category 2 Credit.

AMA PRA Category 1 Credits are the most commonly accepted form of CME credits for physicians. They’re also the basis for receiving the AMA Physician's Recognition Award (PRA), which acknowledges individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to staying current with advances in medicine by participating in various live and self-study CME activities. The AMA requires that at least half of the credit applied toward AMA PRA be within the physician’s specialty or area of practice.

According to the AMA’s website, physicians can earn AMA PRA Category 1 Credit in three ways: by participating in certified activities

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“Medicine is a field that is constantly changing as new research is done, and it is important for medical professionals to provide current evidence-based practice to give our patients the best care possible.�

Jennifer Gehrke, Clinical Educator Foundation Health Partners

sponsored by US-based CME providers accredited by either the ACCME or an ACCME-recognized State Medical Society; by participating in certain activities recognized by the AMA as valid educational activities; and by participating in certain international activities recognized by the AMA. Activities certified for this category include live events, journal-based CME to test item writing, internet point of care learning, and participating in a residency or fellowship program.

The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) is another key accredited provider that awards CME credit for live and self-study activities.

The AOA assigns credit to four different categories that are differentiated by their formality and interactivity. Formal educational programs designed to enhance clinical competence and improve patient care are awarded the most CME credit.

In Alaska, a licensee must complete fifty CME hours in AMA Category I, AOA Category I or II, a current AMA PRA, or a current certification by a specialty board recognized by the AMA or AOA, or participate in an approved residency/ fellowship program, according to Gorba. The license cycle for a medical doctor is generally two years. www.akbizmag.com

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 13

The Alaska Native Health Campus.

Southcentral Foundation

“Outside of collegiate classrooms, by having local or online education opportunities available, when in collaboration with multiple medical professions, the learners will experience a more broad-based learning—especially as multiple professions come in contact with any patient during any treatment.”

Jennifer Fielder, Nurse Educator, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

How to Find Suitable CME Activities Medical professionals can find eligible CME activities through a variety of sources. The AMA website, for instance, provides a list of the certified CME activities that are directly sponsored by the AMA as an accredited CME provider.

The ACCME also maintains a list of accredited CME providers as well as accredited CME activities on its website.

In addition, professionals can find potential CME activities by contacting specialty societies, medical schools, and local hospitals that are accredited CME providers.

Physicians can identify legitimate AMA PRA Category 1 Credit activities by making certain the activity is certified by an accredited CME provider. Incidentally, the AMA requires accredited CME providers to trademark the credit phrase ("AMA PRA Category 1 Credit"). If credit is not indicated this way, physicians should question 14 | April 2020

whether the activity is in fact eligible for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit.

In Alaska, Foundation Health Partners is a legitimate provider unit for continuing medical education through the Washington State Medical Association. It’s also a provider unit for nursing contact hours through the Montana Nurses Association. “Our approved provider status allows us to independently plan and implement educational activities that are designed to meet the learning needs of our staff and providers while awarding continuing education hours needed to maintain licensure,” Gehrke says.

Foundation Health Partners provides many of its own classes, which are almost always free to its staff and employed physicians. When there is a cost for a class, such as speaker travel or an honorarium, the funds generally come from the department requesting the education. “We are sometimes able to obtain funds from other agencies,

such as medevac companies, in exchange for having a vendor table at the educational event,” Gehrke says. “If we do have a cost for the education, we try to make it as low as possible. For example, we offered a bear mauling class in 2019 that was co-sponsored

by LifeMed Alaska and Interior Region EMS Council.

Because of these sponsorships, the cost per participant was only $20.

“Participants can sometimes attend an educational event during the workday, but most often staff plan their continuing education for their days off,” Gehrke continues. “For physicians, a one-hour event during their clinic lunch hour seems to work best, so we have most of our physician-specific education [from] noon to 1 p.m. on weekdays.”

Like Foundation Health Partners, ANTHC also takes a strong role in supporting and encouraging continuing medical education.

The mission statement for its CME

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“Advances are made very quickly in healthcare and maintaining relevance can be a challenge…To get our providers to engage with continuing education, we need to provide content that will improve the knowledge, competence, and performance.”

Susan Gorba, Medical Educator, Providence Health & Services Alaska

program states: “The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Continuing Education mission is to ensure qualitylearning opportunities, providing improved changes of competence and performance for our healthcare professionals, while improving patient outcomes demonstrated in best practice services for our people and the Alaska Tribal Health System.”

ANTHC’s facility provides multiple venues and opportunities for staff on campus, according to Fielder. “During the 2019 calendar year this office provided oversight to over 100 unique, one-time, or regularly scheduled series, with most occurring within the

campus,” she explains. “Most of the one-time events were large activities in collaboration with the state medical community or tribal organizations with training or courses held within and outside of Anchorage.”

ANTHC currently covers the costs of accredited live CME—as well as continuing nursing education— events for its employees, Fielder says.

Plus, it has a vast library available through its learning management system with online, at-work, or fromhome access.

Medical professionals can find CME in many ways, depending on their needs at the time, Gorba says. For example,

some CME is offered in exotic places where professionals can vacation and take some much-needed time off while obtaining their education. Providers can also find learning opportunities online, where they can participate on their own time and from their own couch. “Still others may look locally for training offered at a local hospital or their own facility where they see patients,” she says. “That education can be more skills-based and offer handson training, i.e., learning how to use bedside ultrasound for diagnosis to expand your skill set. The challenge is finding the training you need to fill the gap you have.”

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Southcentral Foundation for Behavioral Health also offers events that allow participants to obtain CME credits, according to Coleman. It turns different trainings and leadership development activities into viable opportunities providers can use to meet their CME requirements.

CME Trends Healthcare industry experts are seeing a number of trends in continuing medical education. The biggest trend Gehrke says she’s noticed over the last few years is an emphasis on interprofessional education. “Because medicine is a team sport, we try to include the entire team when we do training,” she explains. “For example, when we train for emergencies in the operating room, we include nurses, surgeons, scrub techs, anesthesiologists, the blood bank, and anyone else who might be involved when an actual emergency happens.”

Simulation training has also increased in the last few years. Gehrke explains: “When I went to nursing school in the ‘90s, we practiced everything on real

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patients. Now we train in the simulation lab with high fidelity manikins… for new procedures or low volume/high risk skills or situations that we don’t see often enough to be proficient.”

She adds: “Our simulation nurses, Lori Gibertoni and Stacy Wright, do an amazing and creative job of making everything as realistic as possible. They have a vomiting intubation manikin (the ‘vomikin’) that they made with an intubation head we had and a drill from a local hardware store. Anything that we can do to create realism makes the training that much more meaningful.”

Within the field of psychiatry, Coleman has noticed more professionals investing in completing addiction CMEs lately.

More specifically, treatment for opioid abuse is a popular online CME course that people are taking. Another popular CME is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, which is increasingly being used to treat trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Gorba is also seeing diverse CME trends unfolding. For example, there

are online, interactive, and on-demand options for providers who have less time available for various reasons. “The electronic health record has made some things easier and some things more difficult for providers,” she says.

“Some may go home for the evening only to find themselves having to continue documenting for three or four hours after they get home. The shortages in physicians has found us now reaching out in new ways to deliver care, like telemedicine. These newer advances in technology also inspire us to provide CME about the ethics and liability of telehealth.”

Continuing, Gorba says: “To remain vital and make a difference in competence, performance, and patient outcomes, we need to fill the needs of our providers. Continuing medical education is not only a requirement but a responsibility of every hospital.

When there is a gap in practice or a specific need for training, the CME educator can provide what is needed and improve patient care.”

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H E A LT H C A R E

The

of Cardiology in the Last Frontier Heart health requires lifelong attention

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

T

he “Gray Tsunami”—the aging population in Alaska—is driving increased demand for cardiological services, Alaska Heart & Vascular Institute CEO Robert Craig III says.

“Cardiology typically serves patients in an older age category. If we were to do a per capita need for cardiology services in the state, I could probably hire another twenty cardiologists and

18 | April 2020

just meet the need of what this state alone has,” Craig says. “It's continually evolving—for our state in particular, it's a growing need for cardiology.”

Alaska Heart & Vascular Institute, managed by Craig and a board of five physicians, comprises thirty-two cardiologists offering services from diagnostic testing and heart rhythm management to heart failure and interventional cardiology.

Challenges of Growth One of the biggest challenges Craig says he faces with operating the Alaska Heart & Vascular Institute is recruiting highly qualified staff.

“When I do physician recruitment, I have to cast a wide net—a really wide net—throughout the entire Lower 48 to entice a physician up here,” Craig says.

“There are some great people that are up here in Alaska, and we leverage that

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“Anecdotally, we find that folks that are living a traditional lifestyle and avoiding typical things that are unhealthy such as tobacco, alcohol, and drugs seem to be pretty healthy and robust folks.”

David Trowbridge, Cardiology Medical Director, ANTHC

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as much as we possibly can. But there are times when we've got to bring somebody up from the Lower 48.”

In addition to a substantial salary, Craig says his team focuses on 401k and healthcare benefits—as well as other fringe benefits—when creating a compensation package to attract top talent to the state.

“We try to be as creative as possible…

We're constantly doing employee engagement surveys and taking the pulse of our staff to find out what are the issues for them and making them feel like they're part of the organization,” Craig says. “I meet with every new employee as they come in. I always tell them they're here because we only hire the best people and it's my job to keep those people.”

Alaska Heart & Vascular Institute also attracts physicians through its ownership structure. The company is set up as an independent physician practice, owned by twenty-one of the thirty-two practicing physicians with the company. The physicians who are not owners are either part-time or considered “employed physicians.”

“Having physicians control their destiny is a big selling point for a lot of them,” Craig says.

Though some staff—often members of a military family—are hired locally, for the most part physicians are brought up from the Lower 48, Craig says.

However, once cardiologists make it to Alaska, the retention rate is above national levels, Craig says. In his four years with the company, only two physicians on his team have moved out of state.

“I think right now my turnover ratios are in the 20 percent range [for all staff],” Craig says, noting that some of his turnover is related to hiring members of military families. “Even that's below the industry standard: for an independent physician practice it's usually in the high 30s or 40s.”

Rural Heart Health Though an aging population is a significant force increasing demand for cardiological services, there are other lifestyle factors that play a role.

For example, many Alaskans in rural communities live in food deserts. “These are communities that don't have access to a lot of fresh

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and healthy foods,” Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) Cardiology Medical Director David Trowbridge says.

Instead, these communities rely heavily on processed foods, which have been linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and early death, Trowbridge says, noting the particularly damaging impacts of sweetened beverages.

Though ANTHC focuses primarily on Alaska Native health issues, food deserts are not a unique problem for Alaska Native communities or even Alaska, as they also exist in remote parts of the Lower 48 and inner cities.

But while the problem isn’t unique to Alaska, one possible solution is.

Alaska Natives can revert to a heavy reliance on a traditional lifestyle to help maintain heart health, Trowbridge says, though he notes that there isn’t a lot of data on the issue.

“Anecdotally, we find that folks that are living a traditional lifestyle and avoiding typical things that are unhealthy such as tobacco, alcohol, and drugs seem to be pretty healthy and robust folks,” Trowbridge says. “Living the way that they’ve been living for a long time means that they’re not developing an early vascular disease or other conditions.”

Heart disease and stroke cause about one-third of all deaths in the Last Frontier. According to data from 2016, 4.3 percent of adults in Alaska report being diagnosed with heart disease.

That’s about 24,000 people.

However, because heart disease is often asymptomatic and undiagnosed, the prevalence of heart-related conditions based on self-reporting is likely an underestimate, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS).

The most recent data available from DHSS reveals that in 2016 Alaska Medicaid recipients with heart disease alone or in combination with other chronic diseases needed more than $300 million in healthcare paid by Medicaid, explains Valerie Gosselin, a heart disease and stroke prevention specialist with DHSS. Despite the “gray tsunami,” Gosselin says that the prevalence of heart disease in Alaska has significantly declined during the past ten years—following a national trend. But it is still the number two cause of death in the Last Frontier www.akbizmag.com

“The thing for everybody to keep in mind is that cardiology is an ever-evolving field. It's not just strictly the latest and greatest technology, which is continually evolving, but there's always new advancements in heart health.”

Robert Craig III, CEO, Alaska Heart & Vascular Institute

Where Mary Jane received immediate care TakeMeToAlaskaRegional.com

As Mary Jane was preparing to go outdoors, she had trouble putting on her glove. She suddenly realized two of her fingers were paralyzed and her arm was tingling, and she knew something was wrong. “Take me to Alaska Regional,” she said. As soon as she arrived to the ER, a team of caregivers appeared quickly and began delivering care.

Today, her life is back to normal. She cross-country skis in winter, and kayaks and tends her garden in summer. She knows she is lucky to have a full recovery, and that the fast action and excellent care in Alaska Regional’s ER contributed to her positive outcome.

Mary Jane says, “If you notice signs that may mean a stroke or heart attack, call 911 and get to the ER right away.”

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April 2020 | 21

Telemedicine is playing an increasingly important role in heart health for those living in rural communities.

ANTHC

“Cardiology typically serves patients in an older age category. If we were to do a per capita need for cardiology services in the state, I could probably hire another twenty cardiologists and just meet the need of what this state alone has.”

Robert Craig III, CEO, Alaska Heart & Vascular Institute

and the number one killer in the United States.

“The most common type of heart disease is coronary artery disease, which is the narrowing and the blockage of those coronary arteries around the heart,” Gosselin says.

The condition is caused by atherosclerosis, which is the hardening or clogging of the inner walls of the arteries due to a buildup of cholesterol and fatty deposits.

Other common issues cardiologists 22 | April 2020

in the state address are valvular heart disease, arrhythmias, cardiomyopathy, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, heart failure, and peripheral vascular disease.

Alaska’s remoteness also impacts heart-attack survival rates, says Gosselin.

“The fact that we do have a lot of villages that are not accessible by the road system makes heart health unique here,” Gosselin says. “If we think about the Lower 48, when people are having a heart attack they can—most of the time—be driven to

the hospital to receive care with only a really short delay.”

However, for those living on the North Slope or in a Southeast village, patient evacuations are always dependent on weather and available airline services.

Either way, it’s unlikely that responders will be able to medivac a patient as quickly as emergency services on the road system are able to transport patients in the Lower 48, Gosselin says.

And every minute counts when it comes to having a heart attack:

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

H R M AT T E R S

Wellness–a fading trend, or here to stay?

By Melody Gray, Account Executive

A

ttracting and retaining skilled employees is a challenge most Alaskan companies are facing in today’s job market. Record unemployment has made businesses need to get creative with their retention strategies. What if there was a way to increase employee engagement, raise morale and attract talent all at the same time? The answer is easy: institute a wellness initiative.

You’re probably asking yourself, Does it work?” “How can it benefit my business?”

Over the past several years, the wellness industry has grown twice as fast as global economic growth, and has produced proven results of increasing employee engagement and retention, while reducing healthcare costs. It might seem unlikely that something as simple as a wellness program could have such substantial results, but the statistics show that an effective wellness program can have a drastic impact on your workplace culture and, of course, the bottom line.

Designing an effective program When considering a company wellness program, there are factors that will determine which programs thrive and which will fail. The industry has expanded past the usual health assessment, although that is still a fundamental tool for creating a baseline to work from.

Now the standard available options include medical, fitness, mental health,

HR Matters is sponsored content that is provided by

financial health, and almost anything in between. The programs are so highly customizable that nearly every situation can have a tailored plan. If it is a concern for employees, there is most likely a program for it.

The idea is that, by taking a holistic approach to the health of your employees, you will reap the benefits of a happy workforce, increased and better quality production, long term retention, and decreased healthcare utilization. Further, most of the major healthcare insurance insurance carriers will subsidize the cost of a wellness program. For insurance companies, it works twofold; they are able to offer an added service to their plan and the employees’ health benefits will reduce their claims costs.

Reaping the rewards A Gallup study shows that employees who are engaged and have a high well-being are 27% more likely to report “excellent” performance in their own job at work, 27% more likely to report “excellent” performance by their organization and 59% less likely to look for a job with a different organization in the next 12 months.

Having a happy and healthy culture that attracts highly talented workers can also lead to 33% higher revenue. On the flip side, unhappy, disengaged workers are 10% less productive and normally do the

bare minimum. In fact, unhappy employees cost American businesses over $300 billion dollars each year. It quite literally pays to create a happy environment.

If you make the upfront investment in your employees and company culture, you will benefit through an increase in productivity, decrease in turnover, and most importantly, a workplace that everyone can be proud of. Contact an experienced employee benefits broker to learn more and help you get started on designing an effective wellness program.

Melody Gray is an Account Executive in Parker, Smith & Feek’s Employee Benefits Department. She has 15 years of experience in the industry, and has been active in Alaskan benefits since 2016.

Melody can be reached at mjgray@psfinc.com or (907) 865-6848

“It’s really important to educate the population and providers about all of this because sometimes a women’s heart attack could feel very different from what is thought of as a traditional heart attack.”

Valerie Gosselin Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Specialist DHSS

from the time patients start having symptoms to the moment they reach the hospital.

Recognizing a Heart Attack So it’s important for adults to be able to identify when they may be experiencing a heart attack. Those symptoms vary significantly between men and women, Gosselin says.

“The classic picture we have of a heart attack is that chest pain like a knife getting in there… it’s going to have that pain in the neck and jaw. And they’re going to have difficulty breathing, a shortness of breath,” Gosselin says.

“These are all really good symptoms to be aware of, but they are more for male heart attacks.”

Women’s symptoms are often different. Sometimes there will be more of a discomfort, rather than a sharp pain, in the shoulder and arm—and it can occur in the right arm as well as the left, Gosselin says.

Other symptoms of a heart attack for women are nausea, lower back pain, abdominal pain, and something similar to acid reflux.

“Often it will be a woman at home who will say, ‘I don’t know why I am 24 | April 2020

so tired these last few days. I should rest more,’” Gosselin says. “They are actually facing an ongoing heart attack at the time.

“It’s really important to educate the population and providers about all of this because sometimes a women’s heart attack could feel very different from what is thought of as a traditional heart attack.”

Healthy Habits Gosselin’s work focuses on preventing heart conditions associated with lifestyle choices from developing.

She points to obesity, lack of exercise, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, smoking cigarettes, and diabetes as underlying issues leading to heart conditions.

“We found out that more than half of our actual Alaskans—so about 60 percent of them—have at least two or more of those risk factors,” Gosselin says. “This is a high level of our population that are currently, as we talk today, at risk of developing heart disease. We need to get together to be able to fight those risk factors and lower the percentage of Alaskans with risk factors.”

The Alaska DHSS, through its Division of Public Health and Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion programs, is trying to lower the incidents of heart conditions by addressing the prevalence of risk factors, Gosselin says.

“We have the physical activity and nutrition unit that is actually working to increase the physical activity with youth and trying to lower the intake of sugary beverages for kids, which has actually been proven to decrease child obesity.”

And in rural areas, telemedicine is creating opportunities for preventative programs and better healthcare.

The Alaska Heart & Vascular Institute is exploring telemedicine to better serve remote locations in the state without having to send a provider out into the field, making it more cost-effective and convenient for patients.

A lot can be done through telemedicine, Craig says.

“I am oversimplifying this, but we can put you in front of a camera, say in the Yukon, and I can have a cardiologist get your vital signs, talk to

you, essentially do a visual and a verbal examination to make a determination as to the level of acuity for your particular heart condition,” Craig says.

“That way it doesn't always mean that you have to come to Anchorage for a procedure. Maybe it's ongoing treatment or medication or something that's a little easier to resolve for a patient rather than having to travel such a long distance.”

Gosselin says that Alaska is already pushing to increase access to telemedicine, but infrastructure issues and ensuring the protection of patient information are hurdles to progress.

“It's the typical issue of the latency when you get into some of those really remote locations,” Craig says. “We've been working with different providers, talking to GCI and whatnot, about how we can help alleviate some of that. It’s getting better a lot quicker than what a lot of people realize.”

Tribal organizations, which are involved with many remote and isolated communities, are also pushing advances in telemedicine, says Trowbridge.

Though telemedicine provides better access to resources for those dealing with heart issues in rural communities, Alaskans need to focus on lifestyle changes to see significant improvements within the population.

Because most heart conditions are created through incremental damage and stress over decades, most preventive care efforts in the state will likely remain focused on youth, while healthcare providers work toward better educating the public in general about signs and symptoms.

“The thing for everybody to keep in mind is that cardiology is an everevolving field. It's not just strictly the latest and greatest technology, which is continually evolving, but there's always new advancements in heart health,” Craig says.

“I think the biggest thing for everybody to always keep in mind is just to be aware of being your own best advocate as a patient.

We're prepared from the perspective of highly trained physicians and providers and staff and equipment…

We're going to be prepared for it. The biggest challenge is for people to be in touch with their own cells, their own biology.”

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

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E N G I N E E R I N G /A R C H I T E C T U R E

Moving Air: The Joys of HVAC

By Vanessa Orr

26 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

KenGrahamPhotography.com | PDC Engineers

If you’re warm in the winter and cool in the summer, thank a mechanical engineer

I

t’s not a stretch to say that mechanical engineers breathe life into a building. While architects may conceptualize them and contractors may build them, without the efforts of the people who design and maintain their central systems—including the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems—the spaces wouldn’t be habitable.

This is especially true in Alaska, where huge temperature variations can cause buildings to be too hot, too cold, or too dangerous to occupy.

Add to this the fact that these systems have a myriad of challenges of their own—cost, size, capacity—and it’s no surprise that those who do the work have passion for the job.

“Being a mechanical engineer is like taking a drink out of a fire hydrant,” laughs Dave Shumway, a consulting engineer for AMC Engineers for the past thirty years. “But you’re always dealing with new and interesting challenges on every project, and there’s always something to learn. It’s never boring.”

“The job is a lot of fun, and it’s definitely technically challenging,” agrees Mark Frischkorn, principal mechanical

engineer at RSA Engineering. “Every job has a different set of challenges, and you only get one shot at it. You have to get it right the first time.”

Putting the Pieces Together Even in a temperate environment, there are many factors that influence what type of HVAC system goes into a building, including where it is located, heating and cooling load requirements, indoor air quality requirements, maintenance requirements, energy use, initial cost, and whether it needs to tie into other systems, including those in other buildings.

“We’re the guys who put energy where you want it instead of where it is,” says Frischkorn. “Nobody builds a building for the sake of having one. They want to do something inside of it to make money.

The building is just an expense, and they want the lowest expense possible.

“Unlike in a big warehouse, where you can keep it at one temperature, in a building with twenty-five offices, everyone wants a different temperature,” he adds. “Owners want their employees to be happy, but they don’t want to use any energy they don’t

“What clients are paying for is our expertise; contractors don’t just roll up with parts and start building. We have to figure it all out ahead of time, and we’re starting from scratch.”

Mark Frischkorn, Principal Mechanical Engineer RSA Engineering

have to. Some clients don’t care if they see the HVAC system, and others want it buried. And they don’t want it to take up a lot of space, because that space isn’t leasable.”

As if that wasn’t enough, add in

“It takes more than a couple years to understand this place.”

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Alaska Business

April 2020 | 27

The mechanical room in the Cordova Center, designed by PDC Engineers.

KenGrahamPhotography.com | PDC Engineers

“HVAC systems in Fairbanks have to be designed to handle 100˚F in the summer and -60˚F in the winter; that’s a 160 degree ambient temperature swing. All of the systems we build need to be much stronger, with a lot more insulation, and have additional redundancies.”

Dave Shumway, Consulting Engineer, AMC Engineers

the fact that Alaska has its own challenges, from remote locations to transportation expenses to extreme heat and cold. While there are some materials that perform better in Arctic climates, quite often the key to a building working affordably and efficiently is innovative use of existing technologies and a willingness to come up with new solutions.

“What clients are paying for is our expertise; contractors don’t just roll up with parts and start building. We have to figure it all out ahead of time, and we’re starting from scratch,” says Frischkorn.

“First, you find out what kind of building a client wants—and then you have to figure out how to make it all work.”

Only in Alaska Imagine putting a wrench on a piece of steel, and the bolt snaps off. Turns out, that can happen. When the temperature is -60˚F, things just don’t work the same way that they do in the Lower 48.

“HVAC systems in Fairbanks have to 28 | April 2020

be designed to handle 100˚F in the summer and -60˚F in the winter; that’s a 160 degree ambient temperature swing,” says Shumway. “All of the systems we build need to be much stronger, with a lot more insulation, and have additional redundancies, like stand-by pumps and fans.

“It’s a whole different level of design than what you see in the Lower 48, except maybe in North Dakota or a couple of similar places,” he adds.

“When it’s extremely cold, it’s also extremely dry,” says Colin Fay, an associate at PDC Engineers. “In Southcentral, the winter is dry, but when you get to really cold spaces like the Interior, it’s even worse. With electronics everywhere, you have to make sure that it doesn’t get so dry that people get shocked touching computers or other equipment.

“In extreme cold, maintenance problems can become increasingly more dangerous,” he adds. “In order for a boiler or furnace to fire properly requires

combustible air that comes in from the outside. If the air intakes frost up, it blocks combustion, which can result in a building filling with carbon monoxide.”

According to Emily Winfield, chief mechanical engineer at Design Alaska, costs are also a prohibitive factor when it comes to making a design work.

“Labor costs are high, shipping costs are high, and material costs are high, so you have to be very deliberate in the design process to capture costs effectively so that there are no surprises when the building owner bids the project,” she explains.

“For example, you have to take into account how materials get to the site; there are a number of locations on the North Slope that have no road access.

Sometimes things can be brought in by barge, or sometimes they can only be flown in, which adds enormously to the cost of materials.”

“It’s not unusual to see prices of $1,000 per square foot to build on the Slope, compared to Anchorage, where it may cost $200 or $300 per square foot, maybe less,” adds Frischkorn.

“While there might be some local labor out there, you may also need to bring in other contractors or tradespeople.

Now you’ve got sixty guys out there, and you have to build them a camp to live in and bring them food. That’s not even counting the sheer expense of shipping everything out by barge or plane.”

Maintenance is also a concern, considering that the nearest HVAC specialist may be hundreds of miles and a very expensive plane ride away. This is why it’s so important to design systems using manufacturers’ products that have good repair part support, as well as local technical support.

“When a system is down, you can’t wait four months to get a part,” says Shumway. “We pride ourselves on building custom systems using off-the-shelf parts.”

It also helps to have a maintenance staff on hand, though this is not always the case.

“The University of Alaska Fairbanks has a 24-hour central power plant, so they have staff that can handle more complex systems,” says Shumway as an example.

“This allows us to recommend a system with an extra level of energy efficiency because they have the experienced staff to maintain it. That’s a whole different

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

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story than a client who may only have a subcontractor who comes out to check on the system every three months.”

And of course, energy efficiency is key, no matter where in the state these companies work.

“Saving energy has been important for years in Alaska, even before LEED and the push toward sustainability,” says Winfield. “In an Arctic climate, energy costs are very high, so we’re always looking at low-impact designs to make buildings more viable.”

She gives the example of using the heat from the exhaust airstream— which would normally be wasted—to heat incoming air. “We also design using much more insulation, as well as consider if outside-rated equipment may need to be located inside,” she says. “Even if it’s rated for the outdoors, it is probably not made for the temperatures that it’s going to experience here.”

“In Kotzebue, fuel oil is $6 a gallon, so owners have every incentive to keep a building as efficient as possible,” says Frischkorn of another factor that can drive design. “In the Interior, it can be even worse, up to $8 or $9 a gallon.

Power costs $0.35 a kilowatt hour in Kotzebue, which is three times what it is in Anchorage, even when supplemented by the local wind farm.”

While LEED is still a hot topic in the Lower 48, clients aren’t jumping on the bandwagon in Alaska, possibly because some of its requirements are already built into Alaska design.

“In the late 2000s, there was a huge push to move toward LEED, but the market has now backed off,” says Fay. “LEED is a prescriptive-based rating system with points awarded based on simulations instead of how a building actually performs.

“In Alaska, doing what is sustainable does not always mean meeting requirements that were written in California or Georgia,” he continues.

“While LEED recommends white roofs on schools to reflect heat, in the summer, our schools are not occupied, so heat is not a concern. But in the shoulder seasons of spring and fall, ice and water stay on the roof longer with a white roof instead of taking advantage of the free heat provided by a black one.

“There are good LEED applications and poor applications; it’s all about

Soldotna

907.420.0462 April 2020 | 29

A mechanical room from one of Design Alaska’s projects.

Design Alaska

how you manage them,” he adds. “It doesn’t make sense in Alaska to have a lot of designated parking spots for high-efficiency vehicles or bike racks and shower rooms in a facility at the end of a 20-mile dirt road just to get a LEED point. You’re not using the square footage to best serve the needs of the community you’re in.”

That said, Fay adds that he is passionate about sustainable buildings and creating a better built environment.

“I think that investing in mechanical engineering is the best place to spend money as an owner,” he says.

“In extreme cases, you can create a living building with net positive water, where you’re actually putting water back into the aquifer, and net positive energy. If done correctly, the costs of a mechanical system may be almost nothing. Where you spend money is on the engineering design.”

Mechanical Engineers, Tradespeople Needed While there is always a need for mechanical engineers in Alaska, there are also numerous job opportunities for HVAC technicians and those in 30 | April 2020

affiliated trades.

To become a mechanical engineer requires a bachelor’s degree in engineering, and potential hires must pass a Fundamentals of Engineering exam. This is followed by four years of working as an engineering intern or Engineer in Training under a professional engineer (PE). After passing the eight-hour Principles & Practice of Engineering exam, licensed mechanical engineers may then stamp their own designs.

“Engineering is one of the most lucrative careers you can have with a four-year degree; you can make a very good living without needing an additional master’s or doctorate,” says Fay. “But you do need to be passionate about science and math.”

He adds that there are also numerous jobs at PDC that do not require a PE license, and that the company is actively hiring for both engineering and non-engineering positions throughout the state, including designing and drafting positions.

“The industry doesn’t just need engineers; we also need journeymen electricians and plumbers, and these are

“Saving energy has been important for years in Alaska, even before LEED and the push toward sustainability. In an Arctic climate, energy costs are very high, so we’re always looking at low-impact designs to make buildings more viable.”

Emily Winfield, Chief Mechanical Engineer Design Alaska

good-paying jobs,” adds Shumway. “We need people who can turn a wrench and run wiring. When we design these buildings with all of these energy savings, we are adding quite a bit of complexity to basic systems, and we need people who understand how they work and can operate and maintain them.”

Those who do choose to enter the field will find that there are many rewards.

“I’ve been in the industry for seven years, and I like that every day is different,” says Winfield, adding that Design Alaska is always looking to hire people passionate about the work.

“There’s never a dull moment.”

“It’s really neat to go into a building and figure out what’s not working and how to improve it while not spending too much money in the process,” adds Frischkorn of the enjoyment he gets from the troubleshooting process.

“And when you put stuff on paper and then see it come out of the ground— when there is a building where there wasn’t one before, and the air systems are moving and the water is moving, and it comes to life—that’s a pretty exciting thing.”

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

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CONSTRUCTION

Bidding to Building Cornerstone provides a ‘walkthrough’ of the pre-construction process

By Brad Joyal

32 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

E

ven the most experienced contractors can find building in Alaska’s environment complex and challenging. From finding the right project to bidding, hiring, and securing permits, construction projects require sharp choices and exhaustive attention to detail from start to finish.

Identifying A Project Long before the contract is ever signed, general contractors are busy assessing a project to make sure it fits the company’s goals. Alaska’s builders typically learn about construction opportunities by sifting through bid lists—distributed nightly—that highlight available or planned projects. Bid lists include a comprehensive breakdown of each project’s requirements, making them the preferred method of finding new work.

The Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Alaska, The Plans Room, and The Dodge Report are handy resources for general contractors seeking their next project or performing research about

www.akbizmag.com

“The [Anchorage] municipality can be very

backed up. Especially in the springtime when everyone is trying to get their buildings submitted and permitted, they could be backed up six or even eight weeks… We could win a job and we might have to sit there waiting for permitting for a month or two; it all depends on the owner and where they’re at with the process.”

Jonathan Hornak, Senior Project Manager, Cornerstone General Contractors

opportunities available across the state. “These are the three different resources that we keep an eye on,”

Alaska Business

says Jonathan Hornak, senior project manager for Cornerstone General Contractors. “We basically enter all

April 2020 | 33

“That’s why relationships are so important— having strong relationships can help you gain a competitive advantage.”

Jonathan Hornak, Senior Project Manager Cornerstone General Contractors

of the projects into a CRM database that keeps them in the front of our minds and helps us keep track of everything that is going on. A lot of the [daily] releases are basically sharing the same opportunities, but the mailing lists allow us to centralize those opportunities.”

It can be tempting for general contractors to pursue ventures that would yield the greatest return on investment; however, the process of picking projects is much more complex. One of the first steps Anchorage-based Cornerstone takes with any list of available opportunities is to weed out the projects that aren’t a fit for the company. “We look at several factors, but the projects that we throw away automatically are the projects that are out of our wheelhouse,” says Hornak. “We don’t do any piers or harbor work, so we can throw those projects away.

We’re interested in basically anything other than that marine work, and we try to stay pretty diverse in our client base because there’s no one area that’s going to have a ton of money

to support the entire industry.”

Identifying projects that make sense for the company is an essential part of the pre-bidding process, but there are additional factors general contractors must consider. The bid lists that are compiled and released

by AGC of Alaska, The Plans Room, and The Dodge Report include projects with a range of deadlines and timeframes. Many of them are prepared to receive bids immediately, though they also include projects that are years away from approval. While it’s beneficial for contractors to plan for future opportunities, Hornak says it’s important to remember that those projects raise more questions, often related to financing. Understanding how long-term opportunities will eventually develop is an essential skill that can help contractors identify future projects to consider.

“A lot of them are projects that you really need to read and understand,” says Hornak. “They’ll pull stuff from the school districts’ ten-year plans and it will show $800 million in school remodels in the next ten years. We see that and know that those projects are on the list to get done, but they’re not going to get bonded or they’ll get bonded at a quarter of what they’re seeing their value is. So, you really have to know what you’re looking at and understand how a project will develop.”

Finding Your Sub Once general contractors identify a project that fits their firm’s goals, the next step is to find the right subcontractor to partner with to complete the job. Like general contractors, subcontractors have their own areas of expertise that differentiate them from competitors.

Over time, general contractors get a sense for how subcontractors operate and can categorize the benefits and disadvantages of working alongside a particular company. Partnerships between general contractors and subcontractors can span just one project or several years. Hornak says Cornerstone chooses subcontractors that give the company the best chance to win bids.

“We try not to play favorites with anybody because what we’ve found is if you play favorites, you’ll lose out 34 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

on lower bids from subcontractors that could be just as good,” he says.

“Usually what it turns out to be is that the subcontractors we favor can get the low bid. They’re aware that a project is out on the street and they have to get their pricing down just as we have to get our pricing down if we want the job.”

General contractors lead the charge during the pre-bidding hiring process, but subcontractors still have quite a bit of control over the final results. Subcontractors aren’t bound to specific general contractors, so they can submit multiple bids to various general contractors that are all vying to win the same project.

“The competitive advantage in that circumstance basically comes down to your relationship with that subcontractor,” says Hornak.

“Sometimes if a sub really likes you and you’re easy to work with, they’ll give you a cheaper price than your competition. That’s why relationships are so important—having strong relationships can help you gain a competitive advantage.”

General contractors consider their past experiences working with subcontractors—if they do have a previous work relationship—as well as the subcontractors’ qualifications and skillsets, but decisions often come down to the financial component.

“For a lot of projects, we are forced to really just choose the lowest price, especially in the market nowadays,” says Hornak. “But if we have an option, it comes down to who we know will have the most covered and who will be the easiest for us to work with. We really try to build a team mentality into every project. We don’t like to be the stereotypical contractor; that’s not us. We try to pick owners and subcontractors to work with that really understand that because it makes our life easier.”

The Bidding Process After a general contractor identifies the best subcontractor for a job and the two sides iron out the details of their partnership, they shift their attention to formatting a bid that will entice the client to work with them. Organizing a bid is generally a two-week process for smaller projects and ranges from www.akbizmag.com

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 35

four to six weeks for larger projects.

Hornak says he’s structured bids in as little as five days, though he adds that Cornerstone generally passes on projects that demand bids on short notice.

Arranging a bid can be a tension-filled process because of all the moving parts.

For hard dollar contracts, even the smallest details need to be amended before a bid is ready to be submitted.

“The hard dollar projects are a very

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“They’ll pull stuff from the school districts’ ten-year plans and it will show $800 million in school remodels in the next ten years.

We see that and know that those projects are on the list to get done, but they’re not going to get bonded or they’ll get bonded at a quarter of what they’re seeing their value is. So, you really have to know what you’re looking at and understand how a project will develop.”

Jonathan Hornak, Senior Project Manager, Cornerstone General Contractors

Creating a plan that meets a client’s needs requires collaboration between multiple stakeholders, including engineers, architects, and financial analysts. Throughout this process, general contractors maintain open

forward process for a decent-sized job.

We have three or four people working on it, estimating and coordinating with subcontractors. We compile it all into one document, and that turns into our bid for hard dollar projects.”

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“Usually what it turns out to be is that the subcontractors we favor can get the low bid. They’re aware that a project is out on the street and they have to get their pricing down just as we have to get our pricing down if we want the job.”

Jonathan Hornak, Senior Project Manager, Cornerstone General Contractors

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solidifying the financial components tends to require consistent backand-forth communication. “When we turn in a price, we have to be able to complete the project for that price,” says Hornak. “Our subcontractors bid to us and that even happens minutes before we turn a bid in to an owner.

We have to analyze all of the bids to make sure we’re all covered so we don’t have any big gaps that would lose money.”

Projects that include the construction manager/general contractor (CM/ GC) delivery method or design/build models require a different approach.

For CM/GC, an owner will hire a general contractor to provide feedback during the design phase before construction begins. The process can be beneficial because it can improve cost control and cost certainty, reduce risk, and allow for the general contractor to play an innovative role in the design process.

Design/build projects give general contractors complete control of the design, an advantageous method that can save time and money because the general contractor is knowledgeable about every detail of a project.

“CM/GC and design/build are a completely different approach and pursuit process,” says Hornak. “Those two are more based on the proposals.

The bidding process is more about technical writing and selling ourselves based on our qualifications.”

Established firms throughout Alaska have the benefit of having a reputation, which certainly helps increase their chances of securing contracts. But aside from maintaining a strong standing in the community and having the resources to submit the cheapest

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bid, there is a basic formula that can help general contractors land projects. Hornak stresses that the most important aspect of the bidding process is attention to detail and says the best advice he would offer other general contractors is to be meticulous throughout the process.

“You’ve just got to do your estimate and get your pencil sharp,” he says.

“You really need to make sure that you have your bases covered.”

Negotiations Once the winning bidder is chosen, it’s time for negotiations. Cornerstone starts the negotiation process the same way for every job: by drafting its subcontractors’ contracts and solidifying its budget. The negotiation process gives the project owner and general contractor opportunities to raise questions or concerns before settling on a final agreement.

“The owner sends the final contract and then you have to get it through your insurance company and your bonding company, and then they’ll come back with comments,” says Hornak. “You’ll bring their comments to the owner and say, ‘Our insurance brought these issues up, can we discuss this?’ and then you’ll sit down with the owner and negotiate those terms.”

The relationship between the general contractor and project owner can help ease negotiations, and though the winning bidder can negotiate the contract, Hornak says deals rarely fall through once Cornerstone is awarded a contract.

“Most of the time, there aren’t any issues with owners that we work with,” he says. “We just get the contract, sign it, and send it back. It just depends on who we’re working with and how frequently they build.”

everyone is trying to get their buildings submitted and permitted, they could be backed up six or even eight weeks,” says Hornak. “We could win a job and we might have to sit there waiting for permitting for a month or two; it all depends on the owner and where they’re at with the process.”

If there’s one benefit about the permitting process, it’s that general contractors typically aren’t involved if it’s a hard dollar contract. They are more involved for design/build, though Hornak notes it is possible for the permitting process to be

staggered, which allows construction to start slowly while permits are being finalized.

“When design/build projects happen, we work with the municipality to phase the permitting process to get on the site,” he says. “They’ll permit our foundation so we can get the foundation in and then a couple months later, after all of the structural and architectural design is done, they can permit the actual full building so we can get inspections done. There are ways to work around the slow permitting process.”

Securing Permits The final step after winning a contract and before starting construction is the permitting process. Alaska’s short window for summer construction projects makes it difficult for local municipalities to respond to permitting requests in a timely manner. “The [Anchorage] municipality can be very backed up.

Especially in the springtime when www.akbizmag.com

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 39

CORPORATE 100

The Top 5 of the Top 100 Keeping Alaskans at work

E

very job counts, which is why Alaska Business celebrates the corporations in Alaska that keep people employed across the state every April in our Corporate 100 Special Section. The top five this year—Providence Health & Services Alaska; Trident Seafood Corporation; Princess Cruises, Holland America Line & Seabourn; Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC); and NANA—are representative of some of the brightest industries in Alaska’s economy.

Providence Health & Services Alaska

online appointments with a provider via computer or mobile device. “Providers can diagnose and treat minor medical concerns and prescribe medication or lab work as needed,” Providence says.

In 2018 the healthcare provider spent $10 million on community health improvement and strategic partnerships; $12.7 million on health professionals’ education and research; $10.5 million on subsidized health services; and $19.4 million on free and discounted care for the uninsured and underinsured—a portion of the $84.3 million Providence spent to benefit Alaskans that year.

Ranked #1 by employing 5,000 Alaskans*

Trident Seafood Corporation

Providence Health & Services Alaska is guided by its core values of compassion, dignity, justice, excellence, and integrity as the nonprofit healthcare provider pursues its mission: “As expressions of God’s love, witnessed through the ministry of Jesus, we are steadfast in serving all, especially those who are poor and vulnerable.”

In support of that mission, Providence pursues opportunities to make its services readily available to Alaskans. In February it opened Providence Medical Group Primary Care Huffman, a primary care clinic with extended hours and same-day appointments that is focused on “highly coordinated care and long-term, participative relationships.”

Providence is also expanding its virtual services through its Express Care Virtual, which allows people to schedule

Ranked #2 by employing 4,602 Alaskans*

40 | April 2020

According to the seafood industry titan, “Here at Trident, catching fish isn’t just our business. It’s our livelihood. It’s our calling. We are all fishermen here and catching the purest and healthiest seafood is what we do—it’s what we’ve done for more than forty years.”

Since founder Chuck Bundrant launched his first boat in 1973, the company has grown to have locations in ten Alaska communities: St. Paul, False Pass, Akutan, Sand Point, Naknek, Kodiak, Cordova, Petersburg, Wrangell, and Ketchikan.

Trident reports it is the largest vertically integrated seafood company in North America; it operates its own fishing fleet (in addition to partnering with independent, local fishers) and processes the catch. The company says

“the work that our processing team does is vital. It adds value to the fish that we pull out of the water. Our processing team’s efforts allow us—as a family of fishermen—to make products that are healthy and taste great.”

Trident offers more than sixty-nine products, ranging from fish sticks and gluten-free protein noodles to salmon burgers and beer battered cod. The company says: “Whether fished locally, or sourced globally, our objective is the same: to ensure our customers receive the safest, highest-quality, and healthiest seafood from the source to the plate.”

Princess Cruises, Holland America Line & Seabourn Ranked #3 by employing 3,500 Alaskans*

Sister companies Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, and Seabourn own and operate eight hotels, twenty railcars, and more than 200 buses and motor coaches in Alaska.

Princess is the number one cruise line in Alaska, as more guests choose Princess in Alaska than any other cruise line. The company is known for its innovation in the industry and has led the market in making private balconies affordable for more cruisers, 24-hour dining opportunities, and wedding chapels at sea, among others.

Holland America Line has been cruising to Alaska for more than 70 years and has been operating in other markets for 145 years. “We believe travel has the power to change the world,” the company states. “We consider it our higher purpose to help make the world a better place through opening minds, building connections, and inspiring a shared humanity.”

“Seabourn combines ultra-luxury with expedition-style flair to bring you a more in-depth experience of the area’s nature, history, forestry, and wildlife,” is how the cruise line describes itself. Seabourn has been focused on luxurious experiences since the Seabourn Pride, it’s first vessel, was launched in 1988.

Whether on a cruise ship, a bus, or in a hotel, the companies rely on frontline employees to make sure all guests experience Alaska to the fullest.

ASRC Ranked #4 by employing 3,159 Alaskans*

“Arctic Slope Regional Corporation’s mission is to actively manage our

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continues to diversify and expand its operations, our home is in Alaska and we continue to be guided by our Iñupiaq values and the lessons from our elders,” ASRC President and CEO Rex A. Rock Sr. said of the award. It’s the third Emmy the corporation has won.

NANA Ranked #5 by employing 3,016 Alaskans*

NANA is guided by its core principals: “Honesty and integrity govern our activities. Commitments made will be fulfilled. Everyone will be treated with dignity and respect.”

These principals apply to shareholders, employees, business partners, and any person within its sphere of influence, which is made clear by the ANCSA corporation’s mission “to improve the quality of life for our people by maximizing economic growth, protecting and enhancing our lands, and promoting healthy communities with decisions, actions, and behaviors inspired by our Iñupiat Iļitqusiat values consistent with our core principles.”

NANA’s business activities include construction and engineering,

information technology and telecommunications, facilities and logistics, and resource management, which means there are many opportunities for those with varied interests and skills to find a fulfilling and challenging career path at NANA. According to the company, “A safe, healthy, and motivated workforce is one of NANA’s greatest assets.”

Toward the end of 2019, NANA broke ground on an 80-foot by 140-foot facility at the Deadhorse Airport that will house the company’s maintenance and infrastructure work for the oil and gas industry and act as a North Slope base of operations. “NANA continues to invest in Alaska and the industries that drive its economy,” Grant Vidrine, interim president of NANA’s Commercial Group and previous vice president of HSSE and operational excellence, said in a release about the new construction. *Editors note: During our data collection process, we ask potential Corporate 100 employers to report their peak number of employees if employee numbers fluctuate seasonally.

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2020 Fairbanks Heart Walk co-chairs: Lisa Herbert, Usibelli Coal Mine Wendie MacNaughton, Northern Star Resources Limited Life is Why and Presenting sponsor:

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Alaska Business

April 2020 | 41

CORPORATE 100

businesses, our lands and resources, our investments, and our relationships to enhance Iñupiaq cultural and economic freedom—with continuity, responsibility, and integrity.” The ANCSA corporation pursues this through six primary business segments: government contract services, petroleum refining and marketing, energy support services, industrial services, construction, and resource development.

ASRC developed its 2018-2023 strategic plan to mitigate risk factors and grow the corporation over five years; the plan uses financial performance, shareholder and employee growth, and community economic development as “pillar strategies” to stay on track.

According to ASRC, “Between 2012 and 2016 alone, ASRC and its subsidiaries donated more than $25.6 million in grants to cultural, educational, health, and other organizations in the North Slope region and statewide.”

In 2019, ASRC won an Emmy for a 2018 commercial campaign that featured Anaktuvuk Pass, Kaktovik, and Nuiqsut. “These beautiful commercials highlight the fact that while ASRC

CORPORATE 100

A FiftyYear Love Affair Charles Dillard is living his dream everyday at the Alaska Railroad

By Vanessa Orr

C

42 | April 2020

Alaska Railroad

harles R. Dillard, 79, really loves two things: railroads and Alaska. So the fact that he’s been able to combine the two by working at the Alaska Railroad for the past fifty years has been a dream come true.

“The US Army sent me to Alaska in 1961, and I saw the railroad here and decided that it would be my home,” says the carman/ writer inspector, who has been employed by the railroad since July 12, 1965. “I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t doing this. This is all I’ve ever wanted.”

Originally from northern Alabama, Dillard was stationed at Fort Richardson when he fell in love with the Last Frontier. He went back to Alabama in 1964 but couldn’t stay away from Alaska, returning to Anchorage the following year.

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“Most of my family were railroad people; my dad was a conductor on the railroad, and he wasn’t surprised when I took the job since it’s all I’ve wanted to do since I could remember.”

Charles Dillard, Carman/Writer Inspector, Alaska Railroad

It’s not surprising that Dillard found his way to the railroad; it’s in his blood.

“Most of my family were railroad people; my dad was a conductor on the railroad, and he wasn’t surprised when I took the job since it’s all I’ve wanted to do since I could remember,” says Dillard, adding that his father, Charles Sr., was an Illinois Central Railroad conductor for thirty-nine years. “I thought it would make a good career—and here I am.”

A Day in the Life While there is no typical day on the

railroad, Dillard has established his own routine.

“We start at 6 a.m., though I usually get here earlier to get a head start on things,” he says. “I take a count of the cars in the shop and what kind of work needs to be done, and then the mechanics start to repair them.

When the jobs are completed, I make sure that everything is done and that the cars are ready to go at the end of the day. That pretty much takes up all of the day from Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.”

“It’s a good job and challenging in many ways,” Dillard says. “Safety is the

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April 2020 | 43

CORPORATE 100

Dillard joined the Alaska Railroad as an apprentice carman with the Mechanical Department and learned to make repairs on the railroad’s rolling stock, including freight and passenger equipment.

He took a short break between 1967 and 1969 before rejoining the railroad as a freight car carman in 1970. Within a couple of months, he was promoted to car inspector. In 1990, he was promoted to carman leader and has ser ved in his current position as carman writer/inspector since April 2007.

“As the carman writer/inspector, my job is to inspect cars as they come into the shop,” he explains.

“Some are repaired on periodic time frames; for example, airbrakes are inspected and repaired every year, and it’s mandatory that all cars come into the shop every five years.

“We also take care of mechanical repairs as cars develop defects while on the line,” he continues, adding that the main focus of his job is keeping railroad employees and passengers safe.

CORPORATE 100

Charles Dillard in his early years of working at the Alaska Railroad.

Charles Dillard

“It’s a good job and challenging in many ways. Safety is the biggest thing that we’re concerned with; you’ve got equipment rolling through the open countryside, and it’s up to us to make sure that it’s sure, safe, and ready to go.”

Charles Dillard, Carman/Writer Inspector Alaska Railroad

44 | April 2020

biggest thing that we’re concerned with; you’ve got equipment rolling through the open countryside, and it’s up to us to make sure that it’s sure, safe, and ready to go.”

While Dillard is the oldest person in the shop with years of accumulated knowledge, he knows that he couldn’t do the job alone. “I work with a very good group of people,” he says. “Each person has to work together to accomplish our goals because it takes a total team effort.”

According to Ron Thompson, manager of car operations, Dillard has always been a team player.

“I’ve worked with Charlie since 1988, and he’s not just knowledgeable, he’s a great mentor,” Thompson says. “He’s so experienced, and he’s willing to help everyone that he can—he doesn’t keep all that knowledge to himself.

“He’s always willing to share information, and it’s funny, because new hires don’t even realize how long he’s been here,” Thompson adds.

“They aren’t surprised to see Charlie working here at his age, because he doesn’t look the age he is. They don’t

even realize he’s been around this railroad working for fifty years.”

As the railroad has evolved over the past five decades, so have the tools Dillard uses to do his job.

“Technology has played a major role, and it’s mostly all about safety,” he says. “Many of the repairs we need to make are electronically detected before the cars ever hit the shop. This provides far more accurate information than just a visual inspection.”

According to Dillard, wayside electronic detection devices now automatically detect defects in freight cars, and this information is relayed to a central location in the Lower 48.

That information is then relayed to the Anchorage shop, which brings the cars in for repairs.

While Dillard appreciates the technology now, this wasn’t always the case.

“When I was first confronted with it, I didn’t want to do it,” he laughs. “Now I depend on it greatly. It’s a big help to me and others on the railroad and gives us a much better range of safety.

When computers and electronic monitoring came along, it was a big

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CORPORATE 100

“He’s always willing to share information, and it’s funny, because new hires don’t even realize how long he’s been here. They aren’t surprised to see Charlie working here at his age, because he doesn’t look the age he is. They don’t even realize he’s been around this railroad working for fifty years.”

Ron Thompson, Manager of Car Operations, Alaska Railroad

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game-changer for us, but it was also a big learning curve.”

According to Dillard, when new technology comes down the line, the Alaska Railroad provides training for its employees, and he has also received training during his career through the Federal Railroad Administration.

“As things change, we are constantly learning new things; the [Alaska] Railroad makes sure that we are updated and are able to keep up with the new information.”

Dillard also learns a lot during his vacation time, which he uses… to visit railroads.

“Charlie is definitely a railroad buff,” laughs Thompson. “He travels all over the world riding trains. He is totally into railroads, and part of what he likes to do is ride different rail systems around the world.”

In 1981, Dillard took a trip to China, followed by a trip to Russia ten years later.

“Traveling on those foreign railroads provided a lot of education,” he says. “It was quite enlightening to be able to be with railroad people in those countries.”

Dillard took the journey as part of a sponsored trip through Railing Age magazine, a publication geared toward the railroad industr y. “In China, I got to go through a Chinese railroad maintenance shop, and in Russia, I traveled with a railroad delegation from the Trans-Siberian Railroad,” he says. “We went to shops in

351 East 104th Ave, Anchorage, Alaska (907) 771-5800 DE LTA CON ST R U CT ORS . NET 46 | April 2020

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This is all I’ve ever wanted.”

Charles Dillard, Carman/Writer Inspector, Alaska Railroad

“The Russians were very good to me, and I wanted to do something good for them,” Dillard says. “My brother, Robert, had connections with pharmaceutical companies, so we worked with Delta Airlines to fly medications free of charge Charles Dillard sits under the plaque installed on Dining Car 452, which was named after him in 2018.

Alaska Railroad

Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, and Moscow. And we toured other railroad facilities across the country as we went.”

The journey included some surprises and helped him make some longlasting friendships.

“There were a lot of differences being in a foreign country, but it’s surprising how many things are the same no matter where you go,” he says. “The Chinese even allowed us to examine some American-made locomotives that they had received in World War II— they were still in service.”

Dillard also met the head of railway safety in Russia, who was the father of his guide, and was invited to get involved in humanitarian efforts in the country.

to be used at a Moscow hospital.”

Dillard plans to continue these efforts and also volunteers his services with the Main Street Church of Christ in Dallas and at Anchorage Church of Christ on DeBarr Road.

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Alaska Business

April 2020 | 47

CORPORATE 100

“I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t doing this.

CORPORATE 100

The Alaska Business Corporate 100

#1

Ranked by the Number of Alaska-based Employees

PROVIDENCE HEALTH & SERVICES ALASKA PRESTON SIMMONS, CEO 3760 Piper St., Ste 3035 Anchorage, AK 99508

HEALTH & WELLNESS

alaska.providence.org Info.PHSA@providence.org 907-212-3145

Healthcare, serving Alaskans in six communities: Anchorage, Eagle River, Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Kodiak Island, Seward, and Valdez. PH&SA includes Providence Alaska Medical Center.

Year Founded 1902 Year Founded in AK 1902 Employees (Worldwide) 120,000 Employees (AK) 5,000

tridentseafoods.com 206-783-3818

Trident Seafoods owns and operates 12 shore-based seafood processing facilities in Alaska and support facilities for its catcher-processing, catcher vessel, and tender fleets. Trident produces seafood products from nearly every commercial fishery off Alaska for retail, food service, and club stores.

Year Founded 1973 Year Founded in AK 1973 Employees (Worldwide) 8,881 Employees (AK) 4,602

worldsleadingcruiselines.com 907-264-8043

Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, and Seabourn own and operate 8 hotels, 20 railcars, and more than 200 buses and motor coaches in Alaska in addition to supporting port operations to the cruise business. 475 employees work yearround in the state with an additional 2,975 seasonal employees.

Year Founded 1873 Year Founded in AK 1947 Employees (Worldwide) 36,000 Employees (AK) 3,500

asrc.com ASRCExternalAffairs@asrc.com 907-852-8633

ASRC is the largest Alaskan-owned and -operated company and has six major business segments: government services, petroleum refining and marketing, energy support services, industrial services, construction, and resource development.

Year Founded 1972 Year Founded in AK 1972 Employees (Worldwide) 13,170 Employees (AK) 3,159

#2

Providence St. Joseph Health Renton, WA USA

TRIDENT SEAFOODS CORPORATION JOE BUNDRANT, CEO 405 E. Fireweed Ln., Ste 203 Anchorage, AK 99503

#3

SEAFOOD

PRINCESS CRUISES, HOLLAND AMERICA LINE & SEABOURN STEIN KRUSE, GROUP CEO 720 W. 5th Ave. Anchorage, AK 99501

TOURISM

#4

Carnival Corporation Miami, FL

ARCTIC SLOPE REGIONAL CORPORATION REX A. ROCK SR., PRESIDENT/CEO PO Box 129 Barrow, AK 99723

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

48 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

#5

PO Box 49 Kotzebue, AK 99752

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

nana.com news@nana.com 907-442-3301

Natural resource development, land management, federal contracting services, engineering and design, architecture, surveying and mapping, food and facilities management, camp services, security, industrial and commercial fabrication and installation, drilling services, and logistics.

Year Founded 1972 Year Founded in AK 1972 Employees (Worldwide) 10,516 Employees (AK) 3,016

907-339-7704

Retail food, drug, and fuel.

Year Founded 1901 Year Founded in AK 1950 Employees (Worldwide) 287,000 Employees (AK) 2,728

907-729-4955

Alaska Native-owned, nonprofit healthcare organization serving nearly 65,000 Alaska Native and American Indian people living in Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna Valley, and 55 rural villages.

SCF is home to the award-winning Nuka System of Care.

Year Founded 1982 Year Founded in AK 1982 Employees (Worldwide) 2,500 Employees (AK) 2,500

gci.com 907-265-5600

GCI delivers communication and technology services in the consumer and business markets. Headquartered in Alaska with locations in the US, GCI has delivered services for more than 35 years to some of the most remote communities and in some of the most challenging conditions in North America.

Year Founded 1979 Year Founded in AK 1979 Employees (Worldwide) 2,000 Employees (AK) 2,000

bbnc.net info@bbnc.net 907-278-3602

Industrial services, construction, government services, tourism, and seafood.

Year Founded 1972 Year Founded in AK 1972 Employees (Worldwide) 4,343 Employees (AK) 1,888

foundationhealth.org fhpcommunityfeedback@ foundationhealth.org 907-452-8181

Foundation Health Partners is a nonprofit, community owned healthcare system that operates Tanana Valley Clinic, Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, and long-term care facility, Denali Center.

Committed to meeting the healthcare needs of Interior Alaska.

Year Founded 2017 Year Founded in AK 2017 Employees (Worldwide) 1,850 Employees (AK) 1,850

alaskaair.com 907-266-7200

Alaska Airlines and regional carrier Horizon Air provide passenger and cargo service to 115 destinations in Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, and the Lower 48.

Year Founded 1932 Year Founded in AK 1932 Employees (Worldwide) 23,000 Employees (AK) 1,800

ppsf.com 907-497-2234

Peter Pan Seafoods, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Maruha Nichiro. Peter Pan Seafoods operates four shore-based processing facilities in Alaska processing salmon, crab and groundfish. Peter Pan's sale's team markets seafood in the United States and around the world.

Year Founded 1907 Year Founded in AK 1907 Employees (Worldwide) 1,574 Employees (AK) 1,537

#6

CARRS SAFEWAY REINO BELLIO, GENERAL MANAGER 5600 Debarr Rd., Ste 100 Anchorage, AK 99504

RETAIL/WHOLESALE TRADE

#7

Safeway / Albertsons Boise, ID

SOUTHCENTRAL FOUNDATION KATHERINE GOTTLIEB, PRESIDENT/CEO 4501 Diplomacy Dr. #200 Anchorage, AK 99508

HEALTH & WELLNESS

#8

Cook Inlet Region, Inc. Anchorage, AK USA

GCI RON DUNCAN, CEO 2550 Denali St., Ste 1000 Anchorage, AK 99503

#9

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

BRISTOL BAY NATIVE CORPORATION JASON METROKIN, PRESIDENT/CEO 111 W. 16th Ave., Ste 400 Anchorage, AK 99501

#10

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

FOUNDATION HEALTH PARTNERS SHELLEY EBENAL, CEO 1650 Cowles St. Fairbanks, AK 99701

#11

HEALTH & WELLNESS

ALASKA AIRLINES BRAD TILDEN CHAIRMAN/CEO ALASKA AIR GROUP 3600 Old International Airport Rd. Anchorage, AK 99502

TRANSPORTATION

#12

Alaska Air Group Seattle, WA

PETER PAN SEAFOODS BARRY COLLIER, PRESIDENT/CEO PO Box 16 King Cove, AK 99612

SEAFOOD

Maruha Nichiro Tokyo Japan

www.akbizmag.com

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 49

CORPORATE 100

NANA WAYNE WESTLAKE, PRESIDENT/CEO

#13 #14 #15

627 Shelikof St. Kodiak, AK 99615

SEAFOOD

northpacificseafoods.com 907-486-3234

Seafood processing and marketing.

Year Founded 1972 Year Founded in AK 1972 Employees (Worldwide) 1,500 Employees (AK) 1,475

flyravn.com ravn.sales@ravnairgroup.com 907-266-8394

Scheduled passenger, cargo, mail, and charter service to more than 115 communities throughout Alaska.

Year Founded 1948 Year Founded in AK 1948 Employees (Worldwide) 1,300 Employees (AK) 1,300

searhc.org marketing@searhc.org 907-463-4000

SEARHC is a non-profit health consortium that serves the health interests of the residents of Southeast Alaska. Providing essential services in 27 Southeast communities and counting, SEARHC is one of the oldest and largest Native-run health organizations in the nation.

Year Founded 1975 Year Founded in AK 1975 Employees (Worldwide) 1,300 Employees (AK) 1,300

AlaskaUSA.org memberservice@alaskausa.org 907-563-4567

Alaska USA is a member-owned cooperative committed to delivering products and services that support financial wellbeing.

Year Founded 1948 Year Founded in AK 1948 Employees (Worldwide) 1,879 Employees (AK) 1,256

Marubeni Corporation Tokyo Japan

RAVN AIR GROUP DAVID PFLIEGER, PRESIDENT/CEO 4700 Old International Airport Rd. Anchorage, AK 99502

TRANSPORTATION

RavnAir Group Anchorage, AK USA

SOUTHEAST ALASKA REGIONAL HEALTH CONSORTIUM CHARLES CLEMENT, PRESIDENT/CEO 3100 Channel Dr., Ste 300 Juneau, AK 99801

HEALTH & WELLNESS

#16

CORPORATE 100

NORTH PACIFIC SEAFOODS KAZUO TAGUCHI, CHAIRMAN

ALASKA USA FEDERAL CREDIT UNION GEOFFEREY S. LUNDFELT PRESIDENT/CEO PO Box 196613 Anchorage, AK 99519-6613

FINANCIAL SERVICES

STRENGTHENING

Alaska Through hard work and determination, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation has grown into the largest Alaskan-owned and operated company – employing thousands of Alaskans while providing lasting benefits to our shareholders, opportunities for our communities and helping to power the state’s economy.

asrc.com

50 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

#17 #18 #19

PO Box 920008 Dutch Harbor, AK 99692

SEAFOOD

Unisea.com 907-581-7300

UniSea's largest Alaska operations are state-of-the-art processing facilities in Dutch Harbor. UniSea processes surimi and fillets from pollock and processes crab, cod, and halibut.

Year Founded 1974 Year Founded in AK 1975 Employees (Worldwide) 1,350 Employees (AK) 1,250

alaskaregional.com 907-276-1131

24-hour ER department, Family Birth Center, Alaska Regional Imaging Alliance, Center for Surgical Robotics, cancer center, cath lab, diagnostic imaging, heart center and cardiac rehabilitation, orthopedic and spine, rehab unit, nurse residency program, surgical services, therapy dogs.

Year Founded 1963 Year Founded in AK 1963 Employees (Worldwide) 270,000 Employees (AK) 1,150

cpgh.org 907-714-4404

CPH is a Planetree designated hospital offering emergency medical care, surgery, birth center, imaging, laboratory, physical therapy, and behavioral health. Specialties include joint replacement, oncology, orthopedics, pediatrics, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, and cardiac cath.

Year Founded 1971 Year Founded in AK 1971 Employees (Worldwide) 1,150 Employees (AK) 1,150

conocophillipsalaska.com n.m.lowman@conocophillips.com 907-276-1215

An independent exploration and production company. We are Alaska's largest oil producer and have been a leader in oil and gas exploration and development in the state for more than fifty years.

Year Founded 1952 Year Founded in AK 1952 Employees (Worldwide) 10,800 Employees (AK) 1,100

Nippon Suisan Kaisha Tokyo Japan

ALASKA REGIONAL HOSPITAL JULIE TAYLOR, CEO 2801 DeBarr Rd. Anchorage, AK 99508

HEALTH & WELLNESS

HCA Nashville, TN

CENTRAL PENINSULA HOSPITAL RICK DAVIS, CEO 250 Hospital Place Soldotna, AK 99669

#20

HEALTH & WELLNESS

CONOCOPHILLIPS ALASKA JOE MARUSHACK, PRESIDENT 700 G St., PO Box 100360 Anchorage, AK 99510

OIL & GAS

ConocoPhillips Company Houston, TX

AVIATION

FUEL

TRANSPORT

We Know the Slope‌ and Beyond For more than 60 years, Colville has been providing essential supplies and services across the North Slope. With a wide range of services including aviation support, fuel supply and delivery, camp services, solid waste management, industrial and general store supplies, we know how to keep your operations running smoothly north of the Arctic Circle.

INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY

SOLID WASTE

colvilleinc.com CAMP SERVICES www.akbizmag.com

907-659-3198 I toll free 888-659-3198 I fax 907-659-3190 Alaska Business

April 2020 | 51

CORPORATE 100

UNISEA TOM ENLOW, PRESIDENT/CEO

#21 #22

6520 Kulis Dr. Anchorage, AK 99502

TRANSPORTATION

CHUGACH ALASKA CORPORATION SHERI BURETTA, INTERIM PRESIDENT/ CEO/CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD 3800 Centerpoint Dr., Ste 1200 Anchorage, AK 99503-4396

lynden.com information@lynden.com 907-245-1544

Lynden is a family of transportation companies with capabilities including truckload and less-than-truckload service, scheduled and charter barges, rail barges, intermodal bulk chemical hauls, scheduled and chartered air freighters, domestic and international air/ocean forwarding, and multi-modal logistics.

Year Founded 1906 Year Founded in AK 1954 Employees (Worldwide) 3,039 Employees (AK) 1,003

chugach.com communications@chugach.com 907-563-8866

The Chugach family of companies provides government services, facilities services, and energy services. Chugach also manages a diverse portfolio of investments and land/resource development opportunities.

Year Founded 1972 Year Founded in AK 1972 Employees (Worldwide) 5,700 Employees (AK) 1,000

907-581-1660

Seafood processing and sales.

Year Founded 1989 Year Founded in AK 1989 Employees (Worldwide) 1,021 Employees (AK) 989

thealaskaclub.com marketingmail@thealaskaclub.com 907-337-9550

The Alaska Club has a network of statewide locations offering a variety of group fitness classes, state-of-the-art equipment, personal training, swimming, youth activities, amenities and more. Providing fitness options for adults and families. The Alaska Club, the way fitness should be.

Year Founded 1986 Year Founded in AK 1986 Employees (Worldwide) 954 Employees (AK) 954

#23

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

#24

CORPORATE 100

LYNDEN JIM JANSEN, CHAIRMAN

WESTWARD SEAFOODS MARK JOHAHNSON, PRESIDENT PO Box 920608 Dutch Harbor, AK 99692-0608

SEAFOOD

THE ALASKA CLUB ROBERT BREWSTER, CEO 5201 E. Tudor Rd. Anchorage, AK 99507

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Partnership Capital Growth San Francisco, CA US

MEDICAL • SAFETY • TRAINING

WE KEEP YOUR EMPLOYEES SAFE, HEALTHY AND ON THE JOB Beacon provides all the services your company needs for healthy, well-trained employees.

• • • •

Safety services Training Occupational medicine Remote/on-site medical services

• Drug and alcohol testing • Confined Space Rescue Teams

www.beaconohss.com Tel: 907-222-7612 800 Cordova Street Anchorage, AK 99501

52 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

#25 #26 #27 #28

4000 Old Seward Hwy., Ste 101 Anchorage, AK 99503

INDUSTRIAL SERVICES

Colas USA Morristown, NJ

colaska.com info@colaska.com 907-273-1000

Colaska is part of the Colas Group, a worldwide leader in transportation infrastructure construction and maintenance.

Colaska's operating companies cover the entire state of Alaska and include QAP, Secon, Southeast Roadbuilders, Exclusive Paving, AGGPRO, University RediMix, and Emulsion Products Co. Year Founded 1999 Year Founded in AK 1999 Employees (Worldwide) 58,000 Employees (AK) 913

alaskacommercial.com 907-273-4600

Rural Alaska's largest retailer of food, apparel, and general merchandise with continuous service since 1867.

Year Founded 1867 Year Founded in AK 1867 Employees (Worldwide) 7,000 Employees (AK) 900

akgen.com 907-246-4285

Alaska General Seafoods is a shore-based seafood processor that acquires, cans, freezes or provides fresh seafood products to wholesale buyers from around the world.

Year Founded 1986 Year Founded in AK 1994 Employees (Worldwide) 890 Employees (AK) 870

calistacorp.com calista@calistacorp.com 907-275-2800

Calista Corporation is the parent company of more than 30 subsidiaries in the following industries: military defense contracting, construction, real estate, environmental and natural resource development, marine transportation, oil field services and heavy equipment sales, service, and rentals.

Year Founded 1972 Year Founded in AK 1972 Employees (Worldwide) 3,000 Employees (AK) 800

ALASKA COMMERCIAL CO. WALTER PICKETT, GENERAL MANAGER 3830 Old International Airport Rd. Anchorage, AK 99502

RETAIL/WHOLESALE TRADE

The North West Co. Winnipeg, MB Canada

ALASKA GENERAL SEAFOODS BRAD WILKINS, GENERAL MANAGER PO Box 149 Naknek, AK 99633

SEAFOOD

CALISTA CORPORATION ANDREW GUY, PRESIDENT/CEO 5015 Business Park Blvd., Ste 3000 Anchorage, AK 99503

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

Alaskans are our people. You’re our friends, family and the neighbors we grew up with! As Alaska’s only state-chartered credit union, we are proud to be

Join us today and enjoy an Alaskan credit union where YOU are at the heart of it all.

Get started at cu1.org.

Insured by the NCUA | Equal Housing Opportunity www.akbizmag.com

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 53

CORPORATE 100

COLASKA JON FUGLESTAD, PRESIDENT

#29

PO Box 1687 Palmer, AK 99645

matsuregional.com 907-861-6000

Mat-Su Regional Medical Center is the Valley’s healthcare hub, providing advanced surgical service, including robotics, the area’s only birthing center, emergency services, diagnostic imaging, sleep studies, three convenient Urgent Care Centers, and inpatient behavioral health services.

Year Founded 1935 Year Founded in AK 1935 Employees (Worldwide) 800 Employees (AK) 800

ferryalaska.com dot.amhs.customer@alaska.gov 800-642-0066

Provider of marine transportation for passengers and vehicles to more than thirty Alaska coastal communities. No pre-set itineraries. Amenities available include staterooms, dining, movie theaters, and viewing lounges.

Year Founded 1963 Year Founded in AK 1963 Employees (Worldwide) 800 Employees (AK) 800

denaliuniversal.com 907-522-1300

Operational support including catering, housekeeping, facility maintenance, and security.

Year Founded 1946 Year Founded in AK 1946 Employees (Worldwide) 850 Employees (AK) 780

alyeskaresort.com info@alyeskaresort.com 907-754-2111

Alyeska Resort is Alaska's premier year-round destination. Just forty miles from Anchorage, it's a great base camp for summer and winter activities. Featuring the 300 room Hotel Alyeska, ski resort served by seven lifts, seven restaurants, a full-service spa, and banquet and meeting facilities.

Year Founded 1959 Year Founded in AK 1959 Employees (Worldwide) 775 Employees (AK) 775

HEALTH & WELLNESS

#30

Community Health Systems Nashville, TN

ALASKA MARINE HIGHWAY SYSTEM JOHN FALVEY, CAPTAIN 7559 N. Tongass Hwy. Ketchikan, AK 99901

#31

TRANSPORTATION

#32

CORPORATE 100

MAT-SU REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER DAVE WALLACE, CEO

DENALI UNIVERSAL SERVICES THOMAS (BOB) KEAN, PRESIDENT/CEO 11500 C St., Ste 100 Anchorage, AK 99515

INDUSTRIAL SERVICES

Sodexo Paris France

ALYESKA RESORT/HOTEL ALYESKA MANDY HAWES, GENERAL MANAGER PO Box 249 Girdwood, AK 99587

TRAVEL & TOURISM

TRICARE® approved facility

Reaching Across Alaska, Helping Children, Supporting Families, & Touching Lives

MISSION STRENGTH, RESILIENCY & HEALING

Arctic Recovery is an Intensive Holistic Treatment Program dedicated to individuals 18 and older in need of detoxification and/or rehabilitation for substance abuse.

An inpatient treatment program for service members, veterans, service member dependents 18 years and older, and first responders.

• No Cost Assessment • Individual and Family Therapy • Recreational/Activity Therapy • Psychological Testing • Medical Care and Detoxification • 24 Hour Nursing and Medical Care • Medication Management and Education • Dietary Services and Nutritional Classes • Psychiatry • Group Therapy

800-478-7575 or 907-258-7575 chriskylepatriotshospital.com MASTER LEVEL CLINICIAN WILL ASSIST WITH THE FOLLOWING: Clinical Assessment, Overview of Services, and Connect to Community Resources

serpentine bold newsgothic TRICARE® is a registered trandemark of the Department of Defense Health Agency. All rights reserved.

54 | April 2020

Alaska’s Premier Child & Adolescent Mental Health Provider

call to connect with a masters level clinician 24/7

907-433-7326 or 1(800)478-7575 1650 S. Bragaw Anchorage, AK 99508 TRICARE® approved facility

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

#33

PO Box 196660, MS 542 Anchorage, AK 99519-6660

alyeska-pipe.com alyeskamail@alyeska-pipeline.com 907-787-8700

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company has operated the Trans Alaska Pipeline System since 1977 and has delivered more than 18 billion barrels of oil. Focused on safe and flawless operations, employees are committed to keeping TAPS sustainable for all of Alaska.

Year Founded 1970 Year Founded in AK 1970 Employees (Worldwide) 760 Employees (AK) 759

fedex.com 800-463-3339

Air cargo and express-package services.

Year Founded 1973 Year Founded in AK 1988 Employees (Worldwide) 400,000 Employees (AK) 740

hopealaska.org info@hopealaska.org 907-561-5335

Providing services and supports to Alaskans who experience an intellectual, developmental, or other physical disability; a traumatic brain injury; or a mental health challenge.

Year Founded 1968 Year Founded in AK 1968 Employees (Worldwide) 722 Employees (AK) 722

doyon.com communications@doyon.com 888-478-4755

Doyon operates a diverse family of companies in the areas of oil field services, utilities, construction, information technology, natural resource development, tourism, laundry, real estate, and wireless telecommunications.

Year Founded 1972 Year Founded in AK 1972 Employees (Worldwide) 1,046 Employees (AK) 708

#35

#34

OIL & GAS

FEDEX EXPRESS DALE SHAW, MANAGING DIRECTOR 6050 Rockwell Ave. Anchorage, AK 99502

TRANSPORTATION

FedEx Corp.

Memphis, TN

HOPE COMMUNITY RESOURCES MICHELE GIRAULT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 540 W. International Airport Rd. Anchorage, AK 99518

#36

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

DOYON, LIMITED AARON SCHUTT, PRESIDENT/CEO 1 Doyon Place, Ste 300 Fairbanks, AK 99701-2941

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

www.akbizmag.com

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 55

CORPORATE 100

ALYESKA PIPELINE SERVICE COMPANY BRIGHAM MCCOWN, PRESIDENT

#37 #38

PO Box 107500 Anchorage, AK 99510-7500

TRANSPORTATION

alaskarailroad.com 907-265-2300

Freight rail transportation, passenger rail transportation, and real estate land leasing and permitting. Year-round employees 590-610; Seasonal (summer) employees 125-135; Total employees more than 700.

Year Founded 1914 Year Founded in AK 1914 Employees (Worldwide) 710 Employees (AK) 708

907-249-6232

UPS is a global company with one of the most recognized and admired brands in the world. We have become the world's largest package delivery company and a leading global provider of specialized transportation and logistics services.

Year Founded 1907 Year Founded in AK 1985 Employees (Worldwide) 481,000 Employees (AK) 706

FNBAlaska.com customer.service@FNBAlaska.com 907-777-4362

Friendly, knowledgeable Alaskans offering the convenience, service and value of a full range of deposit, lending, wealth management services, and online and mobile banking. With 28 branches in 18 communities and assets of more than $3.8 billion, we believe in Alaska and have since 1922.

Year Founded 1922 Year Founded in AK 1922 Employees (Worldwide) 657 Employees (AK) 657

anchorageconventioncenters.com sullivanarena.com carlson-center.com phyllis@anchorageconventioncenters.com 907-279-0618

Sporting events, concerts, conventions, family shows, and miscellaneous events.

Year Founded 1977 Year Founded in AK 1999 Employees (Worldwide) 61,000 Employees (AK) 615

Alaska Dept. of Commerce, Community & Economic Development Juneau, AK

UNITED PARCEL SERVICE SCOTT DEPAEPE ALASKA DIVISION MANAGER 6200 Lockheed Ave. Anchorage, AK 99502

#39

TRANSPORTATION

FIRST NATIONAL BANK ALASKA BETSY LAWER, BOARD CHAIR/CEO PO Box 100720 Anchorage, AK 99510-0720

FINANCIAL SERVICES

#40

CORPORATE 100

ALASKA RAILROAD CORPORATION BILL O'LEARY, PRESIDENT/CEO

ASM GLOBAL GREG SPEARS, GENERAL MANAGER 1600 Gambell St. Anchorage, AK 99501

TRAVEL & TOURISM

ASM Global Los Angeles, CA

Be a part of getting wild, healthy, and sustainable seafood from Alaska harvesters to consumers worldwide.

Find jobs in Alaska’s seafood industry at jobs.alaska.gov/seafood/

Alaska’s seafood industry is the largest direct private sector employer in the state employing thousands of Alaskans. We are always looking to increase Alaska hire.

PSPA Member Locations

pspafish.net

PACIFIC SEAFOOD PROCESSORS ASSOCIATION: ALASKA GENERAL SEAFOODS ALYESKA SEAFOODS, INC. GOLDEN ALASKA SEAFOODS PETER PAN SEAFOODS PHOENIX PROCESSOR LIMITED PARTNERSHIP TRIDENT SEAFOODS CORP. UNISEA INC. WESTWARD SEAFOODS, INC. 56 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

#41

1717 Tidewater Rd. Anchorage, AK 99501-1036

Matson.com 907-274-2671

Containership cargo transportation service between Tacoma, WA, and Anchorage, Kodiak, and Dutch Harbor. Delivery services to the Alaska Railbelt. Connecting carrier service to other water, air, and land carriers. Less-than-container-load freight consolidation and forwarding services.

Year Founded 1882 Year Founded in AK 1964 Employees (Worldwide) 2,000 Employees (AK) 600

threebearsalaska.com 907-357-4311

Retail grocery, general merchandise, sporting goods (hunting, fishing and camping), pharmacy, package stores (beer, wine and spirits), and fuel.

Year Founded 1980 Year Founded in AK 1980 Employees (Worldwide) 637 Employees (AK) 581

wellsfargoworks.com 907-313-7266

Diversified financial services company, providing businesses of all sizes with checking and savings products, retirement planning, merchant services, loans, credit cards and online tips and tools for building a successful business at wellsfargoworks.com.

Year Founded 1852 Year Founded in AK 1916 Employees (Worldwide) 261,000 Employees (AK) 550

alaskacommunications.com 907-297-3000

Alaska’s leading provider of managed IT services, high-speed internet, data networking, and voice communications.

Year Founded 1999 Year Founded in AK 1999 Employees (Worldwide) 582 Employees (AK) 536

#43

#42

TRANSPORTATION

THREE BEARS ALASKA DAVID A. WEISZ, PRESIDENT/CEO 445 N. Pittman Rd., Ste B Wasilla, AK 99623

RETAIL/WHOLESALE TRADE

WELLS FARGO GREG DEAL ALASKA REGIONAL BANK PRESIDENT 301 W. Northern Lights Blvd.

Anchorage, AK 99503

FINANCIAL SERVICES

#44

Wells Fargo & Company San Francisco, CA

ALASKA COMMUNICATIONS BILL BISHOP, PRESIDENT/CEO 600 Telephone Ave. Anchorage, AK 99503

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

PROTECTING OUR MOST

PRECIOUS RESOURCE Usibelli Coal Mine produces more than one million tons of coal every year, helping energize Interior Alaska.

Yet our most precious resource isn’t coal—it’s the people who mine it. We’ve worked hard to keep our employees safe, and the results are gratifying.

Employees surpassed their all-time safety record in April 2019 and by the end of the year, worked more than 1,000 days without a lost time accident.

Our employees are committed to excellence in mining, and in practicing everyday safety—at work, at home, and at play.

WWW.USIBELLI.COM

www.akbizmag.com

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 57

CORPORATE 100

MATSON BAL DREYFUS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, ALASKA

#45

3105 Lakeshore Dr., Bldg. A, Ste 101 Anchorage, AK 99517

teck.com 907-754-6170

One of the world's largest producers of zinc concentrates.

Year Founded 1986 Year Founded in AK 1986 Employees (Worldwide) 10,700 Employees (AK) 508

slb.com 907-273-1700

Schlumberger is the world's leading provider of technology for reservoir characterization, drilling, production, and processing to the oil and gas industry.

Year Founded 1927 Year Founded in AK 1956 Employees (Worldwide) 100,000 Employees (AK) 500

beringstraits.com info@beringstraits.com 907-563-3788

Bering Straits was established by ANCSA in 1972. It is owned by more than 8,000 Alaska Native shareholders and actively pursues responsible development of resources and other business opportunities. The company serves the federal government and commercial customers.

Year Founded 1972 Year Founded in AK 1972 Employees (Worldwide) 1,750 Employees (AK) 500

att.com 800-478-9000

AT&T helps people connect in meaningful ways every day. We’re building FirstNet for first responders, creating next-generation mobile 5G, and delivering entertainment people love to talk about. Our smart, highly secure solutions serve more than 3 million global businesses.

Year Founded 1876 Year Founded in AK 1971 Employees (Worldwide) 252,000 Employees (AK) 475

MINING

#46

Teck Resources Limited Vancouver, BC Canada

SCHLUMBERGER OILFIELD SERVICES NATHAN ROSE, MANAGING DIRECTOR 6411 A St. Anchorage, AK 99518

#47

INDUSTRIAL SERVICES

BERING STRAITS NATIVE CORPORATION GAIL R. SCHUBERT, PRESIDENT/CEO 3301 C St., Ste 400 Anchorage, AK 99503

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

#48

CORPORATE 100

TECK ALASKA INC. — RED DOG MINE LES YESNIK, GENERAL MANAGER

AT&T BOB BASS, PRESIDENT AK 505 E. Bluff Dr. Anchorage, AK 99501

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

AT&T Dallas, TX

resourceful solutions KEEPING NATURAL RESOURCES CLIENTS ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF MARKET TRENDS AND AHEAD OF THEIR COMPETITION.

Attorneys from Dorsey & Whitney are deeply engaged in helping mining, energy, and natural resources clients across the full lifecycle of exploration, development, production and beyond, providing timely and effective counsel to companies in Alaska and around the world. We provide comprehensive representation, helping clients with everything from transactions and financing to litigation, regulatory, and environmental compliance.

TOP RANKED

LAW FIRM IN ALASKA

12 PRACTICE AREAS

Corporate Law, Commercial Litigation, Real Estate, Employment Law, and others

U.S. News–Best Lawyers 2020 (Woodward White, Inc.)

LEADING

ENERGY: MINING & METALS (TRANSACTIONAL) PRACTICE Chambers USA 2019

dorsey.com/anchorage © 2020 Dorsey & Whitney LLP 58 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

#49

PO Box 145 Delta Junction, AK 99737

Northern Star Resources Limited is a top 25 global gold producer with mines in Western Australia and North America. In 2018, the company acquired Pogo Mine, 30 miles Northwest of Delta Junction.

Year Founded 2000 Year Founded in AK 2018 Employees (Worldwide) 1,740 Employees (AK) 455

nsrltd.com 907-895-2841

#50

MINING

PEACEHEALTH KETCHIKAN MEDICAL CENTER JOE MARK, INTERIM CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER 3100 Tongass Ave. Ketchikan, AK 99901

HEALTH & WELLNESS

#51

PeaceHealth Vancouver, WA

HECLA GREENS CREEK MINING CO. BRIAN ERICKSON VP/GENERAL MANAGER PO Box 32199 Juneau, AK 99803

In 1923 the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace opened the Little Flower Hospital in Ketchikan. Today, it is a 25-bed critical access peacehealth.org/ketchikan hospital, in partnership with the City, providing medical services ketchikanmarketing@peacehealth.org including general and orthopedic surgery, medical clinics, diagnostic imaging, rehab therapies, and more.

907-225-5171 Year Founded 1890 Year Founded in AK 1923 Employees (Worldwide) 16,000 Employees (AK) 450

greenscreek.com 907-789-8100

Hecla’s 100%-owned and operated Greens Creek mine in southeast Alaska is one of the largest and lowest-cost primary silver mines in the world.

Year Founded 1989 Year Founded in AK 1989 Employees (Worldwide) 1,400 Employees (AK) 447

sphosp.org wellness@sphosp.org 907-235-8101

Medical and surgical inpatient hospitalization; general and orthopedic surgery, including joint replacement; diagnostic imaging, including CT and MRI; diagnostic lab services; rehabilitation; SART/SANE, home-health, primary care, visiting specialists, infusion clinic, behavioral health, and long term care.

Year Founded 1956 Year Founded in AK 1956 Employees (Worldwide) 440 Employees (AK) 440

MINING

#52

Hecla Mining Company Coeur d'Alene, ID

SOUTH PENINSULA HOSPITAL RYAN SMITH, CEO 4300 Bartlett St. Homer, AK 99603

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Alaska’s Leader in Signs and Print over 40 Years of Experience!

Local and Family Owned Since 1979

907.274.3584

833 East 4th Avenue Anchorage, AK 99501 www.akbizmag.com

Toll Free in Alaska 800.478.7477

www.pipalaska.com

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 59

CORPORATE 100

NORTHERN STAR RESOURCES LIMITED (POGO MINE) SHAUN MCLOUGHNEY GENERAL MANAGER

#53 #54 #55

5025 Van Buren Street Anchorage, AK 99517

TRANSPORTATION

AFF Global Logistics Fife, WA

MTA MICHAEL BURKE, CEO 1740 S. Chugach St. Palmer, AK 99645

odysseylogistics.com info@americanfast.com 907-248-5548

Ocean freight forwarding, freight consolidation of all kinds, LTL/ LCL, full loads and single shipments, temperature protected, dry vans, specialized equipment, heavy haul, project logistics, barge, steamship, intrastate trucking, warehousing, distribution, and expanded service to Prudhoe Bay. Year Founded 1984 Year Founded in AK 1984 Employees (Worldwide) 2,500 Employees (AK) 400

mtasolutions.com 907-745-3211

MTA is leading Alaska’s technology revolution, empowering its member-owners to live a connected life. MTA, an Alaskanowned communications company, delivers broadband, business solutions, data center, IT services, TV, landline, online directory, and TV advertising.

Year Founded 1953 Year Founded in AK 1953 Employees (Worldwide) 400 Employees (AK) 400

northstarbehavioral.com 907-258-7575

North Star, a premier behavioral health provider, specializes in helping youth via acute and residential treatment. We also treat first responders, service members, and veterans at the Chris Kyle Patriots Hospital, and those in need of detox/substance abuse treatment at Arctic Recovery.

Year Founded 1984 Year Founded in AK 1984 Employees (Worldwide) 400 Employees (AK) 400

907-523-3300

The Kensington underground gold mine and associated milling facilities are in the Berners Bay Mining District on the east side of Lynn Canal about forty-five miles northwest of Juneau, Alaska. The project is owned and operated by Coeur Alaska, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Coeur Mining.

Year Founded 1987 Year Founded in AK 1987 Employees (Worldwide) 2,000 Employees (AK) 386

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

NORTH STAR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH ALAN BARNES, CEO/CFO 2530 Debarr Rd. Anchorage, AK 99508

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Universal Health Services Inc. King of Prussia, PA

#56

CORPORATE 100

ODYSSEY LOGISTICS ROBERT SHELLMAN, CEO

COEUR ALASKA MARK KIESSLING, GENERAL MANAGER 3031 Clinton Dr., Ste 202 Juneau, AK 99801

MINING

Coeur Mining Chicago, IL

The Solutions Company - When experience meets ingenuity • Safe, cost effective solutions to the most challenging projects • From the Arctic to the Gulf Coast • Full facility removal, asbestos, remediation, waste management, demolition and site work

Central Environmental Inc. CEI I The Solutions Company

Locations: Anchorage I Fairbanks I Las Vegas I Los Angeles 888-876-0125 I www.cei-alaska.com I #centralenvironmentalinc 60 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

#57

6300 Changepoint Dr. Anchorage, AK 99518

odomcorp.com 907-272-8511

Licensed wholesale alcoholic beverage distributor. Franchised soft drink distributor.

Year Founded 1934 Year Founded in AK 1934 Employees (Worldwide) 1,700 Employees (AK) 380

dot.state.ak.us/anc dot.aia.ancinfo@alaska.gov 907-266-2119

World class cargo airport, largest passenger airport in Alaska, and the world's busiest float-plane base.

Year Founded 1951 Year Founded in AK 1951 Employees (Worldwide) 377 Employees (AK) 377

ahtna.com news@ahtna.net 907-822-3476

Ahtna’s principle activities include construction, environmental, facilities management and support, engineering, government contracting, land management and resource development, and oil and gas pipeline services.

Year Founded 1972 Year Founded in AK 1972 Employees (Worldwide) 1,345 Employees (AK) 376

cu1.org membermail@cu1.org 907-339-9485

As a full-service financial institution that serves 85,000+ Alaskans, Credit Union 1 is proud to help foster thriving, happy communities by always putting people first. We achieve this goal by offering low cost loans, cutting edge eServices, and more to our uniquely Alaskan member-owners.

Year Founded 1952 Year Founded in AK 1952 Employees (Worldwide) 372 Employees (AK) 354

RETAIL/WHOLESALE TRADE

#58

The Odom Corporation Bellevue, WA

TED STEVENS ANCHORAGE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT JIM SZCZESNIAK, AIRPORT MGR. PO Box 196960 Anchorage, AK 99519-6960

#60

#59

TRANSPORTATION

AHTNA, INC. MICHELLE ANDERSON, PRESIDENT PO Box 649 Glennallen, AK 99588

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

CREDIT UNION 1 JAMES WILEMAN, PRESIDENT/CEO 1941 Abbott Rd. Anchorage, AK 99507

FINANCIAL SERVICES

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Alaska Business

April 2020 | 61

CORPORATE 100

THE ODOM CORPORATION WILLIAM ODOM, VICE CHAIRMAN/ EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

#61 #62

201 Arctic Slope Ave. Anchorage, AK 99518

TRANSPORTATION

udelhoven.com jfronteras@udelhoven.com 907-344-1577

Oilfield services, construction management, electrical, and mechanical construction.

Year Founded 1970 Year Founded in AK 1970 Employees (Worldwide) 368 Employees (AK) 350

captaincook.com 907-276-6000

The Hotel Captain Cook is a 546-room luxury hotel with four unique restaurants and an athletic club. Centrally located in downtown Anchorage, we are the last large family-owned hotel in Anchorage, and with our sister hotel—the Voyager Inn, are the only two members of Preferred Hotels in Alaska.

Year Founded 1964 Year Founded in AK 1965 Employees (Worldwide) 350 Employees (AK) 350

907-275-2600

Halliburton offers a broad array of oilfield technologies and services to upstream oil and gas customers worldwide.

Year Founded 1919 Year Founded in AK 1958 Employees (Worldwide) 60,000 Employees (AK) 347

EvertsAir.com shoshaw@EvertsAir.com 907-450-2300

Everts Air Cargo provides scheduled cargo service within Alaska and air charter services to domestic and international destinations. Everts Air Alaska is based in Fairbanks and provides passenger, freight, and charter service using smaller (Pilatus and Caravan) aircraft.

Year Founded 1995 Year Founded in AK 1995 Employees (Worldwide) 348 Employees (AK) 333

Northrim.com 907-562-0062

Northrim Bank is an Alaskan-based community bank, headquartered in Anchorage with sixteen branches statewide, serving 90% of Alaska’s population. Northrim is committed to providing customer-first service to businesses, professionals, and individual Alaskans.

Year Founded 1990 Year Founded in AK 1990 Employees (Worldwide) 335 Employees (AK) 330

carlile.biz customerservice@carlile.biz 907-276-7797

Transportation and logistics company offering multi-model trucking as well as project logistics services across Alaska and North America.

Year Founded 1980 Year Founded in AK 1980 Employees (Worldwide) 432 Employees (AK) 320

petrostar.com 907-339-6600

Refining and fuel distribution.

Year Founded 1984 Year Founded in AK 1984 Employees (Worldwide) 320 Employees (AK) 318

Crowley Maritime Corporation Jacksonville, FL

UDELHOVEN OILFIELD SYSTEM SERVICES JIM UDELHOVEN, CEO 184 E. 53rd Ave. Anchorage, AK 99518-1222

#64

#63

INDUSTRIAL SERVICES

THE HOTEL CAPTAIN COOK WALTER HICKEL JR., CHAIRMAN/CEO 939 W. Fifth Ave. Anchorage, AK 99501

TRAVEL & TOURISM

Hickel Investment Company Anchorage, AK

HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES SCOTT ODELL, AK DISTRICT MANAGER 6900 Arctic Blvd.

Anchorage, AK 99518

#65

OIL & GAS

EVERTS AIR CARGO; EVERTS AIR ALASKA ROBERT EVERTS, PRESIDENT/CEO PO Box 61680 Fairbanks, AK 99706

TRANSPORTATION

#66

Everts Air Cargo & Everts Air Alaska Fairbanks, AK

NORTHRIM BANK JOSEPH SCHIERHORN, CHAIRMAN/ PRESIDENT/CEO PO Box 241489 Anchorage, AK 99524

#67

FINANCIAL SERVICES

#68

CORPORATE 100

crowleyfuels.com 907-777-5505

Crowley, with 67 years of experience, is a leader in the Alaska fuel industry. With 75 million gallons of storage, 160 delivery vehicles and seven tug and barge sets, Crowley sells and transports petroleum products to more than 280 communities across the state. Crowley knows Alaska! Crowley FUELS Alaska!

Year Founded 1892 Year Founded in AK 1953 Employees (Worldwide) 6,300 Employees (AK) 350

CROWLEY FUELS RICK MEIDEL, VP/GENERAL MANAGER

CARLILE TRANSPORTATION TERRY HOWARD, PRESIDENT 1800 E. First Ave. Anchorage, AK 99501-1833

TRANSPORTATION

Saltchuk Resources, Inc. Seattle, WA

PETRO STAR DOUG CHAPADOS, PRESIDENT/CEO 3900 C St., Ste 802 Anchorage, AK 99503

OIL & GAS

Arctic Slope Regional Corporation Barrow, AK

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#69

4510 Old International Airport Rd. Anchorage, AK 99502

TRANSPORTATION

nac.aero acampbell@naservices.aero 907-249-5163

Anchorage-based Northern Air Cargo is Alaska’s largest allcargo airline. From groceries and generators to medical supplies and lumber, customers across Alaska, including a wide array of industries such as oil and gas, mining, construction, and commercial fishing, rely on NAC’s services.

Year Founded 1956 Year Founded in AK 1956 Employees (Worldwide) 356 Employees (AK) 298

chugachelectric.com 907-563-7494

We provide safe, reliable, and affordable electricity through superior service and sustainable practices, powering the lives of our members.

Year Founded 1948 Year Founded in AK 1948 Employees (Worldwide) 298 Employees (AK) 298

uicalaska.com uic.corporatemarketing@ uicalaska.com 907-852-4460

UIC provides services to clients in a variety of industries, including operations in Barrow, construction, architecture and engineering, regulatory consulting, information technology, marine operations, logistics, maintenance and manufacturing, and governmnent contracting nationwide.

Year Founded 1973 Year Founded in AK 1973 Employees (Worldwide) 3,247 Employees (AK) 292

marathonpetroleum.com 907-261-7221

Marathon Petroleum is an integrated refining, logistics and marketing company. The Kenai Refinery produces and distributes gasoline and gasoline blendstocks, jet fuel, diesel fuel, heating oil and heavy fuel oils, propane, and asphalt for Alaskans.

Year Founded 1969 Year Founded in AK 1969 Employees (Worldwide) 60,000 Employees (AK) 290

subwayak.com subwaycatering@subwayak.com 907-563-4228

Subway of Alaska offers meals for your Alaska adventure and catering platters through www.subway.com. With more than thirty years of experience in Alaska, you are always near a local Subway Restaurant. Feed the whole group with subs, signature wraps, and salads prepared in front of you.

Year Founded 1988 Year Founded in AK 1988 Employees (Worldwide) 271 Employees (AK) 271

tanadgusix.com info@tanadgusix.com 907-278-2312

Industry leader in energy and alternative power solutions, electric utilities, power plant construction, and operations.

Government services, providing worldwide remote power O&M and switch gear development, nationwide construction, environmental services and remediation, fiberoptic, and IT support.

Year Founded 1973 Year Founded in AK 1973 Employees (Worldwide) 440 Employees (AK) 269

graniteconstruction.com 907-344-2593

Public and private heavy civil construction, design-build/ alternative delivery, construction aggregates, recycled base, warm and hot mix asphalt, road construction, bridges, piling, mine infrastructure and reclamation, and sitework.

Year Founded 1922 Year Founded in AK 1974 Employees (Worldwide) 9,410 Employees (AK) 266

conamco.com 907-278-6600

General construction contractor specializing in design and construction of oil and gas facilities and pipelines, mining facilities, water and sewer facilities, and other remote infrastructure projects.

Year Founded 1984 Year Founded in AK 1984 Employees (Worldwide) 300 Employees (AK) 250

#70

Northern Aviation Services Anchorage, AK

CHUGACH ELECTRIC ASSOCIATION LEE THIBERT, CEO 5601 Electron Dr. Anchorage, AK 99518

#71

UTILITY

UKPEAĠVIK IÑUPIAT CORPORATION (UIC) DELBERT REXFORD, PRESIDENT/CEO PO Box 890 Utqiaġvik, AK 99723

#72

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

MARATHON PETROLEUM CAMERON HUNT, GENERAL MANAGER REFINING 1601 Tidewater Rd. Anchorage, AK 99501

#73

OIL & GAS

SUBWAY OF ALASKA STEVE ADAMS PRESIDENT/CO-FOUNDER 1118 E. 70th Ave., Ste 200 Anchorage, AK 99518

FOOD & BEVERAGE

#74

Subway World Headquarters Milford, CT USA

TDX (TANADGUSIX) CORPORATION RON PHILEMONOFF, CEO 3601 C St., Ste 1000 Anchorage, AK 99503

#75

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

GRANITE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY DEREK BETTS, VP/REGIONAL MANAGER 11471 Lang St. Anchorage, AK 99515

CONSTRUCTION

Granite Construction Watsonville, CA

#76

CORPORATE 100

NORTHERN AIR CARGO GIDEON GARCIA, VP/GENERAL MANAGER

CONAM CONSTRUCTION DALE KISSEE, PRESIDENT 301 W. Northern Lights Blvd., Ste 300 Anchorage, AK 99503

CONSTRUCTION

Quanta Services Houston, TX

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Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

#77 #78 #79

PO Box 74646 Fairbanks, AK 99707

CONSTRUCTION

CRUZ CONSTRUCTION DAVE CRUZ, PRESIDENT 7000 E. Palmer Wasilla Hwy. Palmer, AK 99645

grtnw.com info@grtnw.com 907-452-5617

Heavy highway civil construction, utilities, paving, landscaping.

Year Founded 1976 Year Founded in AK 1976 Employees (Worldwide) 250 Employees (AK) 250

cruzconstruct.com 907-746-3144

Experts in resource development and heavy civil construction.

Year Founded 1981 Year Founded in AK 1981 Employees (Worldwide) 250 Employees (AK) 250

beaconohss.com mhylen@beaconohss.com 907-222-7612

Beacon provides single-source remote medical, occupational medicine, safety, and training solutions to keep your employees safe and healthy, regardless of their location. Our client-specific approach is proactive, preventative, and leverages our highly skilled team of professionals and technicians.

Year Founded 1999 Year Founded in AK 1999 Employees (Worldwide) 254 Employees (AK) 241

Goldbelt.com info@goldbelt.com 907-790-4990

Tourism, hospitality, transportation, security services, 8(a) government contracting.

Year Founded 1974 Year Founded in AK 1974 Employees (Worldwide) 1,327 Employees (AK) 226

907-865-3300

Eni is an integrated energy company with a presence in 71 countries and more than 35,000 employees. Eni operates in oil and gas exploration, production, transportation, transformation, and marketing in petrochemicals, oilfield services construction, and engineering.

Year Founded 1926 Year Founded in AK 2006 Employees (Worldwide) 35,000 Employees (AK) 225

ncmachinery.com 907-786-7500

Cat machine sales, parts, service, and rental. Cat engines for marine, power generation, truck, petroleum, and industrial applications. Sales and rental of Cat and other preferred brands of rental equipment and construction supplies.

Year Founded 1926 Year Founded in AK 1926 Employees (Worldwide) 1,022 Employees (AK) 220

mlandp.com askmlp@mlandp.com 907-279-7671

ML&P provides safe, affordable, and reliable electric service to more than 30,000 residential and commercial customers in Anchorage, including Downtown, UMED, and JBER. Year Founded 1932 Year Founded in AK 1932 Employees (Worldwide) 217 Employees (AK) 217

mea.coop meacontact@mea.coop 907-761-9300

A member-owned electric cooperative that serves more than 51,000 members across nearly 4,500 miles of power lines in the Mat-Su and Eagle River areas. MEA’s mission is to provide safe reliable energy at reasonable rates with exceptional member service and commitment to the community they serve.

Year Founded 1941 Year Founded in AK 1941 Employees (Worldwide) 206 Employees (AK) 206

CONSTRUCTION

BEACON OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY SERVICES HOLLY HYLEN, PRESIDENT/CEO 800 Cordova St. Anchorage, AK 99501

#80

HEALTH & WELLNESS

GOLDBELT, INCORPORATED MCHUGH PIERRE INTERIM PRESIDENT/CEO 3025 Clinton Dr. Juneau, AK 99801

#83

#82

#81

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

ENI PETROLEUM LORIS TEALDI, PRESIDENT/CEO 3800 Centerpoint Dr., Ste 300 Anchorage, AK 99503

OIL & GAS

N C MACHINERY JOHN HARNISH, CEO 6450 Arctic Blvd.

Anchorage, AK 99518

INDUSTRIAL SERVICES

Harnish Group Tukwila, WA

MUNICIPAL LIGHT & POWER ANNA HENDERSON GENERAL MANAGER 1200 E. First Ave. Anchorage, AK 99501

UTILITY

#84

CORPORATE 100

GREAT NORTHWEST JOHN MINDER, CEO/PRESIDENT

MATANUSKA ELECTRIC ASSOCIATION TONY IZZO, CEO PO Box 2929 Palmer, AK 99645

UTILITY

66 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

Claudia Russell POSITION: Director of Finance LOCATION: Anchorage, Alaska DATE HIRED: May 4, 1990 NOTES: Matson’s business and administration go-to leader and unofficial historian. 2017 Presidential Award winner. Applies personal mantra “feed the body, feed the soul” to longtime support of Food Bank of Alaska and the Anchorage Concert Association.

Matson’s people are more than Alaska shipping experts. They are part of what makes our community unique. Visit Matson.com

#85

201 Post Rd. Anchorage, AK 99501

INDUSTRIAL SERVICES

essalaska.com gthompson@ess-Worldwide.com 907-865-9818

Restaurants, lounges, and espresso operations. Catering services: small to large remote site facilities for short- or longterm projects, including offshore drilling platforms, employee staffing and leasing, in-flight services, governmental agency support services, and Impressions Catering.

Year Founded 1986 Year Founded in AK 1986 Employees (Worldwide) 1,100 Employees (AK) 200

hiltonanchorage.com 907-272-7411

Newly renovated guest rooms. More than 23,000 square feet of flexible function space. 24-hour fitness center, indoor pool, business center. Centrally located in Downtown Anchorage.

Year Founded 1927 Year Founded in AK 1927 Employees (Worldwide) 200 Employees (AK) 200

flygrant.com wecare@flygrant.com 888-359-4726

An Alaskan owned airline known for a strong track record of safety, community involvement, and for being one of the friendliest airlines in Alaska. Provides scheduled and charter passenger, mail, freight and air ambulance services in the YK Delta, Bristol Bay, and the Aleutians.

Year Founded 1971 Year Founded in AK 1971 Employees (Worldwide) 200 Employees (AK) 200

colvilleinc.com info@colvilleinc.com 907-659-3198

Colville’s family of companies provides essential supplies and services across the entire state from the North Slope to the Kenai Peninsula. Our services include fuel, aviation, solid waste, transport, industrial supply, camp/hotel, and office space.

Year Founded 1981 Year Founded in AK 1981 Employees (Worldwide) 200 Employees (AK) 200

bakerhughes.com 907-267-3431

Baker Hughes covers every segment of the oil and gas industry as a full-stream company, including upstream, midstream, and downstream solutions. Delivering integrated oilfield products, services, and digital solutions to the oil and gas industry.

Year Founded 1969 Year Founded in AK 1980 Employees (Worldwide) 67,000 Employees (AK) 190

amcnrep.com/riley-little riley.little@guardianflight.com 907-245-6230

Guardian Flight is the state’s largest air medical provider with more aircraft in more places than all other organizations in the state combined. Guardian Flight is part of the AirMedCare Network, a national alliance of air ambulance providers–the largest of its kind in the United States.

Year Founded 2000 Year Founded in AK 2000 Employees (Worldwide) 1,000 Employees (AK) 185

chenega.com info@chenega.com 907-277-5706

Professional services contracting for the federal government, including technical and installation services, military, intelligence and operations support, environmental, healthcare and facilities management, and information technology.

Year Founded 1974 Year Founded in AK 1974 Employees (Worldwide) 6,395 Employees (AK) 172

rei.com/stores/anchorage.html 907-272-4565

National specialty outdoor retailer.

Year Founded 1938 Year Founded in AK 1979 Employees (Worldwide) 13,000 Employees (AK) 170

#90

#89

#88

#87

#86

Compass Group PLC (North America) Charlotte, NC USA

HILTON ANCHORAGE STEVEN DAVIS, GENERAL MANAGER 500 W. Third Ave. Anchorage, AK 99501

TRAVEL & TOURISM

GRANT AVIATION ROBERT KELLEY, PRESIDENT/CEO 6420 Kulis Dr. Anchorage, AK 99502

TRANSPORTATION

COLVILLE DAVE PFEIFER, PRESIDENT/CEO Pouch 340012 Prudhoe Bay, AK 99734

INDUSTRIAL SERVICES

BAKER HUGHES JON RHODES, AREA MANAGER ALASKA 795 E. 94th Ave. Anchorage, AK 99515

OIL & GAS

GUARDIAN FLIGHT JARED SHERMAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 3474 Old International Airport Rd. Anchorage, AK 99502

TRANSPORTATION

#91

Global Medical Response Solutions Lewisville, TX

CHENEGA CORPORATION CHARLES W. TOTEMOFF PRESIDENT/CEO 3000 C St., Ste 301 Anchorage, AK 99503-3975

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

#92

CORPORATE 100

ESS SUPPORT SERVICES WORLDWIDE LARRY WEIHS, RVP

REI ERIC ARTZ, CEO 500 E. Northern Lights Blvd.

Anchorage, AK 99503

RETAIL/WHOLESALE TRADE

68 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

Across our 10,000-square mile service area, we partner with businesses to provide long-term solu�ons for our members that help them amplify their work and remain connected and compe��ve.

Whether building the first all-terrestrial fiber network to the con�guous U.S. through our wholly-owned subsidiary, MTA Fiber Holdings, or hos�ng esports events that unite residents from across the state, MTA is commi�ed to powering technological innova�on in our communi�es and delivering solu�ons for local businesses to succeed.

Through our empowerment of local residents and technology educa�on ini�a�ves designed to develop talent, our roots remain in the communi�es we serve and the strength of our people.

As a company by Alaskans and for Alaskans, we couldn’t be prouder to provide job opportuni�es for Alaskans across the state.

mtasolu�ons.com

#AlaskaBornAndStayed

#93

300 Alimaq Dr. Kodiak, AK 99615

afognak.com 907-486-6014

Afognak Native Corporation, Alutiiq, and their subsidiaries offer an exceptional track record of services in the government and commercial sectors worldwide, including: leasing; timber; engineering; security; logistics and warehousing; facility maintenance; oilfield; and education services.

Year Founded 1977 Year Founded in AK 1977 Employees (Worldwide) 4,275 Employees (AK) 170

capefoxcorp.com info@capefoxcorp.com 907-225-5163

It is the mission of Cape Fox Corporation to grow and maintain a strong financial foundation by profitably managing financial and land resources to provide immediate and long term economic, education, and cultural benefits for shareholders.

Year Founded 1973 Year Founded in AK 1973 Employees (Worldwide) 809 Employees (AK) 170

Sourdoughexpress.com jgregory@sourdoughexpress.com 907-452-1181

Freight-transportation services, logistics, moving, and storage services. Steel Connex container sales/lease.

Year Founded 1898 Year Founded in AK 1902 Employees (Worldwide) 160 Employees (AK) 160

pricegregory.com 907-278-4400

Pipeline, power, heavy industrial construction, EPC, and consulting services. Infrastructure construction services provider.

Year Founded 1974 Year Founded in AK 1974 Employees (Worldwide) 3,500 Employees (AK) 150

mvfcu.coop 907-745-4891

Building better financial futures for people who live, learn, work, or worship in the state of Alaska and the Waipahu, Hawaii, Neighborhood Board #22. MVFCU offers a full range of financial services to all eligible members.

Year Founded 1948 Year Founded in AK 1948 Employees (Worldwide) 153 Employees (AK) 148

homerelectric.com 907-235-8551

Homer Electric Association is a member-owned electric cooperative serving more than 25,800 members on the western Kenai Peninsula from Soldotna, Kenai, Homer, and remote communities across Kachemak Bay. Year Founded 1945 Year Founded in AK 1945 Employees (Worldwide) 141 Employees (AK) 141

usibelli.com info@usibelli.com 907-452-2625

Alaska's only operational coal mine and its affiliate companies.

Year Founded 1943 Year Founded in AK 1943 Employees (Worldwide) 175 Employees (AK) 140

fairweather.com 907-346-3247

Founded in 1976, Fairweather offers a range of highly specialized services to support remote oil and gas and mining operations. These services include remote medical and HSE support, meteorological and oceanographic forecasting, aviation and airstrip support, and expediting and logistics services.

Year Founded 1976 Year Founded in AK 1976 Employees (Worldwide) 140 Employees (AK) 140

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

#96

#95

#94

Afognak Native Corporation Kodiak, AK

CAPE FOX CORPORATION CHRIS LUCHTEFELD, CEO PO Box 8558 Ketchikan, AK 99901

NATIVE ORGANIZATION

SOURDOUGH EXPRESS JEFF GREGORY, PRESIDENT/CEO 600 Driveways St. Fairbanks, AK 99701

TRANSPORTATION

PRICE GREGORY INTERNATIONAL ROBERT STINSON, SR. VP AK DIV. 301 W. Northern Lights Blvd., Ste 300 Anchorage, AK 99503

CONSTRUCTION

#97

Quanta Services Houston, TX

MATANUSKA VALLEY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION ED GRAVLEY, CEO 1020 S. Bailey St. Palmer, AK 99645-6924

#98

FINANCIAL SERVICES

HOMER ELECTRIC ASSOCIATION BRADLEY JANORSCHKE GENERAL MANAGER 3977 Lake St. Homer, AK 99603

#99

UTILITY

USIBELLI COAL MINE JOSEPH E. USIBELLI JR PRESIDENT/CEO 100 Cushman St., Ste 210 Fairbanks, AK 99701

MINING

#100

CORPORATE 100

AFOGNAK NATIVE CORPORATION GREG HAMBRIGHT, PRESIDENT/CEO

FAIRWEATHER RICK FOX, CEO 301 Calista Court Anchorage, AK 99518

INDUSTRIAL SERVICES

70 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

CORPORATE 100

Carrs|Safeway employees at its new location in midtown Anchorage.

Carrs|Safeway

100 T Years in the Last Frontier Carrs|Safeway is locally grown and nationally strong 72 | April 2020

he state’s newest Carrs|Safeway opened in mid-November 2019; while it remains located in the (newly rebranded) Midtown Mall in Anchorage, it moved from the west side of the mall to the east. The renovated space is bright, open, and features a full-service ramen bar, full-service poke bar, and Wok-UR-Way, in addition to a Kaladi Brothers location.

Carrs|Safeway Alaska General Manager Reino Bellio says that, against a nationwide trend of struggling retail brands, the company has long-term plans for operations in Alaska. “We have been here for a long time,” Bellio says.

In fact, back in 1915, a year before Anchorage’s founding and more than forty years before Alaska became a state, J.B. Gottstein was supplying groceries and other supplies to Alaskans. Larry Carr opened his first grocery location in 1950. By the mid ‘70s the two grocers merged to form, at the time, the state’s largest retail chain and further cemented their legacy.

According to Carrs|Safeway, following that merger, “60 percent of the entire

Alaskan population lived within three miles of a Carrs store.” In 1990 the company was purchased by an employee ownership group, and then it was acquired by Safeway in 1999, which was followed by its acquisition in 2014 that made Carrs|Safeway part of the Albertsons family of stores.

In the Community With more than 100 years operating in the Last Frontier, twenty-eight stores and two warehouses in Alaska, and more than 2,600 Alaskan employees, Carrs|Safeway knows what it takes to provide the goods and services that Alaskans need. And over the years Carrs|Safeway has become part of many Alaskan communities; Bellio says the company has a presence across the state, with more locations outside of Anchorage than within it.

And its positive influence spreads even beyond that. Carrs|Safeway provides Teacher Grants to schools across the state. Over the past three years, the company has donated $600,000, including $200,000 last year in the form of forty $5,000 grants.

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

CORPORATE 100

Teachers apply for the grants, which can be used for equipment, software, and supplies; books; expenses associated with field trips for students; professional development courses, seminars, and workshops; or travel expenses related to professional development or bringing in outside experts. Bellio points out any teacher in Alaska can apply for one of the grants, not just those in communities with a Carrs|Safeway location, allowing the company to support education throughout Alaska. He’s excited for the growth that the program has seen. “In that first year we had probably less than 25 applicants, but now we get 300 to 400,” he says.

Another program with far-reaching effects is the Hunger Bag campaign; while they’re checking out, shoppers can choose to scan a bag that represents a meal to be donated to food banks statewide for distribution to needy families. “This year we donated more than 350,000 pounds across the state,” Bellio says, clarifying that number only accounts for donations from November and December of 2019.

Carrs|Safeway has many other community outreach programs and opportunities, but it also has an internal program called We Care that assists employees in times of need.

“We’re proud that we were able to help dozens of employees post-[the November 2018] earthquake who had damages and expenses as a result of that natural disaster,” he says, adding that there were funds available to employees within a week of the earthquake to help them manage repairs and get back on their feet.

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Careers at Carrs|Safeway Bellio says Carrs|Safeway makes it a priority to invest in its employees, and he’s an example of that. He worked for the company while he was in college, primarily because it allowed him to have a flexible work schedule. “I actually gave up a higher-paying job in college because I needed the flexibility that working here provided,” he explains. While he was in college, mentors identified him as someone with potential and approached Bellio about starting a career, “but I still thought I’d graduate and move on,” he says. www.akbizmag.com

W E ’ R E P RO D U C I N G F O R J U N E AU Mining really matters to communities like Juneau, where Hecla Greens Creek is the #1 private employer, #1 highest wage payer and #1 property taxpayer.

We’re working hard for Juneau…and Alaska.

heclagreenscreek.com

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 73

CORPORATE 100

However, educational benefits he received through his graduate and undergraduate educations, schedule flexibility, and variety in his workday inspired Bellio to look at his job at Carrs|Safeway as not just a job, but a career.

Now he’s in a position to continue that culture of growth from the bottom up. “We look to promote from within and have extensive training programs,” Bellio says. “Many of our company leaders started in entry level positions.”

He explains that Carrs|Safeway provides many education, certification, and training opportunities to its employees. One opportunity available to every employee who has been with Carrs|Safeway for at least six months is the Retail Management Certificate Program; employees can apply for pre-paid tuition assistance, and upon approval 100 percent of their tuition and 80 percent of their book and fee costs are paid by the company.

Carrs|Safeway also uses other methods to help employees reach their potential, including tuition reimbursement and a leadership training program. “We develop and train from within by mentoring and coaching at all levels,” Bellio says.

The retailer also finds other ways to reward and support its employees.

The midtown Carrs features aisles named after Anchorage roads.

Carrs|Safeway

74 | April 2020

The east-facing façade of the new midtown Anchorage Carrs.

Carrs|Safeway

“My favorite is to personally recognize individuals and teams for all of their efforts,” Bellio says. “A lot of hard work goes into operating a successful supermarket, and our store directors and their teams strive to exceed expectations daily at all our locations.”

He also tracks start-date anniversaries and does his best to congratulate employees on those milestones in person whenever possible. “Additionally, we do have incentives such as service awards, years of service, bonuses, and recognition letters and plaques,” Bellio says.

The Corner Store Carrs|Safeway seeks out employees

who are honest, friendly, reliable, and team-oriented. “We strive to create a diverse employee group that mirrors the communities we serve,” Bellio says.

While Carrs|Safeway is now part of a national retail group that operates stores in thirty-four states and the District of Columbia, it remains the neighborhood store for many Alaskans.

“We want to be locally great and nationally strong as a company,” he says.

To that end, “We are a big supporter of Alaskan Grown and buying local. We have made changes in recent years to have more representation of Alaska products and are regularly working with farmers and producers in the state.”

Carrs|Safeway has been the recipient of the Golden Carrot, an award that recognizes the efforts of local food retailers to display and promote produce grown in-state.

And in addition to fruits and vegetables, Carrs|Safeway’s other local offerings include organic baby food from Bambino’s Baby Food and flours, cereals, and breakfast and baking mixes made with Alaska grain from Alaska Flour Company.

The company has listened to local shoppers and increased the quantity and variety of organic foods it offers to shoppers. Bellio says that many Carrs|Safeway locations now carry more than 150 organic items.

“We should have local flavor and flare at all of our stores,” Bellio says, a vision that’s expressed clearly at the new midtown location. In addition to numbers, the aisles have names drawn from Anchorage roads, like Arctic Boulevard and Seward Highway.

“Carrs|Safeway is proud to be a part of many communities across Alaska, and we want to say, ‘Thank you for your business,’ to all our customers.”

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Greens Creek’s Green Legacy Greens Creek | Hecla

Hecla focuses on employees, safety, and environmental stewardship

76 | April 2020

ecla’s Greens Creek Mine, located on Admiralty Island eighteen miles southwest of Juneau, is one of the largest silver mines in the world and the largest in the United States. In 2019 the underground mine processed 846,076 tons of ore to produce 9.9 million ounces of silver and more than 56,000 ounces of gold, 20,000 tons of lead, and 56,000 tons of zinc. According to the company, Greens Creek is a very low-cost silver mine and is the cash-generating engine for Hecla, which also has operating mines in Idaho; Nevada; Quebec, Canada; and Durango, Mexico.

According to Greens Creek’s General Manager and Hecla VP Brian Erickson, Greens Creek is also unique as it’s located within the Admiralty Island National Monument, the only US mine permitted to operate within a national monument. “That means our safety and environmental record must be among the best in the world right now,” Erickson says. “That’s a responsibility that we talk about every day, and we take it very seriously.”

Erickson says safety is a core value for Hecla; in 2012 Hecla joined the National Mining Association and was an early adopter of that organization’s CORESafety program, which has the goal to eliminate fatalities and reduce injury rates by 50 percent over the next five years.

“We were one of the first hard rock mining companies to be certified in that program in 2017,” Erickson reports.

“It certainly paid off for Greens Creek and for Hecla.” He explains that in 2019 the national average underground all incident frequency rate was 2.4 according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration; company-wide, Hecla rated approximately 1.6 and Greens Creek came in at 1.2. “We’ve seen a steady decline in our frequency rate across the company… we focus on safety every day,” Erickson says.

Safety starts with employees, and Erickson says the employees at Greens Creek are empowered to take ownership of safe operations. “We push our people to utilize the Take Five program, a risk assessment program,” he says. “Every time they take on a new task, they think through it and try to understand the risks and then do something to mitigate those risks before they start the work.”

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Local Investment When Greens Creek began operations in 1989, Hecla owned almost 30 percent interest in the project. In 2008, Hecla acquired the Rio Tinto subsidiaries that held the remaining interest in Greens Creek, becoming the 100 percent owner and operator.

“When they had an opportunity to purchase the remaining percentage of the operation and they did so, I kind of got bought out,” Erickson jokes about how he joined Hecla.

Erickson started at Greens Creek in 1996 as a production geologist; looking back, he views the change in ownership as positive for the mine.

“When I started here, Rio Tinto was the operating partner, and they were a very progressive and very large company.

Quite frankly, [Greens Creek was] a small fish for those guys… For Hecla, we were kind of a game changer for them, a larger production profile and quite a lot more cash flow. It was interesting going from a large company with lots of bureaucracy to a small, more family-oriented type company.

In my mind it was a positive thing for Greens Creek: Hecla understood the value they could gain here and invested heavily in the operation.”

That investment in the mine continues today. Hecla is planning to expand the Greens Creek tailings disposal facility, and Erickson reports the company is gearing up to start the National Environmental Policy Act process for that expansion, which will add a decade of life to the mine’s operations.

The proposed expansion is a small buildout of the mine’s current tailings facility and will be contained within the company’s existing lease area. Greens Creek is making “every effort” to avoid any work close to nearby fish-bearing creeks and to use existing support structures to minimize the facility’s footprint and impact.

“We’re proud of the plan… it’s a responsible plan and reflects our core values for protection of the environment,” Erickson says. Hecla anticipates filing a Notice of Intent in the second quarter of 2021 for the expansion, which start to finish is roughly estimated to take ten years.

Erickson says an early cost estimate for the expansion is in the tens of millions

Aerial view of Greens Creek mine infrastructure in Southeast.

Greens Creek | Hecla

OUR HOME IS HERE. Calista Corporation’s number one priority is supporting its Shareholders by protecting our land, our traditional way of life and by providing economic opportunities that benefit our people.

Calista supports the Donlin Gold Project because strict environmental oversight, good-paying jobs and affordable energy brought by the project will allow us to grow healthy communities.

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78 | April 2020

of dollars, although it’s relatively small. “It’s about the size of the Costco parking lot in Juneau‌ [but] you’d be shocked on the cost per square foot.â€?

Far into the future, the company anticipates a stage two that would add on to the tailings facility to extend the life of the mine even further. “We want to do it in stages to minimize our impact,�

Erickson says.

While the company is minimizing its environmental impact, Hecla is simultaneously trying to maximize its community involvement.

Through Greens Creek, Hecla is the largest private-sector employer in Juneau and is Juneau’s largest taxpayer. “We buy local to the tune of about $58 million a year,�

Erickson says.

Greens Creek has also formed a mutually beneficial partnership with AEL&P, Juneau’s electric utility. “In 2005 the local utility was looking for opportunities to improve the amount of hydropower available to Juneau,�

Erickson explains. “We purchased infrastructure and signed on as an ‘interruptible customer.’ That means if they don’t have the ability to provide more [electricity] than what the local base requires, we get cut off, and we start our generators.â€? He says over the years it’s gone well, though recently there were drought conditions in Southeast and Hecla needed to run its own power-generating facilities for about a year. “We very much like the agreement we have with AEL&P‌ It’s a win-win for everybody: the ratepayers get a break on their bills, we get clean energy that is cheaper than what we would generate, and we don’t have the environmental impact of burning diesel fuel.â€?

Hecla has also invested significantly in local education and training programs to allow for local hire “to the maximum extent that we can,� Erickson says. The company works with the Mining and Petroleum Training Service, MAPTS, to offer training at the Delta Mine Training Center, which exposes locals to mining in a controlled environment.

Greens Creek has invested about $1 million to partner with UAS to develop a mining career development program, which has a mine diesel mechanic emphasis, to encourage high school

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A Greens Creek employee labels a sample for testing.

Greens Creek | Hecla

students to consider a career in the mining industry. The company also has an internal mine training program that allows new workers to learn equipment and better understand the mining cycle in a safe and easy environment.

Erickson says the mine has seen positive results from all these programs; for example, approximately 10 percent of the mine’s underground maintenance workforce has come through the UAS diesel mechanic program.

Good Culture, Good Employees “Hecla really does have a family feel to it,” Erickson says of the company’s culture. “We know all the executives; they visit quite regularly and are happy to sit down with employees and senior staff and talk about what’s going on in the company.” He says Hecla acknowledges employees in several ways: a bonus program that recognizes employees who hit safety or production targets; a social reward program in which employees can celebrate each other; and a program that doles out silver coins to reward environmental stewardship, as a few examples.

“We’ve got a real get-it-done group,” Erickson continues. “We’re trying to be a model in Alaska for environmentally safe mining. A commitment to responsible mining is one of our core values, and we are proud to strive to protect our people and our environmental footprint.”

Erickson says he’s proud of the mine’s approximately 450 employees and how they have tackled employee safety and environmental stewardship while operating a low-cost, worldclass silver mine. “Last year was a pretty fantastic year, and it’s a testament to their good work." www.akbizmag.com

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MINING

Mining Activity Overview Updates on Alaska’s operating and highly prospective mining projects

I

t’s almost spring in the Last Frontier, which means across the state winter-based activities are winding down and exploration, drilling, and construction plans that require warm summer months are ramping up. Below Alaska Business has compiled 2019 updates and 2020 plans for Alaska’s operating metal mines, as well as a few future projects currently working on exploration or permitting.

Fort Knox | Kinross In February Kinross published an update on its development projects, exploration program, and estimated mineral reserves and resources. Kinross owns and operates Fort Knox, an open pit gold mine in the Fairbanks mining district. According to the update, during 2019 a total of 7,300 meters of drilling was completed that mostly focused on the western crest of the pit. “The results were encouraging and resulted in the addition of 229 gold koz [thousand ounces] in measured and indicated resources,” the company states. For 2019, proven and probable reserves at Fort Knox are 2,910 gold koz, measured and indicated resources are 2,026 gold koz, 80 | April 2020

and inferred resources are 774 gold koz.

In 2019, Fort Knox produced 200,253 ounces of gold, a nearly 22 percent drop from 2018. However, it’s expected gold output will increase in 2020, largely due to the Gilmore expansion.

In late 2018 Kinross broke ground on the Gilmore expansion, extending the mine’s life for several years. According to Kinross, “The Fort Knox Gilmore project continues to progress on schedule and on budget, with initial Gilmore ore encountered in Q4 2019 and stacked on the existing Walter Creek heap leach pad. Stripping advanced as planned during the quarter and is expected to continue throughout 2020. Completion of the new Barnes Creek heap leach pad, where 95 percent of Gilmore ore is expected to be stacked, and related pumping and piping infrastructure remains on target for completion in Q4 2020. Procurement for all planned 2020 activities is largely complete and the project is ready to recommence construction activities in the spring.”

Also in 2019, a ground gravity survey was completed from Fort Knox to GilSourdough (located approximately seven miles northeast of the Fort Knox pit), the

purpose of which was to understand the geological settings of the area for future exploration work.

Greens Creek | Hecla Greens Creek silver mine is located eighteen miles southwest of Juneau on Admiralty Island. The underground mine is owned and operated by Hecla.

According to Hecla, Greens Creek produced 9.9 million ounces of silver and 56,624 ounces of gold in 2019, a record high for the mine since Hecla wholly acquired and began to operate Greens Creek in 2008. It was also a record-year in terms of production, with the mill operating at an average of 2,318 tons per day in 2019. Over the past thirty years, Greens Creek has produced 235 million ounces of silver, 1.6 million ounces of gold, 3 billion pounds of zinc, and 1 billion pounds of lead. Production for 2020 is anticipated to be 8.9 million to 9.3 million ounces of silver and 46,000 to 48,000 ounces of gold.

Hecla is planning an expansion of the Greens Creek tailings facility and anticipates filing a Notice of Intent for that expansion in the second quarter of 2021. According to the company,

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are 115,000 to 130,000 ounces of gold. According to Coeur, the Jualin deposit is anticipated to account for approximately 20 to 25 percent of production. For 2020, Kensington will account for approximately 36 percent of Coeur’s gold production. The company estimates the mine’s life to be approximately three years.

The Australian Financial Review reported in February that Australian mining company Federation Gold is in talks with Coeur to acquire Kensington, though details are scarce and sources for the information have not been identified.

Kensington | Coeur Kensington is an underground gold mine located forty-five miles north of Juneau that is owned and operated

by Coeur Alaska, subsidiary of Coeur Mining. In 2019 Kensington produced 127,914 ounces of gold, and according to 2019 data has proven and probable reserves of 366,000 ounces of gold, measured and indicated resources of 762,000 ounces of gold, and inferred resources of 358,000 ounces of gold.

Production estimates for 2020

Pogo | Northern Star Resources It’s now been more than a year since Australian mining company Northern Star Resources acquired the Pogo mine from Sumitomo. Since the acquisition, 183,555 ounces of gold have been produced from Pogo.

According to Northern Star in its 2019 Annual Report, “Following completion of the Pogo acquisition in September 2018, underground drilling expanded significantly with a focus on resource

definition and conversion across all major ore systems (Liese, South Pogo, Fun Zone, North Zone, and X Vein) in the underground mining areas.

“Surface drilling activity also increased substantially with the discovery of the new Central Veins zone leading to the definition of a maiden resource for the discovery.”

Currently Northern Star is mining approximately 3,300 short tons of ore per day via four access portals to the underground mining block areas: Liese, East Deep, North Zone, South Pogo, and Fun Zone.

According to the company, the mine’s traditional hard rock processing capacity was more than 0.8 million tonnes per year, which Northern Star has increased to 1 million tonnes per year, with plans to increase throughput even further.

As of mid-2019, the estimated resource (the JORC code approximate equivalent to measured and indicated) of Pogo is 5.95 million ounces of gold and the estimated reserve (the JORC code approximate equivalent to proven and probable) is 1.47 million ounces.

Our Environment

More than twenty years ago, Fort Knox gold mine began production just outside Fairbanks.

With hard work and a dedicated staff, Fort Knox has become one of Alaska’s most successful mines.

Fort Knox’s support for Friends of Creamer’s Field and the waterfowl refuge is a testament to the mine’s commitment to environmental stewardship. Creamer’s attracts visitors from around the world during the spring bird migration, local residents enjoy its quiet walking trails, and both children and adults benefit from Friends of Creamer’s Field’s many education programs that raise awareness of our natural environment. Learn more at friendsofcreamersfield.org. www.akbizmag.com

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MINING

there is still “significant exploration potential” at Greens Creek, which has proven and probable reserves of 107.1 million ounces of silver; measured and indicated reserves of 97.4 million ounces of silver, and an inferred resource of 36 million ounces of silver.

Hecla calls Greens Creek its “strongest mine” because of its high production and low cost. The company has continued investing in the mine to maintain the trend of high efficiency, such as a $300,000 project to add variable speed drives in ventilation fans that can save $200,000 annually in electricity costs.

MINING

Of the 5.59 million ounces of gold resource, approximately 3.7 million ounces is inferred.

In February, Pogo Mine produced its 4 millionth ounce of gold. In a Q&A with North of 60 Mining News following the announcement, Northern Star Executive Chairman Bill Beament said, “When you look at the 4 millionth ounce we poured today and we have a 6 million ounce resource, this is one of the highest grade gold mines in the last ten or fifteen years and it is still one of the highest grade resources in the world.”

Red Dog | Teck Red Dog— located approximately 105 miles north of the Arctic Circle near Kotzebue—is one of the world’s largest zinc mines. The open-pit Red Dog mine is situated on NANA lands and is operated by Teck. In 2019 the mine produced 640,000 tonnes of mined zinc and 287,000 tonnes of refined zinc. Projections for 2020 are for 600,000 to 640,000 tonnes of mined zinc and 305,000 to 315,000 tonnes of refined zinc.

According to Teck, “Higher throughput is expected to partially offset lower grades in 2020 as we complete the VIP 2 mill enhancement project and continue the implementation of mill analytics as part of our RACE21 innovation-driven business transformation program.”

In 2020 Teck plans to implement an increased number of tailings and waterrelated projects “to manage increased precipitation and water levels at the Red Dog mine.” According to the company, “The frequency of extreme weather events has been increasing and these projects are aimed at ensuring that we can continue to optimize the asset and avoid any potential constraints on production in the future.”

Donlin Gold | NOVAGOLD/Barrick Gold NOVAGOLD is excited about the Donlin Gold project, which it is developing with partner Barrick Gold.

According to NOVAGOLD’s 2019 Annual Report, “At some point you’re bound to run out of superlatives: exceptional reserve size and production capability, a grade that’s twice the industry average, significant exploration upside, extraordinary leverage to a higher gold price, a location in a favorable jurisdiction, 82 | April 2020

and strong Alaska Native corporation and community partnerships. But it does, in fact, get even better.”

And the company has reason to be excited. The Donlin Gold project is a world-class resource and many significant milestones for developing the mine have been reached. In January the state of Alaska approved a right-of-way lease for the project’s proposed 315mile gas pipeline. The 14-inch-diameter pipeline would carry natural gas to the proposed 220 megawatt plant that would power the mine; this means fuel would not need to be barged up the Kuskokwim River, which locals were concerned would endanger the region’s main food source should a spill occur.

In the 2019 Annual Report, the company states, “Our track record of achievement was further enhanced… when Donlin Gold received final easements for the access road and fiber optic cable, as well as the receipt of the final land leases, land use permits, and material site authorizations for the proposed transportation facilities on state lands, including the airstrip and upriver Jungjuk Port.”

South32 | Trilogy Metals Earlier this year South32 and Trilogy metals moved forward as joint partners on the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP). Trilogy metals is contributing all its UKMP-associated assets and South32 is contributing $145 million to the joint venture. According to South32 CEO Graham Kerr, “Forming the UKMP joint venture will be another important milestone as we reshape and improve our portfolio by adding high-quality copper and base metals development options.”

The UKMP is in the Ambler Mining district and includes the polymetallic Arctic deposit and the Bornite copper deposit, as well as “a highly prospective regional exploration portfolio.”

According to the companies, in 2020 the joint venture will conduct further exploration drilling at Bornite “and regional activity across the highly prospective Ambler VMS and carbonate hosted copper belts.”

HighGold Mining In February HighGold mining reported exploration results from its Johnson Tract gold project. The results

were encouraging and come from surface rock sampling at the Difficult Creek prospect conducted in 2019, which had the purpose of testing and extending known prospects, identifying new zones, and developing other drill targets for this year.

HighGold President Darwin Green said in February, “High-grade mineralization at Difficult Creek is similar in character to the main Johnson Tract deposit located 4.5 kilometers [2.8 miles] to the southwest and highlights the potential for multiple deposits on the districtscale land package.” The mineralization is a polymetallic gold deposit of highgrade gold, zinc, and copper, as well as lead and silver.

According to a February investor presentation, the 2020 drill program at the Johnson Tract will start in May/June and is fully funded.

HighGold has a mining lease with CIRI, as the Johnson Tract area is on CIRI lands in Southcentral, west of Cook Inlet.

Millrock Resources In February, Millrock President and CEO Greg Beischer said, “Millrock has made some strong advancements through 2019. We believe that 2020 will be a watershed year for the company, and we are particularly excited to begin exploration work in the earnest at the 64North Gold project.”

Drilling was scheduled to begin in March at the Aurora target on the West Pogo Block of the 64North Gold project; Aurora is located 1.6 to 2.2 miles west of the Pogo Mine. “The proximity to a high-grade mine, and proximity to a new high-grade gold deposit discovery [Goodpaster] made by our neighbors just on the other side of our mutual claim boundary, along with strong geological, geochemical, and geophysical anomalies, make the Aurora target highly compelling,” Beischer said. The drilling program consists of four to five holes totaling 2,000 meters at Aurora, a 1.5 kilometer by 4 kilometer zone of low-magnetic rocks adjacent to a late diorite intrusion—a setting that’s very similar to that observed at the Pogo mine.

According to Millrock, a second contingent drilling phase is tentatively scheduled for next month in the vicinity of the Half-Ounce-Gulch prospect.

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

Donlin Gold is poised to be one of the largest, highest-grade, and most prospective open-pit gold deposits in the world. We believe that it should be developed responsibly – through a safe and healthy workplace, stewardship of the environment, and the preservation of traditional cultures.

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MINING

The Electrification of Everything Graphite One seeks to establish first US-based graphite supply chain

Graphite One

By Amy Newman

84 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

necessary to accomplish what Huston calls “the electrification of everything,” a key component in the push toward green technology.

And Graphite One is doing all of this from a boutique operation located on the north flank of the Kigluaik Mountains, thirty-seven miles north of Nome and three miles inland from the waters of Windy Cove on the Seward Peninsula.

Going after Graphite A self-proclaimed tech guy, Huston began exploring the United States’ graphite problem after closely following the work of Elon Musk in the 2000s, particularly his work with Tesla. Huston knew lithium-ion batteries were integral to electric vehicles, a major driver of the green technology boom, and that graphite was one of the batteries’ primary components.

“There is typically between two and four times the amount of graphite in a lithium battery than there is lithium,” he explains.

Despite its continued push toward green technology, the United States is

Despite its continued push toward green technology, the United States is incapable of meeting its own demand for graphite or lithium batteries.

Although it routinely makes the list of critical minerals, the US imports 100 percent of its graphite needs from China and other countries.

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V

ancouver-based Graphite One is out to make history by creating the first graphite supply chain in the country, the company says.

To accomplish its mission, it’s working to mine graphite from Graphite Creek outside of Nome, site of the highest grade and largest known large flake graphite deposit in the United States. Even so, Graphite One doesn’t consider itself a “typical” mining company.

“Graphite One isn’t really a mining company,” explains President and CEO Anthony Huston. “We’re a tech company that mines graphite.”

The corporation, which Huston founded in 2012, considers mining a means to an end, an endeavor necessary to achieve its goal of creating a US-based graphite supply chain.

A US-based supply chain is vital for two reasons, Huston says. First, a homegrown source of graphite will decrease the country’s dependence on foreign sources for the mineral, which is critical in the automobile and energy industries. Second, it will allow the US to become a major player in the lithium-ion battery field, which is

MINING

“Graphite is the essential material

Graphite One

for what we call ‘the electrification

incapable of meeting its own demand for graphite or lithium batteries.

Although it routinely makes the list of critical minerals, the US imports 100 percent of its graphite needs from China and other countries, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, which analyzes markets and trends in the battery materials industry. To decrease foreign dependence, US Senator Lisa Murkowski introduced the bipartisan American Minerals Security Act in 2019, which seeks to rebuild the country’s domestic mineral supply chain and decrease foreign dependency.

To Huston, the country’s

86 | April 2020

of everything.’”

Anthony Huston, President, Graphite One

dependence on foreign supplies and its increased focus on electric vehicles and developing technology necessary to support them put it at a crossroads.

“If the United States is wanting to be a dominant player in the lithium-ion space, then they’re going to need to not rely on [other] countries,” he says. “That’s where we’ve come in and what we’ve been working on the past eight years.”

While researching potential sources of graphite, Huston learned that graphite was removed from the Kigluaik Mountains during the first and second World Wars and sent down to Seattle and San Francisco, where it was made

into steel to help with war efforts. This research led him to the descendants of Nicholas and Evinda Tweet, a Minnesota couple who arrived in Nome during the early 20th Century Gold Rush and established N.B. Tweet & Sons to operate mines in Western Alaska.

The family agreed to let Huston extract and test graphite from their property: 176 state mining claims covering 23,680 acres, the same claims the Tweets acquired more than 100 years earlier. Testing demonstrated that the graphite could be used to make lithium-ion batteries. Graphite One purchased 163 of these claims and leased the remaining 13.

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demand between now and 2050, fueled by the rapid increase of lithiumion battery production, Huston says.

“It’s green technology that’s driving the demand, and the demand is coming from a combination of a couple of different things,” he says.

“But right now, it’s electric vehicles.

If the demand continues the way it’s going, by 2025 we’re not going to be in the position to produce the electric vehicles that that demand is going to call for.”

Further testing of Graphite Creek deposits identified both crystalline, large flake characteristics and naturally occurring morphologies consistent with already processed materials, Huston says, which means other potential applications exist for the graphite.

Purified graphite powders, for example, can be used to make anodes for alkaline batteries, while expanded or exfoliated flake graphite is used in flame retardant materials, Huston says.

But for now, the company’s primary target is the electric vehicle and energy storage battery market.

“We’re well-positioned right now to use it with green technology,” he says. “We’re going after all green technology; that’s our focus.”

Path to Production The Graphite Creek project is “a very boutique mine” when it comes to production, Huston says.

“We’re talking about moving a couple of millions of tons of ore a year to produce between 20,000 and 50,000 tons of graphite a year,” he says. “Many mines in Alaska move that in a month, so it’s a very small mining project, comparative to a lot of the other mines in Alaska.”

But the company has steadily worked toward full-fledged production, pouring $42 million into the project’s development, Huston says.

The 2017 Preliminary Economic Analysis estimates that the capital cost of the graphite mine, mineral processing plant, and all necessary infrastructure will total $233 million and create 269 jobs, Huston says.

Metallurgical testing gave Graphite One the ability to develop a proprietary

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April 2020 | 87

MINING

More than Pencils Ask the average person to name something made with graphite, and most would be hard-pressed to identify anything beyond the distinctive yellow pencils formerly favored by schoolchildren across the country.

“Most people don’t, to this day, understand what graphite is used for,” Huston says with a laugh. “My friend thought I was going to make golf clubs.”

But the mineral is important to many products, from everyday items like laptops, LEDs, smartphones, and household appliances to electric vehicles, solar cells, drones, energy storage devices, and even nuclear reactors.

“Graphite is the essential material for what we call ‘the electrification of everything,’” Huston explains. “Each of these and many more applications depend on graphite as a key means for the efficient transmission of power.”

The push toward green technology is driving the need for lithium-ion batteries, which in turn is increasing demand for graphite. The World Bank projects a 383 percent increase in graphite

MINING

Graphite from the Graphite Creek project is extracted in a spherical shape. The mineral is then upgraded into a coated spherical graphite, which can be used to make lithium ion batteries.

Graphite One

method of upgrading the extracted graphite into a coated spherical graphite, or CSG, which allows it to be used in the anode side of the lithium batteries. The location of the processing plant, estimated to cost $130 million, has yet to be determined.

“Whether it’s in Alaska or another site, there are some aspects that need to be taken into consideration,” Huston says.

88 | April 2020

“It all comes down to economics.”

Graphite One completed its prefeasibility study (PFS) in 2019 and expects to release it in the second quarter of 2020. The study will include the results of the 2019 drilling program, which was completed in November, as well as its ongoing metallurgical and graphite product testing.

“Our PFS will project a mine life based

on confirmed resources from drilling to date just on a very small part of our deposit,” Huston says. “We also expect that the mine’s life can be extended when it’s appropriate with additional drilling in the rest of the deposit. The potential for long-term employment in the region is very significant.”

Huston says once the PFS is released he expects to move directly into the

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a green economy and the electrification of everything, and Alaska can be the purveyor of that. Alaska can be the state that supplies the rest of the United States the ability to be a

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MINING

“The Lower 48 wants

dominant player.”

Anthony Huston, President, Graphite One

feasibility study, which is targeted for completion at the end of 2021.

Graphite One currently holds the permits required to carry out its field programs for continued exploration drilling, PFS engineering fieldwork, and environmental baseline data collection, says COO Stan Foo. The process to obtain permits for construction and mining, as well as completion of an environmental impact statement, won’t begin until the feasibility study is completed and engineering and project descriptions are available, he adds.

Huston anticipates 2025 as the earliest the project could begin production. The timing dovetails nicely with industry forecasts.

“We believe this timing fits well with industry forecasts for flake graphite demand,” Huston explains. “Benchmark Minerals Intelligence expects that total demand for flake graphite in the battery market will exceed existing supply in 2022, and by 2028 will exceed the projected supply from existing and all potential new sources.”

And the project has the backing of the Alaska government.

In October, Governor Mike Dunleavy submitted a letter asking the federal government to designate the 90 | April 2020

Graphite Creek Project a high-priority infrastructure project (HPIP). The HPIP program was created to expedite the approval of projects the Council on Environmental Quality determines are high priority.

“I can’t say much because we’re still waiting to hear about it, but it’s a huge thing,” Huston says of the potential designation and what it could mean for the Graphite Creek project.

Stewards of Alaska Since Graphite One’s inception, Huston says he’s been mindful of ensuring that the company acts as a good steward of the environment and surrounding communities.

“That’s the way I was raised, and how I led my business my whole life,” he says. “Making sure we don’t come into an area, get what we need, and move on. We come into an area and make it better.”

Huston has visited the site several times and tries to make a trip up at least once a year. A subsistence committee comprised of about a dozen people from local villages meets several times a year, he says, to try to head off potential problems before they occur.

COO Stan Foo has been instrumental in

that process, he adds.

“We go through concerns, talk about where we’re at, the road ahead, and how we work together,” Huston explains. “We’re continually making sure that we’re aligning ourselves with [local communities] and being able to say, ‘Okay, tell us your concerns and let’s figure out how we come together as a whole.’”

Huston says he also views being a good neighbor as giving people opportunity.

In this case, that opportunity comes in the form of good-paying jobs.

“Depending on where we’re drilling, there can be anywhere from ten to forty people working,” Huston says.

“We’re always hiring locally; that’s very important to us, and we’ve done that since day one.”

He believes that Graphite One has positioned itself in the right place— and at the right time—to impact not just the villages surrounding the mine but Alaska as a whole.

“The Lower 48 wants a green economy and the electrification of everything, and Alaska can be the purveyor of that,” he says. “Alaska can be the state that supplies the rest of the United States the ability to be a dominant player.”

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

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MINING

Mining: Assaying and Refining in Alaska

92 | April 2020

Assaying and refining in Alaska

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A Brief History “There’s gold in them thar hills,” singer Frankie Marvin crooned in 1931. Gold’s ongoing presence in pop culture speaks to people’s long-running obsession with the precious metal. According to the International Precious Metal Institute, the process of extracting and refining precious metals dates to 2000 BC. Many cultures have used fire for centuries to extract metal from nonprecious stone—a process first recorded in writing in 1556 in Asia Minor.

The most popular and prosperous time for gold mining occurred in the 1870s when prospectors moved in large numbers to the Last Frontier, then called the Department of Alaska. The gold rush hit in earnest in Alaska and parts of Canada in 1896—the start of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Though more than 100,000 people attempted to travel to the Klondike area, fewer than half successfully completed the journey, according The Klondike Gold Rush published by the History Channel. Those who did arrive were disappointed that the claims made about the prevalence of gold were grossly overstated.

After the initial gold rush, many miners turned to other ways of supporting themselves and their families— opening inns, saloons, and other retail establishments. Other large rushes, like those that occurred in 1909 at Iditarod and Flat, were perhaps the last of the great gold rushes.

But that doesn’t mean that mining for gold and other precious metals has dried up. Gold remains an important Alaska export.

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Alaska Business

April 2020 | 93

MINING

A

ccording to state economists, Alaska’s most lucrative industries are oil, tourism, and fishing.

Timber, agriculture, and mining also garner a good amount of state revenue.

In the mining industry, coal, zinc, and silver extraction are big business, as is mining and refining gold.

In 2018, the US Geological Survey reported that domestic gold mine production was approximately 210 tons, valued at approximately $8.6 billion.

Gold was produced in a dozen states in 2018, primarily at Alaska’s placer mines and in the western United States.

MINING

“It’s a very fast-paced, high-risk business… It’s really a tough business because there’s a lot of distrust in it.

A simple guy like me, ten years ago with $5,000—a lot of people said that [it] was impossible to make a successful business. But just by being transparent with my clients, it’s been a real boon.”

GBA

Lee St. Pierre, Owner, GBA Assaying & Refining

look very different from the timeworn image of a grizzled miner panning for gold nuggets in a brook.

Today there are four basic steps to mining and refining: prospecting— searching for precious metal deposits; mining—breaking up the ground to access precious metals; extracting— removing the rock that contains precious metals; and refining— separating precious metals from the surrounding stone.

How we find gold has perhaps changed the most. While geologists know that gold is present in almost all rock and soil, the concentration is so low that it's often invisible to the human eye. With new technology and testing methods, finding trace amounts of gold and other precious metals becomes ever more feasible.

The way gold is identified has also undergone changes over the years.

In the modern mining industry there are three primary methods: assaying, classical wet chemistry, and instrumental analysis. Assaying remains the most popular method because it is the most accurate and reliable.

Assaying Precious Metals Simply put, assaying is the process of determining the content or quality of a metal or ore. However, assaying can be used for various purposes throughout the mining process. During exploration, for example, assaying involves removing small sections of stone that are then tested for concentrations of the target commodity. If the concentration is high enough, mining companies will then mine material from the identified 94 | April 2020

deposit via open-pit, underground, or placer mining techniques.

Once large masses of material are removed from the earth, large chunks of rock are broken down into smaller pieces. Those smaller pieces are processed in crushers, which reduce them to the size of road gravel. The gravel-sized rock is then placed in drums that contain steel balls; when tumbled, the steel balls reduce gravel to powder or slurry.

According to William Harris in his article How Gold Works, the next step is to add water to the powder or slurry to form a pulp, which is run through a series of leaching tanks. In these tanks, there are several steps to produce a goldbearing solution which then undergoes electrowinning, which recovers the gold from the leaching chemicals.

This gold is then smelted, which requires a furnace running at temperatures of 2,100˚F and produces nearly pure gold (though it still often contains silver) that is poured into molds to form gold dorè bars, which are sent to specialized refiners for additional processing.

Assaying comes back into the picture at this point, as there’s no set standard for the gold (or silver) content of a dorè bar, so any further refining requires assaying the bar to determine the ratios of gold, silver, and other material.

Assaying is also a vital step for companies like Oxford Assaying and Refining and Gold Buyers of Alaska (GBA) Assaying & Refining, the state’s two primary assaying and refining companies, which accept material such as old jewelry or dental gold. For jewelry,

gold is often mixed with other materials to achieve a certain look or hardness.

For example, 18 karat “white gold” is 75 percent gold mixed with copper, nickel, zinc, and/or palladium; 18 karat “rose gold” is 75 percent gold and 25 percent copper and silver; and 18 karat “yellow gold” is 75 percent gold alloyed with copper, silver, zinc, or cobalt. This means assaying and refining companies can only pay out an accurate value for the lot they received if they employ a careful assaying process.

The Business of Precious Metal Refinement Although assaying and refining precious metals is a highly technical and detailed process, Lee St. Pierre says it remains a profitable venture in today’s market. St. Pierre is the owner of GBA, which is headquartered in Fairbanks and has locations in Nome and Eagle River/Anchorage. GBA offers fire assay and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) assaying services; refines placer gold, scrap gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and dental alloys; and buys and sells coins and bullion, diamonds, and Rolex watches.

St. Pierre, who’s been in the business for the past decade, says his company’s gross volume averages between $20 million and $40 million and continues to grow rapidly.

The industry has been on an upward trajectory for some time. “It used to be $8 million, then $12 million, and it’s just been growing from there,” St. Pierre says, though he notes that prices for gold tend to be volatile. “Right now, it’s a very good price, but I believe it’s got

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MINING

There are 120 active mines and Mining Operation Plans on public lands. The state also still allows placer mining (or stream mining) for recreational purposes, a big draw for tourists.

room to go further. We’re expecting a very good two to three years.”

Because gold and other precious metals extracted in Alaska generally aren’t fully refined by the mining company, GBA performs several different refinements to create close-to-pure substances. For its own purposes, the company uses fire assaying (which is more time consuming, but also more accurate) and XRF to determine the percentage of gold in any material it’s testing.

“You’ve got assays from everywhere between 65 percent to 95 percent gold in Alaska,” St. Pierre says. “The fire assaying really helps us determine what percentage of gold it is.”

There is little room for error, which is why GBA uses both assaying methods.

“We use both methods on everything.

Because there’s only a 1.5 percent profit range, you have to be pretty accurate,” St. Pierre says.

Even with extensive testing, the turnaround time for the company—from crude material to shipping to buyers—is only three days. Most of the gold refined

by GBA eventually enters the investment market; once it has been turned into bullion coins or bars it’s used to back loans to secure risk.

“We sell it to a major company on the East Coast and they refine it into pure gold,” says St. Pierre. In addition to being 96 | April 2020

used for bank investments, some also goes into the jewelry market.

“It’s a ver y fast-paced, highrisk business,” St. Pierre says, one that has become ever more challenging with increased cases of money laundering and drug cartel involvement in the market.

“It’s really a tough business because there’s a lot of distrust in it,” St. Pierre says. “A simple guy like me, ten years ago with $5,000—a lot of people said that [it] was impossible to make a successful business. But just by being transparent with my clients, it’s been a real boon,” he says.

A Golden Future Over the years, protocols and stricter monitoring of the various parts and players in the precious metals industry have been put in place with the hope of eventually eliminating illegal activities. St. Pierre says Alaska’s due diligence policies, designed in part to make sure gold is being extracted on US soil, require businesses such as GBA to visit mine sites to ensure the company is legitimate, following state rules and guidelines, and conducting background checks.

Even with these challenges, Pierre is bullish about his work and believes that the gold industry will continue to grow and prosper in the coming years

because of the many opportunities to mine precious metals in Alaska. There are three different types of mining land available: patent ground, state leases, and federal leases. Though there is little patent ground left—pieces of property that can be purchased for mining purposes—there are still some properties available.

Leasing land from the state of Alaska or the federal government is a popular option for mining companies.

Federally leased land though is strictly mandated according to St. Pierre. “It’s a lot tougher,” he says. “There are more regulations to mine that you have to comply with.”

As of 2020, the Bureau of Land Management Alaska manages more than 5,000 federal mining claims in the state. In addition, there are 120 active mines and Mining Operation Plans on public lands. The state also still allows placer mining (or stream mining) for recreational purposes, a big draw for tourists.

Businesses in the precious metal industry face ongoing hurdles to be sure. But there are also unique opportunities for growth and revenue streams.

Gold, after all, continues to prove itself worthy as a valuable commodity in both Alaska and the world at large.

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

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OIL & GAS

Anticipated ANWR Lease Sale Profits Included in Trump 2021 Budget Optimism remains for development even with delays

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

98 | April 2020

resident Donald Trump’s administration missed the target date of holding the first-ever oil drilling lease sale in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2019 due to delays with the environmental review process. However, the administration’s $4.8 trillion proposed budget for 2021 includes $1.06 billion in anticipated revenue from the lease sale this year and $502 million in 2021.

“An ANWR 1002 lease sale is the first step in opening an opportunity to responsibly develop Alaska’s abundant oil and gas resources in an area that was specifically set aside for oil and gas development but has been held hostage administratively for many years,” Governor Mike Dunleavy says.

“ANWR 1002 leasing will provide local jobs, grow our private sector economy, and put more oil in the Trans Alaska Pipeline System [TAPS].

Additionally, this would result in putting dollars in our Permanent Fund and state and federal treasuries. We fully recognize the importance of this resource in the nation’s overall strategy of energy independence.”

ANWR’s Potential ANWR in total is 19 million acres, with wilderness dominating 18 million acres of the area; more than 94 percent of the refuge is permanently protected and can never be developed, explains Alaska Oil and Gas Association President and CEO Kara Moriarty.

Area 1002, the only section of ANWR in which lease sales would take place, comprises about 1 million acres. Within that area, Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt—through the Bureau of Land Management—is directed to establish two area-wide leasing sales of at least 400,000 acres each. Congress has limited the footprint for oil and gas ground facilities to about 2,000 acres.

With the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Trump advanced decades-long efforts to develop the 1002 Area by directing the Department of Interior to hold lease sales.

In September, the Department of Interior released the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program, clearing the way for development. At least 13,000 labor hours were dedicated to creating the EIS.

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

Among those who played a crucial role in the planning process were staff from Fish and Wildlife Services, who “developed the range of alternatives contained in the EIS as well as the protective mitigation measures,” according to a Department of the Interior statement.

“After rigorous review, robust public comment, and a consideration of a range of alternatives, today’s announcement is a big step to carry out the clear mandate we received from Congress to develop and implement a leasing program for the Coastal Plain, a program the people of Alaska have been seeking for over forty years,” Bernhardt said at the time.

The release of the Final EIS was heavily praised by all three members of Alaska’s congressional delegation.

“The release of this final EIS to open the 1002 area of ANWR is the culmination of decades of work. I have fought for responsible oil and gas exploration on the Coastal Plain since ANWR was created, and I am immensely pleased that we have reached this stage,” said US Representative Don Young.

“Alaskans are committed environmental stewards, and they know how to balance environmental protection and resource development—we did it in Prudhoe Bay and we’ll do it again in ANWR.” US Senator Dan Sullivan and US Senator Lisa Murkowski also hailed the move as a success for the state and nation.

“For decades, Alaskans have been urging their federal government to open the 1002 area of ANWR for exploration,” Sullivan said. “At long last, Congress voted to allow it. Now, the administration is working diligently to fulfill Congress’s directions in a transparent and responsible process.

I welcome today’s announcement— another critical step in the process to unleash Alaska’s energy and economic potential. As Alaska has shown time and again, we can responsibly develop our resources, under the highest environmental standards, to grow our state and significantly contribute toward the goal of energy dominance for our country.”

Murkowski echoed Sullivan’s sentiments.

“I’m hopeful we can now move to a lease sale in the very near future, just as Congress intended, so that we can www.akbizmag.com

“An ANWR 1002 lease sale is the first step in opening an opportunity to responsibly develop Alaska’s abundant oil and gas resources in an area that was specifically set aside for oil and gas development.”

Governor Mike Dunleavy

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 99

continue to strengthen our economy, our energy security, and our long-term prosperity,” Murkowski said.

“Over four decades of experience on Alaska’s North Slope have shown that caribou who visit the area for a few months each year have not been harmed by development activities. The Central Arctic herd, which migrates into existing North Slope fields, has expanded from 5,000 animals in 1970 to over 66,000 animals today.”

Marleanna Hall, Executive Director Resource Development Council

Responsible Development Dunleavy points out that Alaskans have been waiting to develop the area since the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which was passed in 1980 to expand ANWR but also set aside the 1002 Area.

“Alaska has unique expertise and a successful history of developing oil and gas resources in the Arctic with the utmost care and protection of the environment,” Dunleavy says. “No longer is it a question of whether or not these resources can be developed carefully and responsibly, preserving the natural environment. It is time for the Federal government to remove 100 | April 2020

obstacles to the economic prosperity of Alaska’s remote communities and the state’s economy.”

He explains that Alaska provided input from state regulators, biologists, resource specialists, engineers, and geologists to help inform the Department of the Interior’s environmental review process.

“This collaborative relationship aids in knowledge sharing among agencies and regulators to help ensure the same environmental protections that are achieved while developing oil and gas throughout Alaska are also achieved while developing ANWR resources,” Dunleavy says.

The US Geologic Survey estimates that the 1002 Coastal Plain portion of ANWR contains anywhere from 5.7 billion to 16 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil.

“Additional seismic investigation is necessary to further understand the resource potential of the ANWR Coastal Plain. Regardless, potential royalties from developing all of the estimated technically recoverable oil could generate as much as $100 billion in state and federal revenues,” Dunleavy says.

Resource Development Council Executive Director Marleanna Hall points toward the history of resource development on the North Slope to mitigate concerns about the impact that development could have on wildlife in the area.

“Billions of barrels of oil have been produced on the North Slope without causing any significant harm to the environment,” Hall says. “Over four decades of experience on Alaska’s North Slope have shown that caribou who visit the area for a few months each year have not been harmed by development activities. The Central Arctic herd, which migrates into existing North Slope fields, has expanded from 5,000 animals in 1970 to over 66,000 animals today.”

The impact of oil and gas development on wildlife in the Arctic—especially caribou—continues to be controversial.

Opponents of the lease sale point toward the well-being of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, whose calving grounds are on the coastal plain of ANWR. Caribou Use of Habitat Near Energy Development in Arctic Alaska, published by a team of scientists led by staff at the US Geological Survey, states that

“although the amount of habitat lost directly to energy development in the Arctic will likely be relatively small, there are significant concerns about habitat that may be indirectly affected because of caribou avoidance behaviors.”

The findings from the study conducted by the team “corroborate a growing body of evidence suggesting that habituation to industrial development in caribou in the Arctic is likely to be weak or absent and emphasizes the value of minimizing the footprint of infrastructure within important seasonal habitat to reduce behavioral effects to barren-ground caribou.”

“As Alaska has shown time and again, we can responsibly develop our resources, under the highest environmental standards, to grow our state and significantly contribute toward the goal of energy dominance for our country.”

US Senator Dan Sullivan

Nonetheless, Dunleavy joins Hall in being mindful of Alaska’s record of mitigating potential impacts to the environment while developing resources.

“I believe, as Alaska has successfully demonstrated, that we can both protect the environment and create economic opportunity,” Dunleavy says.

“Alaska was recognized by Secretary of State Seward and purchased for our position on the globe and our vast resource potential. Becoming a state

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

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was predicated upon our ability to develop our resources. We have a great track record of resource development, some of the most stringent standards for environmental protection, and have proven we are home to the most vast conventional oil plays in the nation.

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“Developing ANWR would provide the oil industry with a potentially large new field to develop, representing a substantial investment opportunity.”

Kara Moriarty, President/CEO, AOGA

Opening ANWR to development has the potential to extend the life of Alaska’s oil and gas industry and TAPS for years, Moriarty says.

“Developing ANWR would provide the oil industry with a potentially large new field to develop, representing a substantial investment opportunity,” Moriarty says. “For example, the Energy Information Administration predicts that ANWR could top 1 million barrels of production a day. More importantly, Alaskans would benefit from the surge of jobs and economic activity created by the billions in investment required to develop ANWR.”

Alaska’s Oil Future An economic analysis provided by Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates reported the development of oil reserves in the coastal plain could create as many as 736,000 new domestic US jobs, Dunleavy notes.

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

Oil development in ANWR would generate billions of dollars in government revenue for public services and further improve energy security for decades into the future, Hall says.

“The non-partisan Energy Information Administration [a government agency] estimates that traditional fuel sources like oil and gas will continue to provide the globe with the vast majority of its energy for decades to come,” Moriarty says.

“ANWR is positioned to provide the energy the world needs now and for years into the future. It is preferable to produce oil and gas here in Alaska where environmental oversight and regulations are among the most stringent in the world. No one develops natural resources as safely and responsibly as Alaskans,” she continues.

However, even after the lease sale, it will be years before oil starts to flow from ANWR. “It is impossible to speculate about exact time frames, but here is a universal truth about oil and gas development in Alaska, particularly on the North Slope: development takes time,” Moriarty says. “The process that takes projects from exploration to first oil can span anywhere from five to twenty years.

We can expect the permitting process for any development in ANWR to be thorough and lengthy.”

The only data from a well drilled in ANWR is from KIC-1, which was spud in 1986. The work was done through long-standing leases held by Chevron and BP on ANWR inholdings (privately owned land within the boundary of a national park) owned by Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation.

BP is set to transfer its portion of the leases and associated data to Hilcorp as part of Hilcorp’s acquisition of BP’s Alaska assets. Whether or not oil was encountered remains undisclosed.

Nonetheless, optimism surrounds the lease sales.

“We are looking forward to these ANWR lease sales—it’s going to be good for Alaska, and it’s going to be good for America,” Dunleavy says. “ANWR is believed to hold a large pool of oil and having that in the mix of America’s energy portfolio bodes well for both the American and Alaskan economies and adds stability going forward.” www.akbizmag.com

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 103

T R A N S P O R TAT I O N

Push & Pull

L

ocal grocery and department stores have shelves lined with thousands of items, the great majority of which didn’t originate in Alaska. So where did those potato chips come from? What size was the barge that brought those vacuum cleaners here?

How many bicycles came in the latest shipment?

While the general public may not spend much time pondering those questions, the reality of what it takes to bring goods to the state is truly a testament to Alaska’s robust tug and barge industry, which serves a critical

role in the state’s commerce.

“We like to think that we’re kind of a shining star here, enabling commerce for a broader state,” says Michael O’Shea, senior business development director for Cook Inlet Tug & Barge. “If the maritime industry doesn’t work, the state’s wheels won’t turn.

Without us, the truck drivers don’t work, the longshoremen don’t work. Think about it: the stuff doesn’t get on the shelves at Fred Meyer from cars.”

Economic Contributions Approximately fifty tugboat and barge companies operate more

Tug and barge services keep Alaska on course

Port of Nome

By Brad Joyal

104 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

than 150 vessels throughout Alaska’s 5,500 miles of inland waterways, more than any other state. State economist Neal Fried says the tug and barge industry is tricky to quantify because its importance isn’t necessarily reflected in the jobs that are directly created within the industry but rather the jobs that are created as a result of the work the tug and barge industry accomplishes. He points out that the 2018 Revised Annual Employment and Wages Report shows 1,222 jobs were created in the water transportation industry and yielded approximately $109 million in total earnings, resulting in an annual wage of $89,376 per employee.

American Waterways Operators is the national trade association for the nation’s tugboat, towboat, and barge industry. It published a 2017 study, Economic Contribution of the US Tugboat, Towboat, and Barge Industry, that shows that there were 2,040 jobs associated with the industry in 2014 in Alaska. Many of those jobs (890) are indirect employment, with 640 jobs acting as direct employment positions within Alaska’s barge and tug industry.

That same American Waterways

Operators study says the industry yielded approximately $208 million in revenue in 2014.

Developing Western Alaska Lucas Stotts rarely has a moment to relax from the responsibilities he faces as the Port of Nome Harbormaster. “I’m on the radio 24 hours a day, dispatching vessels in and out of the facility,” says Stotts.

Because Nome has a limited number of deep docks it can maintain, there is a growing waitlist of people reaching out to Stotts months in advance to book space at the port. Amidst high

traffic and limited space, Stotts’ main duty is to make sure the port serves its function.

“A large part of my job is finding out what operations are going on in a given day and how they are all going to mesh together to keep the facility going, the traffic flowing, and the traffic coming in and out,” says Stotts.

“Nome is the transshipping hub for the region, so a lot of shipping comes into our dock and has to get lifted onto the barges out on the causeway at our deeper draft docks with 22 or 23 feet of water depth. Then that stuff will get trucked inland down to

“Any construction projects—building equipment, airport runways, erosion control—absolutely any materials that can’t be flown in are going to come through Nome on barges.”

Lucas Stotts, Harbormaster, Port of Nome

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Alaska Business

April 2020 | 105

University of Alaska Fairbanks research vessel Sikuliaq at the West Gold Dock (left); an Alaska Logistics freight barge at the Middle Dock (center); and an Alaska Marine Lines mainline freight barge at the City Dock (right).

Port of Nome

our lower industrial pad where it will get loaded again onto landing crafts or smaller barges to get delivered up the region or to other places that don’t have the infrastructure.”

Business has accelerated in Nome over the last decade. “We kind of blew up in 2012, 2013, and 2014. It just got crazy, so we had to hire more people because there was just too much to do,”

says Joy Baker, who worked as Nome’s Harbormaster from 1997 until 2013, when Stotts took the helm as Baker transitioned to her current role of Port Director. Baker used to manage the port by herself with the help of some Public Works team members, though that changed when it became clear the Port of Nome was going to play a larger role in growing the region.

“There was a really big push for development in the region, so a lot of stuff started coming through us,” says Baker. “There was a lot of freight coming through with construction supplies for airports, hospitals, roads, schools, houses, tanks, and heavy equipment. Research took a big jump, and now recently cruise ships are taking a big jump. The whole thing

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has grown immensely in the last nine or ten years, and we’re actually scrambling to keep up.”

Baker is busy working on the Arctic Deep Draft Port Expansion, a project spearheaded by a partnership between the City of Nome and the US Army Corps of Engineers–Alaska District with a focus on evaluating all aspects of a Port of Nome expansion. “That’s a big, key thing that I spend a lot of my time on,” she says.

A typical day for Stotts centers around various deliveries arriving in Nome. In addition to groceries, many of which are canned or nonperishable goods, the port also serves as a hub for fuel, freight, and gravel. “Any construction projects—building equipment, airport runways, erosion control—absolutely any materials that can’t be flown in are going to come through Nome on barges,” says Stotts.

Nome has a modest fishing fleet of twenty-four vessels and hosts various other vessels that visit from around the region, but the port’s calling card is still receiving barge shipments, an important part of the region that

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“In Cook Inlet, with the high tides, the vast current, and of course the icy conditions in the wintertime, people can seriously get killed if they’re not [operating] correctly.”

Michael O’Shea, Senior Business Development Director, Cook Inlet Tug & Barge

sparks genuine excitement—and curiosity—from its citizens.

“When the landing crafts finally hit the beach and drop the bow and rolls one of the only trucks into town, it’s really a big deal for those communities,” says Stotts. “Everybody is chomping at the bit to get their new stuff out because it’s really the lifeblood of these communities. With the cost of airfreight being so high, barging is really the only reliable and semi-affordable way to get stuff into Western Alaska. It’s really the only thing making it possible for the region to develop.”

Alaska Business

Tug Life While barges are designed to carry large shipments via shipping containers, a tugboat’s purpose is to help large vessels navigate through the water. “A tug is a motorized working boat, whereas a barge is more like a big floating bathtub with a concrete deck,” says Stotts. Tugs carry large winches with an attached wire capable of connecting to barges through chain bridles that hang below a barge’s bow. The connection gives a tug the ability to maneuver the barge by pushing or pulling until the barge reaches its final destination. Tugs are especially impactful once a vessel

April 2020 | 107

“Nome is the transshipping hub for the region, so a lot of shipping comes into our dock and has to get lifted onto the barges out on the causeway at our deeper draft docks with 22 or 23 feet of water depth.

Then that stuff will get trucked inland down to our lower industrial pad where it will get loaded again onto landing crafts or smaller barges to get delivered up the region or to other places that don’t have the infrastructure.”

Lucas Stotts, Harbormaster, Port of Nome

approaches shore, as they typically hug the hip of the vessel and manually power it toward its destination. Even when tugs allow barges to float away from the tow in the middle of the ocean, the wire connecting the two vessels still serves a purpose. “As they ride up and down the waves and cut through the water, that weight of the wire acts like a big shock absorber between the barge and the tug,” Stotts says.

Tugs don’t just help vessels and barges reach their destination; they also provide a safety component that cannot be understated. “In Cook Inlet, with the high tides, the vast current, and of course the icy conditions in the wintertime, people can seriously get killed if they’re not doing it correctly,” says O’Shea. “We’re having a real tough ice year in Cook Inlet this year. A lot of people haven’t seen ice this tough.”

Although O’Shea and Cook Inlet Tug & Barge President Jeff Johnson caution

A Brice Marine barge loads rock at the Middle Dock for Kivalina projects in the center; in the background, a Crowley fuel barge departs the Nome Small Boat Harbor.

Port of Nome

108 | April 2020

that tugs aren’t designed to break ice, many Alaska tugs are equipped with extra steel plates that act as armor and protect the hull when they encounter icy conditions.

“On the big ships, when they come in, they not only have the ship’s captain and the engineers, they also carry what’s called a ship’s pilot, which is somebody who specializes in the area or specializes in docking big ships in the region,” says Johnson.

“When we go and link up to a ship with our tugboat, we really work at the direction of the ship’s pilot, who is in control of maneuvering the vessel. He directs us through radio communications if he wants us to push here or pull there to make sure the docking is safely done.”

Cook Inlet Tug & Barge Cook Inlet Tug & Barge is a marine transportation company and member

of the Saltchuk family of companies. It employs sixty-five people and carries a fleet of eleven tugs and five barges that help out with harbor services and fuel distribution in and around the Port of Alaska and Cook Inlet, Seward, Southeast, Western Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands.

The company focuses on three segments of the maritime industry: harbor services, petroleum services, and shallow water operations. The majority of its harbor services are provided in Southcentral. “We have three tractor tugs based in the Port of Alaska, and we provide all of the ship assist and ice escort services in Cook Inlet for ships coming here,” says Johnson. “That’s three tugs fully crewed 24/7 that are ready to work in Cook Inlet.”

Cook Inlet Tug & Barge does the same in Seward on a more seasonal basis with a smaller tug that helps ship pilots navigate in and out of the harbor.

It also assists ships with mooring lines and conducting tie jobs, in addition to providing shipyard support work for vessels in Seward.

“We have two tugs and two barges in the petroleum division today,” says Johnson. “In our field division, or petroleum division, we tow tank barges with petroleum products for our sister company, Delta Western. We transit anywhere from San Francisco to Haines to Dutch Harbor and even further north up into the Bering Sea seasonally. We have a pretty broad operational area for petroleum services.”

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In the foreground Bowhead Transportation tugs and barges are rafted with freight for Arctic villages; NOAA research vessels doing mission deployment are located in the center; and an Alaska Marine Lines mainline freight barge is in the distance.

Port of Nome

“There was a really big push for development in the region, so a lot of stuff started coming through us. There was a lot of freight coming through… Research took a big jump, and now recently cruise ships are taking a big jump. The whole thing has grown immensely in the last nine or ten years, and we’re actually scrambling to keep up.”

Joy Baker, Port Director, Port of Nome

The third area of the industry Cook Inlet Tug & Barge focuses on is shallow water operations. It deploys five tugs that were built specifically to operate in shallow waters in Western Alaska and along the Arctic Coast. “We have operations based in Prudhoe Bay during the ice-free maritime season up there in support of construction, oil and gas, and government work as well,” notes Johnson. “We have some boats that work in the construction and oil and gas businesses throughout Western Alaska as well, working anywhere from Kotzebue to the Yukon River.”

Extended Seasons For years, an ordinary shipping season in Nome lasted from early June through the end of October. This has 110 | April 2020

changed in recent years, with longer shoulder seasons allowing vessels to travel through Nome even earlier. “This last year, we had a Coast Guard [vessel] in, and I want to say it was May 23,” says Stotts. “Our three docks were actually ice-free, and Norton Sound was icefree, since the middle of April or even earlier. We’re certainly seeing a trend of vessels showing up earlier. We have more research vessels wanting to show up earlier for this upcoming season, and the Coast Guard is talking about coming in mid-May if the ice conditions are good.”

Stotts has noticed the same trends at the end of the season. “We used to never really see vessels into November, but now we’re getting vessels into the first several weeks of the month,” he says.

“This year, we had a research vessel, the Sikuliaq, that did a crew transfer at our dock in late November. There was floating ice out there, but the docks were physically open.”

These seasonal trends have extended into the fishing industry.

“With the fishing activity changing and more of the Bering Sea fishing fleet out of Dutch Harbor fishing further north, almost just to the west of Nome for cod and pollock, those vessels are starting to call on Nome later in the season,” says Stotts.

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TOURISM

More Boats, More People, More Money Growth in the cruise market and other segments boost Alaska’s tourism industry

By Tracy Barbour

F

112 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

Visit Anchorage

or twenty-one years, Alaskan Tour Guides has been helping tourists make once-in-alifetime memories. The company, owned by Bob and Doreen Toller, specializes in small-group land tours that take people to places large companies normally can’t go. “We go places they can’t access with their big motor coaches… There’s no crowd, and you get to see the real Alaska,” Bob Toller says.

With its modern, thirteen-passenger vans, Alaskan Tour Guides takes groups on up-close adventures led by year-round residents with engaging stories to tell about living in Alaska. The Wasilla-based business runs tours from Fairbanks to Homer, with Kenai Fjords and Denali National Parks being popular destinations. Its customers can see amazing vistas, watch incredible wildlife, and indulge in unique activities like gold panning, dog sledding, and exploring glaciers. “Our trips are a little bit more expensive than the cruise ship tours, but you get ten times more,” Toller says.

About 90 percent of Alaskan Tour Guides’ clients are from the Lower 48, with the rest mostly coming from Australia and India. Baby Boomers—and others wanting to avoid large crowds—are especially keen on its personal and customized tours. As a testament to

this, the company boasts high ratings and a 2018 Certificate of Excellence from Tripadvisor. Consequently, Alaskan Tour Guides has been experiencing a consistent increase in business. “We’ve shown steady growth for the last five years; we’ve added a couple of vans in the last two years,” Toller explains.

Currently, Alaskan Tour Guides has six vans that transport about eighty people each day. The company does approximately 100 land tours annually, in addition to its family tours, cruise transfer tours, and other transportation options.

Rise in Cruise Ship Visitors The growth that Alaskan Tour Guides is experiencing is due, in part, to the steady increase in tourists visiting Alaska.

It’s also reflective of the overall growth that’s taking place in different segments of Alaska’s tourism industry, including the cruise industry and transportation.

Record anticipated numbers of cruise ship visitors will be a bright spot in 2020, according to the January 2020 of Alaska Economic Trends magazine, published by the Alaska Department

of Labor and Workforce Development.

“Tourism numbers keep reaching new heights, and 2020 is expected to break another record with an anticipated 6 percent jump in cruise ship passengers,” according to Alaska Economic Trends.

This projection doesn’t surprise Sarah Leonard, president and CEO of the Alaska Travel Industry Association. “The cruise industry is our fastest-growing sector,” she says. “Passenger volume was up 6.5 percent last year.”

Leonard points out that the 6 percent increase expected for cruise ship passengers this year is not just for southeast Alaska, where most of the itineraries for cruise ships go. It will also impact cross-gulf travel. “That traffic was up 15.3 percent in 2019,” she says.

The growth of the tourism industry has a broad impact on the state’s economy.

It lifts Alaska’s air market, supporting increases in Anchorage and Fairbanks, in particular. However, independent travel is mostly flat. “Alaska Marine Highway ferry traffic is down, which is due in part to the budget situation,” Leonard says.

She adds: “As we experience more visitors spending more time in Alaska,

that definitely lends toward the economic impact for communities and the state through various visitor fees and direct and indirect spending. Alaska visitors contribute over $4.5 billion in overall economic impact in the state…

When we look at jobs created, we see the tourism industry is the secondlargest private-sector employer.”

In fact, one in ten jobs in Alaska are in tourism, creating an important part of Alaska’s employment picture, according to the Resource Development Council.

In 2018, more than $1.4 billion in payroll was created by tourism business employment, for an economic impact of $4.5 billion. And more than $126 million in state revenue and $88 million in municipal revenue is generated

by Alaska’s visitor industry through a variety of taxes and other fees, helping to fund services benefiting residents and communities. Additionally, Alaska’s tourism industry invests heavily in the state, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on capital expenditures, construction, operating equipment, marketing, and contributions to nonprofit organizations.

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rather than volume, we see larger-thanaverage spending and engagement in independent travelers who fly in and explore using a rental vehicle and a mix of other transportation (rail, guided excursions, etc.),” Saupe says. “These travelers tend to stay longer, spend more, and incorporate more—and more varied—activities.”

Visit Anchorage

Increase in Visitor Volume

Julie Saupe, president and CEO of Visit Anchorage, also cites significant growth in Alaska’s cruise industry and air capacity in 2019. Last year, there was also increased demand for hotels— not just in the summer but year-round.

“Hotel demand was up 7 percent in summer,” she says. “Also, there was 6 percent growth in the fall/winter/spring of 2018-19.”

While the surge in overall visitor volume is significant, the effect of Alaska’s independent travelers is also notable.

“If we shift to economic contributions

The rise in visitors coming to Alaska has affected various facets of the state’s tourism industry. An estimated 2 millionplus out-of-state visitors traveled to Alaska between May and September 2018, according to McDowell Group’s Alaska Visitor Volume Report, Summer 2018, released February 2019.

Summer 2018 visitor volume represented an increase of 5 percent (100,000 visitors) from summer 2017. The report explained: “Most of the increase is attributable to the cruise market, which grew by 7 percent (79,300 visitors). The air market increased by 1 percent (9,600 visitors), while the highway/ferry market increased by 13 percent (11,100 visitors).”

The summer 2018 visitor volume of 2 million-plus was the fourth consecutive

summer of growth, according to Alaska Visitor Volume Report, Summer 2018. Volume increased by 7 percent, 4 percent, 4 percent, then 5 percent, from 2014 to 2018. From a longterm perspective, the 2018 volume represents 27 percent more visitors than a decade earlier.

Additionally, the number of Alaska Marine Highway System passengers was up by 1.4 percent in summer 2018, residents and visitors combined.

Sportfishing licenses sold to nonresidents were up by 13.5 percent between 2017 and 2018, January through September. Bed taxes and vehicle rental taxes—which reflect usage by both residents and non-residents and can be affected by changes in rental rates—told a mixed story. Bed tax indicators varied by community for April through June (the last quarter available before the report was released), with bed tax revenues up for Fairbanks, Denali, Juneau, and Sitka and down for Anchorage and Ketchikan.

Growth Factors So what’s driving the steady increase in the visitor volume and different

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114 | April 2020

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segments of the tourism industry?

It’s a mixed bag, according to Saupe.

“It’s a combination of a good national economy, strong local promotional push, and expanded product offerings across many interests and pursuits,” she says. “It’s rare that visitors to Alaska focus solely on one or two activities; they hope to see and do a little of everything.”

In addition, Saupe says, Alaska’s tourism industry is deeply local, which plays well for places like Anchorage. “Anchorage tourism is still principally made up of small, locally-owned companies, stores, and restaurants,” she explains. “This helps make Anchorage a perfect match for one of the broader trends in tourism: the interest in authentic experiences, the desire to find the ‘real’ place.”

Within the cruise industry, there are multiple influences fueling the growth.

Key factors include higher-capacity ships, recent port investments, and the addition of more land packages, Leonard says. “They’re bringing larger ships, so there is more space for visitors,” she explains. “They are also investing in our communities with port investments in Ketchikan and Juneau and land investments with some companies

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enhancing or expanding their rooms.”

Holland America Line, for example, is expanding the guest experience on its Alaska Land+Sea Journeys with the addition of new guest accommodations at its Denali operation that includes the McKinley Chalet Resort hotel and Denali Square.

The addition of cruise itineraries is also having an impact on the tourism industry in Alaska, which is the premier cruise destination market in the United States. As more ships enter the Alaska market, new itineraries are being added, including the Northwest Passage, the Aleutians, Valdez, and smaller communities in Southeast Alaska, according to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).

Ten additional ships are scheduled to visit Alaska in 2020, with twenty-nine added port calls, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Surprising Growth Segments There are also some surprising areas of growth within the state’s tourism industry. For example, Alaska is now being viewed more as an adventurous

Alaska Business

“Alaska visitors contribute over $4.5 billion in overall economic impact in the state… When we look at jobs created, we see the tourism industry is the second-largest privatesector employer.”

Sarah Leonard, President/CEO Alaska Travel Industry Association

April 2020 | 115

Visit Anchorage

place to travel. Articles are talking about how more consumers are looking for a responsible way to travel. “Anecdotally, Alaska is seen as an adventure and ecotourism destination,” Leonard says.

There is a growing element of tourists who are interested in businesses that practice sustainable tourism. They prefer to visit areas where they can have a positive impact on the environment, society, and economy. To encourage sustainable tourism, the Alaska Travel Industry Association operates an Adventure Green Alaska program that certifies businesses that voluntarily practice economic, environmental, social, and cultural sustainability.

Adventure Green Alaska-certified companies believe that outstanding Alaska experiences can also be sustainable and beneficial to visitors and hosts. “I think it’s an exciting program that educates businesses that want to think more sustainable and want a way to market to that traveler,” Leonard says.

There has also been an increase in aurora tourism, which is often thought of as a primarily Interior pursuit.

However, Saupe is seeing a significant amount of interest from Anchorage travelers who want to catch a glimpse of the spectacular aurora borealis. “Luckily, we’re in a prime spot to take advantage of the northern lights, and we’ve seen a number of companies expand their aurora viewing options,” she says.

“Vantage points like the Knik River area, Glen Alps, and Turnagain Arm have good northern lights viewing prospects amid a very dynamic mountain landscape.

When we talk to people planning a 116 | April 2020

visit between August and April, the northern lights tend to be a big interest and a key motivator.”

Anchorage also has seen a big response in terms of product development for winter tours—the northern lights in particular—but also fat tire bike rentals or guided rides, snowshoe tours, kennel visits, and hands-on dog sledding lessons. “Visit Anchorage stepped up the intensity of marketing winter, but the product development by companies is the element that makes a trip in the winter most appealing,” Saupe says.

Growth Implications The growth of various tourism segments speaks to the state’s immense popularity as a travel destination. Around the world more people are becoming cruisers, and Alaska remains a popular cruise destination. “It’s a great initial way to visit Alaska,” Leonard says. “Some of it has to do with the strength of the dollar as well as what’s happening around the world… We can compete with other international destinations that might be offering somewhat similar experiences.”

Alaska is also a safe and exotic bucketlist destination for many travelers, Leonard says. And a significant number of people who cruise to the state on a first-time visit opt to return. In fact, according to the Resource Development Council, one in three Alaska visitors are repeat travelers to the state, and many of those who return are independent travelers who first came to Alaska on a

cruise ship.

To Alaskans, Anchorage may feel like a well-established place for travel, Saupe says. But there are people who don’t have the city on their radar yet and are surprised and excited by what Anchorage has to offer. There’s a wide appeal for what Anchorage has in all seasons, and there’s still opportunity to foster better returns and expand.

“Moderate, managed growth means big benefits for locals and our economy, while maintaining a high level of service/ product for our customer, the traveling public,” she says.

As such, Visit Anchorage continues to focus on not just volume, but also the length and quality of time visitors spend in Anchorage. For example, the organization works to ensure that cruise passengers who might otherwise only see Anchorage at the start or end of a visit are aware of what the area has and what extending the visit—for a day or a week—opens up for their travels.

Saupe emphasizes that there’s also opportunity for growth with food and beer tourism. Big Swig Tours is a good example of a company that’s leading the way in this area. “Anchorage has thirteen breweries, plus distilleries and a meadery,” she says. “Anchorage’s food scene tends to surprise travelers who aren’t initially sure of what to expect in terms of variety and number of choices.

Certainly, there are lots of opportunities to sample Alaska in the glass and on the plate here in Anchorage.”

She adds: “We see a lot of potential in expanding offerings with a local angle, food being just one possible aspect. In any season, we can use more experiences that incorporate local people and stories, particuarly Alaska Native perspectives.”

However, Saupe says, travel promotion is vital for the continued growth of tourism in Anchorage and Alaska. And growth doesn’t happen automatically.

“It takes a combination of promoting the place, a good national financial picture, and exciting product development aligned with traveler interest,” she says. “When those three things align, we make gains. Tourism is a crowded, competitive, and global business, and Anchorage has to stay top-of-mind and relevant to travelers, or else they’ll choose someplace else.”

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events.” What won’t change is Arctic Man’s focus on teamwork, training, and courage as skiers and snowmobilers tackle the slopes in the Last Frontier. arcticman.com APRIL 24-26

Fairbanks Outdoor Show Vendors offer outdoor activities, tours, and equipment for outdoor adventure at the Carlson Center. carlson-center.com/outdoor-show APRIL 25

Sheep & Wool Day Visit Calypso Farm and meet its flock of Shetland Sheep!

Learn about raising sheep in Alaska, handling and washing fleeces, recognizing different types of wool, carding and spinning basics, and using wool to make functional items. Sheep shearing demonstrations will happen throughout the day at Calypso Farm. calypsofarm.org

GIRDWOOD APRIL 17-19

Alyeska Spring Carnival & Slush Cup Spring Carnival takes advantage of longer days with extended lift hours, great spring-skiing conditions, and Alyeska’s largest and most popular winter event, Slush Cup, where competitors dressed in zany costumes attempt to skim across a 90-foot long pool of freezing water.

Other activities include the Sitzmark costume contest, Idiot Swim, Dummy Downhill, XTRATUF tug-ofwar, and live music. alyeskaresort.com

open to the public. Activities take place at Centennial Hall. akfolkfest.org

fishermen and fisherwomen. Open to the community and broadcast over the radio. petersburg.org/festivals-and-events

KETCHIKAN

SKAGWAY

APRIL 1-30

Hummingbird Festival

APRIL 17-19

Held throughout the month of April, this festival celebrates the return of migratory birds to Alaska. The most notable bird at this festival is the Rufous hummingbird, who begins arriving in Ketchikan in mid-March.

The festival includes guided hikes, art shows, activities for children, and many other birding events. alaskacenters.gov/event/hummingbird-festival

The Skagway Spring Festival is “Your cabin fever reliever,” and features an international folk festival, show of winter artwork, an artisan craft market, and “Clean Sweep,” a program to clean up Skagway after the long winter. skagway.com/events

JUNEAU

Skagway Spring Festival

VALDEZ

PETERSBURG

APRIL 3-5

Fat Bike Bash

APRIL 13-19

APRIL 26

Alaska Folk Festival

Blessing of the Fleet

Juneau emerges from winter with the state's largest annual gathering of musicians from Alaska and beyond with a week of musical performances, workshops, dances, and just plain jamming. The best part: it's free and

The annual blessing of Petersburg’s fishing fleet is sponsored by the Sons of Norway Lodge. Afterwards coffee and pastries are served at Fisherman Memorial Park with stories about the various boats and old time

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The annual Chugach Fat Bike Bash features a little something for everyone from fun-loving fatties to cross-country specialists and the return of the Downtown Downhill for adrenaline junkies. valdezadventurealliance.com

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Private Aircraft Charter P I L A T U S

P C - 1 2

A I R C R A F T

4 Hours 3 Hours

Fairbanks Anchorage

2 Hours 1 Hour

Juneau

Calgary Vancouver Seattle Portland

Modern charter service throughout Alaska, the lower 48, and Canada.

8 8 8 • 3 8 7 • 8 9 8 9 www.akbizmag.com

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i s l a n d a i r x . c o m April 2020 | 119

BUSINESS EVENTS EDITOR’S NOTE: At the time of publication all of the events in this calendar were still scheduled to occur; however, rapidly changing safety protocols surrounding COVID-19 (coronavirus) have caused the cancellation or postponement of many events. Please double check that the event you’re interested in attending is still scheduled to take place by visiting the website published in the listing.

APRIL APRIL 2-3

AKHIMA Annual Meeting BP Energy Center, Anchorage: The Alaska Health Information Management Association (AKHIMA) is a state organization affiliated with the national organization American Health Information Management Association, an association of health information management professionals worldwide. akhima.org APRIL 2-4

AKMGMA Annual Conference Alyeska Resort, Girdwood: This is the annual conference for the Medical Group Management Association Alaska, and the theme for 2020 is “Healthcare’s a Beach: You Can’t Stop the Waves but You Can Learn How to Surf.” akmgma.org JULY 20-22

Alaska ASA Annual Conference UAF: Marie-Josee Fortin (University of Toronto, Canada Research Chair in Spatial Ecology) will give a two-day workshop on the topic of "Spatial Analysis and Network Theory Applied to Landscape Connectivity.” amstat.org APRIL 3

Seymour Awards: Aurora Nights Dena’ina Center, Anchorage: Join Visit Anchorage at its annual black-tie-with-a-twist awards banquet as the organization celebrates those in the tourism and visitor industries who go above and beyond. anchorage.net/rsvp/ 120 | April 2020

APRIL 7-8

APRIL 24-25

Governor’s Safety and Health Conference

AKSRT Annual Meeting and Educational Conference

Dena’ina Center, Anchorage: The Alaska Safety Advisory Council works with organizations to promote safety so that resources can be marshaled and used to reduce accidental death and injury. akgshc.com APRIL 7-8

Baker Hughes Alaska Technical Conference Marriott Anchorage Downtown: The Baker Hughes Alaska Technology Conference brings together experts from Alaska and around the world to showcase Alaska-specific case histories and the oil fields’ newest technology. bakerhughes.com APRIL 21-23

Alaska Strategy Week Anchorage: Alaska Strategy Week is an opportunity for attendees to expand their thinking in all areas of organizational excellence including measuring leadership impact, simplifying strategic design, identifying blind spots, managing through crisis, calculating human capital ROI, and navigating ethical paradox. alaskastrategyweek.com

Alyeska Resort, Girdwood: This annual event offers a single location for companies and imaging specialists from all modalities to network with the largest audience of their peers in Alaska. aksrt.com

Kodiak Harbor Convention Center: The symposium offers an opportunity for stakeholders to engage and understand how Kodiak’s marine environment and resources function, change, and affect our lives and livelihoods. In addition, it offers opportunities for researchers to form a plan for integrated, cooperative, and community-inspired marine research. alaskaseagrant.org

MAY 14-16

Alaska VFW Annual State Convention Hotel North Pole: The annual convention includes a Joint Memorial Service, VFW business session, guest banquets, and other events. alaskavfw.org MAY 28

MAY MAY 4-7

AWWMA Annual Statewide Conference Hotel Captain Cook, Anchorage: This is a venue to bring information, technology, expertise, curiosity, hunger, and thirst (for refreshment and knowledge) to the Water and Wastewater Industry Professionals in Alaska. awwma.org MAY 7-9

ACP Alaska Chapter Meeting Sheraton Hotel & Spa, Anchorage: ACP is the American College of Physicians, and the annual chapter meeting is an opportunity for CME credits and MOC points. acponline.org

APRIL 21-24

Kodiak Area Marine Science Symposium

network, and learn. alaskacreditunions.org/events.html

MAY 14-15

Alaska State HR Conference Anchorage Hilton: The 2020 Conference theme is “Power of the Past, Force of the Future.” alaska.shrm.org/conference MAY 14-16

ACUL Annual Meeting Girdwood: The Alaska Credit Union League’s annual meeting is an opportunity to gather,

Alaska Oil & Gas Association Dena’ina Center, Anchorage: AOGA hosts a one-day conference focused on industry trends, legal and scientific issues surrounding development, and national and state-level energy policies and politics. aoga.org JUNE JUNE 15-19

Annual Nuka System of Care Conference Nuka Wellness and Learning Center, Anchorage: The general conference presents Southcentral Foundation’s developed and proven content on organizational strategies and processes; integrated medical, behavioral, and traditional practices; and supporting infrastructure. southcentralfoundation.com JUNE 23-24

National 8(a) Association Alaska Regional Conference Anchorage Marriott Downtown: The 2019 Alaska Regional Conference offers educational sessions, matchmaking, networking, and resources for all small businesses. national8aassociation.org

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS North Star College UAF and the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District have joined forces to create North Star College, a middle college program that will allow students to take UAF classes at the Fairbanks campus while still in high school. The school district will cover tuition and transportation, and students will earn both high school and college credit for their UAF classes.

For the 2020-2021 school year, North Star College will be open to seniors only and will accept forty students. Eligible students will be entered into a lottery and randomly selected for admission. UAF and the school district plan to expand the program the following year to admit more students, as well as open it to both juniors and seniors. k12northstar.org/northstarcollege

Alaska Rubber Group Alaska Rubber Group expanded its capabilities and customer service with the acquisition of Arctic Wire Rope & Supply, an Alaska company based in Anchorage. Arctic Wire Rope, the 2006 Alaskan Manufacturer of the Year, specializes in customizing rigging for any job, large or small, including custom slings, chokers, and bridles. alaskarubbergroup.com

NOVAGOLD NOVAGOLD announced that its flagship Donlin Gold project received the final State Right-of-Way authorization for its buried natural gas pipeline, issued by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (ADNR) in January. ADNR also issued final authorization of the easement, land leases, land use permits, and material site authorizations for the proposed transportation facilities, and easement for the fiber optic cable on state lands in January.

Additionally, ADNR denied an appeal and affirmed the Division of Mining, Land, and Water’s original 122 | April 2020

January 2019 approval of Donlin Gold’s Reclamation Plan and its accompanying permit. novagold.com

USACE Lieutenant General Todd T. Semonite, commanding general of the US Army Corps of Engineers and 54th US Army Chief of Engineers, signed the Unalaska (Dutch Harbor) Channels Chief's Report in Washington, D.C. The signing progresses the proposed project to Congress for authorization.

Located in the Aleutian Islands and about 800 miles southwest of Anchorage, a bar shallower than the surrounding bathymetry limits vessel traffic that can safely access port facilities and areas of refuge in Dutch Harbor. The final feasibility study recommends deepening the existing bar to -58 feet providing one-way access for ships with a draft up to 44 feet. Currently, the bar accommodates vessels with a draft of 38 feet. Initial estimates of deepening the channel would involve dredging approximately 182,000 cubic yards of sediment at an estimated cost of $30.5 million. www.poa.usace.army. mil/Library/Reports-and-Studies

BP | ACF BP is donating the BP Energy Center property and building to The Alaska Community Foundation (ACF), ensuring Alaska nonprofits will have access to the resource for years to come. Per BP’s request, ACF will maintain the building and its purpose for a period of at least twenty years.

There will be no cancellations or disruptions for upcoming scheduled events at the Energy Center. BP will continue to operate the building until the official ownership transfer of its assets to Hilcorp takes place. bp.com | alaskacf.org

Alaska Airlines | American Airlines Alaska Airlines and American Airlines have formed an alliance

to create more choices for West Coast customers. The expanded relationship between the airlines will offer customers several benefits: • Alaska Airlines intends to join the oneworld alliance by summer 2021, which will connect Alaska guests to more than 1,200 destinations worldwide.

• American will launch the first service from Seattle to Bangalore, India, beginning in October. A new American route from Seattle to the global business hub London Heathrow will begin flying in March 2021.

• The airlines will continue their domestic codeshare and expand it to include international routes from Los Angeles and Seattle.

• Alaska and American loyalty members will enjoy benefits across both airlines. alaskaair.com | aa.com

Hilcorp Hilcorp is on track to double production at its Milne Point Field.

As of late January, production at Milne Point reached 34,000 barrels of oil per day for the first time since May 2008; average production when Hilcorp acquired the field in November 2014 was 18,400 barrels of oil per day. Hilcorp expects to reach 40,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of 2020. hilcorp.com

Armstrong | Borealis Alaska Oil Armstrong Oil & Gas, through its subsidiary North Slope Energy, has acquired a 72 percent working interest in Borealis Alaska Oil’s Castle West Prospect on the North Slope. The West Castle prospect is a 92,000-plus acre lease block in the highly prospective Nanushuk Play Fairway. North Slope Energy and Borealis Alaska Oil are planning to evaluate the lands with a test well in the near future. armstrongoilandgas.com borealisalaskaoilinc.com

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

RIGHT MOVES BBNC Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) hired Amy Humphreys as President and CEO and BBNC shareholder Everette Anderson as Senior Vice President of Bristol Bay Seafood Investments. In their new positions, Humphreys and Anderson will guide and grow BBNC’s emerging venture into this major sector of Alaska’s economy and overall global commerce.  Humphreys’ background in the seafood and food manufacturing and distribution industries will Humphreys be an immediate asset to Bristol Bay Seafood Investments. She has a long history with American Seafoods, both as an executive and as a board member, and is a former president and CEO of Icicle Seafoods, a diversified seafood company with operations throughout Alaska across multiple species and product sales worldwide.  Anderson has served on the BBNC board of directors since 2013 and has decades of experience in the seafood and rural energy industries, Anderson most recently serving as senior commercial manager at the Marine Stewardship Council. He will be stepping down from his board position to take this new role.

PDC PDC Engineers announced the following promotions.  PDC Engineers promoted Craig Ranson from senior associate to Principal. With PDC’s recent shift to a

four-market-sector model of operations, Ranson has also been selected to lead the firm’s land development services division. Since starting at PDC in 2003, Ranson has Ranson been a dynamic leader assisting in the development and promotion of the firm’s survey discipline.

He continually works to be an ardent supporter of his team, both in terms of employee wellbeing and in securing the tools needed to keep current with the quickly evolving industry.  Mechanical engineer Roger Smith has been promoted to Senior Associate at PDC Engineers.

Smith, having twenty-five Smith years of experience as a mechanical engineer, began his career with Murray & Associates in Juneau and continued there following the firm’s acquisition by PDC in 2016. Smith has been a project manager for mechanical systems on a wide variety of new and renovated facility projects throughout Southeast Alaska. He embraces the challenges of incorporating new technology into facility projects and has been the lead mechanical engineer on several prominent projects, each with more than a million dollars in mechanical construction.  Daniel McBride has been promoted to Associate at PDC Engineers. McBride started at PDC Engineers in 2006 as a structural CADD McBride technician. He is diligent in his technical work, holds himself and others accountable, and communicates

well both internally and externally. He interacts professionally with clients and continues to elevate his skillset every year. He is always on the lookout for ways to contribute more to PDC’s structural discipline, its production group, and the company in general.

Tlingit & Haida  Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska announced the promotion of John Hawkins Jr. to Tribal Transportation Manager.

Hawkins will manage the day-to-day operations of the Tribal Transportation department, which administers the Tribal Hawkins Transportation Program (TTP) for Tlingit & Haida and the Organized Village of Saxman and collaborates with other tribal entities and local, state, and federal agencies to determine needs and priorities for transportation systems. Hawkins has worked for the Tribal Transportation department for the last five years.

Matson  Matson promoted Jennifer Tungul to Director of Alaska Terminal Operations, a new, senior-leadership position created to support the success and growth of Matson’s Alaska operations.

Tungul has worked in Alaska’s transportation and logistics industry for two decades, with a seventeenTungul year tenure between the former Horizon Lines and Matson. Most

RIGHT MOVES IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY NORTHERN AIR CARGO

124 | April 2020

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

recently, Tungul served as general manager of Matson’s Dutch Harbor and Akutan operations.

In her new position, Tungul is responsible for effective and efficient terminal operations in Anchorage, Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, and Akutan, as well as for managing and developing team members, managing labor relations, and overseeing processimprovement projects.

R&M Consultants Ben Coleman and Alex Brown recently joined R&M Consultants. Coleman is a Planner in the firm’s planning department, and Brown is a Geologist in R&M’s earth sciences department.  A former Matanuska-Susitna Borough planner, Coleman has three years of experience in transportation and land use planning, plan and conditional use permit review, data analysis, feasibility studies, and stakeholder and Coleman agency coordination. Since joining the firm, Coleman has provided planning analysis and land use permitting services for the downtown 6th Avenue Multi-Use Redevelopment project and an expanded utility substation in Chugiak.

He has a bachelor’s in intercultural studies from Crown College and a master’s of regional planning from Cornell University and is an AICP Candidate.  Brown originally joined R&M in May 2019 as a materials technician in the firm’s materials laboratory.

With his interest and education in geology, Brown was a perfect fit for transfer into R&M’s earth Brown sciences department. He moved into this new role at the end of the 2019 construction season.

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Since moving into earth sciences, Brown has been involved with geotechnical investigations for the Dalton Highway MP 18-37 project and assisted with materials testing and other miscellaneous tasks for a variety of projects. He has a bachelor’s in geological sciences from UAA.

Competentia  Competentia welcomes Christopher St. John to its Anchorage team as a Business Manager; he will focus on maintaining the company’s high level of customer and industr y ser vice throughout the St. John community. St. John has fifteen years of client and recruiting management experience. Prior to joining the Competentia team, St. John expanded his expertise in business operations, workforce solutions, and Alaska community involvement through roles at Alaska Kelly Ser vices and Wood Group.

The Kuskokwim Corporation  The Kuskokwim Corporation (TKC) shareholder Andrea Gusty has been selected as the corporation’s next President and CEO. Gusty is a TKC Class B Gusty shareholder and a tribal member of Aniak. She previously worked as an investigative news reporter and anchor for KTVA CBS 11 News in Anchorage and as US Senator Lisa Murkowski’s Alaska communications director. During her nearly six years with TKC, Gusty has served as communications and outreach manager,

Alaska Business

land manager, vice president, and chief of staff.

Resolve Alaska  Resolve Alaska welcomes A.W. McAfee as its new Managing Director responsible for overseeing Resolve’s operational response and recovery activities. McAfee comes to McAfee Resolve from the Bechtel Corporation as an operations manager where his global maritime experience complements Resolve’s diverse response, compliance, and marine services.

In addition to his experience with global projects, complex challenges, and technical innovations, McAfee focuses on results that maximize efficiency without compromising safety and quality.

McAfee’s immediate strategic plan for Dutch Harbor is to implement an improvement program increasing operational efficiency and response capacity.

US Army Corps of Engineers  Kevin Henderson has assumed the duties of the US Army Corps of Engineers–Alaska District's Equal Employment Opportunity Manager.

Prior to retiring from active Henderson duty from the Army in June 2018 as a Sergeant First Class, Henderson served as the US Army Alaska's Sexual Harassment/Assault Response Prevention operations manager/non-commissioned officer-in-charge and lead sexual assault response coordinator at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Henderson is a DiSC behavioral consultant. He holds an associate's in liberal arts from Chaminade University of Honolulu.

April 2020 | 125

ALASKA TRENDS Heart health is a lifelong investment. According to the American Heart Association, how we eat, live, exercise, and interact with others can all contribute to a healthier heart. Suggestions from the American Heart Association include eating more fruits and vegetables to “add color” to our diets, improving our home cooking skills, learning about foods that support our hearts, getting active and staying motivated in our fitness routines, managing stress, and focusing on healthy sleeping habits.

It’s never too early or too late to think about heart health, so in this issue of Alaska Trends we present data from The Burden of Heart Disease and Stroke in Alaska published in 2019 (using 2016 data) by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services’ Section of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion about the state of the state’s heart health.

Heart disease related deaths for ALASKAN MALES AND FEMALES IS LOWER than US males and females

24,000 ALASKAN ADULTS

HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH HEART DISEASE

21,914 ALASKAN ADULTS HAVE DIED FROM HEART DISEASE

HEART ATTACKS among Alaskans have

DROPPED since 2005

HEART DISEASE DIAGNOSED

HEART DISEASE DEATHS

Top 5 Regions

Top 5 Regions 1. NORTHWEST 2. Y-K DELTA 3. Southwest 4. SE-Northern 5. Anchorage

1. SE-SOUTHERN 2. KENAI PENISULA 3. Mat-Su 4. SE-Northern 5. Fairbanks

ALASKA TRENDS IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY AMERICAN MARINE/PENCO

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Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

ANS Crude Oil Production

ALASKAN DEATHS

02/27/2020

01/01/2014 05/01/2011

Heart Disease 28% All other causes 72%

In 2016 Alaska Medicaid recipients with heart disease ALONE or in COMBINATION with other chronic diseases needed more than

09/01/2008 01/01/2006

ANS Production barrel per day 505,562 Feb. 27, 2020

05/01/2003 09/01/2000

0

400,000

800,000

1,200,000

SOURCE: Alaska Department of Revenue Tax Division

ANS West Coast Crude Oil Prices 02/27/2020

$300

09/01/2012

MILLION

09/01/2008

IN MEDICAID

ASSISTANCE

ANS West Coast $ per barrel $50.37 Feb. 27, 2020

09/01/2004

 Ischemic Heart Disease 16%  Heart Failure 3%  Cardiomyopathy 2%  Cardiac Arrhythmias 2%  Other Heart Disease 5%

One person dies every 37 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease.

09/01/2000 $0

$20

$40

$60

$80 $100 $120 $140 $160

SOURCE: Alaska Department of Revenue Tax Division

Statewide Employment Figures 01/1976-12/2019 Seasonally Adjusted

12/01/2019

Labor Force 347,109 Dec. 2019 Employment 325,923 Dec. 2019 Unemployment 6.1% Dec. 2019

01/01/2010 05/01/2004 09/01/1998

HEART DISEASE CONTRIBUTED TO

70,782 HOSPITAL VISITS

01/01/1993 05/01/1987 09/01/1981 01/01/1976

12,288 INPATIENT VISITS

58,494 OUTPATIENT VISITS

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

SOURCE: Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Research & Analysis Section

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www.penco.org April 2020 | 127

AT A GLANCE What book is currently on your nightstand?

My Bible. If you flip through Proverbs, there’s so much wisdom in it. [Also] leadership books. I read a lot of leadership books… I don’t care how long you’ve been a leader, if you stop trying, if you say you know everything, you should leave your job.

What movie do you recommend to everyone you know?

I love the movie Shining Through. It’s a very uplifting, great movie. And the second is Heaven Is For Real.

What’s the first thing you do when you get home after a long day at work?

I kick off my shoes and start dinner… I’m a good cook because my dad was a Chinese Filipino cook who taught me everything.

If you couldn’t live in Alaska, what’s your dream locale?

New Zealand… the Māori tribe people are like us and feel like family to me, and I love the country. It’s beautiful.

128 | April 2020

Images ©Kerry Tasker

If you could domesticate a wild animal, what animal would it be?

Everybody at Southcentral Foundation would have this answer for you: it’s a grizzly bear. I would get it when it was a baby and it would be mine, and nobody would come near me because he’d be right next to me.

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

OFF THE CUFF

Katherine Gottlieb K

atherine Gottlieb has been the president and CEO of Southcentral Foundation since 1991. Her first job

AB: What’s your go-to comfort food?

Gottlieb: Adobo chicken.

was also in the healthcare industry working for a doctor in Seldovia, “And I found out the major thing about doctors: they don’t go to handwriting school,” she laughs. She joined Southcentral Foundation in 1987, and throughout her career has found and seized opportunities for growth... for herself, her peers, and the organization.

For instance, she has been a faculty member of Harvard Medical School since 2015 and continues to mentor both Harvard students who come to Alaska to learn from Southcentral Foundation as well as local students and employees in whom she sees vast potential.

Gottlieb is Sugpiaq and Filipino, “and I love working with Alaska Native people,” she says. “My heart is for seeing the self-esteem of Alaska Native people be raised up… I see people change their attitudes, I see peoples’ heads be lifted up, more proud to be who they are. And that’s a major

AB: Other than your current career, if you were a kid today, what would your dream job be?

Gottlieb: I would have a great, big, giant orphanage for little kids to twelfth graders. It would have lots of acres and be a safe haven for children.

AB: What’s your favorite way to exercise?

Gottlieb: Every time I go on vacation, it’s my best exercise.

I get out, I never stay still, I’m moving all the time. I’m either walking or swimming or biking—I’m doing something.

AB: Dead or alive, who would you like to see perform live in concert?

Gottlieb: The Beatles. I could sing every single one of their songs—if you play a song I will sing right along with it.

AB: What’s your greatest extravagance?

Gottlieb: It would be piloting, because it’s expensive to do it.

Flying costs fuel.

reason why I stay—I care what happens to our children’s children. I want to see and know that in a hundred years when I’m not around, that they’re going to be healthy, strong, wise, and running the world."

Alaska Business: What do you do in your free time?

Katherine Gottlieb: I like to write, so I have books in the making. [And] I play with grandbabies all the time. They keep me young.

AB: Is there a skill you’re currently developing or have always wanted to learn?

Gottlieb: I am not developing it, but I’ve always wanted to play the piano. I have this keyboard and I’m doing chords, but I haven’t taken lessons… I’d be happy if I sat down at the piano and I was able to play one song and everybody around me was like, “Wow, you play the piano?” … I just want to play one song really good [she laughs].

AB: What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?

Gottlieb: I am a pilot… and it was my first landing in Seldovia.

There’s a way the wind carries you and drops you [that makes landing challenging]. www.akbizmag.com

AB: Have you ever had a supernatural experience?

Gottlieb: I saw a really low-flying meteorite when I was in Philadelphia and it was very, very dark and it flew over me at a very, very sad time, and I felt like it was a whisper from God saying, “I love you.”

AB: What’s your best attribute and worst attribute?

Gottlieb: I am a visionary, which means I see [the potential of] things in twenty years… that’s been the joy of working at Southcentral Foundation and seeing a twenty-year vision come true. But that’s also my worst attribute because I have a lot of great ideas, and sometimes it frustrates me not to be able to implement all of them, but if we did we’d burn out everyone at Southcentral Foundation and my family. Drawing back, pulling back, and not implementing a vision or an idea is really hard for me.

Alaska Business

April 2020 | 129

ADVERTISERS INDEX Afognak Leasing LLC............ 99

Avis Rent-A-Car...................115

alutiiq.com

avisalaska.com

AHTNA Inc.............................65

BDO........................................27

ahtna.com

bdo.com

AIDEA.................................. 105 aidea.com

Airport Equipment Rentals AER.......................................131

Beacon Occupational Health & Safety Services........52

Hecla Greens Creek Mining Company...................73

Parker Smith & Feek...............23

hecla-mining.com

PDC Inc. Engineers............... 29

Island Air Express.................119

pdceng.com

islandairx.com

Personnel Plus.....................118

JEFFCO Inc........................... 34

perplus.com

jeffcogrounds.com

beaconohss.com

psfinc.com

PIP Marketing Signs Print.......59 pip.com

Bering Straits Native Corp.....39

JENNMAR..............................95

airportequipmentrentals.com

beringstraits.com

jennmar.com

Alaska Air Cargo Alaska Airlines......................111

Bristol Bay Native Corp. - BBNC...........................3

Junior Achievement of Alaska.................................16

alaskaair.com

bbnc.net

juniorachievement.org/web/ja-alaska/

resolvemarine.com

Alaska Executive Search........15

Calista Corp...........................77

Kinross Fort Knox...................81

Samson Tug & Barge.......... 102

akexec.com

calistacorp.com

fb.kinross.com

samsontug.com

Alaska Humanities Forum......78

Carlile Transportation Systems................................121

Lynden Inc.......................... 109

Sealaska.................................71

lynden.com

sealaska.com

Material Flow & Conveyor Systems, Inc...........................37

seatacmarine.com

akhf.org

Alaska Marine Excavation... 106 akmx.com

Alaska Mergers & Acquisitions............................17 fink@alaska.net

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium....132 anthc.org

Alaska Pacific University....... 20 alaskapacific.edu

Alaska Railroad.......................73 alaskarailroad.com

Alaska Regional Hospital.......21 TakeMeToAlaskaRegional.com

Alaska USA Federal Credit Union..........................31 alaskausa.org

Altman Rogers & Co..............19 altrogco.com

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co..............................47 alyeska-pipeline.com

Alyeska Resort........................78 alyeskaresort.com

Ambler Metals LLC................ 86 amblermetals.com

American Heart Association - Heart Walk.......41 www.heart.org

American Marine / Penco.......................... 126, 127 amarinecorp.com

Arctic Slope Regional Corp. - ASRC........................ 50

carlile.biz

Central Environmental Inc... 60 cei-alaska.com

CIRI.........................................79 ciri.com

Colville Inc.............................51 colvilleinc.com

Conrad-Houston Insurance Agency..................19 chialaska.com

materialflow.com

Matson Inc.............................67

redpathmining.com

Resolve Marine Group.........107

Seatac Marine Service...........36 Shoreside Petroleum.............33 shoresidepetroleum.com

matson.com

MICROCOM........................ 102 microcom.tv

MTA....................................... 69 mtasolutions.com

Smith Co SideDump Trailers........................97 sidedump.com

Southcentral Foundation......13 southcentralfoundation.com

NANA Regional Corp.............87

Stellar Designs Inc...............119

nana.com

stellar-designs.com

Teck Alaska Inc......................85

cmiak.com

Nenana Heating Services Inc............................36

Credit Union 1........................53

nenanahaetingservices.net

cu1.org

New Horizons Telecom, Inc.....35

The Megan Room Conference & Events Center.................... 29

Cruz Companies....................61

nhtiusa.com

themeganroom.com

cruzconstruct.com

North Star Behavioral Health.................................... 54

The Odom Corp....................55

Delta Constructors............... 46 deltaconstructors.net

northstarbehavioral.com

Design Alaska.........................35

Northern Air Cargo..... 124, 125

designalaska.com

nac.aero

Dorsey & Whitney LLP...........58

Northrim Bank.......................11

dorsey.com

northrim.com

Equipment Source Inc. - ESI.93

NorthStar Supply LLC............79

esialaska.com

northstarsupplyak.com

Explore Fairbanks.................114

Novagold Resources Inc.......83

explorefairbanks.com

novagold.com

First National Bank Alaska.......5

Odyssey Logistics & Technology Corp.................. 45

Construction Machinery Industrial – CMI.......................2

fnbalaska.com

teck.com

odomcorp.com

Thomas Head & Greisen.......38 thgcpa.com

UA Local 375 Plumbers & Pipefitters..........................101 ualocal375.org

United States Census Bureau.......................75 census.gov

United Way of Anchorage.....25 liveunitedanchorage.org

odysseylogistics.com

USI Insurance Services..........43 usi.com

foss.com

Oxford Assaying & Refining Inc............................93

Fountainhead Hotels...........113

oxfordmetal.com

usibelli.com

Pacific Pile & Marine............123

Visit Anchorage....................117

pacificpile.com

anchorage.net

Westmark Hotels HAP Alaska...........................103 westmarkhotels.com

Foss Maritime.........................17

fountainheadhotels.com

GBA Assaying and Refining...91

asrc.com

gbarefining.com

AT&T.......................................63

Great Originals Inc...............103

Pacific Seafood Processors Association.........56

att.com

greatoriginals.com

pspafish.net

130 | April 2020

Redpath Mining USA............. 89

Usibelli Coal Mine..................57

Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com

907.456.2000

airportequipmentrentals.com

ANTHC SERVING OUR COMMUNITIES

Weaver/Penna Award for Pharmacy • Forbes “Best-In-State Employer” 2019 U.S. News & World Report “High Performing” Orthopedics • American College of Surgeons “Meritorious” Quality • Comprehensive Pediatric Emergency Care Facility Level II Trauma, Adults and Pediatrics • World Justice Project international award American Cancer Society – Alaska “Innovator Champion”

Award-winning care for Alaska Native people The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium mission is providing the highest quality health services in partnership with our people and the Alaska Tribal Health System.

The highest quality care means better health outcomes and moves us closer to achieving our vision that Alaska Native people are the healthiest people in the world. From distinctive health care at the Alaska Native Medical Center to exceptional health services in rural communities, ANTHC offers award-winning services.

anthc.org