Alaska Business Monthly October 2015 by Alaska Business

TOP 49 ALASKA COMPANIES BASED ON GROSS REVENUE

October 2015

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October 2015 TAB LE

CONTENTS ABOUT THE COVER

DEPARTMENTS

A race car graces our cover this year to bolster the Alaska Business Monthly Top 49ers theme “Racing to Success.” This year’s Top 49 Alaskan-owned, Alaska-based companies generated more than $15 billion in gross revenue—crossing the finish line to a dramatic flourish of the checkered flag. The special section begins on page 60.

From the Editor �� 7 Inside Alaska Business ��165 Right Moves ��168 Agenda ��170 Alaska This Month ��171 Events Calendar ��173 Alaska Trends ��174 Ad Index ��178

Cover design by David Geiger, Art Director Special thanks to the Made in Alaska program for the use of their logo on the cover.

ARTICLES

Iconic Alaskans

Public Advisory Signs above Eagle Beach, August 20, 2015.

8 Irene Rowan

8 | Irene Rowan By Shehla Anjum

Economy

14 | Alaska Permanent Fund: Sweet Deal for Sourdoughs By Will Swagel

Employer Benefits

20 | Overcoming Psychological Biases in the Age of the 401k Financial literacy, better plan design, higher allocations help employees prepare for retirement By John Nofsinger

26 | Alaskan Arctic Summit on Shipping and Ports By J. Pennelope Goforth

Financial Services

34 | EMV Chip Card Technology Shifts Fraud Liability October 1 Deadline for Merchants and Card Issuers By Tracy Barbour

Environmental Services

36 | Cleanup Activities in Alaska By Rindi White

Telecom & Technology

44 | Trending Broadband Needs of Alaska Businesses Increasing Demand for Connectivity By Tracy Barbour

Financial Services

50 | How Alaskans Grow Their Wealth By J. Pennelope Goforth

DIGITAL EXCLUSIVES

Business Management

22 | Developing a Business Plan Cultivating small business mentorships By Julie Stricker

38 | Alaska Water and Sewer Challenge Three finalists selected for Phase 3 By Rindi White

Arctic

22 A selection of Sipping Streams Tea Company on display at a retail outlet.

Courtesy of Jenny Tse

Photo courtesy ADEC

ARCTIC

ASRC: Responsible Development By Tasha Anderson GLACIER Summit: Photo Essay By Russ Slaten

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

October 2015 TAB LE

CONTENTS

special section

2015 Top 49ers 60 | Top 49ers 2015 By Tasha Anderson 62 | 2015 Top 49ers Employment Figures, Gross Revenues & Industry Distribution

112 | Strategic Branding and Marketing Top 49ers find success through many methods

Featured 49ers

64 | 2015 Top 49ers Directory 102 | 2015 Top 49ers by Industry Classification 104 | 2015 Top 49ers 5 year Rank and Revenue 106 | Branding for Success Businesses rework and refine to stay ahead of the curve By Julie Stricker

116 | Bristol Bay Native Corporation Providing for its shareholders By Russ Slaten 120 | Cornerstone General Contractors By Tasha Anderson 124 | Tatonduk Outfitters Limited dba Everts Air Delivering quality with a pioneering spirit By Russ Slaten 128 | Vitus Energy By Tasha Anderson

152

Courtesy of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

ARTICLES

Legal Speak

56 | The Legal Landscape for Alaska Employers Is Changing. Are You Changing with It? By Renea Saade

Energy

58 | Rural Energy Solutions An opportunity for US leadership in the Arctic By Meera Kohler and Gwen Holdmann

Arctic Opinions

131 | The Changing Arctic Presents Opportunity to Thrive, If We Act Now By Ron Duncan and Reggie Joule

Alaska Native Business 132 | ANC Private Equity Outlays Native corporations invest in Alaska By Russ Slaten

Oil & Gas

The trans-Alaska oil pipeline—TAPS. 6

142 | North Slope Activity Adapting to a changing market By Kirsten Swann

Oil & Gas

152 | Trans Alaska Pipeline System: TAPS Update New solutions keep oil flowing in aging pipeline By Kirsten Swann

Healthcare

158 | Alaska 2-1-1 A lifeline for Alaskans By Russ Slaten

160 | His and Hers Cancer Awareness Alaska is rich in resources for screening and testing By Lisa Maloney

Correction In “Developing Meaningful Relationships with Residents in Arctic Development” on page 70 of the September issue, the amount of money NANA has shared was incorrect. NANA has received more than $1.1 billion since 1990, of which $705.5 million has been shared with other Alaska Native corporations.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

FROM THE EDITOR

Top 49ers—All Alaska— Thirty-First Team 2015

Volume 31, Number 10 Published by Alaska Business Publishing Co. Anchorage, Alaska Jim Martin, Publisher 1989~2014

EDITORIAL STAFF

Managing Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor Art Director Art Production Photo Consultant Photo Contributor

Susan Harrington Russ Slaten Tasha Anderson David Geiger Linda Shogren Chris Arend Judy Patrick

BUSINESS STAFF

President Vice President & General Mgr. VP Sales & Mktg. Senior Account Mgr. Senior Account Mgr. Account Mgr. Accountant & Circulation

Billie Martin Jason Martin Charles Bell Anne Tompkins Bill Morris Janis J. Plume Ana Lavagnino

501 W. Northern Lights Boulevard, Suite 100 Anchorage, Alaska 99503-2577 (907) 276-4373 Outside Anchorage: 1-800-770-4373 Fax: (907) 279-2900 www.akbizmag.com Editorial email: editor@akbizmag.com ALASKA BUSINESS PUBLISHING CO., INC. ALASKA BUSINESS MONTHLY (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; Fax: (907) 279-2900, ©2014, Alaska Business Publishing Co. All rights reserved. Subscription Rates: $39.95 a year. Single issues of the Power List are $15 each. Single issues of Alaska Business Monthly are $3.95 each; $4.95 for October, and back issues are $5 each. Send subscription orders and address changes to the Circulation Department, Alaska Business Monthly, PO Box 241288, Anchorage, AK 99524. Please supply both old and new addresses and allow six weeks for change, or update online at www.akbizmag.com. Manuscripts: Send query letter to the Editor. Alaska Business Monthly is not responsible for unsolicited materials. Photocopies: Where necessary, permission is granted by the copyright owner for libraries and others registered with Copyright Clearance Center to photocopy any article herein for $1.35 per copy. Send payments to CCC, 27 Congress Street, Salem, MA 01970. Copying done for other than personal or internal reference use without the expressed permission of Alaska Business Publishing Co., Inc. is prohibited. Address requests for specific permission to Managing Editor, Alaska Business Publishing. Online: Alaska Business Monthly is available at www.akbizmag.com/Digital-Archives, www.thefreelibrary.com/Alaska+Business+Monthly-p2643 and from Thomson Gale. Microfilm: Alaska Business Monthly is available on microfilm from University Microfilms International, 300 North Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106.

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Winning the ‘Race to Success’

t’s that time of year when Alaska Business Monthly reveals the largest Alaskan-owned, Alaska-based companies. It’s something the magazine has been doing since its first October issue in 1985. “The New 49ers, All Alaska, First Team 1985” represented the first field of Alaska Business Monthly’s Top 49er companies ranked by gross revenue—boasting $2.76 billion in gross revenues and 19,044 employees. This year the number one Top 49er has nearly the same in gross revenues as all the Top 49ers did then and more than half the number of employees—and that’s just one company. Collectively, the field has grown and the industries dominating the list have changed. In 1985, Carr-Gottstein Company, Inc. topped the list by selling groceries, liquor, and commercial real estate. Sealaska was number two with activities in logging, seafood processing, barge transportation, brick manufacturing, and sand and gravel holdings. The next three Top 49ers included an air carrier (Wien Air Alaska), a bank (National Bancorp of Alaska), and a travel agency (TravelCenter, Inc.). How things change. The Top 49ers have mirrored changes to the Alaska economy with many Top 49ers becoming more diversified in their activities, even within their industries and economic sectors. By the way, of those first top five Top 49ers, the only remaining company is Sealaska—an Alaska Native Corporation that is not only still in business, but still a Top 49er. In fact, the top twenty this year include fifteen Native corporations, two transportation companies, and two industrial services companies. Alaska Business Monthly’s 2015 Top 49ers include twenty Native corporations reporting 74 percent of the gross revenue and providing 85 percent of the total jobs and employees—69 percent in Alaska. That’s a growing trend. Alaska Native Corporations are a prime example of companies winning the “Race to Success” through growth and diversified company assets and operations, again and again. Check out the Top 49ers special section (begins page 60). These companies are found at or near the top of the Top 49ers more than any others in the last thirty-one years of Alaska Business Monthly’s Top 49ers. They’re to be congratulated for a job well done, as are all the Top 49ers—All Alaska—ThirtyFirst Team 2015. Bring out the checkered flag! Also to be congratulated for a job well done (again and again) is Team Alaska Business Monthly—we’ve put together another really great magazine. Enjoy! —Susan Harrington, Managing Editor October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

ICONIC ALASKANS

Photos courtesy of Irene Rowan

Irene Rowan By Shehla Anjum

A young Irene Rowan in front of the Whale House wearing an owl mask and the apron seen in the 1895 Whale House photo (above, far left). 8

hen Irene Sparks Rowan stepped off a plane in Bethel she carried a white umbrella and wore white boots, a white hat, and a pink raincoat. She was there to start her first job as a teacher at the high school. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I dressed as I had in college,â&#x20AC;? she says. It was August 1964 and it was rainy and windy. Rowan unfurled her white umbrella

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Natives Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), run her own business, and served as a bank director. She also developed nonprofits that highlighted Alaska Natives and their cultures or advocated for Native rights. She is a respected leader whose counsel is sought by many. Rowan had returned to Alaska only a few months earlier from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, with a BA in business education. Bethel “was a culture shock,” she says. “I came from Haines, from a land of trees, and here I was in the wide expanse of the tundra. There were no paved roads and most people spoke Yup’ik, which I didn’t understand. It was not the Alaska I knew.”

Two Worlds

Interior of Chief Klart-Reech’s Whale House in 1895 at Chilkat with Tlingits in traditional dance regalia.

and walked toward the terminal. “In about five minutes my boots were brown, my hat blew away, my umbrella turned inside-out, and my raincoat was splattered with mud.” The arrival in Bethel marked the start of Rowan’s adult life. Since then she has played a significant role in the passage of the Alaska www.akbizmag.com

The Alaska she knew was the Southeast— with its mountains, water, and trees. Rowan, a Tlingit Chilkat from the Gaanaxteidi clan of Klukwan, was born in Haines. Her mother, Mildred Hotch Sparks, came from Klukwan and was a matriarch of the clan. Her father William, originally from Kentucky, had been stationed at the army’s Chilkoot Barracks in Haines during World War II. Until she left for college, Rowan says, she “walked in two worlds” as did her mother, who had moved between family life in Haines and work and tribal life in Klukwan, heading the Chilkat Indian Village IRA and running its store. Rowan and her siblings attended school in Haines but spent time in Klukwan, especially in summer. In Klukwan Rowan participated in memorial ceremonials and traditional events. “I gathered seaweed and berries, smoked fish, and put up the food for winter. Groceries were expensive and Haines got a boat with groceries only two or three times a year,” Rowan says. She also glimpsed a world, then already changing, when her mother went to trade with Canadian Indians. “She traded hooligan oil, seaweed, and salmon strips for tanned moose hide and gopher skins. She made our moccasins and jackets from the moose hide and blankets out of gopher skins.” Klukwan grounded Rowan in Tlingit culture and important Chilkat values of hard work, honesty, and trustworthiness. Her mother instilled the values of respect, caring, and sharing with others. In high school she helped form the Chilkat Dancers, strengthening her Tlingit identity further. “That was a very exciting time for me. The Chilkat Dancers instilled in us the importance of our culture. It gave us pride in our art and language and what being a Chilkat meant.” Being a dancer also increased her confidence, Rowan says. “I felt inspired when I put on my regalia and empowered when I heard my music and performed my dance.” October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

The group danced for tourists at the tribal house in Port Chilkoot, near Klukwan, and at Native dance competitions in the Lower 48. In 1959, in her last year of high school, the dancers took the grand prize at the International Intertribal Indian Dance Ceremonial festival in Gallup, New Mexico. The dancing was also important because Christianity had suppressed the Native culture in many other parts of Alaska, but the Chilkats found a way to balance their culture with religion, Rowan says. In her younger days Rowan dreamed of teaching, but in high school she wanted to become an air force pilot. Her parents discouraged that idea and insisted that she go to college. After a year at a teachers’ school in Minot, North Dakota, Rowan transferred to Western Washington University. Summer jobs in Haines paid for college, and she graduated in 1964. “Growing up I walked in two worlds, but wherever I was I remembered my mom’s explanation that the eyes on woven Chilkat blankets meant ‘there are always eyes on you,’” she says. She also kept in mind her mother’s role as the clan’s matriarch and a leader. “I was ‘miss goody two-shoes’ because anything I did reflected on her. But in college, away from that, I was free.” Was she a serious student? “Heck no,” Rowan replies.

Finding the Future

The college years were mostly about “living life and having a good time,” Rowan says. Her college friend Lou McKee remembers that “Irene was the most fun, the cutest, and among the most popular girls on campus.” And, McKee

says, she loved to dance. “When Irene learned the cha-cha she’d practice the dance walking the five blocks from campus to our house, and people would just smile at her.” Through most of her college years, Rowan gave scant thought to her future. But McKee says her friend was far from frivolous. “Even then I saw that Irene was an idea person and a networker who was able to persuade others to help her put those ideas into action,” McKee says. She saw those attributes, says McKee, when Rowan talked her into pitching in to acquire a car for their group. “Irene sold me on the idea that a car would allow us to do more,” McKee says. She had no regrets about that decision even though it meant that she spent more time working to pay for the car than she did driving it. It was in the last quarter of college that Rowan decided on a teaching career. She returned to Haines, applied for teaching jobs, and was hired by the state to teach business at Bethel High School. Soon she changed from the carefree college girl into a person who cared deeply about many issues. “The change was instantaneous,” Rowan says. It started almost from the moment she landed. “Within a few hours in Bethel, I realized that this was a whole new world.” In that world she became involved in politics and became interested in the passage of a land settlement for all of Alaska’s Native people. The first year was busy. Rowan taught business and girls’ PE and was an advisor for the junior class, the school newspaper, and the yearbook. She met a young teacher named Mike Rowan and within five months they were married. After her first child, Mia, was born in 1966, she stopped teaching full-time and took a job as a city clerk.

She entered politics when a group of students noted that Bethel, with its majority Yup’ik population, had no Yup’ik representative on the city council. “The students selected three Yup’ik candidates. The social studies teacher and I helped plan a campaign. They made posters, went door-to-door, and got the vote out. All three candidates were elected,” Rowan says, who nearly lost her job over it. The political involvement deepened when she and her husband met Mike Gravel, then Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives. Gravel was conducting hearings on education, something that Rowan cared deeply about. Soon both Rowans were involved in Gravel’s campaign for the US House, which he lost. Gravel ran again, for the US Senate, and hired Mike Rowan to run his campaign. The Rowans then moved to Anchorage, where their second daughter, Rochene, was born. The land claims movement was also gaining momentum. Rowan was aware of the issue since childhood from her mother’s involvement in the Tlingit’s land claims effort. “My mom was a true champion of Alaska Native rights and a strong champion for the land claims,” Rowan says. Shortly before leaving Bethel Rowan helped start the Kuskokwim Valley Native Association. She attended the organizing meeting for the Alaska Federation of Natives in Anchorage as a representative of the association.

‘Unheralded’ ANCSA Role

The role Rowan played in ANCSA is not as wellknown as that of others, mostly men. Women were involved, but more at the support level. After Gravel’s election Mike Rowan went to work for him in Washington, and the Rowans also moved there. To help get the ANCSA bill

Courtesy of Irene Rowan

Irene Rowan now (left) and as a teen (above) wearing the beaded Chilkat Dancer regalia her mother made, with woodworm on the front and raven on the back. Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

 

through Congress, Rowan regularly attended meetings at the Capitol with other Alaskans. Gravel was committed to helping, and Rowan’s role was significant: “I had Mike Gravel’s ear and I could provide insight,” Rowan says. “Irene played a quiet role, but it was very important,” Mike Gravel says. “Her contribution to ANCSA was equal to any individual male leader but she was unheralded in the role she played.” Gravel praises Rowan’s style. “Irene has a natural humbleness, and in meetings she guided discussions in a nuanced way, without offending anyone. She quietly did her work in the background,” he says. A week after ANCSA passed, Rowan returned to Alaska. After a period she became active in her village corporation, Klukwan, Inc. Rowan employed her knowledge of Washington, DC and political acumen on Klukwan’s behalf. Klukwan, one of six federal reserves in Alaska, was governed by its IRA council. As a reserve, Klukwan had a choice under ANCSA to either fully participate in ANCSA (select land and receive monetary compensation) or to take title to the surface and the subsurface estate of its reserve and receive no money. Both options required that it form a corporation. In 1973, Klukwan chose to accept title to its eight-hundred-acre reserve. In 1975, Rowan became Klukwan, Inc.’s president, and the board gave her a daunting task: “My mandate was to secure all the benefits of ANCSA for the 253 shareholders and also to preserve the rights of the 80 members of the Chilkat Indian Village IRA.” That required an amendment to ANCSA recognizing Klukwan as an ANCSA village corporation entitled to both acreage (23,040 acres) and cash. The Klukwan team, led by Rowan, succeeded in getting two bills passed in 1976 to achieve that. The first, adopted in January 1976, recognized Klukwan, Inc. as a village corporation entitled to land, money, and other ANCSA benefits and returned the reserve land to the village IRA. The second allowed Klukwan to select lands outside its original withdrawal area, which had been selected by the state. Getting even one piece of legislation in a year is difficult but getting two through “is quite a coup,” says Don Argetsinger, a close friend and colleague in Washington who later worked for Klukwan. “Irene had a strong resolve to improve Klukwan’s situation. She understood the legislative process and how Washington worked.” Klukwan showed its gratitude for Rowan’s work by firing her. “I was devastated, it was a tough political lesson,” she says. But she was not down. Her consulting firm, Kish Tu, was one of the few women-owned companies breaking new ground bidding on government contracts.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Action and Diplomacy

Writer and reporter Lael Morgan worked with Rowan at Kish Tu and has known her since 1972. Morgan speaks highly of Rowan’s diplomatic skills, both on professional and personal levels: “I wrote a report on a government contract. When Irene reviewed it she found some numbers were backward. Instead of getting upset, Irene quietly said, ‘Lael, I think you have the same problem as my daughter.’” Morgan was dyslexic but didn’t know it. In the late ‘70s, Rowan became special assistant to the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs at the US Department of the Interior. She spent another two years in Washington working on amendments to ANCSA and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. Klukwan, Inc. continued to play a role in Rowan’s life. Klukwan had formed a major timber company based on harvesting its timber on Long Island, but by 1996 those days of big revenues were ending. Rowan was on Klukwan’s board, and to safeguard its assets the board set up three trusts, one each for shareholder dividends, education, and land management. Rowan cares deeply about education and wanted to ensure that Klukwan shareholders had help with educational expenses, Argetsinger says. While at Klukwan Rowan also made a point of working closely with other village corporations in the Southeast. Joe Beedle, chief executive officer of Northrim Bank, was president of Goldbelt, Inc., the Juneau Native village corporation, when Rowan was at Klukwan. They were both active in the Southeast Alaska Native Presidents Association, which Rowan helped set up. “Goldbelt was interested in timber operations and Irene shared her expertise with us. The Kensington Mine was also about to start operations and there were concerns about its impacts. In the association’s discussions with the mine Irene insisted that in exchange for the Native corporations’ support the mine should provide training and jobs,” Beedle says. The mine agreed. In the years since leaving Klukwan, Rowan has kept up with many issues and is known for organizing events and discussions. A few years ago, on the fortieth anniversary of ANCSA, she organized forums that brought together the people who had worked on it. Rowan wanted to make sure that young people had a chance to hear about the history of ANCSA from those who were involved. One forum dealt specifically with the role of women in ANCSA. Today, Rowan is still busy. In May she retired after twenty-five years on the board of Northrim Bank. She recently organized the Alaska Native Media Group to promote Alaska Natives in all fields of media. Among other things the group is working on a rewww.akbizmag.com

source book with information about correct ways of naming and spelling that will be useful to those writing about Alaska Natives. Angela Gonzalez, an Athabascan blogger in the group, is impressed with Rowan’s skills at getting people to work together. “Irene assigns tasks to the right people and makes sure they are being carried out. She does this in a gentle way, always with a smile and people find it hard to say no to her,” Gonzalez says. The future for Natives and all Alaskans is full of promises, Rowan feels. She is proud of the success of the ANCSA corporations, the new cadre of educated Native manag-

ers, and all the young people who have benefitted from corporate scholarships. Even as oil prices slide and Alaska’s future looks uncertain, Rowan says the Alaska Native corporations will continue to grow and add to the Alaska economy. “The corporations are a major landowner in the state and with proper management and leadership they will continue to benefit their shareholders and the rest of the state.” R

Writer Shehla Anjum is based in Anchorage.

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ECONOMY

Courtesy of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation

Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation headquarters in Juneau is the only property in Alaska the corporation owns.

Alaska Permanent Fund: Sweet Deal for Sourdoughs

By Will Swagel

ith so much nineteenth and early twentieth century Alaska lifestyle capturing the public imagination on reality TV, it’s easy to overlook what a twenty-first century kind-of-place the Great Land can be. The Alaska Permanent Fund—now valued at about $50 billion—is well regarded among sovereign wealth funds (SWF) worldwide for its excellent management and its successful returns. The Permanent Fund was among the very first US SWFs to embrace global investing. And its risk management protocols are a model that other SWFs look to for guidance. Alaska’s Fund garners the highest marks for transparency. SWFs are state-owned investment funds and are usually created to manage and preserve the revenue stream from resource development, often the oil industry. But the pools of money may come from revenue from other resources, such as minerals or even money accrued from trade. These funds are mostly managed for the longterm. Some SWFs are formed to invest in industry development, others to build infra-

structure or provide public services. The stated aim of the Alaska Permanent Fund is to create a revenue stream for Alaska that will continue indefinitely, after direct oil revenues have dwindled or disappeared. Today, the Fund’s earnings on its principal dwarf the amount of money collected annually in royalties. The Alaska Permanent Fund is unique worldwide in that it pays a yearly cash dividend. The Permanent Fund itself was meant to contain government overspending by putting some oil revenues out of legislative control. But the fund’s designers went a step further in thinking that an annual dividend would keep the public focused on growing the fund instead of spending the principal on popular projects. Those designers were spectacularly right. “Alaskans are very interested in their dividend and to some degree it has kept the public eye on the fund,” says Valerie Mertz, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation’s CFO, also serving this summer as Acting CEO. “It has motivated us to be transparent and always mindful of our mission to the people of Alaska.” To date, the Permanent Fund has paid out more than $23 billion in dividends to Alaskans.

Sovereign Wealth Funds Proliferate The Alaska Permanent Fund dates back to 1976 when Alaska voters supported it two to one in the general election. The earliest US Fund was established in 1854 by Texas, using the revenues from public lands to support education. In the twenty-first century, however, the interest in SWFs has grown sharply. The term “sovereign wealth fund” is itself a twentyfirst century invention, coined by investment expert Andrew Rozanov in a 2005 article in the magazine Central Banking Journal. The Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute was formed in 2007 to track and provide information on the funds, says Institute President Michael Maduell. “The interest in wealth funds has grown dramatically,” he says. “Since the Institute started [eight years ago] the market went from $3 trillion to $7.3 trillion.” The Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute has grown, too, says Maduell. They now publish a magazine, conduct research on asset owners, and host global conferences. The Institute posts a ranking of SWFs by assets under management and brief descriptions at swfinstitute.org/sovereign-wealth-fundrankings.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Commercial Insurance Employee Benefits Personal Insurance Risk Management Surety

The largest SWF on the institute’s list is Norway’s Government Pension Fund, with assets under management valued at $882 billion. Second on the list is the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, valued at $773 billion. The first of several Chinese funds is next, the China Investment Corporation, valued at $746.5 billion. Many of the subsequent funds are based in the Middle East or Asia. The Alaska Permanent Fund, the largest US fund, is ranked at 22 on the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute’s list, with assets under management valued at $52.8 billion. The next largest is the venerable Texas Permanent School Fund at $37.7 billion. Texas also lists a Permanent University Fund at $17.2 billion. SWFs are listed for New Mexico ($19.8 billion), Wyoming ($5.6 billion), North Dakota ($3.2 billion), Alabama ($2.5 billion), and Louisiana ($1.3 billion). “The [managers of] the Alaska Permanent Fund have done a commendable job of shunting wealth into the fund and not taking too much out of it,” Maduell says. “Some of the other funds that are petrolbased, the governments have greater ability to tap into those funds and [the funds] have not grown that fast.” Canada’s Alberta Heritage Fund, he notes, did not grow nearly as fast as the

Alaska Permanent Fund. Despite the fact that both funds were started in 1976, the Alberta fund stands at $17.9 billion versus Alaska’s $52.8 billion.

Stay the Course?

Greg Allen, president and director of research for Callan Associates, Inc., has worked with the Alaska Permanent Fund as a consultant for more than twenty years. Allen says his firm helps the Permanent Fund board to interpret the performance of the fund and to make asset allocation decisions. Callan also advises several other Alaska funds. Overall, says Allen, his firm serves about three hundred clients with combined assets of $2 trillion. Allen says that the Permanent Fund Board has done well in adjusting the investment strategy for the fund as it has grown, with more diversified investments over time. “The Alaska Permanent Fund is one of the most diversified portfolios that we work with,” he says. “[They have] a private equity program, a hedge fund program, a real estate program, an infrastructure program, US equities, global equities, and fixed income.” Allen says this diversification—as well as being able to invest for the long-term—

gives the Permanent Fund advantages not available to funds with a short-term focus. “Investors with a shorter time horizon cannot take the same risks and earn the same returns as investors with a longer time horizon,” Allen says. “Take a pension fund, for instance—they have these big benefit payments that they have to make every year. The Permanent Fund has to pay something out only if it makes the money—that’s a good position. There are not all these giant benefit payments they have to make every year unless they can afford to make them.” The Permanent Fund is looked at as an industry leader in terms of diversification and risk management,” Allen says. “They were very early—from a Sovereign Wealth Fund standpoint—to get into private equity and that has done really well for them. They were also an early adopter of sophisticated risk management systems to help guide their investment process.” He also praised the Permanent Fund’s Juneau-based bond management team, which has achieved the difficult job of consistently outperforming the bond markets.

Protected Wealth

It is interesting to note that today’s $52.8 billion giant started in 1977 with an initial

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Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Alaska’s Infrastructure Experts

deposit of only $734,000 of dedicated oil revenues, invested entirely in bonds. Alaskans were still trying to decide whether to manage the Permanent Fund as a separate, protected account for investing in the long term or to use the fund to bankroll economic development in the shorter term. They decided on the separate protected accounts. Today, one of the fund’s strengths is its independence from political pressure. The Permanent Fund Corporation has to get approval for its operating budget, but it is free from interference in its investment decisions. It is also free from competitive bidding rules for money management services—when hiring financial consultants, as an example. “We are shielded somewhat from political decisions,” says Acting CEO Mertz. “From, for instance, the pressure to invest in projects that might not be prudent.” Despite a large roster of real estate investments, the corporation only owns one property in Alaska—its own headquarters in Juneau. Mertz says she considers the Permanent Fund’s separation of earnings and principal to be another of its strengths. Crude oil prices are continuing to fall at the time this article is being written. The accompanying plunge in state revenues from oil is again causing some policymakers to eye the Permanent Fund as a possible source of state operating revenues. While the drop in oil prices will reduce royalties to the fund, it should not result in a proportional drop in the size of the annual dividend. Most of the fund’s earnings are now from its investments, not from oil. Furthermore, the formula used to calculate the annual dividend uses the average of five years of returns. By all measures, the dividend program is extremely popular among Alaskans, especially in more rural areas. Allen says he has been surprised that the public has not complained more as the PFD has ranged from less than $900 in some years to more than $2,000 in other years. That public support may be tested as state services are cut back and using some of those earnings is presented as a way to preserve those services. “You can talk about investment risks and you can talk about other risks,” says Allen. “But to me, the big risk [to continued growth of the Permanent Fund] is—if the state gets in too much trouble, fiscally, do they change the way they treat the Permanent Fund? Might it be put up against an income tax?” R Alaskan author and journalist Will Swagel writes from Sitka.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

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EMPLOYER BENEFITS

Overcoming Psychological Biases in the Age of the 401k Financial literacy, better plan design, higher allocations help employees prepare for retirement By John Nofsinger

ur society’s change from defined benefit plans to the modern 401k plans moves the burden of acquiring retirement assets from employers to citizens. Many citizens are not up to the task. But after decades of researching employee 401k choices, it turns out that the employers still have a large role in their employees’ retirement standard of living. Sure, employees have the ultimate say in how much they contribute and how retirement assets are invested. But as managers and business owners, know that the structure of your plan may still have the biggest impact—more than employee decisions. Why? Employees’ lack of financial knowledge and their own psychological biases are barriers to success. Interestingly, you can design a retirement plan that nudges employees toward success or nudges them toward failure. There have been two main ways of helping employees make good 401k plan choices. The first is improving financial literacy, which has had important, but surprisingly small impacts. The greater impact has been through redesigning the enrollment process to nudge people in the right direction. People’s psychological biases can be used to help them make better decisions, instead of letting those biases hold them back.

The Historically Poor Design

Traditionally, a new employee would receive a complicated form and a large packet with investment information on the dozens, even hundreds, of choices. Instructions were to take it home, make decisions, and return the form to human resources. This is known as an “opt-in” process. But people tend to get overwhelmed and procrastinate so long that they never enroll. Just a decade ago, less than half of the people who were eligible actually contributed to their 401k plans. In addition, people’s asset allocation choices are odd. Examining the assets in 20

401k plans nationwide finds about half are invested in stocks and half in bonds. Although this sounds good, the details paint a different picture. Nearly half of the people own no equities and one fifth are 100 percent invested in stocks. These people are not well diversified. This problem mostly comes from a common extrapolation bias. When a new employee enrolls, he or she chooses all stock investments if the stock market has recently been strong. If the market has been weak, he or she selects no stocks. Unfortunately, most people never change their asset allocation once it is initially determined.

The Better Design

Through automatic registration, new employees are consequently enrolled to contribute a modest amount (usually 3 percent). Of course, those new employees can change that enrollment, but few actually do. This is known as an “opt-out” process. Their procrastination now keeps them contributing. The result is that with an opt-out process, over 80 percent contribute to their plan. They are also automatically invested in a life-cycle mutual fund with a target date near the time the employee turns sixty-five years old. These funds are diversified and their risk-and-return objectives change over time to match the investor’s needs.

Helping Existing Employees

The next major hurdle that needs to be tackled is the amount employees contribute to their plans. Studies show that an employee should be saving close to 15 percent of annual income. This might come from a 10 percent employee contribution and a 5 percent company match. Unfortunately, the current average total contribution appears to be less than 7 percent—less than half of what is needed. But we can also design a process to nudge an employee to higher al-

locations. People are loss averse, so they do not want to lower their paycheck. Program administrators have had success contracting with employees to commit to splitting their future raises. Psychologically, people are more willing to commit to something in the future compared to doing it now. So if their next raise is 4 percent, the employee sees a 2 percent rise in their paycheck, while also increasing their 401k contribution another 2 percent. After a few years, employees are contributing the maximum amount and are well on their way to successful retirement preparation. Examining the income of current retirees, one thing becomes clear—it is the revenue from retirement plans and investment income that separates those living in the bottom quarter of income (and in poverty) from those living well. The decisions to contribute, how much to contribute, and investment allocation may be the most important retirement decisions employees ever make. Employers can enhance those decisions, but many are unknowingly inhibiting them. R John Nofsinger, PhD, holds the William H. Seward Chair in International Finance at the College of Business & Public Policy, University of Alaska Anchorage. He is the author of the book The Psychology of Investing 5e, along with nine other books on finance. He has books translated into ten other languages. In addition, he is a prolific scholar who has authored or coauthored over fifty peer reviewed journal articles.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

business

rofile

Business Insurance associates, inc. Risk Management Specialists

More Than Selling Insurance Business Insurance Associates specializes in serving construction, home health and assisted living, architecture/ engineering and nonprofit association clients. However, the company does more than sell insurance products. It engages business owners at the risk management level and devises a comprehensive plan to meet their needs. “Insurance is only a small piece of that,” Pobieglo says. “If you don’t have a risk management plan in place, you’re leaving yourself open to a lot of potential problems.” Business Insurance Associates customizes strategies to help clients meet their risk management goals. Th is focus forms the core of its corporate slogan: Solving Tomorrow’s Challenges Today. “Ultimately, we want them to be successful, and anything we can do to play a role in that we’re going to do,” Pobieglo says. The broad service Business Insurance Associates provides is central to how it

n April, Business Insurance Associates, Inc. reached a momentous milestone in its history. The independent commercial insurance and surety brokerage celebrated 20 years of service throughout Alaska. “I think it’s a great testament,” says President Chris Pobieglo. “Twenty years in business says you’re doing something right.” The Anchorage-based firm, founded by Pobieglo’s mother, Susie Coates— who retired in 2012—and his wife, Angela Pobieglo, has grown significantly since 1995. Today, it has seven employees and offers an array of products, including property and liability, surety bonds, employment liability, workers’ compensation and employee benefits. “Things are going great,” Pobieglo says. “We look forward to the next 20 years.”

differentiates itself. The company’s employees are highly accessible, responsive and interactive. They also have the expertise to assist clients with whatever they need, including reviewing complex contracts. “We dedicate a lot of time and effort toward the professional development of our staff,” Pobieglo says. “Regardless if you deal with our No. 1 or No. 7 guy, you will get the same level of service and support.” Employees Are Key to Success Pobieglo attributes much of Business Insurance Associates’ success to its dedicated employees. They are committed to doing whatever it takes—including sometimes working 14-hour days and 60-hour work weeks during peak seasons—to meet clients’ needs. “We like being a valuable asset to business owners,” Pobieglo says. Business Insurance Associates also enjoys being an asset to the community. It actively participates in the Associated General Contractors, Associated Builders and Contractors, Construction Management Association, Anchorage Home Builders Association, and the National Association of Surety Bond Producers. –

PA I D

A DV E R T I S E M E N T

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Comprehensive Reliable Support Over the years, Business Insurance Associates has earned various awards for its achievements. For example, in 2006 and 2008, the company was named Employer of the Year by the Insurance Professionals of Alaska and a 2009 Gold Medallion agency by Zurich Insurance Company. Angela Pobieglo was honored as a 2011 Top Forty Under 40 by the Alaska Journal of Commerce. Accolades aside, Business Insurance Associates simply endeavors to be recognized for providing clients with comprehensive, reliable support. “They can call Business Insurance Associates and count on getting someone who’s dependable and experienced—and who will look out for their best interests,” Pobieglo explains.

Chris Pobieglo, President Angela Pobieglo, Vice President 9138 Arlon Street, Suite A-1 Anchorage, Alaska 99507 Phone: (907) 274-4142 Fax: (907) 274-8721 businessinsuranceassociates.com

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Developing aa Business Developing Business Plan Plan Cultivating small business mentorships By Julie Stricker

Helping Small Businesses

The Small Business Administration has seven offices in Alaska—in Wasilla, Ketchikan, Juneau, Soldotna/Homer, Fair22

Courtesy of Jenny Tse

enny Tse was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Fairbanks, where she noticed how her parents seemed to open up and talk about their experiences growing up in China while drinking tea. Tea was a cultural touchstone for them and, Tse found, for many other people. She started learning everything she could about tea, selling tea-themed gift baskets as a school fundraiser and planning a trip to China to visit tea plantations. She taught an elective class on tea at a small private high school, where she also worked in the graphics department of the print shop. Tea was a passion and Tse was focused on become an expert and an educator of all things tea. Basing a business on tea wasn’t on her horizon. Then her horizons changed. “Just as I was boarding my plane that was going to China, I got laid off from my job,” Tse says. Friends started encouraging her to take her knowledge of tea and open a business. “I’m highly educated in tea,” she says. “But do I know how to sell quality tea?” Tse had taken an accounting class administered through the Small Business Administration that “was more than just an accounting class. It was essentially a class on how to set up your business,” she says. Tse went home and downloaded some forms from the Small Business Administration and created a business plan for her Sipping Streams Tea Company. She went back to the instructor and asked who she needed to hire to set up a business. “She said, ‘You can do this. You don’t have to pay somebody else to do this. You can do this on your own,’” Tse says. “She gave me confidence. I went home and set up my business.”

Jenny Tse, owner of Sipping Streams Tea Company, pouring a cup of tea at her teahouse.

banks, and Anchorage—that are tasked with helping small businesses get on their feet and grow, says Lynn Klassert, southcentral regional director for the Anchorage Small Business Development Center. The federal Small Business Administration funds the centers, with funding matched by the state of Alaska. The centers are nonprofits, Klassert says, and businesses can use their services free of charge. “This has been going on since 1986 in Alaska,” Klassert says. “What they [the Small Business Administration] wanted to do was stop the trend of 50 percent of businesses failing in the first five years—a number that was even higher after seven years, when 80 percent of businesses were failing nationwide.” Klassert notes business success rates have been historically higher in Alaska, which doesn’t have all the same types of businesses found in the Lower 48. But opening a small business can still be risky without proper planning. That’s where the Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) come in. The center offers a wide variety of classes and workshops on all aspects of starting and maintaining a small business, many of which are available online or as live webinars. “We service clients in the entire life cycle of a business,” Klassert says. Most businesses go through five stages, and the SBDC has programs for all of them.

1. Concept: The centers helping clients with their financial plans, scoping out the market and determining what niche their business will fill. 2. Launching the business: “They’ll be in that period of time for two years,” Klassert says. “We continue to assist them in their endeavors, operations, hiring the right kind of people.” That includes working with the business on its marketing strategy and working with the business owner to understand what its financial reports mean. 3. Growth stage: Now that the business has successfully launched, the task is to strengthen its position in the marketplace, Klassert says. 4. Reinvention: “This is that time when they’ve been going for a long time and they want to change their business model into a different area to capture a different market that they see as growing,” Klassert says. As they age, businesses tend to evolve, with technology often acting as a catalyst to change, such as the Internet’s effect on video stores and information technology businesses. “If you’re not staying up with the trends, your business may not be around for the long term,” Klassert says.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

5. End of the road: This is when the business owner starts planning how do I get out of this business? What should I get out of this business? How will it continue to serve the community after I’m gone? Will somebody come along and buy the business from me? “That’s a big part of the life cycle of a business,” Klassert says. “We like to talk to people about the exit strategy from day one. We talk to them about being prepared for the unexpected.”

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Healthy Businesses

Marketing is an important component of keeping a business healthy, Klassert says. Businesses need to figure out how to find their customers and how to reach out to them. “You need an effective way to get your message across that you’re there,” he says. “Sometimes it’s good planning, sometimes it’s a little bit of luck, sometimes a little bit of both. Sometimes it’s location, location, location. Location is still the foundation for success in brick and mortar stores. Even online, your customer still has to find you and you still have to tell your story. There’s a lot of techniques out there and they’re changing all the time.” For Tse, word of mouth was key to opening Sipping Streams Tea Company. Despite filling out all the paperwork, she really didn’t plan to start a tea shop in Fairbanks, she just wanted to be the first one ready in case there was a future demand for tea. She held house shows to sell her tea and customers started asking her to open a place they could gather over a cup of tea. “I started slowly saving up and really testing the water and seeing if this is something that people will want,” Tse says. She opened the teahouse in 2007, while continuing a strong retail and wholesale business. She started entering tea competitions, and winning them. Her teahouse has become a favorite community gathering spot. By 2014, Tse started worrying whether she would be able to handle the volume and the demand for her teas, which are sold wholesale and in specialty tea shops throughout the Northwest. She went back to the SBDC for help in re-evaluating her business plan and how to plan for the next best step. “They’ve been really helpful for us,” she says. She has been asked why she doesn’t just close the teahouse and concentrate on her wholesale business, but she likes the idea of people coming together to interact over tea. It’s a different vibe than a coffee shop. “It’s all about community; it’s all about relationships,” she says. Tse continwww.akbizmag.com

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October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

ues to learn everything she can about tea and creating her own blends using local ingredients. Klassert says his best advice to aspiring businesspeople is “never stop learning. You’ve got to stay up with the times, you’ve got to stay up with the technology.”

Trends and Technology

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Technology can be a two-edged sword in business. While trends and technology can spell doom for some businesses—how often do people go into a local military shop or drop in on a friendly typewriter repairman—it can also make new businesses feasible. That is the case for John Stowman and Jennifer Eskridge of Fairbanks. Stowman says they have been looking to open a bikeshare business for a number of years after seeing successful models in the Lower 48. The business would allow customers to pick up and drop off bikes at bike-sharing stations throughout Fairbanks. The bikes offer a clean, affordable way for residents and tourists to run errands or sight-see without adding to air pollution and road congestion. But the kiosks used to secure the bikes easily cost $50,000 apiece. The pair figured they would need about twenty-five kiosks throughout Fairbanks, which made their venture, called Fairbikes, cost-prohibitive. Then Stowman found a rack system that is much more streamlined and flexible than the large kiosks. “We’re moving the technology away from the hardware,” he says. “We’ve shrunk down the electronics, which will fit in the forks of the bicycle.” The electronics will communicate with an app on the customer’s phone to unlock the bike. Fairbikes can then position racks with anywhere from two to twenty bikes at strategic locations on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus and elsewhere in town, rather than centralized kiosks. They are expecting delivery of their first bikes this fall and hope to expand next summer. They have been working closely with the SBDC in Fairbanks since 2013. Stowman credits director Russ Talvi’s mentorship and the SBDC’s network of business and community leaders with helping him get Fairbikes off the ground. Klassert says one-on-one counseling is the basis for the majority of the work the SBDC does with clients. It’s free of charge and confidential. “We’ve got clients who’ve been with us for twenty years,” he says. “They believe in what we are doing. Our goal is to help those who are already in business, keeping them in business.”

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

The advisors are experienced businesspeople and educators who can help others with the nitty-gritty of business ownership. Klassert’s background is in tourism and banking, where he worked one-on-one with small businesses seeking loans. “People are unaware of how banks look at small businesses,” he says. “At SBDC, we have as one of our checklists how to prepare for a loan application. We prepare them to meet with a lender.”

Shoestring Startup

Anchorage entrepreneur Michael Levshakoff took a slightly different route to launching his salad delivery business, Salad Box. In 2014, he and a friend had planned to open a pizza shop in Midtown, but couldn’t come to an agreement with their landlord on an asbestos maintenance issue. “I was afraid it was just going to take every last dime that my friend and I had,” he says. “That was November and December last year, and then in January, I started thinking, ‘How can I start a business and spend no money?’” Levshakoff thought about a delivery service in downtown Anchorage on bicycle, but he’d realistically only be able to work four or five months a year. Then he thought of using a van for deliveries. But delivering what? One night, at a family get-together, his sister sent him home with the leftovers of a tasty salad she had made. He sat in front of his computer eating the salad one night, when the idea of a salad delivery service hit him. He created the logo in less than an hour. He approached SCORE, a nonprofit business mentoring service comprised of thousands of business professionals and entrepreneurs who volunteer their time to mentor new businesses. The organization is supported by the Small Business Administration and provides free or low-cost services. Levshakoff wrote his business plan and submitted it to Alaska Growth Capital. While waiting for an answer, he took his plan to a SCORE volunteer, who looked it over and gave it high marks. “He said it looked great,” Levshakoff says. “He said if I didn’t get funded for the business plan, I should go into business writing business plans for people.” He did get funded however, and Salad Box has taken off. At first, Levshakoff did all the work himself, rising at 4:15 a.m. in the morning to make it to the kitchen at 5 a.m., where he starts making salads. Favorites include the chicken Caesar, apple walnut, and bleu cheese and pear. Then he loads the salads into his van and www.akbizmag.com

starts making the rounds. Levshakoff says he delivers an average of 70 to 84 salads per day, with his highest one-day total so far at 117. Now he has an assistant, who has reduced his workday from fifteen or sixteen hours to about nine. And there’s room for more growth. “I sell out every day,” he says. “I’m pushing really hard to get a second van.” The only marketing he’s doing right now is word of mouth and Facebook. “Every morning I make sure I get a quick little photo and a one-liner on Facebook,” he says. “I spend two to five dollars per day to get the numbers. If I don’t spend money

on Facebook, I definitely hit a slump in sales.” He is looking at running some radio advertisements and is talking to print media, as well. All of his Yelp reviews have been five-star, except one. “A lot of our salads have things like candied nuts or a sweet vinaigrette,” Levshakoff says. “He really wanted to see a salad that relied more on the taste of vegetables. We’re working on that right now.” R Julie Stricker is a journalist living near Fairbanks.

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

ARCTIC

Alaskan Arctic Summit on Shipping and Ports By J. Pennelope Goforth

“

e used to be the back door of America and now we’re the front door [to the Arctic],” announced Governor Bill Walker at this year’s annual all-things Alaskan Arctic Summit, focused on shipping and ports. He clearly

articulated the state of Alaska’s vision for a vibrant Arctic economy that is environmentally safe and secure with the full participation of local residents. Anyone who hasn’t been paying attention may not know that Alaska is in the early

days of Arctic Fever. Those who have been paying attention know this snowball has left the summit and is gathering speed and size as it avalanches down the North Slope to the Arctic Sea. This year the United States takes a turn at chairing the global Arctic Council,

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Arctic region. Event sponsors included home grown business interests such as Pt Capital, the Port of Nome, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks along with global companies Edison Chouest Offshore, Royal Dutch Shell, and Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company. But the sponsor who stole the show turned out to be Grímsson. The two day event was held at the Hotel Captain Cook August 23-25. While the topics of what Arctic development means to the people of the Arctic and the state of Alaska are not new—deep water ports, vessel transit routes, icebreakers, food security, subsistence hunting, oil spill

response, environmental concerns, search and rescue capacity, and local input—the conversations crystallized around a surprising number of proactive strategies already on a fast track to fruition. Speaking of the monumental tasks of building the wherewithal for successful development in the harsh Arctic region, Walker said, “We don’t have problems, we have opportunities.” Two of those seemingly insurmountable opportunities he presented were the cost of energy and the development of infrastructure to move the resources out of Arctic Alaska into the world market. He cited the highly success-

an intergovernmental forum of the eight Arctic nations: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. As President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson quipped, “Washington is now coming to Alaska!” This is the fifth summit organized by Alice Rogoff, publisher of the Alaska Dispatch News and Mead Treadwell, president of Pt Capital and former Alaska Lieutenant Governor and former Chair of the Arctic Research Commission, to promote discussions on the changing Arctic. Joined by government officials, resource developers, coastal community leaders, maritime interests, and global financiers, these summits represent Alaska dreams and aspirations of a sustainably developed www.akbizmag.com

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

Island President Makes Diplomatic History By J. Pennelope Goforth

“What is our homeland, has become global territory.” −Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, President of Iceland

celand and Alaska have many geographic and political similarities: both are Arctic residents, both are democracies, both rely on fishing and energy development for economic growth. Due to these and many other commonalities, it is not surprising that Alaska has perhaps a closer relationship to Iceland than to many states in the Lower

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48. When the president of Iceland was invited to participate in the Arctic Summit he not only readily agreed, he spoke to and with all Alaskans attending the summit throughout the entire event. He made diplomatic history twice: first, when he rocked the world with his volatile advice at the summit; and second, when he became the first head of state to address a sitting committee of the Alaska State Legislature. First elected president of Iceland in 1996, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson has been re-elected for

four consecutive terms. Holding a doctorate in political science from the University of Manchester in the UK, he has been influential in developing Iceland’s modern governmental policies. The recipient of international peace awards and author of numerous academic articles on the science of politics, Grímsson is nonetheless a very approachable and down to earth person with a sense of humor. He stunned everyone with a bold statement during a comment period on the topic of the

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Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

authority of local communities, state regulatory agencies, and private/public partnerships: “I must admit after listening to this discussion I am confused about who governs Alaska.” Into the unexpected silence that followed, he said, “Who will stop you? Who is going to stop you if you have financial and international partners?” As a precedent setting example for Alaska, he cited a recently concluded major trade agreement, struck by the Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands, nominally within the Danish state, and the Prime Minister of Turkey. “This is a fascinating new playing field,” he later told a joint Senate Special Committee on the Arctic and House Economic Development, Tourism, and Arctic Policy hearing. “If we think it is in our interest, we simply do it.” Grímsson spoke of his friendship with former Alaska Governor Wally Hickel and US

Senator Ted Stevens. When he and Hickel discussed the potential political as well as environmental changes to come in the Arctic region, he said that they thought in terms of decades. Now, he says, that has accelerated, “The pace of change is monumental [in the Arctic]. What we thought would take ten years is now happening within one year.” He urged legislators to broaden their perspective when planning Alaska Arctic strategies; “We have a narrow vision of the Arctic through the view of nation states. What is our homeland has become global territory. A big part of the planet is subject to the cooperation of all nations. We have never faced such a political challenge, an extraordinary economic opportunity. If Alaska is not there [at the forefront of Arctic development] then the United States will not be there.” R

ful private/public partnership that created the Red Dog Mine. The state took on the costs of developing and building the road from the mine area to the tideland and the Native regional corporation NANA in partnership with Teck Resources Limited, a diversified mining and metals company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, developing NANA’s mineral resource into the largest zinc mine in the world. Many of the names and faces were familiar on the Arctic horizon of the past five years. But the summit was characterized by collaboration of talking and listening, at any one time, those who expounded on the stage were likely to have been sitting in the audience the previous session. It seemed more an organized sharing of ideas, strategies, and information than the traditional lecture with a question and answer period following.

Maritime Shipping Issues

As the polar ice pack melts at an increasing rate, new channels of passage appear across the Arctic region far in advance of scientific modeling. Fluctuating levels of sea ice have allowed for increasing amounts of vessels in Alaska’s Arctic waters during the short summer season. These are primarily due to

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October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

“We who live in this part of the state, we are naked.”

—Reggie Joule Mayor of the Northwest Arctic Borough and former state legislator

Time lapse of icebreakers journey through the night.

oil and gas related exploration such as drill rigs, supply vessels, tugs, and icebreakers. Significant numbers of research vessels from many different countries cruise these waters along with ships on official government business such as the US Coast Guard and NOAA survey vessels. Tankers, cargo container ships, and tourist cruises also steam through the narrow Bering Strait

from one of two polar passages: the Northern Sea Route across the top of Russia and the Northwest Passage across the top of Canada and the United States. All this activity has been largely unregulated or even tracked until recent years when the volume of sailings pointed out the lack of basic protections for approximately thirty thousand Arctic Alaskan residents,

many of whom are local subsistence hunters concerned with safeguarding their environment and the marine animals they depend on. “We who live in this part of the state, we are naked,” testified the mayor of the Northwest Arctic Borough and former state legislator Reggie Joule. The same is true for mariners who need services like search and rescue, ports of safe refuge, accurate nautical charts, defined vessel transit routes, and fuel bunkers. Many working groups have emerged over the past decade in an effort to create a safer, more secure Arctic, one that allows for the international safe passage through Alaska waters, protects resources, and encourages responsible economic development that will provide opportunities for jobs and for growth. One example is the North Slope Borough which passed an ordinance creating a regional Port Authority that will allow them to provide a vehicle for planning and

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

“Global interests continue to focus on the Arctic, and we, Iñuit, have always worked together to ensure our collective destiny remains in the hands our people.”

—Gail Schubert President and CEO, Bering Straits Native Corporation

financing transportation projects. These projects address much needed infrastructure to support successful intermodal systems that will bring down the costs of living in Arctic regions and see that the residents benefit from the resulting economic growth. Another regional organization that aims at public/private partnership solutions to Arctic issues is the Arctic Caucus of the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region, a partnership among Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. The caucus includes private businesses located in these regions in addition to local leaders. Representatives of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, NANA Regional Corporation, and Bering Straits Native Corporation recently announced the establishment of the Iñuit Arctic Business Alliance. Collectively they intend to provide a unified voice for doing business in the region. President and CEO of Bering Straits Gail Schubert said

of the group, “Global interests continue to focus on the Arctic, and we, Iñuit, have always worked together to ensure our collective destiny remains in the hands our people.” “We are finally getting to brick and mortar solutions,” said Unalaska Mayor Shirley Marquardt. She was one of at least fifteen mayors and Native Corporation CEOs attending the summit. “Instead of saying Ready, Fire, Aim!” Chair of the Arctic Economic Council, Tara Sweeney of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, agreed. “Maritime infrastructure is part of our purview. We are looking for ways that Alaskans can invest in Alaskan Arctic projects,” she said. “We support responsible economic growth for Arctic business development.” On a statewide level the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission of the Alaska Legislature—established in 2012—issued its final

report in January of this year. The implementation plan features a “people first” approach that has a vision of “healthy resilient communities across the state built from economic and resource development.” Arctic residents don’t want the “business as usual” model where the bottom line profit margin is the only measure of success. Instead, they are defining themselves as willing drivers of sustainable development, with local benefits, in partnership with industry. That approach was echoed throughout the summit, surprisingly even from one of the oldest and wealthiest global investment firms.

Financing Coastal Communities’ Aspirations The bow meets the wave when it comes to financing the massive infrastructure needs of Alaska Arctic development. The seminal topic of the summit covered two primary approaches to capitalizing shore-based infrastructure costs presented by two investment companies plus an innovative view of a federal government procurement plan to build an icebreaker (maybe two or three). Treadwell moderated this closely followed session. For several years now, although Alaska’s Congressional Delegation has urged appro-

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priations to the US Coast Guard for building icebreakers, it has not yet become “an economic imperative” according to Sean O’Keefe. Formerly the comptroller for the US Department of Defense and a deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, O’Keefe understands the government procurement process. So well, in fact, that he believes the process should be thrown overboard as unworkable. Now a Syracuse University professor, he conducted a study at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on alternative ways that the United States can meet its responsibilities and obligations in the Arctic with an adequate fleet of icebreakers. Russia operates at least thirty-seven icebreakers in the polar seas with another twelve under construction and planning; Sweden and Finland each have seven with more under way; Canada has six. The United States— according to the US Coast Guard 2013 Review of Major Icebreakers of the World—has two. Well, three if you count the research medium class icebreaker vessel Healy. (The Aiviq can’t be counted as a US asset since it is privately owned and operated by Edison Chouest Offshore as an icebreaking anchor handling tug supply vessel.) Even China is investing in a second icebreaker: the Snow Dragon is expected to enter service by 2016.

The US Coast Guard does plan to buy a new icebreaker. However, the current procurement process bumps up the cost about $1 billion to develop, build, and begin operations for a single vessel. Yet, O’Keefe insists, “More icebreakers for Arctic missions are a critical national security and economic priority.” Yet, the US Coast Guard’s entire 2016 budget request for acquisition is just $1.01 billion, which includes many replacement vessels for interdicting drug running in the Caribbean in addition to search and rescue in many other parts of the country. Then there is the time involved: it’s been estimated to take as long as ten years, eight on a fast track. O’Keefe pointed out other procurement alternatives that would allow the United States to regain a maritime position of authority in the Arctic. One included retrofitting other US Coast Guard vessels for Arctic operations. Admittedly, given the newest technologies in propulsion, this would still amount to an expensive route. A very doable solution, which many countries have done, is to lease privately built and owned vessels which feature the latest technology and a longer operative life. The Finnish shipbuilder Wärtsilä has built more than 70 percent of the world’s icebreakers, operated under numerous flags. Like leasing a car, the investment is less

than building new, offers state-of-the-art construction and operation, and has a finite budget impact. Another option is to outright purchase a vessel developed for Arctic operation but built for another client, like an older Canadian Coast Guard vessel, still considered a good deal. Finally, O’Keefe dared to cross turf lines by suggesting that it might be more economically feasible for the government to consider the interoperability of a commonly invested vessel. A multi-tasked vessel with icebreaker capacity equally financed by NOAA, the US Navy, the US Coast Guard, and the National Science Foundation, for example, might be a workable solution. Acting on the recommendations made by the legislative Arctic Policy Commission in 2014, the Alaska Legislature passed an Arctic infrastructure development program and fund within the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. Disappointingly, the proactive policy move was not backed by a budget appropriation to fund it. Essentially, this threw the money ball back in the private sector court. One Alaska Native businessman caught that ball and is kicking it past the goalie. Hugh Short of Pt Capital—a locally grown private equity firm focused on investment opportunities in the Arctic—for-

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merly served as the CEO of Alaska Growth Capital BIDCO, a subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. He chaired the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority from 2011 through 2013 where he directed more than $530 million in capital, including the first investments in offshore drilling rigs. Born and raised in Bethel, he served that community as mayor from 2002 to 2004. Short’s stellar Alaska credits (he also graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a degree in political science) are way more than good show. Short has a plan to raise public/private capital through an asset recycling fund. Briefly, the plan—based on a successful Australian model he researched—involves the state selling off currently underperforming assets. The resulting funds would be leveraged with a minimal debt ratio that he says could raise as much as $9 billion for an infrastructure fund dedicated to Arctic development. “All without appropriating even one dollar from the [state] general operating fund,” Short said with a broad, engaging smile. He cited several similarities between the largely rural and undercapitalized economy of Australia with Alaska. Short concluded that if they could build roads and power plants while employing hundreds of Aussies, Alaska could do it, too.

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A Protocol to Guide Them

Hands down, Scott Minerd proffered the Holy Grail of investment: a code of conduct for investors that would be sustainable, measurable, and hold them accountable. (Think oil spill containment, toxic chemical recapture, insurance coverage, and most importantly, Alaskan stakeholder direction.) Minerd is the global chief investment officer of one of the most powerful financial firms in the world, Guggenheim Partners: modestly described as “a global investment and advisory financial services firm that engages in investment banking, capital markets services, investment management, investment advisory, and insurance services.” Minerd described both the need for infrastructure construction and the opportunity to derive profits from same as “massive.” “This is new investment at a vast scale,” he said. By 2050, at the current rate, he predicted that 5 percent of all trade would go through the Arctic representing $6 trillion and 44 million jobs. “The private sector cannot do this alone,” he said. This is not the first foray of the premier investment company into Alaska enterprises. Operating as the Alaska Syndicate, financiers the Guggenheim brothers and J.P. Morgan helped to build other massive projects in Alaska like the Kennecott Mine,

railroads, coal fields, and salmon canneries in the early 1900s. This time around the modern company advocates a capital investment protocol for development that addresses economic development in Alaska’s Arctic in cooperation with the stakeholders. The voluntary code proposes investors consider environmental and societal local impacts, respect science and traditional knowledge of residents of the Arctic, and adhere to global cooperation goals voiced by the Arctic forums and best business practices. The lofty goals of building resilient societies, raising incomes, and improving the lifestyles of Arctic residents definitely resonated with summit attendees. Further, Minerd said the firm is creating a complete inventory of all planned and discussed infrastructure projects for potential investors that represent trillions of dollars in investment opportunities. Finally, Minerd said he hoped, with further stakeholder input, to evolve this concept into a “permanent investment vehicle” similar to a private equity fund which would leverage both public and private capital. The firm plans to unveil the polished protocol early next year. R Alaskan author J. Pennelope Goforth is home ported in Anchorage.

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

FINANCIAL SERVICES

EMV Chip Card Technology Shifts Fraud Liability

October 1 Deadline for Merchants and Card Issuers By Tracy Barbour

his month, businesses in Alaska and all across the country will experience a major shift in liability for pointof-sale credit card transactions. Effective October 1, business owners are responsible for fraud liability if they haven’t switched their point-of-sale credit card terminals to the new EMV (EuroPay, MasterCard, and Visa) chip card technology. However, automated fuel dispensers have until 2017 to convert to EMV technology. Traditionally, credit card companies have been liable for credit and debit card fraud on card-present transactions. Now, either the card issuer or merchant who doesn’t support EMV chip card technology will assume the liability.

EMV Card Security

The fraud liability shift is part of the nationwide migration to EMV technology, which is a global standard for cards equipped with computer chips and the technology used to authenticate chip-card transactions. EMV cards have been used for about a decade overseas, and now payment networks MasterCard, Visa, Discover Card, and American Express are adopting EMV chip cards. The networks established the October 1 deadline for shifting fraud liability to encourage all payment processing parties to become EMV-compliant.

“The conversion to the EMV card, while not mandatory, is the right thing to do,” says Mark Baumli, executive vice president for Wells Fargo Merchant Services. “After the transition, merchants are protected from counterfeit fraud. It’s well worth the investment. They also can accept Apple Pay.” Traditional magnetic-stripe cards contain static data, which makes the card easier to duplicate. EMV cards are embedded with an encrypted computer chip that creates a unique code that changes with each transaction and cannot be used again. With EMV, if a hacker steals the chip information from a specific point of sale, the stolen information will not work for another transaction. “This will greatly reduce—if not eliminate—counterfeit fraud,” Baumli says.

Facilitating Conversion

Alaska’s financial institutions have been using a variety of tactics to help business owners prepare for the migration to EMV cards. Wells Fargo, for example, has undertaken a series of actions to build awareness, prepare small businesses for the EMV liability shift, and encourage business owners to adopt EMV chip-card technology, according to Baumli. “We have been providing EMV-capable equipment to customers since 2012,” he says. “We also have had proactive outreach to let merchants know

what their options are in terms of renting, purchasing and leasing equipment.” Baumli says Wells Fargo has been issuing EMV chip-enabled credit cards in Alaska for several years. Today, all new and re-issued Wells Fargo Business Credit Cards and Business Elite Cards provided to customers are chip-enabled. In addition, Wells Fargo also offers educational resources such as Wellsfargoworks.com, webinars, and presentations to industry groups to ensure its business customers are well-versed on EMV card technology. “We want to help our customers succeed financially. The best way to do that is to provide the products information and services that keep them current,” Baumli says. At First National Bank Alaska, new merchant service customers have been offered EMV-ready equipment for a number of years, according to Vice President, Cash Management and Anchorage Branch Administration Manager Taka Tsukada. First National’s merchant service experts work with First Data Corporation to offer Alaska businesses the local knowledge of Alaska bankers and First Data’s extensive product portfolio, he says. The bank’s branch employees and local representatives from First Data work hand in hand with First National customers to help them understand how the smart-chip EMV technology can better protect against fraudulent card use and protect their customer’s card data. “EMV campaign efforts directed toward non-EMV ready customers have been underway for nearly a year,” Tsukada says. “Those on-going efforts will remain active well past the October 1, 2015, date.” The comprehensive campaign includes messaging on account statements, calls from their personal First Data representa-

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

tive, and email blasts. An overview of what merchants should know is also available on the bank’s website at firstdatapartners. com/fnbalaska/my-business/about-emv.

Educate and Train

For Northrim Bank, customer and employee education is also of the utmost importance, says Vice President, Electronic Channel Delivery Manager Katie Bates. To make the transition to EMV chip cards easier for its business customers, Northrim analyzed its portfolio to determine which customers were already supporting PIN/chip cards and which customers had equipment that needed to be enabled or upgraded—or needed new equipment to support EMV technology. “We are currently working to assist our merchants in upgrading or replacing their terminals if they choose to do so,” Bates says. “We have worked closely with each of our merchants to make sure that they are aware of the new requirements and assist them through the process.” Northrim has also updated its website to include EMV-related information. In addition, merchants of the bank are also receiving letters and follow-up phone calls to ensure they know the proper steps to take for compliance. “We have also presented Merchant Service trainings to include an EMV update at the Small Business Development Center,” Bates says. “We have created a resource library for our employees to ensure they are up to date on EMV technology and are ready to support our customers throughout the conversion.” KeyBank is also taking steps to make the transition easier for their customers. “Our business clients rely on us to share new ideas and insight that we think might help their business,” says KeyBank Alaska Market President Brian Nerland. “We work closely with our Enterprise Commercial Payment [ECP] team to help clients understand why a new payment technology is a good investment,” he says. Patrick Maloney Sr., vice president of Merchant Services at KeyBank, says the bank’s clients are taking notice of the EMV card liability shift and are looking for guidance on understanding the impact of that change on their business. “The KeyBank ECP team can help business clients create a comprehensive EMV migration plan.” As part of this process, KeyBank is working with customers to help them understand card issuer migration schedules, determine their equipment needs, create a security plan, develop (and communicate) procedures, and identify opportunities. The shift to EMV cards is also impacting credit unions. Credit Union 1 is working to ensure its members are prepared to migrate to EMV card technology and is in the prowww.akbizmag.com

cess of implementing a communication plan to educate its membership, before issuing EMV cards by the end of 2015, according to Vice President of Communications and Culture Chrissy Bell. The cards will be dispensed to members with a history of international travel first and then to the remaining cardholders as their current cards expire or as members request them, she says. Alaska USA Federal Credit Union works with Cornerstone Credit Services LLC to aid its business members. The transition to EMV chip cards represents one of the biggest changes to the credit card industry since the inception of electronic termi-

nals, says Greg Gillquist, vice president of marketing at Cornerstone Credit Services, which sends out monthly newsletters and maintains webpage ccspaymentsolutions. com/emv as part of its education efforts. “It’s not just about updating equipment,” Gillquist says. “It’s about making sure merchants understand the underlying principles of EMV: to make transactions as secure as they can be at the point-of-sale, to help prevent fraud, to protect merchants, and to keep cardholder information safe.” R Tracy Barbour is a former Alaskan.

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

Cleanup Activities in Alaska By Rindi White

laska’s history as a resource state and a military staging ground has left it with a freckling of cleanup sites, many of which contain hazardous material. But cleanup is no easy task. It’s often years after a spill that cleanup begins, or sometimes new rules dictate more intensive cleanup than was previously planned. Before cleanup can begin, surveys must be done, reports made documenting what might have been spilled on the site, and the area must be assessed for the best cleanup approach. Cleanup contractors have been working on some of the sites for decades and have decades longer to go before the task is complete.

Former Military Sites

Alaska’s military history, which included participation in World War II and a role as a part of the Cold War and Distant Early Warning Line, means the state is scattered with inactive former military sites. The state was also home to military bases that are now cleanup sites, such as a fairly large naval base at Attu, and to supply lines, such as the Haines-Fairbanks pipeline that provided liquid petroleum products to Fort Wainwright, Eielson Air Force Base, and Containment drain line flushing operation, August 20, 2015 at the Sitka diesel spill. Courtesy of ADEC

Courtesy of USACE - Alaska District

Excavation work being done in August at the multi-year, ongoing Haines-Fairbanks pipeline cleanup project site.

Fort Greely. The sites are no longer owned by the military; a stipulation of the Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) program is that ownership must have transferred by October 1986, often to other federal agencies. Ken Andraschko, chief of the FUDS program for the US Army Corps of EngineersAlaska District (USACE), says USACE oversees about one hundred cleanup projects a year around Alaska and receives an average of $30 million to $35 million year for the cleanup efforts. “We have the most FUDS with hazardous/ toxic or containerized wastes left by far,” Andraschko says. “That’s one reason we’re getting quite a bit of funding.” The federal government has a goal of cleaning up 95 percent of Installation Restoration Program, or IRP, sites around the nation by the year 2021, he says. Other states have more military munitions sites and other sites that don’t fall into the IRP

category, Andraschko says. Those IRP sites have largely been cleaned up in the Lower 48, but Alaska didn’t get as much funding as other states to clean up IRP sites in the early years of the cleanup effort. Now, it’s getting as much as 20 percent of the overall national FUDS cleanup budget, he says.

Attu Work Begins

This year, the largest project happening in the state is at Attu, where the agency is starting what will likely be a long, intensive, and costly cleanup effort. “Attu was such a major facility,” Andraschko says. The island, on the far end of the Aleutian chain, was occupied by Japanese forces in June 1942 and held for nearly a year before the defenders were routed. After their defeat, the US military built a significant naval base and a large airfield, which was used to launch an air attack against the Kurile Islands, then held by Japan. The island was deactivated in the 1950s. The battlefield and some of the sites are national monuments. “We’re looking to take care of some of the immediate hazards out there,” Andraschko says. Those include areas prone to bird entrapment, batteries scattered around, and above-ground storage tanks that leaked. According to Andraschko, USACE has about $8 million for the initial cleanup work and “will avoid some of the cultural and historical areas for now.” Other projects are ongoing, like the Haines-Fairbanks Pipeline. The pipeline follows the Alaska Highway in some areas, and the cleanup is mostly required at gate valves or pump stations along the way. Typically, the cleanup involves digging out less than

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

two thousand tons of polluted soil. USACE awards contracts to clean up two or three sites a year, he says, adding, the military has spent more than $21 million on the pipeline cleanup effort since 1984, Andraschko says. “From the Aleutians to Southeast and the North Slope, Alaska is so diverse and so unique, having contractors that are familiar with those logistics and those challenges [is important],” Andraschko says.

Most Spills Are Small, on Private Property Not all spills can be attributed to the military or oil industry. Most of the spills logged in a year are smaller events that happen on public or private property. One such spill happened in mid-August in Sitka. According to an Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation situation report, the spill was noticed when the US Coast Guard received a report of diesel washing ashore near Indian River in Sitka Sound. The source of the spill, the Jarvis Street diesel power facility in Sitka, was not discovered until the next day. According to the situation report, about 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel was spilled to the power plant’s secondary containment area and a valve on the containment area failed, releasing about 2,500 gallons of diesel into the city’s storm drain system. The City and Borough of Sitka hired Delta Western to pump the remaining diesel from the secondary containment area and this operation recovered an estimated 23,000 gallons; however, the activity failed to entirely flush the diesel from the containment area drain line and a continuing sheen was seen flowing from the storm drain system. A more stringent two-phase flushing operation that included deployment of about 150 feet of green snare to collect the fuel was more successful—no diesel was seen in the secondary containment area, in three inspection wells located between the containment area and the river, and in the facility yard storm drain, according to the situation report. The spill response was fast, but the effects of the spill will linger. According to the situation report, the National Parks Service and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation posted signs at Eagle Beach asking people to refrain from using the beach due to the diesel spill and asking fishermen not to dump fish carcasses near the beach to avoid attracting birds to locations where they could come into contact with diesel. R Rindi White is a freelance journalist living in Palmer. www.akbizmag.com

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Contact PTAC Today: 1-907-786-7201 / 1-800-478-7232 October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

The Problems with Water and Sewer

SOURCE: Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Water

o improve the health of rural Alaska residents, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, in coordination with tribal, state, and federal agencies, is spearheading a research and development effort to find better and more affordable ways to deliver drinking water and sewage disposal services to rural Alaska.

The Problem Over 3,300 rural Alaska homes lack running water and a flush toilet. Many more depend on aging and deteriorating piped and haul systems. Lack of in-home water and sewer service in rural Alaska causes severe skin infections and respiratory illnesses. Residents of Southwest Alaska suffer rates of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) that are among the highest in the world. To correct this public health problem, agencies have funded conventional, community-wide piped and truck haul systems. Although these systems work, they are expensive to construct and many communities cannot afford their high operational costs. Funding to build systems has declined severely while costs have risen sharply. The deficit between available funds and needs is over $660 million. Many households in rural Alaska use a toilet known as a “honey bucket.” A plastic bag lined bucket collects urine and feces. Then, plastic bags of feces from honey buckets are disposed in a sewage lagoon. A different approach to delivering these services is needed. The Solution

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has initiated a project to spur worldwide research to develop innovative and cost effective water and sewer systems for homes in remote Alaska villages. The project focuses on decentralized water and wastewater treatment, recycling, and water minimization. These approaches have a high potential for use in individual homes and housing clusters. Our goal is to significantly reduce the capital and operating costs of in-home running water and sewer in rural Alaska homes. R 38

Alaska Water and Sewer Challenge Three finalists selected for Phase 3 By Rindi White

ighteen teams responded in 2013 to Phase 1 of the Alaska Water and Sewer Challenge, a five-year, five-phased competition coordinated by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) with an end goal of allowing Alaskans to eradicate honey buckets. According to ADEC, more than 3,300 homes in the state lack running water and a flush toilet. Thousands more are either part of a hauled water system or living in a community in which residents are served by piped systems that are on the brink of failure. Six teams were selected for Phase 2 of the Challenge aimed at finding affordable solutions for rural Alaska homes and villages where public water and sewer systems aren’t available or don’t make sense. The three finalists, led by DOWL, Summit Consulting, and the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) were selected by a board to advance to Phase 3 of the competition: prototype development and pilot testing in a laboratory setting.

DOWL

DOWL’s team is led by Janelle Rogers, vice president with CDM Smith, Inc. in Seattle, Washington, and includes several other subject-matter experts, including Chris Schultz, a CDM Smith engineer who has developed water systems around the world; the Manoff Group, which provides behavior-centered approaches to enhancing health and nutrition; and a Colorado State University professor who helped design a water reuse system for use on the space shuttle. Rogers worked in Alaska about thirty years ago, putting sewer and water systems into rural villages, and has worked internationally and nationally since. She says one of the most interesting aspects of this project has been a requirement that each team visits two rural Alaska communities to discuss their proposal. “That’s where we got some of our best ideas, from the people up there,” Rogers says.

Some of those ideas include a reduced emphasis on providing water for showers in communities that prefer to bathe using saunas and countertop drinking water filter systems for residents who prefer using melted river or lake ice and rainwater to community-treated water. The team produced a model with several variations designed to be applicable in any rural home in Alaska. One variation would drain gray water, or water that has been used to wash clothing or for showering, away from the house using an underground soakaway pit so that “it doesn’t have a chance to go to a black water tank,” Rogers says. “They don’t have to pump as often and they don’t have to pay for heat to keep it from freezing because it’s indoors.” Separating gray water from black water means a significant reduction in the number of times residents have to pump water or pay to have it hauled away, she says. Another variation would be to reuse the gray water after running it through an activated charcoal filter and disinfecting it using an ultraviolet light. The system could be changed to discharge treated gray water overland in wetland communities where soakaway pits will not work. All of the variations include a washable countertop filter for treating and storing melted ice and rainwater. “All [of the team’s options] require a little vestibule on the house. Then it’s really a matter of what’s in the vestibule. If you have a reuse system, you have a few more things. Otherwise it’s just a household tank to hold water from a washeteria and another tank for black water,” Rogers says. The team plans to build its prototype at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center in Fairbanks.

Summit Consulting

Summit Consulting, a construction management company based in Tok, has been installing water and sewer systems for about twenty years, says Dave Cramer,

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Phase 1: Formation of Teams – 2013/2014 The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) conducted an international effort to solicit project teams. Engineering companies, research institutions, manufacturers, and others were encouraged to form partnerships to respond to the solicitation and address water and sewer needs in rural Alaska homes. Up to six of the highest ranked teams were selected to receive funding to develop written proposals that will meet specific performance targets relating to constructability, health benefits, affordability, and operational considerations. Phase 2: Design Development and Presentation – 2014/2015 This phase is concluded. Written proposal development was expected to take eight months. Project teams presented their detailed proposals to the project Steering Committee in July 2015, both in writing and in a presentation. ADEC and the Steering Committee evaluated and scored each proposal according to the performance targets and selected

the most promising proposals to receive additional funding for further development and pilot testing in a laboratory setting. Phase 3: Prototype Development and Pilot Testing – 2015/2016 Additional funding will be awarded to up to three teams with the highest ranked proposals for prototype development and pilot testing in a laboratory setting. ADEC will provide the testing requirements for prototypes. Engineering plans will be reviewed and approved by ADEC and the Steering Committee. Prototype development and testing is expected to last about a year, and in 2016 the results of the pilot testing phase will be presented to ADEC and the Steering Committee. Systems that best demonstrate performance target outcomes will be selected for the next phase of development. Phase 4: Field System Development and Testing – 2016/2017 Additional funding will be provided for each system selected to develop a field

testing package that can be installed in rural Alaska homes. Field testing will include a full year of operation. ADEC will provide testing requirements for field testing. Engineering plans will be reviewed and approved by ADEC and the Steering Committee. User acceptance and health outcomes will be evaluated by ADEC and the Steering Committee. During the field testing phase, systems will be closely monitored and users will provide feedback on operation and use. At the conclusion of this phase, each system will be evaluated by the Steering Committee. Systems that can demonstrate sustainable, durable improvements will be refined and further deployed using available funding sources. Phase 5: Technology Refinement and Improvement – 2018 and beyond Additional funding may be used to address inadequacies or failures identified during Phase 4 field testing and to improve durability of the systems. Field testing may be expanded to additional homes or locations. R

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October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

SOURCE: Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Water

Alaska Water and Sewer Challenge Project Timeline

Alaska Water and Sewer Challenge Performance Targets

Source: Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Water

he following Performance Targets have been established for this project. An ideal system would be capable of meeting all these targets, but there may be suitable systems that meet most of these targets but not all, and exceed some targets. If a proposed system has certain limitations, the team must provide a narrative to explain trade-offs. For instance, if the system will not provide sixty gallons per day of total water use, the team must explain what other advantages the system will provide, such as savings in capital or operating costs. At a minimum, household service will consist of a kitchen sink, a bathroom sink, a toilet, a shower, and a tap and drain for a clothes washing machine. Constructability and durability: Must be able to add the system to existing rural Alaska homes and require minimal, if any, additional floor space. Must be able to withstand everyday use, occasional neglect and abuse, and a general lack of operational understanding on the part of users. In other words, the system should ultimately be able to run like a typical

household appliance, such as a clothes washer or dish washer.

cent of rural Alaska communities, including larger hub communities.

Capital cost: Systems with a lower capital cost are preferable to higher cost systems. Since a wide range of capital costs associated with different kinds of approaches are anticipated, the cost of a particular system will be considered when comparing a proposed system with other approaches.

Freeze/thaw recovery capability: Systems must be able to be left in an unheated, rural Alaska home for up to several weeks without damage and become operational again with minimal effort.

Water use for health benefits: Proposed systems should be capable of providing a minimum of fifteen gallons of useable water per person per day, comprised of water for drinking and cooking, washing, and flushing. Systems which can provide more useable water in the home with less water delivery and wastewater removal are more desirable. Operation and maintenance cost: Projected monthly operating costs should not exceed $135, which is 5 percent of the Median Household Income (MHI) of $2,700 per month. This income level is less than or equal to the MHI of approximately 75 per-

Modularity of household system: Modularity should be maximized, with mechanical and electrical parts concentrated to the maximum extent possible in individual, removable modular units, or boxes, which could be removed from the home and taken elsewhere for service. Access to service the unit from outside the home is preferable. Feasibility: The proposed whole-house water and sewer system must be feasible to build and operate in homes in rural Alaska. Factors such as extreme temperatures, permafrost, remote locations, off road systems, willingness of end users to accept and use the water and sewer systems, and the requirements of federal and state agencies who will be funding the sys-

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

tems for installation in rural Alaska must be taken into account. Compliance with plumbing code, wastewater discharge requirements, and other regulations: The proposed wholehouse water and sewer system must comply with the Alaska Plumbing Code. Teams must specify how their proposed systems will comply with any applicable wastewater discharge permit requirements, drinking water standards for public systems, accepted greywater reuse practices, and methods of operation. Parts availability: Parts of the system that may have limited suppliers must be identified. If systems or parts of the systems are not currently available, an explanation is need for how they will be supplied at a reasonable cost. Acceptance and use by end users: The proposed system should be acceptable for use by residents of rural Alaska. Special consideration should be given to any system element that entails the use of onsite water treatment or recycled wastewater, if utilized for uses other than the toilet. R

president of Summit Consulting and head of Summit’s Water and Sewer Challenge team. “In Alaska, and in the Bush in particular, there will be places where this kind of thing can be done with some help from the state [or other funding agencies],” he says.

of sanitation than honey buckets and would also give homeowners the power to install and maintain the system themselves. Summit worked with a range of subjectmatter experts, including Thea Agnew Bemben and Meghan Holtan of the Anchorage-

—Dave Cramer President, Summit Consulting and head of Summit’s Water and Sewer Challenge team

“The context for what ADEC is trying to achieve with this approach for bringing sewer service into communities that are hard to serve, or almost impossible with standard sewer systems, is very real to us because we have designed and built systems in communities where it’s very difficult to do so,” he says. “We have built haul systems in communities where it’s impossible [to build piped-sewer systems].” Cramer says individual systems would allow the homeowner to have a higher level

based community engagement consulting firm Agnew::Beck Consulting; Brian Von Herzen, of the Climate Foundation, the finalist of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Dry Toilet” competition; Michael Gerace of Re-Locate and Jennifer Marlow of Three Degrees, co-directors of the Re-Locate Kivalina Project; and Gunter Langergraber, senior scientist at the University of Natural Resources and Sciences in Vienna, Austria, and the principal coordinator for the European Union for funding the implementation

To get any closer, you’ll need to rent a helicopter.

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

of resource-based sanitation concepts for east African countries. Cramer says his team’s project centers on fifty-gallon Water Hog tanks that can stand on end between wall studs, lay flat between ceiling or floor joists, or even go under kitchen cabinets, allowing the entire water and sewer system to fit within most homes without the need for an addition. “In some houses you’ll have more space to work with and you can have more tanks. If more people live in the house, you’ll want to do that to support them. In other houses, they’re so small you might only get one tank and a toilet and that’s it,” he says. The tanks can be used for fresh, gray, and black water, he says. And using a multi-stage filtration system, they can also use melted ice or rainwater to fill the freshwater tanks. The Summit system also includes a filtration system to recycle the gray water for reuse as dishwater or laundry. That’s the crux of the whole system, Cramer says. “If you’re really going to provide that much [fifteen gallons per person, per day] and not haul water frequently, then you have to recycle,” he says. “No one is likely to haul that much water from the plant. And no one is going to want to make that many trips to the lagoon. You have to capture the gray water.”

Summit’s system has two toilet configurations, including a urine diverting dry toilet that separates urine and feces, and losflush toilets. Some low-flush toilets would use macerators, similar to those used for RVs. A macerator allows a low-flush toilet to be placed in a room that perhaps isn’t designed as a bathroom, Cramer says. Cramer says he sees a lot of opportunities for this system to function along with more traditional community sewer and water utilities. The team hopes to prototype the systems at Kivalina’s community center, with funding from ArtPlace America, a consortium of federal agencies, foundations, and financial institutions, and in Kongiganak, in addition to Summit’s lab in Tok. “Say you’re in a community where you’re putting in piped water and sewer but there’s an outlier, a few houses outside the reach of the present project. Then we accommodate hooking those people up to something like this,” he says.

UAA

UAA civil engineering professor and team leader Aaron Dotson has an impressive team behind him. In addition to him and Elizabeth Hodges Snyder, assistant professor of public health at UAA, the team in-

cludes representatives from Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium; the University of British Columbia; First Nations Health Authority; Dalhousie University; University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health; University of South Carolina’s Viterbi School of Engineering; Polytechnique Montreal; the Cold Climate Housing Research Center; University of Colorado’s College of Engineering and Applied Science; engineering firm MWH; Streamline AM; water and wastewater engineering firm GV Jones and Associates; and Southern Nevada Water Authority. “Everything we’re developing will be open-source, there are no licenses, and it’s about community empowerment and ownership,” Dotson says. The UAA system is considerably different than the other two systems. Instead of using conventional plumbing technology that exists in most houses, the UAA proposal would install an air-driven system on every water outlet, Dotson says. “For each fixture, like a bathroom sink, the homeowner desires in their home, they would plug in a water line with potable water, non-potable water or both, an air line, a wastewater line, a vent, and plug it into a power outlet for automation. While it could be operated manually, we designed them to

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

be automatic for everyday use,” he says. The treatment systems, air compressor, and drinking water tanks would all be located in a conex that was also used to ship the system to the community. If the system were developed as part of a community water and sewer system, Dotson says one conex might serve as many as four households, allowing cost savings. The system utilizes water reuse to provide water to the bathroom sink, washer, and other similar appliances. Separating toilets with a front compartment for urine and a rear compartment for solids would be used. Dotson says the urine flush has the potential to be re-used after treatment while the solids would go into the black water tank to be hauled away. Having an air-driven system offers a number of benefits. The system works without relying on in-house plumbing— instead plumbing that may require significant retrofitting—instead, plumbing would be small-diameter lines that could be hidden in a small wall-mounted chase. And it would continue to work for a period of time even with power. “One of the biggest concerns we heard was of periodic power outages and poor quality power,” Dotson says of his team’s visit to Kipnuk and Koyukuk. “With an air

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driven system, air stored in a tank will allow the system to continue to move water to and from the fixtures without grid power.” Dotson says the system was designed to provide a day’s worth of water and air stored in the tanks in case of power outages under normal use. If residents conserve water use, the tank could even last two to three days, he says. Dotson says the team hopes to build more than one prototype system for testing and wants to locate the prototype systems in Kipnuk or Koyukuk in addition to testing it at the UAA campus in Anchorage. The community prototypes would be operated by UAA team members and provide the community with direct access to participate in development without acting as test subjects.

Defeating Honey Buckets

In August, the state was still working to develop a scope of work for the prototype construction and testing phase. Once the scope of work is drawn up, the teams will have input on the data tracking that will be part of the testing phase, and the teams will work with the state to negotiate costs for this phase of the project. Funding is available, says ADEC’s Bill Griffith, the department’s facilities pro-

gram manager, but he couldn’t say how much. “We have some funds we can access, but with the budget so tight, the state doesn’t want to tie money up until we know what’s going to be needed,” Griffith says. Griffith says he expects the teams will negotiate the details of the prototype construction and testing phase by the end of October. As the teams enter prototype development, the nature of the competition changes somewhat and there might not be a clear winner, he says. “At the end of the competition, I’m hoping there’s at least one system that looks like we could begin to [use]. I think it’s not unlikely that we might end up with two or maybe even three. It’s not unlikely that one might work better in some areas,” Griffith says. The three finalists say they’ve all gained important knowledge and skills through the competition and through working with their teams. Making different designs available for individual residents or communities that want to end dependence on honey buckets is, in itself, a win, they say. R Rindi White is a freelance journalist living in Palmer.

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

TELECOM & TECHNOLOGY

Trending Broadband Needs of Alaska Businesses Increasing Demand for Connectivity By Tracy Barbour

ecently, when Akeela was looking for a way to improve access to its behavioral health prevention and clinical services, it decided to leverage broadband Internet connectivity from Alaska Communications, a leading provider of broadband and IT solutions. Now Akeela—a nonprofit organization based in Anchorage and Ketchikan—has a private, secure, reliable network to connect clinicians with patients thousands of miles away through video conferencing and other telehealth tools. “We needed a network provider that would allow us to grow and continue to facilitate wellness throughout the life spans of all Alaskans,” says Akeela’s Chief Operations Officer Mark Marlow. “Alaska Communications took the time to listen and understand what we needed and provided a top-tier solution. As a result of our new relationship, we can provide greater access to our behavioral health programs without travel, which lowers costs and makes us more efficient.” Alaska Communications is pleased to meet Akeela’s broadband needs. “We’re eager to reward Akeela’s confidence in us by delivering a fast, reliable network and consistent customer service,” says President and CEO Anand Vadapalli. Alaska’s nonprofit organizations and businesses have a voracious appetite for data, voice, and video applications that are enabled by broadband connections. And the demand is escalating every year, according to Vadapalli. “On average, we see consumption growing 20 to 30 percent, which is similar to the national trends,” he says. “Increasingly, the world is a smaller place,

Akiachak has business-class broadband, which is increasingly making its way to Western Alaska communities, thanks to TERRA. © Kevin G. Smith / AlaskaStock.com

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015

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and broadband is what makes that happen.” Broadband is often thought of as simply high-speed Internet access. But, increasingly, businesses are relying on virtual private networks to create a secure pathway for channeling information within the public Internet. And while ultra-fast broadband provides a viable solution for all sorts of applications, swiftness isn’t the primary factor. “Broadband is certainly about speed, but it is equally—if not more—about reliability and security,” Vadapalli says. “In some cases, it is about meeting exacting technical specifications.”

Shift Continues toward Mobile and Cloud Applications Much of the insatiable demand for broadband among Alaska businesses is being driven by the growing use of mobile and cloud applications. Many small businesses are going with a mobile-first or mobile-only approach, according to Greg Schlabaugh, senior manager of commercial product marketing for GCI, the largest Alaska-based and -operated integrated communications provider. This is evident by the number of small shops and retailers taking customer orders with iPads. Even larger companies are reaching for mobile devices first during the course of conducting business. In addition, more business are using Wi-Fi to connect multiple devices. “Now it’s more critical to have a quality Wi-Fi connection,” Schlabaugh says. Schlabaugh equates “quality” to having ample bandwidth, a secure connection, and the ability to manage how devices interact on the network. Ideally, he says, a company’s broadband network should be “optimized” so that mission-critical applications are prioritized over more nonessential functions like streaming YouTube videos. Businesses that prefer not to proactively monitor their broadband connection can choose GCI’s managed service. With this solution, GCI not only monitors the network, but also configures it to run key applications first—leaving customers to focus on operating their business. “Company owners don’t want to think about how they get their broadband. They just want it to work,” Schlabaugh says. Schlabaugh says there’s also been a shift in how customers are purchasing broadband services. Traditionally, large enterprises opted for fully managed connections and small businesses went with a besteffort product. Now purchasing decisions are typically based on the applications involved. “The demand for broadband has grown to the point where businesses recognize they need different types of connections for different applications,” he says. Alaska businesses are also adopting cloud services at a higher rate, as more users overwww.akbizmag.com

come their fears relating to security. Traditionally, companies would purchase and maintain a dedicated server to run applications. Now they’re more prone to pay for a monthly subscription to use applications like Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps, and Adobe Creative Suite. This approach affords users access to the latest and greatest technology for a lower out-of-pocket cost, Schlabaugh says. Companies want solutions that address current challenges and anticipate challenges in the future, according to Amy Merchant, Corporate Business Solutions manager, AT&T Alaska. That’s why AT&T automates time-critical and resource-intensive busi-

ness processes into its mobile cloud through a variety of solutions. The company, which is the state’s largest wireless service provider, offers services like Enhanced Push-toTalk, Business Messaging, Workforce Management, and Fleet Management. “We want our services and network to help businesses grow and become more efficient,” she says. Merchant, like Schlabaugh, has also noticed more mobile use of broadband among Alaska businesses. In fact, so many of AT&T’s business customers are going mobile in most aspects of their operations that the company is offering hotspots on their devices to enhance flexibility. “The higher

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

use of mobile devices for broadband services is definitely impacting our customers, mainly in the way that we need to make sure customers are on the appropriate business plans and have the correct security measures in place for the data transmissions that they are sending,” she says. So much technology has gone toward mobility/wireless services because it’s a more cost-effective, flexible, and faster solution to get up and running, Merchant says. Business owners can expect telecom providers to continue offering new technology solutions and applications to meet their growing broadband needs. “AT&T’s goal is to keep our customers productive and provide them with the best network, so they can keep their business moving just as fast as they are,” she says. With the growing popularity of mobile, and particularly cloud services, upload speed is becoming more significant, according to Horst Poepperl, CEO and general manager of Anchorage-based Borealis Broadband. When businesses move their local IT resources to third-party cloud companies, they often send out more data to the cloud, along with downloading data from the cloud. “Interactive services such as QuickBooks on the Cloud or Point of Sales services require that [data] packets

reach the cloud [upload] as quickly and reliably as they return,” Poepperl explains. That’s why it’s becoming more important for businesses to use a symmetric service, which provides the same speed for upstream/upload and downstream/download, Poepperl says.

Considerations for Upgrading

Businesses lacking adequate upstream and/or downstream bandwidth can always upgrade their broadband connection. However, achieving optimum connectivity involves more than upload and download speeds. First, business owners need to realize that not all Internet services are equivalent. “Most people assume that 10 megabits per second [Mbps] of service from one Internet provider is the same as 10 Mbps from another Internet provider,” Poepperl explains. “This is a natural result of Internet service being viewed as a utility in today’s world, like your phone line or power service. However, there can be a significant difference in quality of service from one provider to the next—and even from one service area to the next.” Incidentally, the benchmark set for broadband speeds by the Federal Communications Commission is 25 Mbps for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads.

There are a variety of metrics that come into play with Internet service, depending on how it’s utilized, Poepperl says. Bandwidth is a main factor, but download and upload speeds are important only to a point. For example, many companies will find the difference between a 10 Mbps service level and a 50 Mbps service level to be negligible because they don’t utilize services that require the higher bandwidth. But for a few customers, the difference will be noticeable—especially if they utilize services that require the frequent downloading or uploading of very large files or very high-resolution video streams. Symmetry may be a major issue for upload-intensive businesses like cloud service subscribers, video production companies, and real estate companies. “Most people don’t know that when you have a low upload speed and high download speed [asymmetric service, such as 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload], if you consume all of the upload speed with an upload to the cloud, you also affect your download speed,” Poepperl says. “When you consume all of your upload bandwidth, there is not enough room left in the upload for the network to properly acknowledge downloaded data packets, and it will, therefore, drop your download speed dramatically until the upload bandwidth is cleared.”

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Latency—the time it takes for a network packet to reach its destination—is another important component of broadband service. This value, which is typically measured in milliseconds, becomes important for interactive applications across the net, such as Voice over Internet Protocol, video conferencing, and related services. “A consistently low latency from one packet to the next is especially desirable,” Poepperl says. Quality is also a key metric, but it’s a slightly more subjective measurement. To evaluate quality, Poepperl recommends considering the overall service of the broadband being provided. Vadapalli, like Poepperl, feels that speed is only one of the elements of broadband service. The people supporting the underlying network and service experience are also top considerations. When upgrading service, businesses should first examine what they’re using broadband for in their environment and the kinds of applications they’re running, Vadapalli says. They should also consider whether their provider can adequately handle every aspect of delivering reliable broadband service. “Partner with someone you can trust and someone who can bring a complete solution to the table,” Vadapalli says. “Sometimes a supplier cannot do it all.” Reliability and security are paramount in a broadband service, Vadapalli says. It boils down to this: If a business isn’t connected to where its information is stored or can’t process transactions, it simply can’t function. Companies that need help navigating the process of optimizing their broadband can capitalize on the managed IT services that many providers offer. Alaska Communications, for example, has more than one hundred IT professionals between its IT staff and managed serviced group available to assist business owners with managing and upgrading their broadband service. “You don’t have to hire an IT person,” Vadapalli says. “We do that all the time for customers and can do it for a fraction of the cost that you can do it for yourself.” Alaska Communications works with businesses of all sizes, from small pizza shops and dry cleaners to the State of Alaska and ConocoPhillips. Currently, the company connects more than forty-six thousand business locations on its network. Schlabaugh advises business owners to carefully evaluate their own infrastructure. “Older legacy routers only go about 100 megabits, and if we’re delivering faster speeds than that, your router is a choke point,” he says. “The businesses should try to educate themselves more about their technology, and we can help them do that.” www.akbizmag.com

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As the complexity of technology increases, so does the need to bring in an experienced IT professional, Schlabaugh says. “It used to be that the typical broadband customer was a large enterprise with a mission-critical need for a broadband connection,” Schlabaugh says. “Now smaller businesses are using Office 365 or Google apps and it’s becoming more critical that their broadband connection always be on.”

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Providers Upgrading to Meet Evolving Broadband Needs Alaska’s telecom providers are constantly enhancing their broadband services to keep pace with the mounting need for enhanced bandwidth. GCI, for example, has spent more than $3 billion to build out its network in Alaska. “We’re one of the few companies in Alaska that’s investing and growing and focused on underserved markets, like western Alaska,” Schlabaugh says. GCI has been building out its terrestrial broadband network known as TERRA to deliver high-speed Internet in rural communities. TERRA provides lower latency and allows for the streaming of rich media and the ability to leverage video conference—which is a critical tool for healthcare and education. The company is also enhancing broadband service in other parts of the state. This summer, GCI is scheduled to begin providing ultra-fast broadband with speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second in some Anchorage neighborhoods. Borealis Broadband is spending about half its time continuously upgrading and deploying the latest technology to meet broadband demand, as well as building out more base stations for distribution, according to Poepperl. The company is also maintaining its focus on symmetric bandwidth delivery to ensure both sides of the bandwidth equation are available. “Our network engineering practices are specifically aimed at providing a high quality of Internet service and support for our customers,” Poepperl says. AT&T has been enhancing data speeds by bringing fiber connectivity into its towers to provide stronger and faster data signals to its customers. And additional lanes for network traffic have been added throughout Alaska to provide more data capacity. “Many of our locations throughout Alaska are now HSPA+ [High Speed Packet Access] or 4G LTE [fourth generation Long Term Evolution], and we keep upgrading the network to provide the best network for our customers in Alaska,” Merchant says. Between 2012 and 2014, AT&T has invested nearly $200 million in its wireless

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

network in Alaska, driving a wide range of upgrades to reliability, coverage, speed, and performance for residents and business customers. In 2014, the company made more than fifty network upgrades in Alaska, including launching 4G LTE highspeed service in Ketchikan, North Pole, and Seward; enhancing wireless capacity by 50 percent in Kodiak to improve mobile Internet data and voice connectivity; and bringing high-speed Internet to customers in Delta Junction, according to Merchant. At Alaska Communications, investments are being made in two broad areas: boosting speeds as well as increasing reliability and security. To enhance speeds, the company is expanding the amount of fiber in its network. To increase reliability and security, Alaska Communications is investing in the electronics and technology that sit on both ends of its fiber optic network. Currently, Alaska Communications’ network contains fourteen thousand miles of owned fiber or fiber capacity, including undersea and terrestrial fiber optic networks. However, Vadapalli emphasizes that Alaska Communications applies rigid standards of security and reliability that have been validated by an independent third party. In 2013, it was the first company in Alaska, the second in the United States, and the third in the world to become a certified Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) carrier through the Metro Ethernet Forum, a global industry alliance that defines Carrier-class Ethernet networks. Last year, Alaska Communications received CE 2.0 E-Access certification. This means it is the only carrier in Alaska to meet international standards to connect other carriers in and out of Alaska, offering carriers instant access to Carrier Ethernet services in Alaska, Vadapalli says. Earlier this year, Alaska Communications partnered with Quintillion Holdings to acquire a North Slope fiber optic network from ConocoPhillips. The network will enable commercially-available, highspeed connectivity where only high-cost microwave and satellite communications have been available. Alaska Communications also signed a multi-year service agreement with ConocoPhillips. In addition to using the network to provide service offerings to business and enterprise customers, Alaska Communications will make the network available to other telecom carriers in the area. This will further enhance the variety of new products and services available on the market for businesses in Alaska. R Tracy Barbour is a former Alaskan. www.akbizmag.com

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FINANCIAL SERVICES

H ow Alaskans Grow Their Wealth By J. Pennelope Goforth

ccording the most recent US Census data collected in 2013, Alaskans, particularly those in Anchorage, have an annual median household income that is the highest in the state at $77,454. This is about $7,000 more than the statewide median of $70,760. Per capita income from this dataset shows Anchorage workers earned about $4,400 more than other Alaskans at $36,214. Alaska Labor Economist Neal Fried pointed out in the February 2015 Alaska Economic Trends that, at the median hourly wage rate of $21.32, Alaska ranks number one compared to all other states in the country. He cautions that these figures need to be tempered by the higher cost of living in Alaska, 50

pegged around 10 percent higher than the national range; still from the numbers side, working Alaskans are making more than they ever have. Plus there are more Alaskans in Anchorage than ever: more than 40 percent of the entire state population, or about three hundred thousand people. So what are wealthy Alaskans doing with all this money? In the vast complexities of today’s global economy some of the pedestrian safe and sound ways to grow disposable income— money accrued beyond daily living needs and debt repayment—no longer pay. With the decline of interest rates, savings accounts and certificates of deposits are no longer reliable ways to preserve and grow money.

While the stock market exchanges have rebounded following the financial crash of 2008, playing the volatile market is still a risky venture. Yet “running money,” that is seeking the highest return on investment, through the financial advisors at most of the banks and brokerage firms remains popular. Finally, asset management, primarily investment in real property also continues to be viable, but dependent on the economic cycle.

Financial Management

No less than fifteen financial management offices are located in Anchorage; some are associated with banks like First National Bank of Alaska and others with brokerage

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Sunset view of Mount Foraker, Hunter, and Denali across Cook Inlet from Anchorage hillside. ÂŠ Carl H. Johnson / AlaskaStock.com

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October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

houses such as Merrill Lynch, while several are independent wealth management companies such as Wealth Strategies of Alaska. However an individual comes by their wealth—including the examples above, inheritance, business acumen, crewing on highliner king crab vessel, or even winning the Nenana Ice Classic—turning to a wealth management firm may be the best move for a high net worth individual. At $100,000 an individual is defined as affluent. In Alaska the tipping point is generally having investable financial assets (excluding property) of $1 million. At this financial height the services of a wealth manager

can mean the difference between growing the wealth or just maintaining an affluent lifestyle. Wealth management is the “science of solving/enhancing an individual’s financial situation utilizing a full range of financial services and products in a consultative manner,” according to Forbes Financial Writer Russ Alan Prince. He further defines wealth managers as client-centered: “A good wealth manager meets a client without any presupposition about what financial products or services are appropriate for that individual.” And, according to Laura Bruce, a Chartered Financial

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Consultant and vice president of Alaska Permanent Capital Management Wealth Management for Individuals, this sector of the financial services business is booming.

Baby Boomers Fueling Growth

This growth is primarily fueled by Baby Boomers now reaching retirement age. Many who lived through the Cold War thought the world would end in their lifetime in a storm of US and Russian nuclear missiles. However, by the time of the great bull market of the 1980s and 1990s most Boomers invested in the rising stocks of not only blue chip companies but tech stocks with a view to retirement. A lot of hopes went down in flames in the dot-com bubble crash of 2000. Over a few week period, anyone with holdings in the high tech industry saw their retirement funds plummet, some as much as by 50 percent. Further, Alaskans with real estate in their financial portfolios were especially hard hit in the wake of the oil price crash of the mid-1980s. But Bruce says that the Boomers are doing better than ever. “They are getting ready to retire and they are interested in annuitizing their accumulated wealth over the life of their careers to produce income at a stable rate.” Alaska Permanent Capital Management provides a breadth of financial services resulting in a balanced portfolio crafted specifically for each client’s needs. “We provide 360 degree advice that considers the needs, life goals and looks beyond what clients have to invest. Our fee only, client first approach ensures the highest level of service.” Although Alaska has a smaller number of people aged sixty-five-plus than any other state, that is changing as the large population of Boomers in Alaska approach retirement. “The growth rate between 2010 and 2013 for this group in Alaska was higher than that of any other state in the nation,” state demographers noted in Alaska Population Overview. The percentage of Alaskans aged fifty-five to sixty-four continues to rise, up a full point from 12 percent in 2010 to 13 percent in 2013. Most of this cohort is still in the workforce and seriously planning for retirement.

Varied Investments

In its 2015 rankings Forbes reported a median home price in Anchorage of $263,000. Anchorage Re/Max realtor Bob Baer lists several luxury homes for close to $2 million. At the high end, these homes are crafted of solid wood flooring, multiple baths, spas, saunas and Jacuzzis, plenty of walk-in closet space in bedrooms, custom kitchens, decks, several fireplaces and, of course, walls of windows on those hillside homes to take in

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Cessna floatplane with Jetski on shoreline of a backyard at Campbell Lake in west Anchorage. ÂŠ Jeff Schultz / AlaskaStock.com

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October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

the stunning views of Mount Susitna and Denali. The fastest growing area of the state for the past decade is in the Mat-Su Valley where luxurious lakeside mansions sell for $2 million to $3 million, often with a float plane ramp. But surprisingly, wealthy Alaskans tend to invest moderately in their primary homes in Anchorage or the Mat-Su Valley. “Once you made yourself wealthy, my job is to make sure it’s there when you need it,” states Anchorage Chartered Financial Consultant Mick Heitman of Wealth Strategies of Alaska. Heitman says wealthy Alaskans are more likely to purchase secondary recreational properties on lakes or rivers where they can go hunting and fishing. “Some purchase properties out of state for winter homes,” he notes. Increasingly, Alaskans love their state, and those who can afford it establish solid snowbird perches in the Lower 48 or Hawaii. “Wealthy Alaskans tend to be conservative,” says Heitman. Their portfolios reflect less risky ventures since the goal is to live comfortably on a fixed income rather than invest aggressively in uncertain outcomes. One exception to that policy has been investing in the health sciences sector, which Heitman says has been outperforming the general market for years. “I don’t mean healthcare

per se, but rather biotech companies that do a lot of research and development,” he says. One only has to watch the evening network news to see the latest prescription medications coming on the market. DNA and stem cell experimentation have created whole new markets in anti-aging products, disease treatments, and more targeted medicines with fewer side effects. The astounding progress in prosthetic limbs and implants is another aspect of the biotech developments paying high rates of return. As important as growing money is, Heitman stresses that keeping what clients already have is equally important; “My practice is to facilitate and make clear as possible the implications investments have on taxes. Wealthy people pay more taxes, and more types of taxes at certain financial thresholds. Tax strategies carry a lot of weight in managing wealth.” Finally, wealthy Alaskans buy toys: snow machines, skies and snowboards, high powered hunting rifles, fly fishing outfits, small aircraft, pleasure boats, whitewater and sea kayaks, antique cars, luxury sedans, and oversized Ram 4X4 trucks. The only surprising thing is the wealthy may pay less for those toys by purchasing with cash instead of costly financing or high interest credit cards. High-end retailers are

flourishing across the shopping landscape, like Bass Pro Shops, Nordstrom, and the increasing numbers of specialized sports and clothing boutiques—think Skinny Raven Sports and AK Boardroom.

Growing Wealth

The rags to riches story so loved by American culture still holds promise in Alaska. Alaska’s first millionaire, Austin E. ‘Cap’ Lathrop, came in the late 1890s. He had little to call his own. Partnering with several investors, he purchased an interest in the L. J. Perry, a flat-bottomed little steamer. He loaded her with goods to sell to miners. He was so successful he went on to buy the boat and from there drilled for oil; established a freight company; purchased and built apartments and docks and buildings, including a chain of theatres; started a bank; had a newspaper and radio station; built a salmon cannery; and ran a coal mine, among many other ventures. Since then hundreds of thousands of people have come to the state to seek their fortune—some have made it, like Lathrop, and have successfully managed to grow their wealth. R Alaskan Author J. Penelope Goforth is home ported in Anchorage.

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Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

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Legal Speak

By Renea Saade

The Legal Landscape for Alaska Employers Is Changing. Are You Changing with It?

nyone who works in management or runs their own business knows all too well that the laws and regulations governing employees’ working conditions are complex and constantly changing. This year has brought a number of legal developments that Alaska employers may need to address. Recreational Marijuana Now Legal: Alaska Ballot Measure 2 decriminalized personal and private possession and recreational use of small amounts of marijuana as of February 24, 2015. However, Section 17.38.120(a) of the new law confirms that employers can continue to prohibit employees from using, being under the influence of, possessing, or distributing marijuana at work and can include marijuana in post-offer drug testing. Similarly, employers do not have to make exceptions to their workplace drug policies for employees who claim they need to use marijuana as an accommodation for a disability under laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act. But some employees may misunderstand the scope of this new law and think they now have a green light to light up before or during their shift or to bring their personal crop into work to share with their friends. To head off any potential misunderstandings, Alaska employers are encouraged to review (and, if necessary, update) their written policies and perhaps send out a company-wide reminder to confirm if company policy prohibits marijuana. “Independent Contractors” Under Fire: In July 2015, the US Department of Labor (DOL) made it clear that any working relationship classified as an “independent contractor,” “freelancer,” or “consultant” relationship will be highly scrutinized. In its guidance, DOL explains that the totality of the “economic realities” between the parties must be examined to determine if the parties are truly “independent”—and when that analysis is done, DOL predicts few relationships will meet the test. The guidance is another step in DOL’s increased efforts to enforce wage and hours laws and payroll tax collection by thoroughly investigating potential misclassifications. As part of these efforts, DOL entered into memorandums of understanding with the Internal Revenue Service, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Office of 56

Federal Contract Compliance Programs, Office of Solicitor, and agencies of twenty-five states (including Alaska as of August 2015) confirming these agencies’ intentions to share information and collaborate in investigative and enforcement efforts. To minimize audit and assessment risks, Alaska employers should evaluate any contractor relationships against the “economic realities” test in the guidance (available at webapps.dol.gov/ elaws/whd/flsa/docs/contractors.asp). Expanded Definition of “Joint Employer”: In a decision issued in August 2015 involving Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc., the National Labor Relations Board departed from thirty years of legal precedent and concluded that exercising direct control over employees is not necessary to be a “joint employer.” It is expected that as a result of this expanded definition of “joint employer,” many more employers (particularly those that use staffing agencies or are franchisors/ franchisees) will find themselves facing efforts to organize. To prepare, Alaska employers should become familiar with what they can and cannot do in response to organization efforts and should follow best practices to avoid charges of unlawful labor practices. New Guidance on Sexual Orientation Discrimination and Restrooms for Transgender Employees: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled that discrimination on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation is prohibited under federal law that deems “sex-based” discrimination illegal. In connection with another issue related to gender, OSHA recently published guidance regarding restroom access for transgender employees. The guidance recommends that employers have single-occupancy unisex restrooms or multiple-occupant unisex restrooms with lockable single-occupant stalls to ensure that transgender employees can privately use a restroom. Any employer that requires a transgender employee to use a segregated facility because of gender identity or transgender status could face an OSHA citation. It is yet to be seen whether the positions by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and OSHA will be adopted by federal courts, but in the meantime, employers should avoid making adverse employment decisions on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation.

New Leave Rights: Several states, cities, and counties throughout the country have adopted laws that require most employers to provide paid or unpaid sick and other protected leave for employees who meet certain qualifying criteria. Although neither Alaska nor any of its cities has adopted such a law, several cities where Alaska companies often do business (such as Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland) have. Some of the laws provide rights to employees who do not reside in the jurisdiction but regularly travel there to work. Any company with employees who regularly work out of state should determine whether its leave obligations have changed. Federal contractors should also keep an eye on this issue as the Obama administration has been working on a draft Executive Order that if adopted would require those companies that do business with the government to provide seven days of paid leave. “Spouse” Clarified: In June 2015, the US Supreme Court confirmed that the right to marry is a fundamental right and that same-sex couples must be allowed to marry irrespective of where they live in the United States. While many employers have recognized same-sex partners and spouses in their workplace policies, practices, and benefit plans, this legal development may impose changes on others. All employers should review their policies, communications, and forms, especially those related to leave and benefits, to ensure that gender-neutral language is used and references to “spouse” are inclusive of same-sex marriages. R

Renea Saade is a partner with the Anchorage office of Stoel Rives LLP. Saade regularly assists companies with their employment law needs. She may be reached at renea.saade@stoel.com or 907-263-8412. This article is provided for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for legal counsel.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

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ENERGY

Rural Energy Solutions

nergy underpins the health, economic vitality, and overall sustainability of communities and has been identified as a focus area and priority during the US leadership of the Arctic Council. As professionals working in the energy industry, we applaud this emphasis on energy for remote communities and look forward to actions and projects that will emerge from the Conference on Global Leadership in the Arctic which took place in August. As Alaskans, the two of us share a vision of an Alaska with a diversified and robust economic base founded on environmentally prudent development, providing high quality jobs not just in urban centers but in all regions of the state. As a mother and a grandmother, we aspire to an Alaska that will have safe, resilient communities with robust local economies and education, training, and employment opportunities for our children— Alaska’s future leaders. We believe access to affordable, reliable energy underpins our aspirations for Alaska and that its limited availability has been a major factor hampering economic development in the state. Electricity is only one part of the equation—heat and transportation often represent an even larger financial burden for many rural Alaskans. As guidelines for any projects or programs are developed, we propose that each and every action: Recognize and build from Alaska’s strengths. Over the past few decades, the Arctic has quietly become a global leader in the development and operation of self-sufficient microgrids, effectively integrating locally available renewable energy resources with dieselfueled generators. Approximately half of the population across the Arctic, as well as many place-specific, energy-intensive industries (e.g. mineral and oil extraction, fish processing) are powered by microgrids. Alaska is considered a global leader in this field, with far more practical expertise than any combination of federal or local organizations outside of the state. Any pilot or demonstration projects developed under the US Chairmanship should take advantage of this hard-won, Arctic-germane Alaskan expertise. Align new projects with existing programs. Alaska has existing state programs that have contributed to Alaska having the highest per 58

An opportunity for US leadership in the Arctic By Meera Kohler and Gwen Holdmann capita investment in renewable energy technology of any state. Any initiative undertaken by the State Department should be careful not to undermine these programs but rather partner with existing state programs around shared goals with rapid implementation potential. We applaud a recent Department of Energy commitment to contribute $250,000 to a special round of the Alaska Emerging Energy Technology Fund. Ideally, several million dollars more is needed to foster innovation in this field and to foster product development and deployment. Invest in research and development. US Senator Lisa Murkowski has often made the case that, with our high energy costs, Alaska can be a testing ground and early market for US innovation in the energy sector. We agree, with the exhortation that technology to be deployed in rural Alaska be robust and fully functional. Recently, the US Economic Development Association awarded a $500,000 matching grant to a University of Alaska team to establish the Alaska Center for Microgrid Technologies Commercialization. This Center is intended to work with Alaska and US small businesses to develop and transition the next generation of energy technology that can be adopted for use in Alaska and other regions served by microgrids. Federal investments like this can make a significant, long-term difference in Alaska’s ability to be self-sufficient and continue to position Alaska as a leader in what is expected to become a $20 billion global industry. Recognize that electricity is only a part of the energy equation. Heat and transportation costs often represent an even larger cost burden for many rural Alaskans. Energy efficiency, weatherization, and development of housing stock appropriate for the Arctic are also high priorities to help improve living conditions and reduce the cost of living and doing business in the Arctic. Empower local communities to take action. An energy efficiency competition has been suggested that could empower communities to come up with innovative ideas for reducing their energy use in ways that could be transferable to other places in the Arctic. Engaging Alaska stakeholders in the design of such a competition could help ensure successful implementation. This is especially important since

provisions will have to be made for developing reliable data on existing energy consumption— especially for heat and transportation. Invest in training. Human capacity is always a challenge when it comes to designing, operating, and maintaining systems, especially in remote, rural areas. The University of Alaska is well positioned to lead development of education needed for the workforce across the Arctic. Energy-focused programs under development, modeled on Iceland’s United Nations University geothermal energy training program, could demonstrate US leadership by engaging students and workers from across the Arctic. Keep an eye to the future. Connect communities to share replicated infrastructure. Scarce human resources are optimized when operating fewer systems. Microgrids are more efficient when serving multiple communities. An Alaska grid will enable stranded renewable energy resources to be brought to distant users, will incentivize clean energy jobs, and will support industry that today simply ships natural resources to other economies for processing. Alaska has been a leader in developing innovative solutions to the challenging and complex energy needs of rural communities. We look forward to continuing to work with Alaskans and other stakeholders to develop and implement energy approaches to meet the needs of the unique communities of our state and the rest of the world. R Meera Kohler has been a utility CEO for twenty-five years, with the last fifteen years at Alaska Village Electric Cooperative. The cooperative serves fifty-six rural communities, many with hybrid wind diesel systems, and has been on the cutting edge of innovative microgrid development in Alaska. Gwen Holdmann is the Director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska Center for Energy and Power, an applied energy research program with twenty-two staff members and more than thirty affiliated faculty focusing on community-scale fossil and renewable/ alternative energy technologies.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

- RANDY EYTH, CARLILE LINE DRIVER, 16 YEARS

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2015 Top 49ers

special section

$73.12 million in gross revenue for 2014, coming in at rank 39.

Transportation

By Tasha Anderson

n September 1, Google’s logo went through another revolution. If a company like Google, whose name has become so engrained in our every day functions that it’s been a verb for years, feels the need to review, rethink, and revise its logo, it only underscores the importance of marketing and branding in today’s business world. Alaska Business Monthly is honored again this year to use our platform as a media entity writing about business for business to celebrate the Top 49ers—Alaska’s owned, operated, and branded companies. For the companies ranked here, home is where the headquarters are, and marketing in the state is a way of telling family, friends, neighbors, and communities that the Top 49ers are here to provide what Alaska needs. These companies have raced to the Top (49ers), and they intend to stay. This year’s economic drivers reported for 2014 gross revenues a collective $15.04 billion, employing 73,509 people worldwide, of which 26,750 are fellow Alaskans. While gross revenues are approximately $200 million less than the $15.25 billion reported for last year, worldwide employment remains about the same from last year’s 73,556 and Alaska employment increased by 1.03 percent from 25,951, meaning the Top 49ers provided approximately 800 more jobs in the state. Arctic economic engine Arctic Slope Regional Corporation is again driving the list at Number 1, reporting $2.66 billion for 2014, accounting for 17 percent of the Top 49ers 2014 gross revenues. This is an approximate 1.1 percent increase over 2014, when the company reported $2.52 billion. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation employs 11,115 around the world and has created job opportunities for 4,988 Alaskans.

Alaska Native Corporations

Again this year, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation is only the first of many Alaska Native owned and operated companies that top the Top 49ers. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, Bristol Bay Native Corporation, NANA Regional Corporation, Inc., and Chenega Corporation are four of the top five companies. These illustrious organizations are joined by sixteen other regional and village corporations in 2015. As a sector, Alaska Native Businesses reported $11.08 billion in gross revenue for 2014, up 1 percent from 2013 gross revenue figures of $10.97 billion. They employ a total of 18,542 in Alaska and 62,596 worldwide. This year we welcome back The Kuskokwim Corporation, last seen in the 2010 Top 49ers with reported gross revenue of $89 million. The Kuskokwim Corporation manages more than 950,000 acres of land that comprises ten villages: Lower Kalskag, Upper Kalskag, Aniak, Chuathbaluk, Napaimute, Crooked Creek, Georgetown, Red Devil, Sleetmute, and Stony River. The Kuskokwim Corporation reported 60

Transportation is still going strong in our 663,268-square-mile-state, which is no surprise considering how much ground, air, and water there is to cover. Just four companies make up this sector of the Top 49ers but they report a collective $1.29 billion in 2014 gross revenues, an increase from 2013 when they reported $1.25 billion. While Lynden continued to lead the group, ranked at Number 4 this year, all four transportation companies moved up in the ranks, and each company reported higher gross revenue than last year. All together they provide jobs for 3,898 employees worldwide, and of those 2,410, or about 62 percent, are in Alaska.

Industrial Services

The Industrial Services sector also reported higher gross revenues, an increase of 1.21 percent from $635 million reported in 2014 to $767 million reported this year. Cruz Companies was particularly successful this year, rising from Number 28 to Number 17, increasing their gross revenue from $116 million reported in 2014 to $191 million reported for this year. Cruz Companies employ 361 people in Alaska and a total of 685 worldwide. As a sector, our six Industrial Services companies employ more than 2,000 around the world and approximately 1,500 in Alaska.

Utility

Alaska’s Utilities work endlessly to keep the lights on wherever Alaskan’s have work—or play—to do. The Utilities in the Top 49ers have a 100 percent Alaskan workforce, employing 627 people across the state among the three utilities, a figure which remains steady from last year to this year. All together they report 2014 gross revenues of $489 million, a decrease from 2013’s $502 million.

Construction & Engineering

Next around the bend, reporting $408 million for 2014, are the Construction and Engineering companies, which have been combined into one sector this year. Davis Constructors and Engineers leads with reported 2014 gross revenues of $136 million, a decrease from the previous $164 million, and moved down one in the ranks to 22. Last year, these five construction and engineering companies reported gross revenues of $477 million for 2013; they reported $408 million for 2014, down $69 million, which is a 17 percent drop; however, employment numbers increased 13 percent from 716 last year to 812 this year, 65 percent in Alaska.

Retail/Wholesale Trade

The Retail and Wholesale Trade sector also saw gross revenues increase from 2013 to 2014, rising from $289 million to $327 million, respectively. The sector is populated by the same three companies: Three Bears Alaska, Inc., Anchorage Chrysler Dodge Center, and Seekins Ford Lincoln, Inc., each of which reported an increase in gross revenue. In particular, Three Bears Alaska jumped from $136 million in 2013 to $161 million for 2014. Three Bears Alaska is the only company with employees outside of the state, as its largest store is located in Butte, Montana. The companies, in total, employ 738 people out of state and 695 in Alaska.

Financial Services

Again for this year the Financial Services sector is comprised of three companies; however, Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union returns to the Top 49ers. Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union was created from various credit unions in 1997; it provides personal, business, home loan, investment, insurance, and other financial services. Denali Alaskan reports 2014 gross revenues of $49 mil-

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

lion, a fitting figure for the Top 49er ranked number 49. Congratulations! In total, the Financial Services sector reports 2014 gross revenues of $237 million. This sector’s workforce is also primarily centered in-state, as 98 percent of its 1,404 worldwide employees are located in Alaska.

Telecom, Mining, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Energy On our list this year there is one company each to the Healthcare, Telecom, Mining, Manufacturing, and Energy sectors. The Telecommunications representative is MTA, Inc., which employs a 299-strong all-Alaskan workforce. MTA reports 2014 gross revenues of $97.1 million, a slight dip from 2013’s $99 million figure. Usibelli Coal Mine employs 195 people around the world, with 160 of those jobs in Alaska, employment figures that are slightly less than 2014 at 210 and 175, respectively. Usibelli’s gross revenues also dropped slightly from $103 million in 2013 to $97 million in 2014. Geneva Woods is our Healthcare sector for 2015, and reports a significant increase in its gross revenues. While it reported 2013 gross revenues of $60 million, for 2014 that figure has climbed to $95 million. Geneva Woods, ranked 45 last year, raced up to the Number 33 spot. The Manufacturing sector is represented by Builders Choice, Inc., which has been rising since it joined the Top 49ers ranks in 2013. Initially at 45, it is now Number 37, reporting 2014 gross revenues of $86 million. The company has 300 employees, of which 220 are located in Alaska. Vitus Energy, which only began operations in 2011, was a new Top 49er in 2014, and we’re pleased to see the company here again. Vitus Energy has 57 employees, all of which are located in Alaska. The company reported that their 2014 gross revenues were $69 million. Whether the Top 49ers are rising up, rebranding, or steadily cruising, they all contribute immeasurably to building Alaska’s economy and community. With headquarters across the state and employees across the world, Alaska Business Monthly’s Top 49ers are definitely making a name for themselves. R Tasha Anderson is an Associate Editor for Alaska Business Monthly.

www.akbizmag.com

Top 49ers of the New Millennium

n this new millennium there have been 102 Top 49ers, which are by definition 51 percent Alaskan-owned. Many of those companies are off and on again with fluctuating gross revenues; some are so successful they disappear from the ranks through mergers and acquisitions with other Top 49ers or Outside firms. Still others remain successful companies, but the Top 49ers bottom line has grown so much they no longer make the cut-off or decide not to disclose annual gross revenues for internal reasons. Some Top 49ers move off the list after they go public and the balance is tipped when the stockholder majority shifts out of Alaska. Others, like Alaska USA Federal Credit Union (absent from the list this year) expand their business out of state and those out of state endeavors become so successful that member ownership is greater outside of Alaska. While we hate to lose any Top 49er from our list, it’s hard to be anything but optimistic when Alaska businesses reach such levels of success. Below is a list of previous Top 49ers from this new millennium and the last year they were a Top 49er—for those that still qualify, we hope to see you next year:

 Alaska USA Federal Credit Union—2014  The Wilson Agency—2014  Bethel Native Corporation—2013  Carlile Transportation Systems—2013  Neeser Construction, Inc.—2013  The Eyak Corporation—2013  Tyonek Native Corporation—2013  USTravel—2013  Golden Valley Electric Association—2012  Alcan Electrical and Engineering, Inc.—2011  The Superior Group—2011  UNIT Company—2011  Alaska Interstate Construction LLC—2010  Cape Fox Corporation—2010  Peak Oilfield Services Company—2010  Northrim BanCorp, Inc.—2009  Central Peninsula General Hospital—2008  Great Northwest, Inc. —2008  Ken Brady Construction, Inc. —2008  Spinnel Homes, Inc.—2007  Veco Alaska, Inc.—2007  Fairbanks Memorial Hospital/ Denali Center—2006  Furniture Enterprises of Alaska—2006  Northern Air Cargo, Inc.—2006  Gene’s Chrysler—2005

 Kenai Chrysler Center—2005  Morrison Auto Group, Inc. —2005  Northern Sales Company of Alaska, Inc.—2005  Ribelin Lowell Alaska USA Insurance Brokers, Inc.—2005  A&M RV Center—2004  Prudential Jack White/Vista Real Estate—2004  Alaska Electric Light and Power—2003  Aurora Power Resources—2003  Brady and Company, Inc.—2003  Denali State Bank—2003  Klukwan, Inc.—2003  Alaska Petroleum—2002  Alaska Steel Company—2002  First Bank—2002  Mount McKinley Bank—2002  New Horizons Telecom, Inc.—2002  Restaurants Northwest, Inc.—2002  The Alaska Club—2002  VF Grace, Inc.—2002  Anchorage Nissan Jeep Eagle, Inc.—2001  Fairbanks Nissan—2001  McKinley Capital Management, Inc.—2001  The Odom Corporation—2001  Allen and Petersen Company —2000  National Bank of Alaska—2000  Reeve Corporation—2000  Wave Wholesale Company—2000

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

Alaska Native Corporations

2015 Top 49ers Employment Figures, Gross Revenues & Industry Distribution

$99,000,000 2013 $97,100,000 2014

$502,308,427 2013 $489,889,255 2014

2013-2014

2014 Gross Revenue $15.048 Billion 2013 Gross Revenue $15.246 Billion $1,165,250,000 2013 $1,295,850,000 2014

Top 49ers Revenue

Utility

$200,000,000 Industrial Manufacturing Services

Transportation

$400,000,000

$289,764,135 2013 $327,476,515 2014

$4,000,000,000

Telecom

$600,000,000

Retail/Wholesale Trade

$800,000,000

$103,000,000 2013 $97,000,000 2014

$8,000,000,000 Healthcare

Mining

$1,000,000,000

$73,002,000 2013 $86,486,000 2014

$6,000,000,000 Mining Retail/ Wholesale Trade

1,540 Alaskan jobs in 2014 1,557 Alaskan jobs in 2015 1,856 Total jobs in 2014 2,138 Total jobs in 2015

Top 49ers Employment Figures Alaskan jobs in 2014 Alaskan jobs in 2015 Total jobs in 2014 Total jobs in 2015

2,483 Alaskan jobs in 2014 2,410 Alaskan jobs in 2015 4,289 Total jobs in 2014 3,898 Total jobs in 2015

Alaskan and outside job figures 2014-2015

Telecom Transportation

626 Alaskan jobs in 2014 627 Alaskan jobs in 2015 626 Total jobs in 2014 627 Total jobs in 2015

297 Alaskan jobs in 2014 299 Alaskan jobs in 2015 297 Total jobs in 2014 299 Total jobs in 2015

606 Alaskan jobs in 2014 695 Alaskan jobs in 2015 651 Total jobs in 2014 738 Total jobs in 2015

175 Alaskan jobs in 2014 160 Alaskan jobs in 2015 210 Total jobs in 2014 195 Total jobs in 2015

210 Alaskan jobs in 2014 220 Alaskan jobs in 2015 285 Total jobs in 2014 300 Total jobs in 2015

190 Alaskan jobs in 2014 270 Alaskan jobs in 2015 250 Total jobs in 2014 445 Total jobs in 2015

40,000

Manufacturing

$1,400,000,000 Financial Services

$635,028,384 2013 $767,441,397 2014

Energy

Industrial Services

$2,000,000,000 Construction & Engineering

$60,000,000 2013 $95,000,000 2014

$12,000,000,000 0

2,377 Alaskan jobs in 2014 1,387 Alaskan jobs in 2015 2,782 Total jobs in 2014 1404 Total jobs in 2015

3,000

Healthcare

10,000

$788,019,571 2013 $237,950,823 2014

Alaska Native Corporations 4,000

Financial Services

1,000

$89,600,000 2013 $69,000,000 2014

60,000

Energy

20,000

$475,911,934 2013 $408,647,207 2014

0 2,000

Construction & Engineering

30,000 5,000

50 Alaskan jobs in 2014 57 Alaskan jobs in 2015 50 Total jobs in 2014 57 Total jobs in 2015

50,000

475 Alaskan jobs in 2014 526 Alaskan jobs in 2015 716 Total jobs in 2014 812 Total jobs in 2015

70,000

$10,968,162,459 2013 $11,075,756,300 2014

80,000

16,922 Alaskan jobs in 2014 18,542 Alaskan jobs in 2015 61,544 Total jobs in 2014 62,596 Total jobs in 2015

special section

2015 Top 49ers

Utility

49ers by Industry

2015

$10,000,000,000 $1,200,000,000

Alaska Native Corporations: 20 Construction & Engineering: 5 Energy: 1 Financial Services: 3 Healthcare: 1 Industrial Services: 6 Manufacturing: 1 Mining: 1 Retail/Wholesale Trade: 3 Telecom: 1 Transportation: 4 Utility: 3

49ers by Industry

2014

Alaska Native Corporations: 19 Construction & Engineering: 5 Energy: 1 Financial Services: 4 Healthcare: 1 Industrial Services: 6 Manufacturing: 1 Mining: 1 Retail/Wholesale Trade: 3 Telecom: 1 Transportation: 4 Utility: 3

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

SONIC Drive-in Franchise Opportunity

SONIC Drive-in

A hot concept is coming to Alaska!

ONIC® Drive-In, America’s largest and hottest drive-in chain, will be coming to Alaska soon. In September, SONIC executives met in Anchorage with candidates who were interested in owning and operating SONIC Drive-Ins in Alaska. However, the opportunity to become a franchisee is still open, and SONIC welcomes all inquiries. “Once you contact us, it takes us about three months of discussion for you to go through the process and learn about SONIC,” says Bob Franke, vice president of offshore development. SONIC is granting franchises to own and operate statewide. This opportunity will enable franchisees to tap into one of the country’s most successful and iconic brands. SONIC has been in business for more than 60 years and currently has more than 3,500 locations throughout the United States. The restaurant chain has gained a reputation for serving customers conveniently at its car stalls. Over the years, SONIC’s service model has evolved to include drive-thru, digital video screens in the stalls, and indoor dining for all seasons. “Our franchisees and our brand are successful because of the unique differences that set us apart from our competitors,” Franke says. “From our ability to deliver orders with our roller skating carhops, to our made-to-order menu

that allows customers to customize their meals the way they like them. We look forward to opening soon in Alaska.”

In addition, prospective SONIC franchisees need sufficient capital to acquire sites through lease or purchase and to construct buildings and supply equipment. “We require a capital outlay from $1 million to $2 million in liquid assets, as well as a strong net worth in order to develop at least five restaurants,” Franke explains. “If you’re a restaurant operator now and want to operate the SONIC brand, you can partner with someone who has the financial capability.” SONIC is a fun and successful brand with great food and a unique restaurant experience that everyone loves. Anyone who is interested in owning and operating the iconic restaurant franchise is encouraged to visit www.sonicfranchises.com for more information about opportunities in Alaska.

THE SONIC FOOD EXPERIENCE SONIC has five distinct dayparts— breakfast, lunch, afternoon, dinner, and evening—which are served fresh all throughout the day. Fan favorites include hand-made onion rings, burgers, hot dogs, chili cheese coneys, tater tots, and breakfast toaster sandwiches. Beverages are also a key element of SONIC, which has more than a million drink flavor combinations alone. In fact, drinks, shakes, and indulgent ice cream offerings comprise about 40 percent of its business. “With our delicious food and drink offerings, we’ve become a brand Americans love to indulge in with family and friends,” Franke says. REQUIREMENTS TO OPEN A SONIC FRANCHISE The restaurant business is very handson, and it’s all about the people and teams who service the customer, Franke says. Therefore, SONIC typically looks for franchise candidates who have experience in the retail industry. However, the company provides a 12-week operational training program to help franchisees learn SONIC’s business, so they can get off to a great start. –

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2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

special section

2015 Top 49ers

ASRC Continues to Dominate Top 49ers

ole-sitter Arctic Slope Regional Corporation has qualified for pole-position in Alaska Business Monthly’s Top 49 businesses owned and operated by Alaskans ranked by gross revenue for the last twenty-one years, coming in at Number One in the Top 49er standings annually since 1995, when it overtook Veco, Inc. in the final stretch. Rex Rock Sr. is in the driver’s seat of this company that has advanced continuously from its standing as number thirteen in 1985 on 1984 gross revenues of $55 million. This year, reported gross revenues for 2014 are $2.7 billion—an increase of 4,745 percent since 1984. This year, the champion Top 49er reported nearly five thousand employees in Alaska and more than

eleven thousand worldwide, including Alaska. In 1985’s first Top 49ers, themed simply “The New 49ers—All Alaska—First Team 1985,” Arctic Slope Regional Corporation reported four hundred employees. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation has certainly found its groove. This champion has gotten the Top 49ers checkered flag more times than any other company in history— ASRC is in victory lane again. We join in celebrating the rest of the field—the other forty-eight Top 49ers crossing the finish line. Collectively, the 2015 Alaska Business Monthly Top 49ers generated more than $15 billion in 2014 gross revenues, with 73,509 employees in the pit crews around the world—26,570 in Alaska. R

Arctic Slope Regional Corporation

2015 Top 49ers

4,988 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 11,115 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 45% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 1 in 2014 No change in rank from 2014 Revenue change from 2014  5% 2010 $2,331,681,000 2011 $2,549,993,000 2012 $2,628,929,000 2013 $2,525,615,000 2014 $2,663,540,000

$2,331,681,000 $2,549,993,000 $2,628,929,000 $2,525,615,000 $2,663,540,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: ASRC acquired Arctic Pipe Inspection, Inc. of Houston and Arctic Pipe Inspection, Inc. in late July of 2015. We believe this acquisition demonstrates ASRC’s continued commitment to the oil and gas industry and is in alignment with our goals of growth and diversification.

Principal Activities: ASRC is the largest Alaskan-owned and operated company, employing approximately 11,000 people worldwide. The company has six major business segments: petroleum refining and marketing, energy support services, industrial services, construction, government services and resource development. Subsidiaries: ASRC Energy Services, Inc.; ASRC Federal Holding Company, LLC; ASRC Construction Holding Company; Eskimos, Inc.; Tundra Tours, Inc.; Petro Star, Inc.; Alaska Growth Capital; Little Red Services Inc.; Petrochem Inc.; Arctic Pipe Inspection, Inc.

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation

Rex A. Rock Sr., President & CEO Phone: 907-852-8633 | 907-852-5733 asrc.com | twitter.com/ASRC_AK 64

Established 1972 PO Box 129 Barrow, AK 99723

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

An Alaskan who knows her place place Carrie Lindow

M.B.A. ’04, M.A. Project Management ’10 President, ChemTrack Alaska Inc.

And that place is the c-suite. As president of ChemTrack Alaska Inc., Carrie Lindow leads a team that extracts hazardous materials from the environment. Carrie grew up in Alaska ﬁshing, playing hockey and skiing. Her life’s work ensures her daughter can do the same. UAA helped Carrie ﬁnd her place. Where’s yours? UAA is an EEO/AA employer and educational institution.

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

Bristol Bay Native Corporation

1,236 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 4,348 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 28% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 2 in 2014 No change in rank from 2014 Revenue change from 2014  5% 2010 $1,667,200,000 2011 $1,965,507,000 2012 $1,961,780,000 2013 $1,835,894,000 2014 $1,736,084,000

Principal Activities: Construction, Government Services, Oilfield and Industrial Services, Petroleum Distribution, and Tourism.

$1,667,200,000 $1,965,507,000

Subsidiaries: Bristol Bay Resource Solutions LLC; Eagle Group; STS-Glacier Group; SpecPro Group; Vista Group; Business Resource Solutions, LLC; Bristol Alliance; CCI Alliance; SES Group; PetroCard, Inc.; Bristol Bay Mission Lodge, LLC; Bristol Bay Industrial; Kakivik Asset Management; Peak Oilfield Service Company; CCI Industrial Services

$1,961,780,000 $1,835,894,000 $1,736,084,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: BBNC has recently established a holding company "Bristol Bay Industrial (BBI)" to consolidate its oilfield services companies (Peak, Kakivik & CCI Industrial) and to provide a platform for efficiency and future growth. BBNC has named Mark D. Nelson, former AES COO, as the President & CEO of BBI. Classification: Alaska Native Corporation

Jason Metrokin, President & CEO Established 1972 111 W. 16th Ave., Suite 400 Anchorage, AK 99501

Phone: 907-278-3602 | 907-276-3924 bbnc.net | info@bbnc.net

Nimble as a Mountain Goat AGILE … ADAPTABLE … ABLE

Span Alaska’s flexibility and experience have allowed us to provide our customers with custom shipping solutions for more than 30 years. SHIPPING TO ALASKA? CALL SPAN ALASKA.

1.800.257.7726

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w w w. s pa n a l a s k a . c o m

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Only pay for the speed you need... Dynamic Routing! SM

At Lynden, we understand that plans change but deadlines don’t. That’s why we proudly oﬀer our exclusive Dynamic Routing system. Designed to work around your unique requirements, Dynamic Routing allows you to choose the mode of transportation — air, sea or land — to control the speed of your deliveries so they arrive just as they are needed. With Lynden you only pay for the speed you need!

The new Lynden phone app is now available to download!

www.lynden.com 1-888-596-3361

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

NANA Regional Corporation, Inc.

2015 Top 49ers

5,726 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 15,282 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 37% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 3 in 2014 No change in rank from 2014 Revenue change from 2014 ď&#x192;Ş 6% 2010 $ 1,600,000,000 2011 $1,500,000,000 2012 $ 1,800,000,000 2013 $1,700,000,000 2014 $1,600,000,000

$1,600,000,000 $1,500,000,000 $1,800,000,000 $1,700,000,000 $1,600,000,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: New board chair, Linda Lee; New President/CEO Wayne Westlake; 25th Anniversary of Red Dog Mine in 2014.

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: Responsible natural resource development as well as oil and gas, federal, and commercial services to a wide array of industries. Subsidiaries: NANA Development Corporation

Wayne Westlake, President & CEO Phone: 907-442-3301 | 907- 442-4161 nana.com/regional | news@nana.com

Established 1972 PO Box 49 Kotzebue, AK 99503

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

Lynden, Inc.

805 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 2,633 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 31% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 5 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  1 Revenue change from 2014  14% 2010 $720,000,000 2011 $850,000,000 2012 $885,000,000 2013 $875,000,000 2014 $1,000,000,000

$720,000,000 $850,000,000 $885,000,000 $875,000,000 $1,000,000,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Lynden Oilfield Services offers in-field logistical services for Prudhoe Bay and all other North Slope oilfields. Its new 15-acre facility includes storage for supplies like pipe and bulk materials, a cross-dock operation and a full-service maintenance shop, mechanics, and intermodal capability.

Principal Activities: Lynden's capabilities include: truckload & less-thantruckload transportation, scheduled & charter barges, intermodal bulk chemical hauls, scheduled & chartered air freighters, domestic & international air forwarding, ocean forwarding, sanitary bulk commodities hauling, and multi-modal logistics. Subsidiaries: Knik Construction; Alaska West Express; Bering Marine Corporation; Lynden Air Cargo; Lynden International; Lynden Logistics; Lynden Oilfield Services; Lynden Transport, Inc.; Alaska Marine Lines

Classification: Transportation

Jim Jansen, Chairman 907-245-1544 | Fax: 907-245-1744 lynden.com | information@lynden.com

Established 1954 6641 S. Airpark Pl. Anchorage, AK 99502

Where the road ends…

Our Work Begins

Our crews have decades of experience, and the skilled manpower to take on any task. With our tundra-approved vehicles, we can get your drill rig and project materials to any remote location, and build ice pads and ice roads. And our range of logistics support – hauling fuel and freight – has been broadened with the addition of our new marine services division.

cruzconstruct.com

Main Office (907) 746-3144 North Slope (907) 659-2866

From start to finish, we are a partner who can deliver what you need.

Anywhere you need it. Any season of the year.

tundra transport • rig moves • rig support • remote camps • ice roads • ice pads • well site trailer units • marine services

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

Chenega Corporation

440 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 5,200 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 8% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 4 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  1 Revenue change from 2014  15% 2010 $1,100,000,000 2011 $1,100,000,000 2012 $1,100,000,000 2013 $1,044,000,000 2014 $885,000,000

$1,100,000,000 $1,100,000,000 $1,100,000,000 $1,044,000,000 $885,000,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Named as a Military Friendly Employer in 2014.

Principal Activities: Chenega Corporation is a premier government services provider to security, healthcare, IT, environmental, military intelligence, operations support and professional services mgt. Our commercial division includes electrical, communications, green energy power systems and Arctic applications services.

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation

Charles W. Totemoff, President & CEO Established 1974 3000 C St., Suite 301 Anchorage, AK 99503

Phone: 907-277-5706 | Fax: 907-277-5700 chenega.com | info@chenega.com

Fort Knox Stewardship in Action

The way we see things, stewardship extends well beyond protecting land and water.

It’s also about taking care of our people. That’s why we invest in advanced training, safety, and modern mining technology. The return? We have the best people in the industry working for us. Fort Knox places high value in community stewardship. We buy locally, hire locally and we’re active in charitable giving, and our people volunteer in many civic and community groups. And, as far as protecting the land and water, our record stands on its own. At Fort Knox, responsible stewardship is part of how we do business every day.

Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc. A Kinross company

kinross.com 72

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

Chugach Alaska Corporation

2015 Top 49ers

600 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 5,000 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 12% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 6 in 2014 No change in rank from 2014 Revenue change from 2014 ď&#x192;Š 3% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$936,975,000 $766,000,000 $709,000,000 $609,000,000 $626,000,000

$936,975,000 $766,000,000 $709,000,000 $609,000,000 $626,000,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Acquired Hawaii refrigeration company Oahu Sales; Kenai-based oil and gas services company All American Oilfield Associates, LLC and its wholly-owned subsidiary All American Oilfield Equipment, LLC; and a minority equity position in AK integrated pharmaceutical care provider Geneva Woods Pharmacy.

commercial clients including facilities management and maintenance, construction, technical and IT, oil and gas, and education services. Subsidiaries: Chugach Alaska Services, LLC; Chugach Federal Solutions, Inc.; Chugach Government Services, Inc.; Chugach Industries, Inc.; Chugach Information Technology, Inc.; Chugach McKinley, Inc.; Chugach Management Services, Inc.; Chugach Support Services, Inc.; Chugach World Services, Inc.; Defense Base Services, Inc.; Wolf Creek Federal Services, Inc.; Chugach Education Services, Inc.; Heide & Cook, LLC; Chugach Systems Integration, LLC; Chugach Commercial Holdings, LLC; Chugach Construction Services, LLC; Chugach Government Solutions, LLC; Chugach Training & Education Services, LLC; All American Oilfield, LLC; All American Oilfield Equipment, LLC; Chugach Professional Oilfield Services, Inc.

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: Wide-ranging services for federal and

Gabriel Kompkoff, CEO Phone: 907-563-8866 | Fax: 907-563-8402 chugach.com | communications@chugach.com

Afognak Native Corporation / Alutiiq LLC

Established 1972 3800 Centerpoint Dr., Suite 1200 Anchorage, AK 99503

2015 Top 49ers

192 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 4,042 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 5% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 7 in 2014 No change in rank from 2014 Revenue change from 2014 ď&#x192;Ş 4% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$783,000,000 $711,080,000 $534,610,000 $526,000,000 $505,408,000

$783,000,000 $711,080,000 $534,610,000 $526,000,000 $505,408,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: On June 11, 2015, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded Afognak Native Corporation's subsidiary Alutiiq Commercial Enterprises LLC the Small Business Contractor of the Year award for its service to the Agriculture Research Service (ARS) Agency.

commercial sectors across the globe, including construction, leasing, logistics, operations & maintenance, oilfield, security, timber, and youth services. Subsidiaries: Afognak Leasing, LLC; Afognak Oilfield Services, LLC; Alutiiq Oilfield Solutions, LLC; Alutiiq Commercial Enterprises, LLC; Alutiiq 3SG, LLC; Alutiiq Construction Services, LLC; Alutiiq International Solutions, LLC; Alutiiq Essential Services, LLC; Alutiiq Technical Services, LLC; Alutiiq Security & Technology, LLC; Alutiiq Pacific, LLC; Alutiiq Diversified Services, LLC; Alutiiq Professional Services, LLC; Alutiiq Management Services, LLC; Alutiiq General Contractors, LLC; Alutiiq Advanced Security Solutions, LLC; Alutiiq Education & Training, LLC; Alutiiq Manufacturing Contractors, LLC; Alutiiq-Mele, LLC; Alutiiq Professional Training, LLC; Alutiiq Global Solutions, LLC; Afognak Near Island, LLC; Afognak Arctic Development, LLC; Afognak C Street, LLC

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: Afognak Native Corporation, Alutiiq LLC, and their subsidiaries provide an exceptional track record of services in government and

Greg Hambright, President & CEO Phone: 907-486-6014 | Fax: 907-486-2514 afognak.com | info@alutiiq.com 74

Established 1977 300 Alimaq Dr. Kodiak, AK 99615

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers

Calista Corporation

400 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 1,500 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 27% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 8 in 2014 No change in rank from 2014 Revenue change from 2014 ď&#x192;Š 9% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$230,574,000 $300,498,000 $404,231,000 $368,914,000 $401,900,000

Construction Services; Environmental Services; Marine Services; Rental and Property Management; Marketing/PR Agency; Camp Services and Catering; Communications.

$230,574,000 $300,498,000 $404,231,000 $368,914,000 $401,900,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Moved to new corporate headquarters in fall 2014. Chiulista Services earned 2014 Department of Homeland Security Small Business Award for U.S. Coast Guard Kodiak base work.

Subsidiaries: Ookichista Drilling Services, Inc; Yulista Aviation, Inc.; Yulista Management Services, Inc.; Y-Tech Services, Inc.; Chiulista Services, Inc.; Brice Incorporated; Tunista, Inc.; Tunista Construction, LLC; Tunista Services, LLC; Yukon Equipment, Inc.; Futaris (Fomerly Alaska Telecom, Inc.); Solstice Advertising; Sequestered Solutions; Brice Construction; Brice Marine; Brice Equipment; Calista Real Estate; Aulukista, LLC; Yulista Tactical Services, LLC; E3 Environmental, LLC; Qagan Lands, LLC; Calista Education & Culture

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: Contracting and Professional Services;

Andrew Guy, President & CEO Phone: 907-275-2800 | Fax: 907-275-2919 calistacorp.com | calista@calistacorp.com

Established 1972 5015 Business Park Blvd., Suite 3000 Anchorage, AK 99503

A Full Service Engineering and Land Surveying Firm

www.crweng.com Bright People. Powerful Solutions. Building Alaska. www.akbizmag.com

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

Doyon, Limited

2015 Top 49ers

1,722 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 2,787 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 62% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 11 in 2014

$459,000,000

Change in rank from 2014  2

$468,000,000

Revenue change from 2014  14% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$338,276,000

$459,000,000 $468,000,000 $338,276,000 $318,552,461 $362,816,481

$318,552,461 $362,816,481 Recent Newsworthy Events: Doyon is continuing its exploration efforts in the Nenana Basin in Summer 2016.

Principal Activities: Doyon's primary businesses are the oil field sector (drilling, security, facilities management, pipeline construction, and engineering) and federal government contracting (privatized utilities, construction, and IT). Subsidiaries: Doyon Transitional, Inc.; Doyon Oil Field Services, Inc.; Doyon Government Contracting, Inc.; Doyon Natural Resources Development Corporation

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation

Aaron Schutt, President & CEO Phone: 907-459-2000 | Fax: 907-459-2060 doyon.com | info@doyon.com

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Ukpeagvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC)

Established 1972 1 Doyon Pl., Suite 300 Fairbanks, AK 99701

2015 Top 49ers

360 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 2,950 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 12% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 10 in 2014 No change in rank from 2014 Revenue change from 2014  11% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$270,612,000 $278,890,000 $312,380,000 $320,716,000 $356,781,000

$270,612,000 $278,890,000 $312,380,000 $320,716,000 $356,781,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Alaska Governor Bill Walker extended an invitation to UIC President and CEO Anthony Edwardsen to serve on the Alaska Arctic Council Host Committee: a committee designed to develop a program of activities that showcase Alaska perspectives during the US Chairmanship of the Arctic Council.

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: Construction, architectural services, engineering, government services, maintenance and manufacturing, marine cargo transportation, oil field support services. Subsidiaries: Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation; UIC Oil & Gas Support Services; UIC Real Estate; UIC Marine Services; UIC Lands; UIC Government Services

Anthony Edwardsen, President & CEO Phone: 907-852-4460 | Fax: 907-852-4459 uicalaska.com | info@uicalaska.com 76

Established 1973 PO Box 890 Barrow, AK 99723

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers

Cook Inlet Region, Inc.

1,270 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 2,083 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 61% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 16 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  5 Revenue change from 2014  42% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$188,300,000 $200,800,000 $237,849,000 $214,930,000 $304,421,000

Principal Activities: CIRI’s financial expertise spans diverse business sectors, including real estate, oilfield and construction services, land and natural resources, energy and infrastructure, environmental services, tourism and hospitality, government services, and private equity investments.

$188,300,000 $200,800,000 $237,849,000 $214,930,000 $304,421,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: In 2015, CIRI completed construction of the Fireweed Business Center, an 8-story, 110,000-square-foot office tower in Anchorage. The design features the latest in energy-efficient technology and incorporates CIRI's values of cultural diversity, a connection to the land, and sustainability.

Subsidiaries: CIRI Land Development Co. (CLDC); North Wind Group; Fire Island Wind LLC; Cruz Energy Services LLC; Cruz Marine LLC; Weldin Construction LLC; Silver Mountain Construction LLC; CIRI Services Corporation; CIRI Alaska Tourism Corp.; PTP Management; ANC R&D

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation

Sophie Minich, President & CEO Phone: 907-274-8638 | Fax: 907-263-5183 ciri.com | info@ciri.com

Established 1972 PO Box 93330 Anchorage, AK 99509

Our outstanding management team specializes in providing design, pre-construction and construction services on all types of civil, commercial and industrial projects. The Anchorage Sand & Gravel Port Cement Storage Facility is just one of our many projects. For a complete listing and more information visit our website www.rogerhickelcontracting.com 11001 Calaska Circle I Anchorage, Alaska I 99515 I phone 907-279-1400 I fax 907-279-1405 www.akbizmag.com

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

Bering Straits Native Corporation

2015 Top 49ers

407 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 1,204 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 34% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 14 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  2 Revenue change from 2014  26% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$190,336,771 $206,000,000 $213,000,000 $242,000,000 $304,000,000

$190,336,771 $206,000,000 $213,000,000 $242,000,000 $304,000,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: BSNC wholly acquired Alaska Industrial Hardware (AIH), a leading company in the sales of construction and industrial equipment statewide.

subsidiaries, BSNC serves the federal government and commercial customers throughout the Bering Strait region, Alaska, the United States, and the world. Subsidiaries: Inuit Services Inc.; Bering Straits Aerospace Services LLC; Bering Straits Logistics Services LLC; Bering Straits Information Technology LLC; Bering Straits Technical Services LLC; Bering Straits Aki LLC; Eagle Eye Electric LLC; Ayak LLC; Global Support Services LLC; Global Management Services LLC; Iyabak Construction LLC; Global Asset Technologies LLC; Global Precision Systems LLC; Bering Straits Development Co.; Global Technical Services LLC; Golden Glacier, Inc.; 4600 Debarr LLC

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: The company actively pursues responsible economic development in our region. Through its

Gail R. Schubert, President & CEO Phone: 907-563-3788 | Fax: 907-563-2742 beringstraits.com | media@beringstraits.com

Chugach Electric Association, Inc.

Established 1972 4600 DeBarr Rd., Suite 200 Anchorage, AK 99508

2015 Top 49ers

298 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 298 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 12 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  1 Revenue change from 2014  8% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$258,300,000 $283,618,369 $266,971,468 $305,308,427 $281,318,513

$258,300,000 $283,618,369 $266,971,468 $305,308,427

Classification: Utility Principal Activities: Electric Utility.

$281,318,513

Bradley Evans, CEO Phone: 907-563-7494 | Fax: 907-562-0027 chugachelectric.com | info@chugachelectric.com 78

Established 1948 5601 Electron Dr. Anchorage, AK 99518

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers

Olgoonik Corporation

155 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 1,065 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 15% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 15 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014 ď&#x192;Š 1 Revenue change from 2014 ď&#x192;Š 8% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$133,000,000 $178,400,000 $198,600,000 $215,200,000 $231,900,000

Contracting: Construction; Oilfield Exploration and Production Support; Science Program Operations; Arctic Marine, Air and Land Logistics; Global Facility Operations and Maintenance; Environmental Remediation; Professional Security Services.

$133,000,000 $178,400,000 $198,600,000 $215,200,000 $231,900,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Olgoonik/Fairweather received the Arctic Technology Conference Distinguished Achievement Award for the co-design and safe operation of the multidisciplinary Chukchi Sea Environmental Studies Program (CSESP). Olgoonik Corp. made $140K audio/ visual system donation to Alak School in Wainwright, Alaska.

Subsidiaries: Olgoonik Construction Services; Olgoonik Specialty Contractors; Olgoonik Logistics; O.E.S.; Olgoonik Management Services; Olgoonik Technical Services; Olgoonik Global Security; Olgoonik Diversified Services; Olgoonik Development; Olgoonik Solutions; Olgoonik Federal; Olgoonik Oilfield Services; Olgoonik Enterprises; Olgoonik Inspection Services; Olgoonik Holdings; Kuk Construction; Olgoonik Holdings; Olgoonik Aerospace Services

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: Worldwide Government and Commercial

Hugh Patkotak Sr., President & CEO Phone: 907-562-8728 | Fax: 907-562-8751 olgoonik.com | communications@olgoonik.com

www.akbizmag.com

Established 1972 3201 C St., Suite 700 Anchorage, AK 99503

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

Koniag, Inc.

59 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 649 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 9% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 17 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  2 Revenue change from 2014  4% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$149,550,000 $128,228,000 $129,234,000 $202,616,000 $211,493,000

$149,550,000 $128,228,000 $129,234,000 $202,616,000 $211,493,000 Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: Government Contracting, ANCSA natural resource development, and management, Commercial real estate investment, Control systems and alloy distribution, Information Sciences, Database Engineering.

Subsidiaries: Angayak Construction Enterprises, Inc.; Digitized Schematic Solutions, LLC; Frontier Systems Integrator, LLC; Koniag Development Company, LLC; Koniag Services, Inc.; Professional Computing Resources, Inc.; XMCO, Inc.; Dowland-Bach Corporation; Koniag Information Security Services, LLC; Granite Cove Quarry, LLC; Koniag Technology Solutions, Inc.; Nunat Holdings, LLC; Near Island Building, LLC; Karluk Wilderness Adventures, Inc. dba Kodiak Brown Bear Center and dba Karluk River Cabins; PacArctic, LLC; Open Systems Technology, DE, LLC; Angayuk Construction Enterprises, LLC; Clarus Technologies, LLC; 2320 Post Road, LLC

Elizabeth Perry, Ph.D., CEO Phone: 907-486-2530 | Fax: 907-486-3325 koniag.com | facebook.com/KoniagInc

Udelhoven Oilfield System Services

Established 1972 194 Alimaq Dr. Kodiak, AK 99615

2015 Top 49ers

579 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 836 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 69% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 19 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  3 Revenue change from 2014  19% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$133,582,856 $201,631,889 $148,165,163 $166,229,644 $198,377,193

$133,582,856 $201,631,889 $148,165,163 $166,229,644

Principal Activities: Oil Field Services; Mechancial & Electrical Contracting; Plumbing. Subsidiaries: Udelhoven Inc., Houston; and Udelhoven International Inc., Houston.

$198,377,193 Recent Newsworthy Events: Forty-five years in business in Alaska. Classification: Industrial Services

Jim Udelhoven, CEO Phone: 907-344-1577 | Fax: 907-344-5817 udelhoven.com | rfrontdesk@udelhoven.com 80

Established 1970 184 E. 53rd Ave. Anchorage, AK 99518

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Cruz Companies

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

361 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 685 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 53% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 28 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014 ď&#x192;Š 11 Revenue change from 2014 ď&#x192;Š 64% 2013 $116,798,739 2014 $191,860,803

$116,798,739 $191,860,803

Principal Activities: Tundra transport, rig moving, ice roads, heavy haul, heavy civil, trucking, equipment rental, crane services, hot shot trucking, roustabout services, gravel haul, marine transportation, camps, logistics, oilfield support, pipeline projects support, mining support, engineering & consulting.

Classification: Industrial Services

Dave Cruz, President Phone: 907-746-3144 | Fax: 907-746-5557 cruzconstruct.com | info@cruzconstruct.com

www.akbizmag.com

Established 1981 7000 E. Palmer Wasilla Hwy. Palmer, AK 99645

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

Ahtna, Inc.

285 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 1,209 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 24% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 18 in 2014 No change in rank from 2014 Revenue change from 2014  8% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$243,000,000 $200,000,000 $190,000,000 $200,000,000 $185,000,000

$243,000,000 $200,000,000 $190,000,000 $200,000,000 $185,000,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Ahtna established an ANCSA Settlement Trust called the Ahtna Ahtna Hwt’aene (People’s) Trust, which was funded and accepted by the IRS in 2015.

Facilities Management, Engineering, Government Contracting, Profession Support Services and Real Estate, Oil and Gas. Subsidiaries: Ahtna Netiye’; Ahtna Development Corp.; Ahtna Facility Services, Inc.; Ahtna Enterprises Corp.; Ahtna Contractors LLC; Koht’aene Enterprises Co. LLC; Ahtna Support & Training Services LLC; Ahtna Technical Services, Inc.; Ahtna Government Services Corp.; Ahtna Construction & Primary Product; Ahtna Design Build, Inc.; Ahtna Professional Services, Inc.; Ahtna Environmental, Inc.; Ahtna Technologies, Inc.; AKHI, LLC

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: Construction and Environmental,

Michelle Anderson, President Phone: 907-822-3476 | Fax: 907-822-3495 ahtna-inc.com | news@ahtna.net

Goldbelt, Incorporated

Established 1972 PO Box 649 Glennallen, AK 99588

2015 Top 49ers

269 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 1,138 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 24% ALASKAN WORKFORCE management, security services. Ranked 23 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  4 Revenue change from 2014  16% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$139,476,350 $135,188,063 $156,565,827 $146,033,239 $169,063,557

$139,476,350 $135,188,063 $156,565,827 $146,033,239 $169,063,557 Recent Newsworthy Events: Shareholder overwhelmingly passed the Goldbelt Ancestral Trust; Expanded operations into the Pacific Northwest; new subsidiaries Goldbelt Seafoods, Goldbelt C6, and Nisga’a Tek were launched.

Subsidiaries: Goldbelt Glacier Health Services, LLC; Nisga’a Data Systems, LLC; LifeSource Biomedical, LLC; Goldbelt Eagle, LLC; Goldbelt Falcon, LLC; Goldbelt Hawk, LLC; Peregrine Technical Solutions, LLC; Facility Support Services, LLC; Goldbelt Security, LLC; Godlbelt Raven, LLC; CP Leasing, LLC; Mount Roberts Tramway; Goldbelt Transportation; CP Marine; Goldbelt Speciality Services, LLC; Goldbelt C6; Nisga’a Tek, LLC; Goldbelt Seafoods, LLC; Goldbelt Orca, LLC; Goldbelt Cedar, LLC; Goldbelt Professional Services, LLC; Goldbelt Hotel; Goldbelt Orca, LLC

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: Government contracting, tourism, land

Richard Irwin, President & CEO Phone: 907-790-4990 | Fax: 907-790-4999 goldbelt.com | info@goldbelt.com 82

Established 1974 3075 Vintage Blvd., Suite 200 Juneau, AK 99801

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers

Ravn Alaska

900 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 900 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 22 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  2 Revenue change from 2014  2% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$120,000,000 $136,000,000 $150,000,000 $160,000,000 $163,000,000

Principal Activities: Scheduled and chartered air services for passengers and freight. Subsidiaries: Hageland Aviation Services, Inc.; Corvus Airlines; Frontier Flying Service

Recent Newsworthy Events: We recently rebranded from Era Alaska to Ravn Alaska. Classification: Transportation Bob Hajdukovich, CEO Phone: 907-266-8394 | Fax: 907-266-8391 flyravn.com | sales@flyravn.com

www.akbizmag.com

Established 1948 4700 Old International Airport Rd. Anchorage, AK 99502

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

Three Bears Alaska, Inc.

478 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 521 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 92% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 24 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  3 Revenue change from 2014  18% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$109,060,780 $121,093,287 $130,268,017 $136,632,222 $161,254,283

$109,060,780 $121,093,287 $130,268,017 $136,632,222

Classification: Retail/ Wholesale Trade Principal Activities: Retail grocery, general merchandise, sporting goods (hunting, fishing & camping), pharmacy, and fuel.

$161,254,283 Recent Newsworthy Events: New Big Lake store opened in April 2015. Now operating 9 stores in Alaska featuring groceries, general merchandise, sporting goods (hunting, fishing & camping), pharmacy, and fuel. David Weisz, President & CEO Phone: 907-357-4311 | Fax: 907-357-4312 threebearsalaska.com | steve@threebearsalaska.com

Established 1980 445 N. Pittman Rd., Suite B Wasilla, AK 99623

2015 Top 49ers

Davis Constructors & Engineers, Inc.

118 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 118 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 21 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  1 Revenue change from 2014  17% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$120,300,000 $119,000,000 $218,000,000 $163,639,861 $136,117,019

$120,300,000 $119,000,000 $218,000,000 $163,639,861 $136,117,019 Recent Newsworthy Events: In 2015 Davis opened a new Corporate Campus. Davis was able to build one of the most energy efficient office buildings in Alaska utilizing geothermal heating and cooling throughout the entire building. The campus features triple glazed windows, R-40 exterior walls, LED lighting and controls.

Classification: Construction & Engineering Principal Activities: Davis is able to provide: Pre-construction Consulting Services, Constructability Reviews, Construction Management Services, CM@Risk Services, Design/ Build, Civil and General Construction, Estimating Services (Civil and Vertical), Value Engineering/Life Cycle Cost Analysis, and CPM Scheduling. Subsidiaries: Mass Excavation, Inc.

Josh Pepperd, President & CEO Phone: 907-562-2336 | Fax: 907-561-3620 davisconstructors.com | admin@davisconstructors.com 84

Established 1976 6591 A St., Suite 300 Anchorage, AK 99518

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers

First National Bank Alaska

700 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 700 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Classification: Financial Services Ranked 26 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014 ď&#x192;Š 3 Revenue change from 2014 ď&#x192;Š 1% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$150,930,000 $143,400,000 $144,330,000 $131,005,000 $132,305,000

$150,930,000

Principal Activities: Friendly, knowledgeable Alaskans offering the convenience, service and value of a full range of deposit, lending, trust, and investment management services, online and mobile banking. With branches in 18 Alaska communities and assets of more than $3 billion, we believe in Alaska and have since 1922.

$143,400,000 $144,330,000 $131,005,000 $132,305,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: For the fifth consecutive time, First National received an Outstanding Community Reinvestment Act rating. Anchorage's U-Med Branch opened, serving the growing university and medical district. The Juneau Regional Branch opened, signaling the bank's continued strong commitment to Southeast Alaska.

Betsy Lawer, Chair & President Phone: 907-777-4362 | Fax: 907-777-3406 FNBAlaska.com | marketing@FNBAaska.com

Established 1922 PO Box 100720 Anchorage, AK 99510

Special Olympics Alaska Training Facility www.akbizmag.com

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

The Tatitlek Corporation

2015 Top 49ers

66 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 1,046 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 6% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 27 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  3 Revenue change from 2014  4% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$110,700,000 $137,189,354 $128,640,928 $124,840,398 $129,251,862

$110,700,000 $137,189,354 $128,640,928 $124,840,398 $129,251,862 Recent Newsworthy Events: GeoNorth, a whollyowned subsidiary of TTC that owns and operates its own direct receiving station (DRS), has been awarded a satellite imagery contract from the US Geological Survey. The award is an imagery collection contract covering a multitude of areas of interest in Wyoming and Montana.

Principal Activities: The Tatitlek Corporation's subsidiaries offer services and products within many business lines: satellite imagery, GIS, installation support, information technology, range services, virtual training support, and construction. We proudly provide these services to both the public and private sector. Subsidiaries: Tatitlek Contractors, Inc.; Tatitlek Construction Services, Inc.; Tatitlek Management, Inc.; Tatitlek Support Services, Inc.; Tatitlek Technologies, Inc.; Tatitlek Training Services, Inc.; GeoNorth, LLC; Tatitlek Logistics Corporation; Tatitlek Response Services, Inc.; Tatitlek Training Technologies, Inc.

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation

Roy Totemoff, CEO Phone: 907-278-4000 | Fax: 907-278-4050 tatitlek.com | info@tatitlek.com

Construction Machinery Industrial

Established 1973 561 E. 36th Ave. Anchorage, AK 99503

2015 Top 49ers

112 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 112 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 25 in 2014 No change in rank from 2014 Revenue change from 2014  5% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$90,000,000 $91,630,000 $145,000,000 $134,000,000 $127,000,000

$90,000,000 $91,630,000 $145,000,000 $134,000,000

Classification: Industrial Services Principal Activities: Construction and Mining Equipment, Sales, Rentals, Service.

$127,000,000

Ken Gerondale, President & CEO Phone: 907-563-3822 | Fax: 907-563-1381 cmiak.com | o.prestwick@cmiak.com 86

Established 1985 5400 Homer Dr. Anchorage, AK 99518

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers

Colville, Inc.

200 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 200 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 30 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  4 Revenue change from 2014  19% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$78,000,000 $81,000,000 $110,000,000 $105,600,000 $125,690,815

Principal Activities: Oil and gas industry and aviation support services, fuel industry supply, and solid waste utility and logistic operating camp.

$78,000,000 $81,000,000 $110,000,000

Subsidiaries: Colville Transport LLC; Brooks Range Supply, Inc.; Brooks Camp, LLC

$105,600,000 $125,690,815 Recent Newsworthy Events: Brooks Camp finished with a 344 man capacity and full kitchen. Classification: Industrial Services Eric Helzer, President & CEO Phone: 907-659-3198 | Fax: 907-659-3190 colvilleinc.com | info@colvilleinc.com

www.akbizmag.com

Established 1981 Pouch 340012 Prudhoe Bay, AK 99734

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

Sealaska

53 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 256 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 21% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 20 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  7 Revenue change from 2014  26% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$223,823,000 $259,487,000 $311,620,000 $164,950,000 $121,540,000

$223,823,000 $259,487,000 $311,620,000 $164,950,000 $121,540,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: The past year has been a time of transformation at Sealaska. Sealaska is under new leadership with Anthony Mallott who was selected as President and CEO. Mallott began serving June 2014. The board of directors elected Joe Nelson as its chair, a position he's held for the past year.

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: Environmental services, security services, timber sales, information technology. Subsidiaries: Sealaska Timber Corporation; Alaska Coastal Aggregates; Sealaska Environmental Services; Managed Business Solutions; Sealaska Constructors; Security Alliance; Haa Aani, LLC; Synergy Systems

Anthony Mallott, President & CEO Phone: 907-586-1512 | Fax: 907-463-3897 sealaska.com | webmaster@sealaska.com

Aleut Corporation

Established 1972 One Sealaska Plaza, Suite 400 Juneau, AK 99801

2015 Top 49ers

190 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 760 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 25% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 29 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  1 Revenue change from 2014  3% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$159,416,000 $148,419,945 $98,098,953 $116,260,627 $120,307,293

sales and storage; oil well testing services; and information technology. Subsidiaries: Aleut Enterprises LLC, Anchorage,Alaska; Aleut Management Services, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Aleut Real Estate LLC, Anchorage, Alaska; Alaska Instrument LLC, Anchorage, Alaska; C&H Testing LLC Bakersfield, California; Patrick Mechanical; ARS International

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: Federal contracting; O&M; instrumentation for oil and gas industry; mechanical contracting; laboratory analysis, field testing, land remediation; commercial and residential real estate; fuel

Matt Fagnani, CEO Phone: 907-561-4300 | Fax: 907-563-4328 aleutcorp.com | info@aleutcorp.com 88

Established 1972 4000 Old Seward Hwy., Suite 300 Anchorage, AK 99503

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Matanuska Electric Association, Inc.

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

188 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 188 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Classification: Utility Ranked 31 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  2 Revenue change from 2014  11% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$94,000,000 $105,000,000 $106,482,000 $105,000,000 $116,570,742

$94,000,000

Principal Activities: MEA provides reliable, affordable electricity to almost 50,000 members from Eagle River to Denali State Park and across to Glacierview.

$105,000,000 $106,482,000 $105,000,000 $116,570,742 Recent Newsworthy Events: MEA recently became a self-generating utility in May of 2015 with the opening of the Eklutna Generation Station. The 171 MW dual-fuel power plant combined with our shares of large hydroelectric projects now allow MEA to serve 100% of our member’s needs and sell excess power to Railbelt colleagues.

Joe Griffith, General Manager Phone: 907-761-9200 | Fax: 907-761-9368 mea.coop | facebook.com/matanuska.electric

www.akbizmag.com

Established 1941 163 E. Industrial Way Palmer, AK 99645

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

Anchorage Chrysler Dodge Center

105 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 105 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 39 in 2014

$52,300,000

Change in rank from 2014  9

$64,546,162

Revenue change from 2014  14% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$78,422,000

$52,300,000 $64,546,162 $78,422,000 $85,550,000 $97,752,543

Classification: Retail/Wholesale Trade Principal Activities: New vehicle sales, parts and service for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram. Used vehicles sales and service.

$85,550,000 $97,752,543 Recent Newsworthy Events: 25 years as Principal Partner of Alaska’s Iditarod. Owner, Rod Udd, is known as “Idita-ROD” for his strong support of the Last Great Race which includes a new RAM 4X4 awarded to the Champion each year and two RAM trucks provided for the Iditarod raffle.

Rodney Udd, President & CEO Phone: 907-276-1331 | Fax: 907-264-2202 anchoragechryslercenter.com Facebook at Anchoragechryslerdodgejeepram

Established 1963 2601 E. Fifth Ave. Anchorage, AK 99501

2015 Top 49ers

MTA, Inc.

299 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 299 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Classification: Telecom Ranked 33 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  2 Revenue change from 2014—0% 2010 $106,000,000 2011 $100,000,000 2012 $96,000,000 2013 $97,300,000 2014 $97,100,000

$106,000,000 $100,000,000 $96,000,000 $97,300,000 $97,100,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: The millions MTA spends on wages, infrastructure, goods and services circulate many times in our local communities benefiting other businesses and helping keep our local economy strong. MTA is a top contributor to United Way of Mat-Su and supported over 175 community organizations in 2014.

Principal Activities: Alaskan owned telecommunications Cooperative delivering High Speed Internet, High Definition TV with Local Community Content, Wireless, Local, Long Distance, Advanced Business Solutions, IT Business Support, Directory and Television Advertising. The only company to offer Rolling Gigs on Internet. Subsidiaries: MTA Communications

Michael Burke, CEO Phone: 907-745-3211 | Fax: 907-761-2688 mtasolutions.com | facebook.com/MatanuskaTelephone 90

Established 1953 1740 S. Chugach St. Palmer, AK 99645

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

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2015 Top 49ers

Usibelli Coal Mine, Inc.

160 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 195 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 82% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 32 in 2014 No change in rank from 2014 Revenue change from 2014 ď&#x192;Ş 6% 2010 $96,753,015 2011 $107,878,996 2012 $112,000,000 2013 $103,000,000 2014 $97,000,000

Principal Activities: Abundant, reliable, affordable energy.

$96,753,015 $107,878,996

Subsidiaries: Aurora Energy; Usibelli Investments; Usibelli Vineyards

$112,000,000 $103,000,000 $97,000,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Recently completed one year with no lost time incidents and initiated development on the Jumbo Dome Mine. Classification: Mining

Joseph Usibelli, Chairman Phone: 907-452-2625 | Fax: 907-451-6543 usibelli.com | info@usibelli.com

www.akbizmag.com

Established 1942 PO Box 1000 Healy, AK 99743

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

Geneva Woods

270 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 445 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 61% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Classification: Healthcare Ranked 45 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  12 Revenue change from 2014  58% 2013 $60,000,000 2014 $95,000,000

$60,000,000

Principal Activities: Healthcare Provider-Medset Pharmacy, Retail Pharmacy, Infusion Pharmacy, Durable Medical Equipment.

$95,000,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Purchase of Emissary Pharmacy (WY), Frontier Medical (AK), My Doktor’s Pharmacy (AK), Care Health Solutions (WA), Surecare Pharmacy (WA). Entered into a new partnership with Chugach Alaska Corporation.

Dan Afrasiabi, President & CEO Phone: 907-565-6100 | info@genevawoods.com genevawoods.com

Established 1977 501 W. International Airport Rd. Suite 1A Anchorage, AK 99518

2015 Top 49ers

Homer Electric Association, Inc.

141 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 141 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Classification: Utility Ranked 35 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  1 Revenue change from 2014—0% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$72,000,000 $84,000,000 $91,000,000 $92,000,000 $92,000,000

$72,000,000 $84,000,000 $91,000,000 $92,000,000 $92,000,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: HEA has successfully transitioned from being a distribution cooperative into a generation, transmission, and distribution cooperative. HEA now operates three generation plants in addition to providing the O&M for the state-owned Bradley Lake Hydroelectric project.

Principal Activities: HEA is a member-owned electric cooperative that serves the western Kenai Peninsula. The 3,166 square mile service territory includes Sterling, Soldotna, Kenai, Nikiski, Homer, and also the south side of Kachemak Bay from Halibut Cove to Nanwalek. The cooperative has over 33,000 members. Subsidiaries: Alaska Electric and Energy Cooperative, Inc.; Kenai Hydro, LLC

Bradley Janorschke, General Manager Phone: 907-235-8551 | Fax: 907-235-3313 homerelectric.com | contact_us@homerelectric.com 92

Established 1945 3977 Lake St. Homer, AK 99603

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

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2015 Top 49ers

Sitnasuak Native Corporation

109 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 833 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 13% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Principal Activities: Apparel manufacturing; financial services; fuel distribution; health solutions; real estate.

Ranked 34 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  1 Revenue change from 2014  5% 2013 2014

$93,147,344 $88,128,089

$93,147,344 $88,128,089 Recent Newsworthy Events: Construction of Rilke Schule German Charter School in Anchorage. Purchase of the Mat-Su Title building in Wasilla. Development of commercial apparel lines in our Puerto Rico facilities. Start up of a Health Solutions division that focuses on Tribal Health issues at hospitals in Alaska and Lower 48.

Subsidiaries: SNC Technical Services, LLC; Fidelity Title Agency Alaska, LLC; GBS, LLC; Nanuaq, LLC; Nanuaq Development, LLC; Sitnasuak Construction Services, LLC; Sitnasuak Health Solutions, LLC; Sitnasuak Properities, LLC; Aurora Industries, LLC; API, LLC; Sound Fabric, LLC; SNC Manufacturing, LLC; Bonanza Fuel, LLC; Mat-Su Title Agency, LLC; Sitnasuak Financial Services, LLC; Bonanza Fuel, Inc; Mat-Su Title, LLC

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation

Richard Strutz, CEO Phone: 907-387-1200 | Fax: 907-443-3063 www.snc.org | www.snc.org

Established 1972 400 Bering St Nome, AK 99762

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Invested in responsible development for Alaska’s future. For over 20 years Donlin Gold has been carefully preparing to ensure responsible development in Alaska. With our thoughtful planning and industry-leading technology, we are committed to a mining project that will contribute to a thriving Alaska economy. DonlinGold.com

Anne Tompkins Senior Advertising Account Manager (907) 257-2910 anne@akbizmag.com I will work with you to plan an ad campaign that offers marketplace visibility and fits your budget.

(907) 276-4373 • Toll Free (800) 770-4373

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October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

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2015 Top 49ers

Watterson Construction Co.

134 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 135 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 99% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 36 in 2014 No change in rank from 2014 Revenue change from 2014  2% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$75,000,000 $63,000,000 $89,000,000 $90,000,000 $88,000,000

$75,000,000 $63,000,000

Classification: Construction & Engineering Principal Activities: General Building Contractor.

$89,000,000 $90,000,000 $88,000,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Design Build Contractor - Fort Greely Mech/Elec Bldg - $45M; SCF Therapy Bldg - $25M; Kodiak High School - $63M.

Bill Watterson, President Phone: 907-563-7441 | Fax: 907-563-7222 wattersonconstruction.com info@wattersonsconstruction.com

Established 1981 6500 Interstate Cir. Anchorage, AK 99518

2015 Top 49ers

Builders Choice, Inc.

220 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 300 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 73% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Classification: Manufacturing

Ranked 41 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  4 Revenue change from 2014  18% 2012 $58,000,000 2013 $73,002,000 2014 $86,486,000

$58,000,000 $73,002,000

Principal Activities: Building materials wholesaler and manufacturer of engineered building components to include modular structures and trusses.

$86,486,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: 2014 recipient of the Business Excellence Gold Pan Award. Builders Choice continues to be the leading designer and manufacturer of modular structures in the state of Alaska.

Mark Larson, President Phone: 907-522-3214 | Fax: 907-522-3216 builderschoice.us.com | sandi@builderschoice.us.com 94

Established 1996 351 E. 104th Ave. Anchorage, AK 99515

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

PenAir

450 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 100 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 82% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Classification: Transportation Ranked 40 in 2014

$72,300,000

Change in rank from 2014  2

Principal Activities: Scheduled passenger service through SW Alaska, with additional markets out of their Boston and Portland, Oregon, bases. They also offer daily freight service as well has both passenger and freight charters throughout Alaska and the Lower 48.

$72,100,000

Revenue change from 2014  2%

$81,300,000

2010 $72,300,000 2011 $72,100,000 2012 $81,300,000 2013 $78,300,000 2014 $79,700,000

$78,300,000 $79,700,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Start up of their Northwest (of the United States) location in Portland, Oregon, where they are now providing service in several locations throughout Oregon & California.

Danny Seybert, CEO Established 1955 6100 Boeing Ave. Anchorage, AK 99502

Phone: 907-771-2500 | Fax: 907-334-5763 penair.com | missy.roberts@penair.com

PARTNERS IN PROGRESS WORLD-CLASS TALENT IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD. At DOWL, we have world-class professionals ready to bring your project to life in ways you never thought possible. With offices in eight states in the Western U.S., you get the kind of personalized, hands-on service you deserve every step of the way.

PEOPLE WHO MAKE IT HAPPEN. www.akbizmag.com

ENVIRONMENTAL AND LAND DEVELOPMENT CIVIL ENGINEERING WATER/WATER RESOURCES TRANSPORTATION GEO-CONSTRUCTION dowl.com October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

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The Kuskokwim Corporation

2015 Top 49ers

15 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 129 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 12% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Returning to the 49ers this year! Not ranked in 2014 No revenue change 2010 $149,000,000 2011 $95,000,000 2012 $57,000,000 2014 $73,122,018

$149,000,000 $95,000,000 $57,000,000 $73,122,018 Recent Newsworthy Events: This year has been one of growth for The Kuskokwim Corporation (TKC), as revenues increased from $36 million to over $73.1 million. TKC's shareholder base has also grown as we continue to enroll the next generation. Thanks to diversification and strategic planning, TKC closed 2014 profitably.

Classification: Alaska Native Corporation Principal Activities: Aerospace, heavy civil construction, real estate, initial outfitting and transition management, information technology, environmental contracting, Part 145 aircraft repair. Subsidiaries: TKC Development; Tumeq, LLC; Kuskokwim Properties, LLC; TKC Aerospace, Inc.; Suulutaaq, Inc.; Precision Air, Inc.; Swift River Environmental Services, LLC; SIOTS, LLC; Charleston Logistics, LLC; Stony River Technologies, LLC; Green HID, LLC; Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Regional Hospital

Maver Carey, President & CEO Phone: 907-243-2944 | Fax: 907-243-2984 kuskokwim.com

Vitus Energy LLC

Established 1977 4300 B St., Suite 207 Anchorage, AK 99503

2015 Top 49ers

57 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 57 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Principal Activities: Fuel sales and barge service.

Ranked 37 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  3 Revenue change from 2014  23% 2013 $89,600,000 2014 $69,000,000

$89,600,000

Subsidiaries: Great Circle Flight Services; Central Alaska Energy; Vitus Marine; Vitus Terminals

$69,000,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Recently opened full service distribution business in Dillingham. Classification: Energy

Mark Smith, CEO Phone: 907-278-6700 | Fax: 907-278-6701 vitus-energy.com | info@vitusmarine.com 96

Established 2009 113 W. Northern Lights Blvd., Suite 200 Anchorage, AK 99503

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

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2015 Top 49ers

Seekins Ford Lincoln, Inc.

112 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 112 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 43 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  2 Revenue change from 2014  1% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

$65,520,021 $63,993,582 $74,556,932 $67,581,913 $68,469,689

Classification: Retail/Wholesale Trade

$65,520,021

Principal Activities: Auto Dealership with New and Used Auto Sales, Service, Parts, Quick Lane, and Body Shop.

$63,993,582 $74,556,932 $67,581,913 $68,469,689 Recent Newsworthy Events: Our 2014 United Way employee campaign brought the cumulative donation total to $82,000! - a tribute to the character and culture of our employee base.

Ralph Seekins, President Phone: 907-459-4000 | Fax: 907-459-4057 seekins.com | sales@seekins.com

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Established 1977 1625 Seekins Ford Dr. Fairbanks, AK 99701

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

Roger Hickel Contracting, Inc.

2015 Top 49ers

49 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 49 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 42 in 2014 No change in rank from 2014 Revenue change from 2014  3% 2010 2011 2013 2014

$57,958,000 $54,003,584 $67,963,073 $65,585,188

$57,958,000 $54,003,584 $67,963,073 $65,585,188 Recent Newsworthy Events: RHC recently completed the Glenn Massey Theater, built for the University of Alaska at the UAA Mat-Su campus in Palmer the project totaled $17 million. RHC was also recently a subcontractor on the new 171 megawatt natural gas powered power plant in Eklutna, total contract amount $38 million.

Classification: Construction & Engineering Principal Activities: Roger Hickel Contracting provides design, pre-construction, and construction services on civil and building projects throughout the state of Alaska for both private clients and public agencies. RHC has been in business since 1995 and through December 2014 has completed $760 million in projects.

Mike Shaw, President Phone: 907-279-1400 | Fax: 907-279-1405 rogerhickelcontracting.com | contact@rhcak.com

Established 1995 11001 Calaska Cir. Anchorage, AK 99515

2015 Top 49ers

DOWL

185 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 470 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 39% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 44 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  1 Revenue change from 2014  4% 2012 $59,000,000 2013 $62,309,000 2014 $64,545,000

$59,000,000 $62,309,000 $64,545,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: DOWL recently opened a new Seattle, Washington, office.

Principal Activities: DOWL is a multi-disciplined consulting firm that has been providing civil engineering and related services for more than 50 years. DOWL maintains in-house expertise in public involvement, master planning and project permitting, environmental services and permitting, civil engineering, etc.

Classification: Construction & Engineering

Stewart Osgood, President & CEO Phone: 907-562-2000 | Fax: 907-563-3953 dowl.com | jpayne@dowl.com 98

Established 1962 4041 B St. Anchorage, AK 99503

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

Airport Equipment Rentals

105 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 105 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Classification: Industrial Services

Ranked 47 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  3 Revenue change from 2014  15% 2012 $54,000,000 2013 $55,000,001 2014 $63,212,586

Principal Activities: Heavy equipment rental/sales company providing sales, services, and rentals for the construction, mining, logging, and oil & gas industries.

$54,000,000 $55,000,001 $63,212,586 Recent Newsworthy Events: Graveled another 7 acres at our Deadhorse Branch giving us approximately 20 acres of land for our office, shop, and storage facilities.

Subsidiaries: The Rental Zone

Jerry Sadler, Owner & President Established 1986 1285 Van Horn Rd. Fairbanks, AK 99707

Phone: 907-456-2000 | Fax: 907-457-7609 aer-inc.net | aerinc4@alaska.net

2015 Top 49ers

Alaska Industrial Hardware, Inc.

200 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 200 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Ranked 46 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  1 Revenue change from 2014  7% 2010 $50,430,000 2011 $52,500,000 2012 $58,602,000 2013 $57,400,000 2014 $61,300,000

Classification: Industrial Services

$50,430,000

Principal Activities: Alaska’s premier contractor, handyman, facility maintenance & DIY super store. AIH serves Alaska with locations statewide. Our mission since 1959: helping you get your job done! Stop by today and see why we are more than just a hardware store!

$52,500,000 $58,602,000 $57,400,000 $61,300,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Jeff Clapp named COO; Blake Hutchins named Chief Store Operations Officer; Kyle Rogers named Director of Sales; Chris Hines named Director of IT; Jesse Bloom named Controller; Terry Shurtleff named President/CEO after the retirement of Mike Kangas after thirty-five years of service.

Subsidiaries: General Hardware Distributors

Terry Shurtleff, President & CEO Phone: 907-276-7201 | Fax: 907-258-3054 aih.com | info@aih.com www.akbizmag.com

Established 1959 2192 Viking Dr. Anchorage, AK 99501

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers

Credit Union 1

353 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 363 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 97% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Classification: Financial Services Ranked 48 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  2 Revenue change from 2014  8% 2011 $48,000,000 2013 $52,618,949 2014 $56,634,026

$48,000,000 $52,618,949 $56,634,026

Principal Activities: Credit Union 1 offers a variety of money management tools and lending options to help Alaskans achieve their financial goals. Our cutting edge e-Services also provide on-the-go access to funds! As a member-owned cooperative, CU1's spending and saving products are tailored to each member's needs.

Recent Newsworthy Events: Recently, CU1 expanded its free, financial education program to include online classes that can be attended from home. Classes cover budgeting, credit, identity theft and more! With a variety of options available, CU1 is able to positively impact a wide range of Alaskans with financial education.

Tom Newins, President & CEO Phone: 907-339-9485 | Fax: 907-339-8522 cu1.org | service@cu1.org

Cornerstone General Contractors, Inc.

Established 1952 1941 Abbott Rd. Anchorage, AK 99507

2015 Top 49ers

40 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 40 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 100% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Classification: Construction & Engineering

Ranked 38 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014  11 Revenue change from 2014  39% 2011 $41,000,000 2013 $89,000,000 2014 $54,400,000

$41,000,000 $89,000,000 $54,400,000

Principal Activities: General contracting utilizing collaborative project delivery methods for new commercial construction and the precision renovation of existing facilities for Alaska’s leading academic, civic, industrial, medical, non-profit, oil and gas, and private development organizations.

Recent Newsworthy Events: Cornerstone awarded contract for new Mount Edgecumbe Aquatic Center project in Sitka; Recently received our 5th consecutive Alaska Governor's Safety Award (March 2015); Awarded top honors by the AGC of Alaska for the UAA Alaska Airlines Center and AVTEC Dormitory Replacement.

Joe Jolley, President Phone: 907-561-1993 | Fax: 907-561-7899 cornerstoneak.com | jjolley@cornerstoneak.com 100

Established 1993 4040 B St., Suite 200 Anchorage, AK 99503

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Tatonduk Outfitters Ltd. DBA Everts

2015 Top 49ers

255 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 265 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 96% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Principal Activities: Scheduled and charter air freight services using MD-80, DC-9 and DC-6 aircraft. Passenger, Freight and Charter service out of Fairbanks using Pilatus and Caravan aircraft.

Ranked 49 in 2014 Change in rank from 2014 ď&#x192;Š 1 Revenue change from 2014 ď&#x192;Š 2% 2011 $50,500,000 2012 $50,785,000 2013 $51,950,000 2014 $53,150,000

$50,500,000 $50,785,000 $51,950,000

Subsidiaries: Everts Air Cargo; Everts Air Alaska

$53,150,000 Recent Newsworthy Events: Initiated on demand all cargo service within the Lower 48 and to international destinations. Classification: Transportation

Robert Everts, Owner & CEO Established 1978 5525 Airport Industrial Rd. Fairbanks, AK 99709

Phone: 907-450-2300 | Fax: 907-450-2320 evertsair.com | shoshaw@evertsair.com

Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union

2015 Top 49ers

334 ALASKA EMPLOYEES | 341 WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES | 98% ALASKAN WORKFORCE Returning to the 49ers this year! Not ranked in 2014

Classification: Financial Services Principal Activities: Complete financial services for our members: savings, checking, loans, personal and commercial insurance, mortgage lending, investments.

$45,000,000

No revenue change 2011

$45,000,000

2014

$49,011,797

Subsidiaries: Denali Alaskan Insurance.

Recent Newsworthy Events: Opened a new full-service branch in Kent, Washington, 20th branch in our network. Also expanded our business product program with a Member Business Services Department, offering business savings & checking, merchant processing and much more.

Robert Teachworth, President & CEO Phone: 907-257-7200 | Fax: 907-222-5806 denalifcu.org | info@denalifcu.com www.akbizmag.com

Established 1948 440 E. 36th Ave. Anchorage, AK 99503

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

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2015 Top 49ers | Top 49ers Directory

2015 Top 49ers by Industry Classification

special section

2015 Top 49ers

Alaska Native Corporations Company 2015 Alaska Total 2014 Gross Rank Jobs Jobs Revenue Arctic Slope Regional Corporation 1 4,988 11,115 $2,663,540,000 Bristol Bay Native Corporation 2 1,236 4,348 $1,736,084,000 NANA Regional Corporation, Inc. 3 5,726 15,282 $1,600,000,000 Chenega Corporation 5 440 5,200 $885,000,000 Chugach Alaska Corporation 6 600 5,000 $626,000,000 Afognak Native Corporation / 7 192 4,042 $505,408,000 Alutiiq LLC Calista Corporation 8 400 1,500 $401,900,000 Doyon, Limited 9 1,722 2,787 $362,816,481 Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation (UIC) 10 360 2,950 $356,781,000 Cook Inlet Region, Inc. 11 1,270 2,083 $304,421,000 Bering Straits Native Corporation 12 407 1,204 $304,000,000 Olgoonik Corporation 14 155 1,065 $231,900,000 Koniag, Inc. 15 59 649 $211,493,000 Ahtna, Inc. 18 285 1,209 $185,000,000 Goldbelt, Incorporated 19 269 1,138 $169,063,557 The Tatitlek Corporation 24 66 1,046 $129,251,862 Sealaska 27 53 256 $121,540,000 Aleut Corporation 28 190 760 $120,307,293 Sitnasuak Native Corporation 35 109 833 $88,128,089 The Kuskokwim Corporation 39 15 129 $73,122,018 Alaska Native Corporations Total 18,542 62,596 $11,075,756,300 Construction & Engineering Company 2015 Alaska Rank Jobs 22 118 Davis Constructors & Engineers, Inc. 185 DOWL 43 Watterson Construction Co. 36 134 Roger Hickel Contracting, Inc. 42 49 Cornerstone General 47 40 Contractors, Inc. Construction & Engineering Total 526 Energy Company Vitus Energy LLC Energy Total Financial Services Company First National Bank Alaska Credit Union 1 Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union Financial Services Total Healthcare Company Geneva Woods Healthcare Total

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Industrial Services Company Udelhoven Oilfield System Services Cruz Companies Construction Machinery Industrial Colville, Inc. Airport Equipment Rentals Alaska Industrial Hardware, Inc. Industrial Services Total Manufacturing Company

361 685 112 112 200 200 105 105 200 200 1,557 2,138

$191,860,803 $127,000,000 $125,690,815 $63,212,586 $61,300,000 $767,441,397

2014 Gross Revenue $86,486,000 $86,486,000

2015 Alaska Rank Jobs 32 160 160

Total Jobs 195 195

2014 Gross Revenue $97,000,000 $97,000,000

Retail/Wholesale Trade Company 2015 Alaska Rank Jobs Three Bears Alaska, Inc. 21 478 Anchorage Chrysler Dodge Center 30 105 Seekins Ford Lincoln, Inc. 41 112 Retail/Wholesale Trade Total 695

Total Jobs 521 105 112 738

2014 Gross Revenue $161,254,283 $97,752,543 $68,469,689 $327,476,515

Total Jobs 299 299

2014 Gross Revenue $97,100,000 $97,100,000

2015 Alaska Total Rank Jobs Jobs 4 805 2,633 20 900 900 38 450 100 48 255 265 2,410 3,898

2014 Gross Revenue $1,000,000,000 $163,000,000 $79,700,000 $53,150,000 $1,295,850,000

Builders Choice, Inc. Manufacturing Total Mining Company Usibelli Coal Mine, Inc. Mining Total

470 135 49 40

$64,545,000 $88,000,000 $65,585,188 $54,400,000

812

$408,647,207

MTA, Inc. Telecom Total

2015 Alaska Rank Jobs 40 57 57

Total Jobs 57 57

2014 Gross Revenue $69,000,000 $69,000,000

Transportation Company

2015 Alaska Rank Jobs 23 700 46 353 49 334

Total Jobs 700 363 341

2014 Gross Revenue $132,305,000 $56,634,026 $49,011,797

1,387 1,404

$237,950,823

2014 Gross Revenue $95,000,000 $95,000,000

2014 Gross Revenue $198,377,193

Total Jobs 300 300

2014 Gross Revenue $136,117,019

Total Jobs 445 445

17 25 26 44 45

Total Jobs 836

2015 Alaska Rank Jobs 37 220 220

Total Jobs 118

2015 Alaska Rank Jobs 33 270 270

2015 Alaska Rank Jobs 16 579

Telecom Company

Lynden, Inc. Ravn Alaska PenAir Tatonduk Outfitters Ltd. Transportation Total Utility Company

2015 Alaska Rank Jobs 31 299 299

2015 Alaska Rank Jobs Chugach Electric Association, Inc. 13 298 Matanuska Electric Association, Inc. 29 188 Homer Electric Association, Inc. 34 141 Utility Total 627

Total Jobs 298 188 141 627

2014 Gross Revenue $281,318,513 $116,570,742 $92,000,000 $489,889,255

Total Top 49er Jobs and Gross Revenues Reported Alaska Total 2014 Gross Jobs Jobs Revenue 26,750 73,509 $15,047,597,497

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

for over 10,000 years.

Continually adapting as the world changes while maintaining rock-solid values passed down from our ancestors, UkpeaÄĄvik IĂąupiat Corporation provides business solutions to serve generations to come. Our family of companies: UIC Design Plan Build UIC Oil & Gas Support Services UIC Government Services UIC Marine Services UIC Lands UIC Real Estate

P.O. Box 890 Barrow, AK 99723 www.uicalaska.com

2015 Top 49ers 5 year Rank and Revenue

special section

2015 Top 49ers

Top 49er Company Name Afognak Native Corporation / Alutiiq LLC Ahtna, Inc. Airport Equipment Rentals Alaska Industrial Hardware, Inc. Aleut Corporation Anchorage Chrysler Dodge Center Arctic Slope Regional Corporation Bering Straits Native Corporation Bristol Bay Native Corporation Builders Choice, Inc. Calista Corporation Chenega Corporation Chugach Alaska Corporation Chugach Electric Association, Inc. Colville, Inc. Construction Machinery Industrial Cook Inlet Region, Inc. Cornerstone General Contractors, Inc. Credit Union 1 Cruz Companies Davis Constructors & Engineers, Inc. Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union DOWL Doyon, Limited First National Bank Alaska Geneva Woods Goldbelt, Incorporated Homer Electric Association, Inc. Koniag, Inc. Lynden, Inc. Matanuska Electric Association, Inc. MTA, Inc. NANA Regional Corporation, Inc. Olgoonik Corporation PenAir Ravn Alaska Roger Hickel Contracting, Inc. Sealaska Seekins Ford Lincoln, Inc. Sitnasuak Native Corporation Tatonduk Outfitters Ltd. dba Everts Air The Kuskokwim Corporation The Tatitlek Corporation Three Bears Alaska, Inc. Udelhoven Oilfield System Services UkpeaÄĄvik In~upiat Corporation (UIC) Usibelli Coal Mine, Inc. Vitus Energy LLC Watterson Construction Co. Total Top 49er Gross Annual Revenues

2015 2014 2014 2013 2013 2012 2012 2011 2011 2010 Rank Revenue Rank Revenue Rank Revenue Rank Revenue Rank Revenue 7 $505,408,000 7 $526,000,000 7 $534,610,000 7 $711,080,000 6 $783,000,000 18 $185,000,000 18 $200,000,000 19 $190,000,000 20 $200,000,000 13 $243,000,000 44 $63,212,586 47 $55,000,001 47 $54,000,000 ~ ~ ~ ~ 45 $61,300,000 46 $57,400,000 44 $58,602,000 44 $52,500,000 49 $50,430,000 28 $120,307,293 29 $116,260,627 34 $98,098,953 26 $148,419,945 22 $159,416,000 30 $97,752,543 39 $85,550,000 41 $78,422,000 41 $64,546,162 48 $52,300,000 1 $2,663,540,000 1 $2,525,615,000 1 $2,628,929,000 1 $2,549,993,000 1 $2,331,681,000 12 $304,000,000 14 $242,000,000 17 $213,000,000 17 $206,000,000 18 $190,336,771 2 $1,736,084,000 2 $1,835,894,000 2 $1,961,780,000 2 $1,965,507,000 3 $1,667,200,000 37 $86,486,000 41 $73,002,000 45 $58,000,000 ~ ~ ~ ~ 8 $401,900,000 8 $368,914,000 8 $404,231,000 10 $300,498,000 14 $230,574,000 5 $885,000,000 4 $1,044,000,000 4 $1,100,000,000 4 $1,100,000,000 4 $1,100,000,000 6 $626,000,000 6 $609,000,000 6 $709,000,000 6 $766,000,000 5 $936,975,000 13 $281,318,513 12 $305,308,427 13 $266,971,468 11 $283,618,369 12 $258,300,000 26 $125,690,815 30 $105,600,000 32 $110,000,000 39 $81,000,000 39 $78,000,000 25 $127,000,000 25 $134,000,000 26 $145,000,000 37 $91,630,000 38 $90,000,000 11 $304,421,000 16 $214,930,000 15 $237,849,000 19 $200,800,000 19 $188,300,000 47 $54,400,000 38 $89,000,000 ~ ~ 49 $41,000,000 ~ ~ 46 $56,634,026 48 $52,618,949 ~ ~ 47 $48,000,000 ~ ~ 17 $191,860,803 28 $116,798,739 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 22 $136,117,019 21 $163,639,861 16 $218,000,000 32 $119,000,000 31 $120,300,000 49 $49,011,797 ~ ~ ~ ~ 48 $45,000,000 ~ ~ 43 $64,545,000 44 $62,309,000 43 $59,000,000 ~ ~ ~ ~ 9 $362,816,481 11 $318,552,461 9 $338,276,000 8 $468,000,000 8 $459,000,000 23 $132,305,000 26 $131,005,000 27 $144,330,000 25 $143,400,000 23 $150,930,000 33 $95,000,000 45 $60,000,000 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 19 $169,063,557 23 $146,033,239 22 $156,565,827 29 $135,188,063 26 $139,476,350 34 $92,000,000 35 $92,000,000 36 $91,000,000 38 $84,000,000 44 $72,000,000 15 $211,493,000 17 $202,616,000 30 $129,234,000 30 $128,228,000 24 $149,550,000 4 $1,000,000,000 5 $875,000,000 5 $885,000,000 5 $850,000,000 7 $720,000,000 29 $116,570,742 31 $105,000,000 33 $106,482,000 34 $105,000,000 37 $94,000,000 31 $97,100,000 33 $97,300,000 35 $96,000,000 35 $100,000,000 34 $106,000,000 3 $1,600,000,000 3 $1,700,000,000 3 $1,800,000,000 3 $1,500,000,000 2 $1,600,000,000 14 $231,900,000 15 $215,200,000 18 $198,600,000 22 $178,400,000 29 $133,000,000 38 $79,700,000 40 $78,300,000 40 $81,300,000 40 $72,100,000 41 $72,300,000 20 $163,000,000 22 $160,000,000 24 $150,000,000 28 $136,000,000 30 $120,000,000 42 $65,585,188 42 $67,963,073 ~ ~ 46 $54,003,584 46 $57,958,000 27 $121,540,000 20 $164,950,000 12 $311,620,000 14 $259,487,000 15 $223,823,000 41 $68,469,689 43 $67,581,913 42 $74,556,932 42 $63,993,582 43 $65,520,021 35 $88,128,089 34 $93,147,344 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 48 $53,150,000 49 $51,950,000 49 $50,785,000 45 $50,500,000 ~ ~ 39 $73,122,018 ~ ~ 46 $57,000,000 36 $95,000,000 25 $149,000,000 24 $129,251,862 27 $124,840,398 28 $128,640,928 27 $137,189,354 32 $110,700,000 21 $161,254,283 24 $136,632,222 29 $130,268,017 31 $121,093,287 33 $109,060,780 16 $198,377,193 19 $166,229,644 25 $148,165,163 18 $201,631,889 28 $133,582,856 10 $356,781,000 10 $320,716,000 11 $312,380,000 12 $278,890,000 11 $270,612,000 32 $97,000,000 32 $103,000,000 31 $112,000,000 33 $107,878,996 35 $96,753,015 40 $69,000,000 37 $89,600,000 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 36 $88,000,000 36 $90,000,000 38 $89,000,000 43 $63,000,000 40 $75,000,000 $15,047,597,497 $15,246,000,000 $16,155,000,000 $15,243,000,000 $14,546,000,000

Notes: Not all 2015 Top 49ers named in previous years, totals displayed are for each yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Top 49ers gross revenues, 2014 rank and 2013 revenue are adjusted to reflect a reporting correction that occurred after the magazine went to press.

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Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Capitol Glass/Northerm Windows

High Quality Products made in Alaska by Alaskans for Alaskans

apitol Glass/Northerm Windows has been providing Alaskans with high-quality windows and superior service since 1953. As a full-service manufacturer, the company creates stunning windows, skylights, sunrooms, and sliding glass doors to the exact specifications of residential, commercial, and industrial customers. “We can customize and build any type of vinyl window you want,” says General Manager Tony Pagano. “We have more than 75 years of combined experience dealing with glass, glass products and the manufacturing of vinyl products.” Capitol Glass/Northerm Windows has 45 employees and a 25,000-squarefoot manufacturing plant/showroom in Anchorage. All of its vinyl window products are made in Alaska by Alaskans for Alaskans, so customers can be confident their windows will perform well in Alaska’s environment. Their windows are designed to effectively keep the wind out, retain heat in the winter, and fi lter the sun during summer, says Sales and Marketing Manager Barry Anderson. In addition, the high-performance windows that Capitol Glass/Northerm Windows manufactures can return a substantial energy and cost savings. “They’re a worthwhile investment,” Pagano says.

certified and used by the Cold Climate Housing Research Center in Fairbanks. The nonprofit center facilitates the development, use, and testing of energyefficient, durable, healthy, and cost-effective building technologies for people in cold climates. Capitol Glass/Northerm Windows’ products have earned high ratings on energy performance from the National Fenestration Rating Council. They have also been awarded Green Star and Energy Star ratings. Securing the approval of respected third parties is a prime example of how Capitol Glass/Northerm Windows goes above and beyond to ensure customers receive premium products. The company also stands behind its products with some of the best warranties on the market. That’s what customers are looking for in a manufacturer, Anderson says. And this has been the key to the company’s success over the years—quality of products and service. Capitol Glass/Northerm Windows fully supports and services every product that it sells. “There’s quite a bit of distance between Alaska and window manufacturers in the Lower 48, but we’re here in Alaska,” Pagano says. “We’re available to take care of the customer before, during, and after the sell.”

doing a complex application for a commercial or government building. Its projects range from providing and installing glass for Alaska’s State Capitol building to installing 250 windows for an Anchorage apartment complex. “We treat every relationship as a partnership, whether it’s a residential project or a large commercial building,” Anderson says. Now, residential customers can take advantage of the company’s new Glacier series, a cousin to the popular Kodiak series. The product is a mid-range, vinyl window created with the same high standards that distinguish Capitol Glass/Northerm Window’s products. “We wanted to supply homeowners with the quality of window they deserve,” Pagano says. Glacier windows are wind tested up to 165 mph and specifically designed for Alaska’s climate. And like everything in their Kodiak series, the Glacier is made in Alaska by Alaskans for Alaskans.

Capitol Glass/Northerm Windows Tony Pagano, General Manager 2300 E. 63rd Ave. Anchorage, Alaska 99507 907-272-4433 www.capitolglassak.com

Partnering with Customers Capitol Glass/Northerm Windows values all of its clients and works on projects large and small, whether it’s replacing a single window in a home or

Independently Certified As a testament to the superiority of its product, Capitol Glass/Northerm Windows is proud that its windows are –

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special section

2015 Top 49ers

Branding for Success Black Cup, the renamed, rebranded, and redecorated Café del Mundo on Benson Boulevard in Midtown Anchorage.

Businesses rework and refine to stay ahead of the curve By Julie Stricker

Photos courtesy of Doug Griffin/ Black Cup, Café del Mundo

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rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but for Alaska coffee aficionados, there’s more to a cup of joe than a smoky aroma and a jolt of caffeine. Today’s coffee clientele rhapsodize about their favorite brew and brewing method with the ardor an oenophile expends on a divine pinot noir. Brand, image, and atmosphere are everything. Walk into Kaladi Brothers Coffee for freshly roasted, highquality coffee in a hip atmosphere. SteamDot Coffee and Espresso Lab features slow-brewed coffee in a minimalist setting. Ubiquitous Starbucks offers frothy coffee drinks and a selection of coffees that helped define the coffee culture in the Northwest. Not to mention the plethora of coffee carts and cafés scattered across Alaska, each with their own jitter-induced specialty roasts and fan followings. But, like a pot of coffee left on a burner too long, brands can get stale. Business owners are constantly reworking and refining their brands to stay ahead of the curve. A case in point is venerable specialty coffee roaster Café del

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Mundo, which opened its doors in Anchorage in 1975. It was bought by the businessmen behind Kaladi Brothers and is now known as Black Cup. “Café del Mundo was kind of pioneering the artisan coffee experience in Alaska,” says Black Cup General Manager Jared Mockli. “Over the last twenty or thirty years, there’s been a lot more jump on board.” Since Black Cup and Kaladi Brothers are owned by the same people, their owners are trying to make sure their brands, and the coffee, remain distinct. Café del Mundo itself, an Anchorage landmark, was redecorated in a more open layout this summer that aims to focus customers’ attention on the coffee and its preparation. In homage to its roots, the remodeled Black Cup coffee shop has retained the Café del Mundo logo on one wall. “What we wanted to do was to freshen up the brand and really bring the focus back to the coffee itself,” Mockli says. “We’re bringing back that pioneering spirit and really pushing the envelope to make the best coffee we can.” It bills itself as “extraordinary coffee, best served black.” Hence the name: Black Cup. It’s simple, back to basics, with the focus on the coffee. The name of a brand is of tremendous importance, says Rashmi Prasad, dean of the College of Business and Public Policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage. “Books really are judged by their covers,” Prasad says. “The cover really does matter. The name really does matter. The name conjures up all sorts of mental associations. The wrong name will really sink a product. “You want to get the product right, but then to get the name wrong is like scoring on your own goal,” Prasad says. Some of Prasad’s students worked with Kaladi Brothers on branding strategies. The question was what Kaladi Brothers, which also owns Café del Mundo, would do with the beloved pioneer coffee roaster, which had been around for four decades. “I think they rebranded it to Black Cup to give SteamDot a run for their money,” says Hillary Walker, PR manager for Northwest Strategies. “It’s [Black Cup] a very New York subway vibe with glam tiles. It’s open late, so it’s not the same as Kaladi Brothers.” The goal was to re-brand Café del Mundo without diluting Kaladi Brothers, which also was very successful. “You don’t want to cannibalize your own market, compete with your own product line,” Prasad says. “It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul as opposed to expanding your market.” Businesses can choose to expand their brand or multi-brand, he says. A brand exwww.akbizmag.com

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

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Prasad says any branding efforts come down to the four “Ps” that are taught in every marketing class. They are product, price, promotion, and place.

“We are very pleased with the work BEACON is doing for Pippel. We had been working for over five years to ‘hit’ our social media goals and in less than a year, BEACON got us there!” -Sandy Crawford, Co-Owner, Pippel Insurance Agency

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tension is to take a brand and extend it to another product category. For example, if Bill Blass, known for its pants, decides to sell Bill Blass shoes or cologne. Or, in the case of coffee, if a company has been serving Brand A coffee and introduces a Brand B upmarket coffee, is it essentially turning the original Brand A into a down-market version that could hurt the overall brand? Creating a separate, distinct branding for Brand B is the ideal. Prasad says any branding efforts come down to the four “Ps” that are taught in every marketing class. They are product, price, promotion, and place. “Any product that’s in the marketplace has those four Ps,” Prasad says. “Do we have the right product for the market? Have priced it correctly and intelligently?” Is the product promoted properly and are the correct distribution channels in place? As in all business ventures, planning is key. Prasad says the adage is “you fail to plan and therefore you plan to fail.” He then adds, “Knowing full well that it’s not etched in stone. The environment is so dynamic. It’s like the saying, ‘once the battle starts, the battle plan goes out the window.’ “While business planning is essential, you’ve got to think of planning as a process.”

Product Connotations

Good branding conjures up a whole host of connotations about a product, says Charles Fedullo, vice president of communications for Strategies 360. As far as coffee goes, Fedullo says SteamDot has done a great job of setting itself apart from other coffee roasters in town. “It’s a very simple logo, but it’s clean,” he says. “What his [owner Jonathan White’s] brand exemplifies is care for coffee. What his brand does is it’s clean and simple. It’s a simple product. Good coffee is simply what they do. When I see SteamDot, I know what I’m going to get.” Fedullo says some of the Alaska Native corporations are also doing good things as far as branding. For example, he points to campaigns by Bristol Bay Native Corporation that Strategies 360 has worked on. The

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

campaign focuses on spectacular images of Bristol Bay Native Corporation’s home region in Southwest Alaska, the traditional way of life, and the corporation’s integral role in the region. The campaign has won the Corporate Marketer of the Year awards from the American Marketing Association for three consecutive years. “The visuals have been stunning and the message has been very clear,” Fedullo says. “What I like with Bristol Bay is that it consistently comes across as communitybased, sustainable recognition of who the people are and what the land is.” Fedullo also likes Kotzebue-based NANA corporation’s approach—the corporation notes it’s been “in business ten thousand years.” “When you’re looking at forty or fifty subsidiaries doing different things, how do you keep that brand similar?” asks Fedullo, who formerly worked for NANA. “It’s a real challenge.” He points to the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage as another example of a business doing a good job of marketing to a varied audience. “The Captain Cook, because they have so many audiences—international, national, local—they have to sort of manage this thing of being an old school hotel, but have a hip restaurant like the Whale’s Tail and upscale restaurant like the Crow’s Nest. “I like how they’ve marketed their food and their restaurants,” he says. “I think it does a good job of attracting a wide variety of people but sticking with brand consistency. “With the Captain Cook, there’s always this underlying sense of elegance.” It’s one thing to build a brand and have a strong brand, but it’s another to maintain it over a long time.

Building Loyalty

That’s a challenge the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is facing. Northwest Strategies’ Walker has worked with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute on its marketing and brand image in the past. The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute was created in 1981 as a cooperative effort between the state and Alaska’s seafood industry to stabilize the industry’s economics. Marketing efforts in the past couple of decades have helped solidify the image of Alaska seafood as healthy and sustainable. It is one of the state’s most recognizable brands. But maintaining that brand hasn’t been without its challenges, Walker says. “It’s a great product to begin with, so really, it’s easy to market,” Walker says. “Wild Alaska salmon used to be a really premium product based on its own attributes.” www.akbizmag.com

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Wild Alaska salmon’s biggest competitor is farmed salmon, which is preferred by some in the food service industry because the supply chain for farmed salmon is easier. Walker says the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute marketers created a story about Alaska seafood and building a loyalty for it among customers. Market research showed that Alaska seafood was the most commonly mentioned item on menus, behind Angus beef, Walker says. It has connotations of wild and pure. But other sectors of the industry began using the same catchphrases and the same language used to describe Alaska seafood, such as eco-sustainability. “Boutique” Skuna Bay salmon farmed in British Columbia was recently salmon purveyor for James Beard earlier this summer. The salmon are touted as being raised in pens that aren’t nearly as crowded as other farmed salmon. 110

Screengrab: mammothalaska.com

Tyler Williams (above) on the phone at the The Neumuth Agency in Fairbanks, which will soon become Mammoth Marketing (right).

Walker says the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has the distinction of being the foundation for creating the label of ecosustainable seafood. “One thing that demonstrates the power of the brand is that the supply of the salmon increased, but so did the demand and the price for the salmon,” Walker says. If there is a business that understands the power of good branding, it’s an adver-

tising and marketing business. In 2013, Nerland Agency was rebranded as Spawn Ideas. “The new name is extremely relevant to our business, which is about generating ideas that grow and produce results,” Spawn President and CEO Karen King said in a news release announcing the change. The unusual name generated talk in the industry when it was announced, but that’s certainly not a bad thing, Fedullo says.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

“When you’re going from an iconic brand—you’re going from Nerland, that’s an iconic Alaska name, you’ve got to do something out of the box,” he says. “The fact that people are still talking about it shows the power that [the name] has.”

Core Principals Remain

In late 2015, another notable advertising agency will also undergo a metamorphosis. The Neumuth Agency in Fairbanks will become Mammoth Marketing. Tyler Williams will take the helm from Steve Neumuth, who started the agency in 1989. “It’s been in the back of our minds for a long time,” Williams says. He started at Neumuth seven years ago as the television producer and grew from there. “I kind of grew my house, so to speak,” he says. “I was the go-to guy because I was the tech guy. I was the guy who’s watching all the trends and seeing how things could interconnect.” He chose Mammoth after much deliberation. His website teases “Big ideas for a big state. … Sorry Texas.” “I wanted something that was Alaskan, but not super on the nose,” he says. “I like the scale of Mammoth. I like the fact that it sounds like something big and a little bit mystical. I had a list [of names] and I talked to a lot of people about what works, and I kept coming back to it.” The next step was going online to look at business licenses and discovering that no one else had claimed the name, “So I guess it was a good time to get it.” Williams says he is very aware that clients will be looking at how he markets Mammoth as an indication of the quality of work he is capable of. “You want to know what we can do? Look at what we did for ourselves,” Williams says. He is largely self-taught, but reads a lot and takes classes online. “When I find something that I’m interested in, I tend to dive in and come out with an understanding.” He has also learned a lot from Steve Neumuth. “There’s no replacement for a quartercentury of experience in business,” he says. “Steve has shown me how public perception of products can be timing as far as when you want things to hit and how you want them to hit.” Neumuth also showed him the world outside Williams’ home medium of television. “I have a much better idea of the media landscape and the core principles of marketing. They don’t change, really,” he says. “It’s always the same thing you’re doing all www.akbizmag.com

the time, it doesn’t matter the medium.” In the past, the bastion of advertising was the thirty-second television spot that was unskippable, he says. “Now, they’re all skippable, aside from radio,” Williams says. “You’ve got DVRs, you’ve got YouTube with their five-second skip button, so you have to come out of the gate swinging with ads these days.” Getting clients past their innate resistance to change is another key, he says. The same thing could happen to him in twentyfive years where he’s sitting around saying, “In my day, the Internet was the goal.” “Like I said, the core principals don’t change, so don’t get hooked on a medium

because the world changes, tech changes. The way people are viewing things change. You can look over the years and say, ‘Well, the eyeballs aren’t here anymore, they’re over there.’ Follow the eyeballs; don’t follow the technology. That’s the most important thing.” A brand is made up of a lot of little things, he says. “Everything is interconnected. You need to make sure all of the little pieces add up to a larger whole because everyone is everywhere.” R Julie Stricker is a journalist living near Fairbanks.

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special section

2015 Top 49ers

Strategic Branding and Marketing Top 49ers find success through many methods Editor’s Note: To go with the top 49ers theme this year we asked: “What is your company’s most significant branding or marketing strategy that has been successful?” Here are comments from many of the 2015 Top 49ers. The most recent marketing campaign for ASRC began in March of 2013 as a joint effort between ASRC and the North Slope Borough. Our theme, Strengthening Alaska Through Our Values, highlights the positive cultural as well as business impacts of ASRC and the NSB. The latest commercials were shot in various locations on the North Slope in November of 2014 and include a wide variety of scenes; these include ASRC board chairman Crawford Patkotak caribou hunting with his sons to a welding class at Ilisaġvik College. These television ads won an Emmy Award from the Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in June of 2015. —Arctic Slope Regional Corporation

BBNC has utilized TV, radio, print, digital media, and social media channels to successfully reach Alaskans. —Bristol Bay Native Corporation Providing customers with a onestop shop that offers multi-modal solutions tailored to their exact needs, utilizing air, surface, sea transportation, and logistics services. —Lynden, Inc. We treat our workforce like an invaluable asset. —Chenega Corporation 112

In tandem with our corporate restructuring in 2013-14, Chugach underwent a rebranding effort to include refreshing our company logos, developing branding guidelines; and conducting a complete corporate website redesign. In alignment with our corporate marketing strategy to continue diversifying and pursuing future investment and growth opportunities, our intent is to serve as a good owner of multiple companies. We are able to achieve this vision through consistent, focused marketing and branding messages that reinforce our Alaska Native values and ownership philosophy. —Chugach Alaska Corporation Afognak Native Corporation, Alutiiq LLC, and its subsidiaries maintain the afognak.com and alutiiq.com websites as their primary marketing vehicles, beyond direct proposals for government and commercial contracts. Their reputation is built on innovative partnerships while providing comprehensive, high quality services to customers. Afognak Native Corporation is rooted in the core Alutiiq values of harmony, respect, efficiency, communication, trust, Elder knowledge, and heritage. As an Alaska Native Corporation, employees and shareholders are united in this shared value system. A leader in service contracting in Alaska and beyond, they rely on past performance as their most successful business marketing strategy. —Afognak Native Corporation / Alutiiq LLC

Earned 2015 Public Relations Society of America Alaska Chapter Aurora Award, Multicultural Public Relations, for descendant enrollment informational campaign. —Calista Corporation Doyon’s oilfield services pillar companies continue to be leaders in their industries on Alaska’s North Slope. Doyon Drilling, Inc. (DDI), our flagship company, operates on the North Slope of Alaska with seven of the most unique oil and gas land drilling rigs specially designed to drill oil wells in extreme conditions. In addition, ConocoPhillips contracted with Doyon Drilling to build a new rig, Rig 142, for the Kuparuk River Unit. Rig 142 will go into commission in 2016. —Doyon, Limited We are an Iñupiat Alaska Native village corporation. Our first strategic imperative is to implement our traditional and time-tested Iñupiat values as company values throughout UIC. These core values are the same as those of our Inupiat ancestors: Sharing, Compassion, Avoidance of Conflict, Knowledge of Language, Respect for Nature, Hunting Traditions, Family and Kinship, Cooperation, Humility, Humor, and Spirituality. —Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC) One of CIRI’s wholly owned subsidiaries is CIRI Alaska Tourism Corporation (CATC). The rebranding of CATC has successfully raised awareness that Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, Seward

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Windsong Lodge, Kenai Fjords Tours, Kenai Fjords Wilderness Lodge, and Alaska Heritage Tours are Alaska Native owned and operated companies. While many tourism companies in Alaska are based outside the state, CATC is uniquely Alaskan. The profits from the operation are returned to Alaskans in the form of dividends paid to CIRI Shareholders. The CATC marketing strategy under the new brand has been successful in achieving top-of-mind awareness for our Alaskan owned and operated lodges and day cruises in a global tourism marketplace. —Cook Inlet Region, Inc. Through superior service, safely provide reliable and competitively priced energy. —Chugach Electric Association, Inc.

throughout Ahtna’s traditional territory and improve the current dual federal-state subsistence wildlife management system, which has proven to be ineffective, by replacing it with Ahtna’s proposed co-management structure. —Ahtna, Inc. In 2014, Era Alaska became Ravn Alaska with a successful statewide rebranding campaign. —Ravn Alaska Alaskans serving Alaskans since 1980. Tailoring each of our stores to the community it serves. —Three Bears Alaska, Inc. Continuous excellence in execution. —Davis Constructors & Engineers, Inc.

Olgoonik Corp. is committed to clear, honest communication. Our advertisements, presentations, and any print or online material reflect that commitment. We use straightforward language to demonstrate who we are and what we offer. That direct, authentic approach supports our positive corporate reputation for dependable performance; it also reflects our position and values as an Alaska Native owned company. Even our unmistakable logo is simple and true—a brand that honors our Iñupiat culture as it gains global recognition for the good business it represents. —Olgoonik Corporation

In the fall of 2014, First National refreshed its brand with a campaign designed to reinforce the bank’s position in the market as Alaska’s community bank, with the theme, “We Believe in Alaska.” The brand advertising communicates the bank’s core values to our employees, our customers, and our neighbors. The refresh also serves to communicate First National’s commitment to Alaska. With real customers in their homes and businesses across the state as the focal point, the campaign highlights Alaskans who, like First National, have a strong belief in the state’s future and its growth. —First National Bank Alaska

Our reputation. —Udelhoven Oilfield System Services

The Tatitlek Corporation and its subsidiaries (Tatitlek Team) most successful strategy for obtaining new customers and retaining existing customers is to provide high quality services and products at affordable prices. While the Tatitlek Team does participate in various business-line specific trade shows, keeps all databases and websites upto-date, and occasionally advertises in trade magazines, we have found that hard work, accurate billing and recordkeeping, low overhead costs, management availability, and our

Ahtna, Inc., in conjunction with Chitina Native Corporation and the eight federally recognized tribes of the Ahtna region, is proposing a Federal-State-Tribal co-management structure that will help maintain the Ahtna people’s customary and traditional hunting practices on Ahtna lands. The goal of the co-management structure is to unify wildlife management www.akbizmag.com

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employees’ willingness to go above and beyond for our customers is the best marketing strategy available. —The Tatitlek Corporation Brand identity through advertising, participating in trade shows, community involvement, and company events. —Construction Machinery Industrial To celebrate the diversity of our broad service area and recognize the 188 individuals who keep the lights on, MEA has gone back to our cooperative roots with a new campaign “We are all MEA,” which highlights the stories of our communities and the heroes behind our electrical infrastructure. —Matanuska Electric Association, Inc. Anchorage Chrysler continues to be Alaska’s #1 hometown dealer since 1963. Our business continues to grow with proven customer satisfaction, repeat customers, and referrals. Our Dealer Rater rating is 4.9 with over 850 reviews. —Anchorage Chrysler Dodge Center Building Something Bigger. Building something bigger means more than expanding our reach—it means continuously responding to the needs of our customers and community and improving the quality of our products. For a region that stretches from Eagle River to the south and Cantwell to the north—providing superior service is our daily mission. Our co-op was created more than six decades ago to bring phone service where no commercial companies would. We are proud of where we stand today. MTA has brought many communication firsts to our region, and we move into the future as a technology leader. At MTA we are building an even better customer experience. —MTA, Inc. UCM provides abundant, reliable, and affordable energy while being a 114

leader in environmental stewardship and corporate citizenship. —Usibelli Coal Mine, Inc. Geneva Woods is dedicated to improving lives through attention to our six senses: Sense of Purpose, Pride, Urgency, Community, Humor, and lastly, Common Sense. —Geneva Woods HEA concentrates on member oriented special events that include seven community meetings, an Energy and Conservation Fair, and an Annual Meeting. HEA also targets young people with a scholarship program and participation in youth leadership programs. —Homer Electric Association, Inc. We developed a five-year strategic business plan. —Sitnasuak Native Corporation On Design/Build projects we are noted for providing quality, attractive, energy efficient, and durable projects at a very competitive cost. This requires a broad knowledge of building systems and the ability to work with the designers to implement cost saving systems. On government, Corps of Engineers projects, we have the trust and confidence of the COE that we will implement their design intent. —Watterson Construction Co. Builders Choice is committed to the pursuit of excellence in its work and to develop strategies that are able to meet changing market conditions and changing customer needs. —Builders Choice, Inc. PenAir is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year starting in Pilot Point, Alaska. We have expanded our passenger service to include Presque Isle, Maine; Plattsburgh, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Oregon; Crescent City, California; and Klamath Falls, Oegon. —PenAir

With 65 percent of our shareholders now living outside of our original ten villages, Facebook has become one of the most effective ways The Kuskokwim Corporation (TKC) engages with shareholders. We have found that we are able to interact and communicate with several generations of shareholders in real time and at no cost beyond staff time. Social media has allowed us to be highly responsive to questions and concerns immediately and monitor “Facebook chatter” important issues. TKC still utilizes direct mailings, but now also uses social media to give shareholders “heads up” to be on the lookout for certain documents and important information in the mail. —The Kuskokwim Corporation Attention to individual customer requirements. —Vitus Energy LLC Consistency of our branding message for thirty-eight years while constantly expanding our reach— particularly to millennials through digital and social media. —Seekins Ford Lincoln, Inc. Doing great work ensures DOWL will continue to keep and attract new clients. —DOWL We have changed our company branding to AER on all signage. —Airport Equipment Rentals Investing in our employees and our customers is the most successful branding and marketing strategy for Alaska Industrial Hardware. We invest in our customers by providing them with the largest on hand inventory in Alaska and the most strategically located locations to serve their needs. We develop the most competent staff in our industry by investing in our employees through continued education assistance, product specific training, and mentoring. —Alaska Industrial Hardware, Inc.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Roger Hickel Contracting’s brand strategy is adopted from our workmanship, past performance, and through our relationships with clients, designers, subcontractors, and suppliers. Our company’s marketability comes from client testimonials and achievements recognized by our community. It is also spread by involvement through for-purpose organizations and community events. Roger Hickel Contracting stays current with new technology and is active in crowdsourcing, online publications, and information sharing portals. Despite new social networking technology, word of mouth is still a significant part of our overall branding and marketing strategy. —Roger Hickel Contracting, Inc. Credit Union 1 is a uniquely philanthropic financial institution. Each year, we teach, build, fundraise, and volunteer in our Alaskan communities! Our wideranging social activities and financial services represent the heart of the credit union movement—a movement for people helping people. Last year, Credit Union 1 employees volunteered over four thousand hours of their time to community service projects, lending a hand in schools, soup kitchens, and more. With our members’ help, we fundraise and donate over $100,000 annually toward positive change in our communities. In addition, we provide free financial education classes statewide that help Alaskans in all walks of life to improve their financial well-being and achieve goals. —Credit Union 1 Member service is what keeps our members loyal, and we train and develop our staff to provide the best service possible to help our members achieve financial success. Our new member engagement program, initiated in 2014, has been very successful in helping us retain a large percentage of our new members. —Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union www.akbizmag.com

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2015 Top 49ers

2015 Top 49ers | Featured 49er

special section

Photo courtesy of Bristol Bay Native Corporation

Bristol Alliance Fuels truck at the 2.95 million gallon tank farm in Dillingham.

Bristol Bay Native Corporation Providing for its shareholders By Russ Slaten

“

e set a goal for ourselves about five years ago to double our shareholder hire and double our shareholder wages, and in that period of time we’ve more than doubled our shareholder hire. We’re at about 160 shareholder workers today, and we’ve tripled our shareholder wages. We’ve paid out about $13 million in wages annually to shareholders,”

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says Jason Metrokin, president and CEO of Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC). BBNC’s mission statement is “Enriching our Native way of life,” and Metrokin says it is accomplished through a number of ways. BBNC has followed a goal of paying 35 percent of its net income to shareholders in the form of dividends. Its first dividend paid to shareholders was $0.25 a share in 1978, and in the current fiscal year BBNC anticipates paying $32.40 a share, most recently averaging $17 million in shareholders dividends annually. “What sets BBNC aside from our counterpart ANCs [Alaska Native Corporations] is that we’ve paid those dividends consis-

tently and predictably since 1978, so our shareholders can count on the BBNC dividend every quarter and count on it increasing over time,” Metrokin says. The dividend on average grows about 2.5 times the rate of inflation, he says. In addition to dividends, BBNC works to provide employment, training, and educational opportunities for its shareholders, Metrokin says. Since 1986 the BBNC Education Foundation has provided scholarships for higher education and vocational training. BBNC’s endowment for its Education Foundation is nearly $20 million annually today, providing it with a strong foothold on which to operate and provide

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers | Featured 49er

Power of Mentorship

Metrokin saw the importance of not only higher education, but also cultural education from elders through a mentorship under Alaska Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott, whom he met when Mallott was the president and CEO of the First Alaskans Institute. “Growing up in an urban setting like Anchorage, I learned a lot about rural Alaska through my experiences with National Bank of Alaska and First Alaskans Institute, and then working for Byron exacerbated my experiences learning through him.” Becoming a shareholder himself through BBNC shares passed on from his late grandfather, Metrokin became the first non-original shareholder of an Alaska Native Claims www.akbizmag.com

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2015 Top 49ers | Featured 49er

Photo courtesy of Bristol Bay Native Corporation

Peak Oilfield Service Company employees cleaning a truck for Peak’s Cook Inlet Area trucking operations in Kenai.

Settlement Act corporation to become president and CEO. Metrokin was born and raised in Anchorage, with a father from Kodiak Island and Bristol Bay and a mother from Massachusetts. He earned a bachelor’s in business administration from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and an MBA from Alaska Pacific University. Metrokin knew he wanted to pursue business in college and gained valuable financial skills from his experience at National Bank of Alaska (now Wells Fargo Bank). He was exposed to rural issues through his role at the bank by being responsible for introducing communities across Alaska to banking, he says. “Whether it was lending, deposits, or other banking services, I was one of the individuals who helped a lot of our rural communities gain access to institutional banking. I traveled a lot and basically went to every nook and cranny in Alaska,” Metrokin says. Metrokin started his career in banking, but forged his passion for Alaska Native is118

sues working for First Alaskans Institute, a nonprofit aimed at advancing Alaska Natives through community engagement, research, and leadership development. “[Jason Metrokin] is quick with a genuine smile, quick with a handshake, and quick to reach out. You can tell upon meeting him that he is a person who exudes energy in ways that lead you to believe that here is a guy going somewhere; and with not a sense of ambition, but a sense of desiring to be engaged, to move down the road and make a difference together. That’s something I noticed in him early on,” says Mallott. Metrokin originally approached Mallott while in a leadership program to learn from his vast experience in state and local government and Alaska Native corporations. “I didn’t know Byron [Mallott] at the time, but I reached out to him and saw him as somebody who knew what he was doing. He was the president and CEO of Sealaska, was the mayor of his hometown of Yakutat, and later Juneau. I asked him to be my

mentor and he agreed,” Metrokin says. Mallott says he saw leadership qualities in the beginning through Metrokin’s desire to understand and learn the issues that faced Alaska Natives and the state’s rural communities. “He had a sense of responsibility and an obligation to make Alaska a better place for all of us,” Mallott says. “At the time he had just begun his family with his first child, and it was clear that in the taking of his parental responsibilities—seriously as parents do—he was also very clearly focused on the future he wanted for our state.”

In-Region Business

BBNC has seen success in providing financial dividends to its shareholders through profits stemming from its five distinct business lines including oilfield and industrial services, government contracting, petroleum distribution, construction, and tourism. To achieve one of its latest goals of boosting shareholder hire in the region and within the state, BBNC acquired Peak Oilfield Service Company, an energy support

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

www.akbizmag.com

due diligence before acquiring the business, we know we’re going to be able to both drop our prices and maintain a good investment for the shareholders going forward,” Torrison says. BBNC operates as a diversified holding company with many of its operations in the Lower 48. Metrokin says adding another leg to its stool of Alaska-based operations will not only benefit the corporation through profits but also its shareholders through employment and training opportunities, as well as the state economy. “As an Alaska Native Corporation we’re really looking at the extreme longterm. It’s not five or ten years, its decades if not hundreds of years out,” Metrokin says. “We always have to be mindful of how BBNC is going to be successful, how we’re going to live up to those expectations that we’ve created on behalf of our shareholders for generations into the future. And by investing here in Alaska, I think that’s going to be helpful for us longterm.”

Alaska’s Economy

Metrokin says BBNC is always looking for ways to evolve while holding to its roots of culture, heritage, and land. He says it’s akin to walking in two worlds. “We have a tremendous amount of re-

spect for those who founded the corporation, our elders, our lands, and our resources, and we’re never going to lose sight of who we stand for, but at the same time we can’t do business in a way that is stuck in the past,” Metrokin says. “We have to evolve, we have to progress, we have to compete, we have to promote ourselves, and we have to be relevant in today’s business world.” Some of the state’s largest industries are oil and gas, mining, construction, transportation, and tourism, and many Alaska Native Corporations participate in these business sectors. Metrokin says Alaska Native Corporations like BBNC are at a new phase in their more than forty year history as part of Alaska’s economy. “Many of us started out small, and it took us a while to learn what it meant to be a corporate entity—and a profit-making corporate entity at that,” Metrokin says. “The next phase of Alaska Native Corporations is really to take the corporation to the next level financially and to promote ourselves as Alaskan companies, as Native corporations, and as our own sector of the state’s economy.” R Russ Slaten is an Associate Editor at Alaska Business Monthly.

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2015 Top 49ers | Featured 49er

services company, primarily operating on the North Slope, Cook Inlet, Valdez, and North Dakota in 2013. “We had a lot of growth within the government contracting world at the time, but we wanted to diversify and maintain a balance on the commercial end, so we invested back into Alaska with [Peak]—seeing lots of opportunities on the North Slope,” says Scott Torrison, senior vice president and chief operating officer of BBNC. BBNC’s most recent acquisition has kept the company within its business line of petroleum distribution but has also given it a chance to grow within its own region of Bristol Bay. In July BBNC purchased Bristol Express Fuels, Inc., Bristol Alliance Fuels LLC, and certain assets of Bristol Commercial Properties LLC, located in Dillingham. BBNC’s new wholly owned subsidiary of Bristol Alliance Fuels—a consolidation of the assets acquired—will operate a 2.95 million gallon tank farm, a marine fueling facility, and the Bristol Express retail gas station and convenience store. It offers diesel, regular unleaded gasoline, aviation gasoline, Jet A, and propane, Torrison says. “We’re starting to see [the Dillingham] market equalize down to a level that is more competitive which will benefit the area in terms of energy costs, and from our

2015 Top 49ers

2015 Top 49ers | Featured 49er

special section

Cornerstone completed renovations of three floors, 143,000 square feet, of the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage in 2013.

Cornerstone General Contractors

By Tasha Anderson

he Top 49ers are ranked by revenue, which is one indicator of success, but in the Alaska business community, it’s rarely the only one. What else makes the list? Joe Jolley, president of Cornerstone General Contractors, says, “That’s easy: repeat business, staff retention, and safety excellence.”

A Little History

Cornerstone was formed in 1993 “to offer an all-Alaskan general contracting option to the state’s leading organizations,” Jolley says. Its original founders were C. John Eng and Jaysen E. Mathiesen. The company is currently owned by three partners—Jolley; Mark Palmatier, VP of Construction; and Mike Quirk, VP of Estimating. Jolley continues, “During the last two decades, Cornerstone has become an industry leader and trusted general contractor specializing in collaborative project delivery methods 120

for new commercial construction and precision renovation of existing facilities.” Cornerstone has contributed to a number of significant projects, building education, government, healthcare, industrial, and residential infrastructure. Some of their notable projects are “school renovations and additions for the Anchorage School District at East, Service, and West High Schools; several major facilities for the University of Alaska Anchorage [UAA] such as the UAA/APU [Alaska Pacific University] Consortium Library, ConocoPhillips Integrated Science Building, Health Sciences Building, and the Alaska Airlines Center; the Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Muldoon; numerous precision renovations inside Providence Alaska Medical Center and Alaska Native Medical Center; and rural community assignments across the state including the South Peninsula Hospital Expansion in Homer, Kodiak Public Library, and AVTEC [Alaska Vocational Technical Center] Alaska Culinary

Academy and Dormitory Replacement in Seward,” Jolley says.

Leadership at Work

Leadership is a key word at Cornerstone as it’s a leader externally in the industry and leadership is found at every level internally, from the president down. “To me, an effective leader takes charge, sees an objective through from start to finish, builds up others along the way and encourages them to own the outcome, and then gives credit where credit is due,” Jolley says. “Leadership is absolutely vital to the success of our company, and you’ll find it at every level, but it’s teamwork that gets the work done.” A culture of collaboration isn’t just promoted in the company, but is a significant part of Cornerstone’s approach with project partners and clients. Cornerstone practices collaborative delivery methods, often referred to by various terms such as Design Assist, CM/GC (Construction Manager/ General Contractor), CM@R (Construction

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Two Cornerstone workers at the Service High School Renewal, slated for completion in 2016.

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Manager at Risk), or IPD (Integrated Project Delivery) in the construction industry. The benefits of this approach are far reaching, including reducing project uncertainty, risk mitigation, and providing insight on constructability and potential cost savings. Looking internally, Jolley says, “Cornerstone IS a company of leaders,” employing both experienced professionals as well as bright new talent in the upcoming generations. All of Cornerstone’s forty employees are located in Alaska, allowing them to have an Alaskan’s insight as they are out in the field leading projects for Cornerstone’s clients. “They are doers and achievers, and they absolutely love the work they do, who they do it with, and who they do it for,” Jolley says. He continues that employees at Cornerstone may be serving in a clear leadership role, such as a Project Manager or Superintendent, on one jobsite and then be called to perform a support role in another. “Leadership often means service to others, and in this sense I’m very proud of our people. Every single one of our construction professionals is capable of stepping up or stepping in to get the job done right regardless of the level of difficulty or whether or not they get the credit.” Jolley witnessed this sort of leadership from his parents, who he says were a significant influence in his life. Jolley was born and raised in Anchorage, living Outside only to attend Arizona State University and get his Bachelor of Science in Construction Management in 1999. His parents moved separately to Alaska in the 1960s, meeting each other in the 1970s and getting married, building a home, and starting a family. They took the significant risk of starting their own company, also in construction. “Their sense of adventure, entrepreneurial spirit, and their legacy of hard work, doing things right, and volunteering in the community provided me with a core set of values that continue to serve me today,” Jolley says.

2015 Top 49ers | Featured 49er

tion assistance to Habitat for Humanity projects, particularly for work tasks that require special skills or equipment, like placing roof trusses.” The company also participates as a group in the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce’s annual Citywide Cleanup, providing crews that collect bagged refuse along the Glenn Highway and deliver it to the dump. Jolley says, “A couple years ago we asked all employees which local organizations they support through financial, in-kind, and volunteer giving.” The resulting list has almost as many organizations as the company has employees and includes organizations such as the Alaska Aviation Museum, Alaska World Affairs Council, Big Brothers Big Sisters, NAWIC Alaska, and the Alaska Veterans Museum, among more than thirty other charitable organizations.

Cornerstone’s Success

Seawolves practicing at the Alaska Airlines Center on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus.

Alaskan Owned in Alaska Community Cornerstone is certainly a company grounded in the Alaska economy and community. “Being Alaskan owned makes the difference across the board, whether we’re talking about construction or banking or shopping for a truck or buying local produce or coffee,” Jolley says. In his experience in the construction industry, “not one Alaskan professional has ever been outshined by a Lower 48 counterpart,” he adds. In fact, being a local company is an advantage in many ways, as all personnel at Cornerstone know the state and what makes it work. “We care about the people 122

who will use the building we construct,” Jolley says. Plus, living here means that employees and leadership alike are deeply invested in the health of rural, city, and statewide economies. “We hire locally, spend locally, invest locally, and support locally-owned businesses through service and material procurement on projects whenever possible.” Philanthropically speaking, Jolley says the company’s work with Habitat for Humanity Anchorage tops the list. Jolley has served on the organization’s board for several years and currently serves as Board Chair. Aside from that contribution, Cornerstone “regularly provides construc-

Cornerstone is able to have such a positive effect on Alaska because it provides quality services, growing through the years to join the Top 49ers in 2014. “Cornerstone is extremely proud of the fact that most of our customers are repeat customers. Some have called on us to fulfill their construction needs repeatedly for more than twenty years,” Jolley says. “Every time we’re called upon to serve a customer again, whether it’s the second time or the twentieth, it’s a very satisfying moment that tells us our people have done a lot of things right.” One contribution to “doing things right” is finding and keeping quality employees. Jolley says the staff retention at Cornerstone is excellent, with very low turnover over the last five years or so; leadership in the company and most management staff have been with Cornerstone for more than ten years. “We hire top quality people and do our best to keep them with us for the long haul,” he says. Any company that understands the value of quality employees also understands the necessity of workplace safety, especially in an industry such as construction. “Construction is physically demanding, sometimes dangerous work, but with the right processes in place we have been able to create a culture of safety that minimizes risk and makes all team members responsible for looking out for one another. “Safety is number one at Cornerstone since there’s nothing more important than keeping everyone on our jobsites free from injury,” Jolley says. Cornerstone has an award winning safety program, led by a full-time Safety Manager: it has earned “five consecutive Alaska Governor’s Safety Awards, multiple AGC of Alaska Safety Awards, and enrollment in the State of

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

More than Infrastructure

Buildings are a long-term, tangible artifact of Cornerstone’s work, but the effect such structures can have on a community are far-reaching, and the collaborations that lead to the completion of a successful project build a sense of community in industry. “We’re proud of all our projects,” Jolley says. “Each one was unique and involved a mix of great people. We’re fortunate to interact with impressive project owners, architects, engineers, subcontractors, vendors, and others every day.” Cornerstone has worked on several high profile projects; for example, the Alaska Airlines Center at UAA, which celebrated its grand opening in September. That being said, Jolley says that many smaller projects are highlights in terms of success and relationship building, such as the new Alaska Culinary Academy and dorm project in Seward. “Every project teaches new things and leads to the formation of new relationships, and those are the most important takeaways.”

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Looking Forward

It’s no secret that Alaska is currently tightening its financial belt. “Like others in our industry, we’ve seen a downturn in activity due to uncertainties in the market and reduced state spending on public projects,” Jolley says; however, Cornerstone is hopeful for the future. One of the company’s upcoming projects is with the State of Alaska Department of Education and Early Development: the design and construction of the Mount Edgecumbe Aquatic Center in Sitka, a thirty-four-thousand-square-foot facility that will serve the Mount Edgecumbe High School, Alaska State Troopers Academy, US Coast Guard, and community of Sitka. The $18.5 million project will include at twenty-five-yard by twenty-five-meter primary pool plus a fifteen-foot by twenty-five-yard therapeutic pool. Jolley says that it is actually an opportune time for those interested in working with Cornerstone on a new building or renovation. “Having recently completed several important projects in the last few months, we currently have the energy and the capacity to lead organizations through any sized construction project.” R Tasha Anderson is an Associate Editor at Alaska Business Monthly. www.akbizmag.com

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Alaska’s CHASE Program, which monitors contractors to learn safety best practices that are then used to set industry-wide standards within the Alaska Department of Labor,” Jolley reports.

2015 Top 49ers

2015 Top 49ers | Featured 49er

special section

Curtiss Wright C-46 offloading cargo at Everts Air charter destination in rural Alaska.

Tatonduk Outfitters Limited dba Everts Air Delivering quality with a pioneering spirit By Russ Slaten

atonduk Outfitters Limited, doing business as Everts Air Cargo and Everts Air Alaska, has an origin that embraces the pioneering spirit of the Klondike Gold Rush. It was formed in 1978 by Mark Lynch in Eagle—only one hundred miles down the Yukon River from Dawson City, Yukon, and six miles west of the Alaska/Canada border—Tatonduk Outfitters began as a flying service with light aircraft like the Cessna 206 and Piper Lance that was tailored to trappers and miners.

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“I bought the operation in 1993 [from Lynch], and at the time there were three employees, a couple of aircraft, and an [FAA] Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate running a few schedules, and that was the beginning,” says Robert Everts, president and owner of Tatonduk Outfitters Limited, a business encompassing Everts Air Cargo and Everts Air Alaska. Today, the company specializes in cargo operations, providing for the unique needs of their customers in larger cities and small villages in remote or centralized locations

across Alaska. Everts Air Cargo primarily transports freight and bypass mail, including oversized freight, hazardous materials, and basically anything that fits in the door, Everts says. The company is headquartered in Fairbanks where maintenance, administrative, and (Alaska and Lower 48) charter operations are centered. The company has 255 employees statewide and 10 out of state.

Vintage Aircraft

In order to handle the unique needs of rural

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

2015 Top 49ers | Featured 49er

Photo by Andy Lyon/Everts Air Cargo

Alaska, Everts began utilizing the vintage aircraft of the McDonnell Douglas DC-6 in 1995. Everts added a new DC-6 aircraft every year from 1995 until 2002 and began adding the Curtiss Wright C-46 to the operation in 1997. “The [McDonnell Douglas] DC-6 is a reliable, hardworking, and rugged airplane. There was a large production run of the DC-6 back in the ‘50s. We began using the DC-6 in the early ‘80s hauling fuel under my father’s business Everts Air Fuel which is where I got my start. That experience led to my decision that the DC-6 would be a good alternative for a freighter,” Everts says. The DC-6 has an average payload of twenty-eight thousand pounds with a cargo door 124 inches wide by 70 inches tall. The Everts Air DC-6 fleet comes from the original military surplus or from other civilian operators. “There was plenty of work at the time [in 1995] and lots of unimproved runways www.akbizmag.com

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Photo by Timo Breidenstein/Everts Air Cargo

Everts Air Cargo McDonnell Douglas DC-9 landing to conduct cargo loading and unloading operations.

then—and still today,” Everts says. “The DC-6 can land on packed ice, snow, gravel, frozen lakes, rough mining strips, and has a very large cargo door. It’s a perfect airplane for providing on-demand cargo service, especially for all the different industries that thrive here in Alaska.” Less than half the size of a DC-6, the Curtiss Wright C-46 first took wing in 1940. C-46 airplanes were bought by the US military for transport aircraft during World War II and since then have been mainly utilized for cargo operations. “The C-46 will go into some rougher runways, and it’s our aircraft of choice when we’re landing on frozen lakes or rivers in the winter time. It has a lighter foot print, and in most cases it generally will carry any of the oversized product that the DC-6 will carry,” Everts says. “It just boils down to what the customer needs at the time, whether they need twenty-eight thousand pounds of lift or thirteen thousand pounds of lift.” Scheduled flights depart from Anchorage to twelve major hubs spanning across Alaska, with most stops in Western Alaska. Although the airline provides charter flights, the bulk of Everts Air flights are scheduled. Additionally, depending on the destination, Everts uses more than seven different types of aircraft. “We have a diverse fleet because that gives us access to a variety of airports and 126

also gives us scalability to meet the customer needs,” says Everts Air Cargo Director of Operations Zach Adams.

Love What You Do

Growing up in aviation Everts knew he always wanted to make it a business. After graduating from Embry Riddle and returning to Alaska, he knew he would stay. “I’ve been all around the world, and Alaska has a hold on me just like it does most people. Being born and raised in the Interior, it’s just something that I figured I was always going to do and wanted to do— and haven’t changed since then,” Everts says. In Everts’ case, as in the case of many business owners, he likes the aspect of working for himself and choosing the people he works with. “I like to know at the end of the day if something didn’t go right, I have the ability to correct it or make changes, and I don’t have any reason to complain,” Everts says. “I can only complain to myself because I’m the one that steers the ship. And at the end of the day the buck stops here. Give me a call if things aren’t working.” Everts’ says the heart and core of his business is the group of employees working for him across Alaska. “We started off with a handful of people and today we have south of three hundred.

It’s all about the hardworking Alaskans that work for me to take care of the business so the service is there for the customer,” Everts says. “I can’t say anything more than that. I’ve had the luxury of running into a very good group of people to come and work for me and stay working for me.” Everts embraces a hands-on leadership style and talks to the employees involved in much of the company’s operations nearly every day, says Robert Ragar, vice president of Contractual Business at Everts Air Cargo, an employee with Everts Air Cargo since 1996. “The owner of the company is accessible to every employee, and that means those successes and/or concerns are easily noted. They are not looked over or washed by the wayside. It’s a great benefit for everyone to have access to Rob,” Ragar says. Everts makes his decisions for the longterm benefit of the company and its employees, Ragar says, and commends Everts for building confidence and retaining great employees in the company. “Rob has never laid an employee off due to the seasonal changes of the workload,” Ragar says. “Other companies would probably lay employees off after things started to slow down, but Rob has never done that. Once we hire someone, we make a commitment to them, they have a job, and I always thought that was a good asset.”

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Photo courtesy of Tatonduk Outfitters Limited

Future Challenges

Everts Air has seen slow and steady growth over the years from $40.5 million in gross revenues in 2009 to $53.15 gross revenues in 2014. Everts says the company’s next task will be to re-fleet the business to be able to take care of its customers and expand its operations. “Beyond Alaska, we offer on-demand

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cargo services abroad and that’s a developing opportunity for the company. We’ll continue to look at that as a way of diversifying and emerging out of the state,” Everts says. Along with growth comes challenges, and Everts says simply operating in Alaska may be challenging at times, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. A major effort in cargo and flight service operations is the compliance

Russ Slaten is an Associate Editor at Alaska Business Monthly.

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Robert Everts (right) with his father Cliff Everts (left) in the cockpit of the first jet aircraft purchased by Everts Air Cargo. Taken in 2010.

output required by the highly regulated environment in the aviation industry, Everts says. “Regulations and how they are interpreted continually changes whether we’re talking about FAA, EPA, DEC, OSHA—there’s so much involved with each agency as it pertains to our business that it certainly stands out as a priority and one of the larger challenges,” Everts says. On top of that, Everts says finding a reliable workforce while continuing to enhance customer service and grow the organization is crucial for a sustainable business. “The marketplace is changing, the workforce is changing, my experience is that many of the younger generation do not embrace the hard work ethic that the older generation did, so that’s one of our challenges, but I also see it as a new opportunity to change ourselves,” Everts says. “We’re continuing to change with the business, and the environment around us, and the new young workforce. The goal for the future is to create a nimble business that can respond and make changes quickly without being cast in its old ways and the old model. And we’re certainly prepared to step up to the challenge.” R

2015 Top 49ers | Featured 49er

special section

2015 Top 49ers

Courtesy of Vitus Energy

Vitus Energy sourcing fuel from a chartered tanker offshore.

Vitus Energy By Tasha Anderson

hile the experience leading Vitus Energy stems from men working in Western Alaska since roughly the turn of the century, the company as currently structured was founded in 2009 and began operations in 2011. According to Vitus Energy CEO Mark Smith, the company did $32 million in sales within its first year of operation. For this year’s Top 49ers, Vitus Energy reports that in 2014 its gross revenues were $69 million. Smith says that Vitus Energy focuses on two areas that are absolutely necessary for this kind of success in Alaska’s fuel delivery industry: providing the best possible value and delivering the kind of service that customers appreciate.

History

Vitus Energy’s earliest roots began with Smith’s great uncle, who was part of the Nome gold rush around the turn of the twentieth century and eventually migrated to the Bristol Bay area in the 1920s. In the 1930s, looking for opportunities in Alaska (which was generally unaffected by the De128

pression) and having been invited up by Smith’s uncle, Smith’s grandfather traveled north, bringing his experience in the marine and logging industries with him. In 1934 he founded Smith Lighterage Company, providing tug and barge services and operating out of Dillingham and Aleknagik. Smith’s father and uncle worked for Smith Lighterage, purchasing it themselves in 1961. Smith bought out his dad and uncle in the 1980s, operating the tug and barge company until 1999 when it joined the Northland Group under the subsidiary Yukon Fuel Company. Yukon Fuel Company was purchased by Crowley Marine in 2005. In 2009 Vitus Energy was formed with Smith and two other former Yukon Fuel Company executives Justin Charon and Shaen Tarter. Vitus Energy’s entry into the market began with a management agreement to construct and operate two tug and barge sets for Alaska Village Electric Cooperative.

Smith’s Alaska Upbringing

Smith himself has participated in the business all his life. He was born in Salem,

Oregon, while his father was in Oregon at law school. When Smith was about a year old they returned to Alaska to the family homestead in Aleknagik, which had a population just under two hundred in the 2010 census. Growing up in a rural Alaska community definitely impacted Smith. “When you live out there you need to be self-sufficient. If you want anything done, you need to do it yourself. So, I think we all grew up very independent-minded and developed skillsets and capabilities that kept us selfsufficient,” Smith says. Additionally, the majority of the students that Smith went to school with were Yupik Eskimo. More of their culture rubbed off on him than his rubbed off on theirs, Smith says. “It’s been helpful because I speak a smattering of elementary school type Yupik, and I definitely have a feel for the local customer base and the issues that are important in small villages. I certainly have a well-rounded view of what life is like in rural Alaska.” At the time that Smith was being educated, many rural villages didn’t have high schools, and so for four years of high school and four years of college he lived in Walla Walla, Washington, during the school year, coming home every summer to work on the family boats. “Literally on the last day of school I was on the plane back to Alaska

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Courtesy of Vitus Energy

2015 Top 49ers | Featured 49er

View from a Vitus Energy ship as it pumps fuel.

and back on a boat… as my dad’s deckhand,” Smith says.

Today’s Fuel Provider

Today Vitus Energy provides fuel and its delivery to communities in Western Alaska, including shallow draft and ocean direct fuel delivery, wholesale petroleum, freight, and aviation services. Vitus Energy consists of five divisions: Vitus Marine, Central Alaska Energy, Great Circle Flight Services, Pacific Fishing Assets, and Vitus Terminals. “Primarily we ship our product via tank ships that we charter and control, and those tank ships act like floating tank farms. For our rural customers we come alongside these tankers with our small tugs and barges and then go to each individual village for final delivery,” Smith says. How frequently Vitus Energy or one of its subsidiaries visits a village depends generally on the size of the community: small villages may only be visited once a year, while large villages will get several deliveries a year. The majority, Smith says, see Vitus Energy in the spring and the fall. “Many of our Western Alaska customers www.akbizmag.com

have very unique requirements in terms of the product they need, when they need it, [or] how they’re able to schedule maintenance for their fuel infrastructure,” Smith says. “That’s the advantage of a small company. We’re able to give our customers a lot of personal attention.”

Alaska Company

Vitus Energy’s status as an Alaska company run by Alaskans certainly helps in handling Alaska’s array of opportunities to solve problems. “We’re ultimately very focused on local issues,” Smith says. “There’s a lot of understanding of what the needs and the community are that surrounds those customers—being able to find solutions that give them what they value. When you deal with folks that are out of state, they’re very anxious to pitch their services, but their understanding of your individual requirements generally isn’t as accurate as what our knowledge is of the situation.” One example is how the price of fuel is determined. Customers may want to assume that fuel prices in Alaska in February will be based on current fuel prices in Puget Sound, Los Angeles, or Texas, but Vitus En-

ergy’s prices are based on when the product is acquired in the summer, which drives the price through the winter.

Good, Safe Employees

In addition to the owners and founders being Alaskan, the majority of the employees are as well. “We all have a lot of experience; we’ve all been selling and delivering fuels pretty much all of our adult lives, at least the owners and founders of the company have. And, because Alaska is a small state when it comes to service providers, we have been able to pick folks from our experience that we think are the most capable and hire them to work for us,” Smith says. “Those are the keys to our success: good people that have relevant Western Alaska experience.” Further, once Vitus Energy finds employees, they rarely lose them. Smith estimates the company has an employee retention rate of about 95 percent. “We don’t see turnover as much as we see: Where do we need to hire the next position,” Smith says. Additionally, safety is a huge priority to Vitus Energy, and that standard of safety

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Courtesy of Vitus Energy

Vitus Energy vessel pulled right up onto the beach.

is maintained throughout the company. Smith says employees are instructed to never “sacrifice your body. Don’t jump, don’t try to kick things, don’t try to muscle things that are heavier than you. Approach a job with the attitude that you’re irreplaceable.” Vitus Energy is part of the Responsible Carrier Program administered by the American Waterways Operators. That means the company has a safety management plan, which is audited and includes any number of things that are ultimately preventative: safety meetings, fire drills, equipment checks, key safety drills if someone falls overboard, and trainings to make sure all employees can get into their survival suits. Smith says that the company also keeps a strict eye on safeguarding the environment they work in. “All of us have grown up in the fuel industry and we’ve had a lot of experience and [environmental safety] is absolutely imperative: it’s not just the responsible thing to do, it’s the right financial thing to do, it’s the best thing for our customers and community, and it’s a matter of maintaining good relationships with regulators,” Smith says. When the company first started up, one of their very first hires was an environmental and safety manager, “and that 130

was one of our best decisions,” Smith says. Vitus Energy is the shipper that coordinated the historic emergency fuel deliveries to Nome in 2011 and 2012, and the company “had to do a tremendous amount of environmental work for that because what we were doing had never been done,” he says.

Keeping Local “We do our best to be local participants in the economy, focus on local hire, focus on finding local vendors to do what we need, and being flexible when we find those vendors,” Smith says. “We pay a significant premium to do business where we do business. Most of the projects that go on outside of the Anchorage hub ship their materials, right down to your bag of Cheetos,” in addition to skilled laborers that may be flown around the state. Smith emphasizes that whenever possible Vitus Energy doesn’t just contract with local welders or electricians but also buys groceries in Dillingham or other regional locations. In fact, Vitus Energy’s presence in a community provides several financial benefits. According to Smith, when the company began services in Kotzebue, offering commercial and residential services as well as open-

“In Dillingham, we opened there last October, and immediately the entire community saw a seventy-five cent per gallon benefit.”

—Mark Smith CEO, Vitus Energy

ing a gas station, the price of gas dropped a dollar a gallon. Smith says. “In Dillingham, we opened there last October, and immediately the entire community saw a seventyfive cent per gallon benefit.” He estimates that since 2011, when Vitus Energy began operations, there was a fifteen cent drop in the marine transportation rate. “The message that we really have is that we can provide a competitive service; we can provide a competitively priced product. Our money does go back to the community. So, if you have a choice between A, B, and V, we’d like you to choose the V option.” R Tasha Anderson is an Associate Editor at Alaska Business Monthly.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

ARCTIC OPINIONS

The Changing Arctic Presents Opportunity to Thrive, If We Act Now By Ron Duncan and Reggie Joule

he United States has been an Arctic nation since it purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, yet no sitting president had ever ventured to the Alaska Arctic until President Obama arrived here in late August to address a conference on Arctic issues. While he focused on climate change, an important issue that affects us all, it should be one of many dimensions to our nation’s Arctic strategy. There are many who have called the Arctic home for generations and expect to for generations to come. There is much to be addressed in the Arctic to sustain our people’s presence here and to assert our nation’s stewardship of the region. The timing is urgent, particularly in light of increased human activity from many nations related to shipping, oil and gas development, commercial fishing, military, and even tourism. As Alaskans, we call for a two-pronged strategy to effectively advance US interests in the Arctic.

Invest

First, we must invest in critical infrastructure necessary to support core government missions and increased human activity. At a minimum, new ports and safe harbors, equipment and facilities for oil spill response, and additional Polar class icebreakers for the US fleet are required for safe maritime traffic in the Arctic. Currently, there are only two active Coast Guard icebreakers in the US fleet, the Polar Star and the Healy, one of which is nearing retirement and the other primarily used for research. Despite record low sea ice levels, most of the northern waters are still covered in some degree of sea ice. The US must provide the Coast Guard with the needed tools to address its mission including new icebreakers and other boats with Arctic capacity, as recently proposed by US Senators Lisa Murkowski and Maria Cantwell of Washington state. Arctic communities have excellent search and rescue response on a smaller scale, but aren’t prepared for larger emergency events. With the anticipated increase in human and vessel traffic, communication, search and rescue, law enforcement, and disaster response—capabilities are even more critical. The harsh Arctic environment requires that the response time to any disaster must be executed swiftly. The nearest permanent Coast Guard facility is in Kodiak, 945 nautical miles south of Barrow, the population center on the North Slope of Alaska. It is time for the Coast Guard to expand its northern presence to include a permanent Arctic station. Another essential investment is a deepwater port in the Arctic. At present, there are none. A deepwater port has obvious economic benefits, but it also improves safety by providing a safe haven for large ships navigating the Arctic waters. Ideally the United States would invest in a system of ports and safe harbors across the Arctic covering both the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. www.akbizmag.com

A combination of public and private investment in projects such as these will likewise sustain further investments in other critical infrastructure needs, like telecommunications and renewable energy generation, which are currently limited in some parts of the Arctic.

Engage

Next, to guide these strategic investments, the United States must engage its citizens in the Arctic, Alaska Natives, who settled the area thousands of years ago. Many of the residents lead a subsistence lifestyle, hunting and gathering food from the land and sea, requiring unique knowledge. This traditional knowledge has provided the basis for a people and a culture to survive in one of the harshest environments on Earth. Nobody understands the Arctic better than the Alaska Native people who have called the Arctic home for so long. We must incorporate this knowledge as a valuable tool for planning and implementing how the Arctic is developed. We have a unique, but limited opportunity to act. In addition to the immediate attention the president will bring to this region, the United States just assumed the chairmanship of the Arctic Council, an eight nation consortium that exists to promote coordination among the Arctic States on common Arctic issues like sustainable development and environmental protection. This two-year leadership role won’t belong to the United States again until 2031. The momentum may never be stronger. Our leaders should seize it to fashion a comprehensive Arctic strategy—one that addresses climate but also responsible development, safety, infrastructure, and economic opportunity for Alaska Natives. R Ron Duncan, CEO of GCI, a publicly traded telecommunications company in Alaska, is also co-chair of the Alaska Arctic Council Host Committee. Reggie Joule, mayor of the Northwest Arctic Borough, is an Alaska Native and lives in Kotzebue. He has served on President Obama’s State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience as well as on the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission and the Alaska Northern Waters Task Force. October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

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ALASKA NATIVE BUSINESS

ANC Private Equity Outlays Native corporations invest in Alaska By Russ Slaten

look at investing for an Alaska Native Corporation (ANC) is looking at ways to fulfill its mission of serving its shareholders through scholarships and educational foundations, cultural resource programs, cash dividends, and technical training and shareholder hire programs. All of these shareholder benefits require financial support in order to continue operations. “On the business side of a Native Corporation, we’re here to create cash and use it to improve the lives of our shareholders,” says Gabriel Kompkoff, CEO of Chugach Alaska Corporation. “What we’re really looking to build is continuing cash flow.”

Chugach Alaska Corporation subsidiary All American Oilfield Associates Rig 111. Courtesy of Chugach Alaska Corporation

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“Everything I know about flyfishing, I learned at a fishing guide academy supported by BBNC. This winter, I’ll be in college studying elementary education and sustainable energy, learning to be another sort of teacher. But I hope to always return to Bristol Bay, to teach and to learn.” —Tiarna Bartman-Fischler BBNC Shareholder & Bristol Bay River Academy Graduate

Teaching and Learning

Geneva Woods President Dan Afrasiabi and Pharmacy Technician Yeng Xiong at the company’s Anchorage office location. Courtesy of Geneva Woods Pharmacy & Healthcare

Chugach Alaska Corporation

Kompkoff says to understand Chugach’s style of investment would be to make a comparison with other types of investors. In simple terms private equity investors create funds by pooling their money together to create outsized returns on their investment, Kompkoff says. “The typical investment model in the private market is to find a company, buy it at a great price, find ways to grow it rapidly over a short period of time, and then sell it to harvest most of your gains. That creates a strong incentive for a short-term payout, because the shorter the term the higher the return,” Kompkoff says. “Alaska Native Corporations really want to be around forever, so we’re not really looking to create value that we can harvest on a sale later. We’re the long-term investor. We like to think of ourselves as an alternative to private equity, with a much longer term investment horizon.” A couple characteristics most common with ANCs are that they provide cash dividends at a higher rate than most non-Native companies that provide dividends for their shareholders and most have a common social mission embedded in the foundation, Kompkoff says. He believes a diverse base of assets can help Chugach achieve its goal of long-term sustainability with lower risk and that co-investing in certain opportunities can also reduce the risk. “There’s a new era of sophistication that’s coming to leadership within Alaska Native 134

Corporations, which is allowing us to explore all sorts of options that have not been exercised in the past,” Kompkoff says. “We all have separate shareholder populations but common missions, so that creates a common way of looking at investment. So that gives us a chance to pool our resources and not take all the risk on one investment idea, sharing the risk to leave us with enough capital to make another investment.” Chugach has explored several investment opportunities, and the latest diversified investment comes in the form of Geneva Woods Pharmacy & Healthcare Services, Kompkoff says. Chugach partnered with two local investors from First Alaskan Capital Partners, Mark Kroloff and JL Properties Chairman John Rubini, to acquire a minority equity position in Geneva Woods in June. Based in Anchorage for more than thirty years, and recently expanded outside of the state, Kompkoff says Geneva Woods plans to use the investment to grow operations into underserved rural markets across the United States. “We bought a portion of Geneva Woods’ stock with a script in the agreement for how we can become a larger owner in the company over time,” Kompkoff says. Until a few years ago Chugach was primarily invested in government contracting. Along with the Geneva Woods investment, Chugach has since diversified its portfolio of businesses and investments

in Alaska and beyond. Within the state, Chugach recently acquired a majority stake in Kenai-based All American Oilfield Associates LLC and its wholly-owned subsidiary All American Oilfield Equipment LLC. All American provides oil and gas services primarily in the Cook Inlet region including drilling, production, construction, consulting, and general management services. Although Chugach has been in the oil and gas industry through its industry support and spill response company Chugach Alaska Services, Kompkoff says Chugach wanted to find the right way to grow its oil and gas business line. “We see a long future for the oil and gas industry in the state and we want to be a part of that, so when we made this investment we wanted to make sure we had a growing presence in the industry, but that we’re doing it in a high quality way and in a place to build relationships from,” Kompkoff says.

Bristol Bay Native Corporation

ANCs rely heavily on their subsidiary operating companies to grow their financial assets, provide dividends and employment opportunities for their shareholders, and to have a voice in their economic development of their respective regions. Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) subsidiaries span heavily into both government services and the commercial sector. Along with its in-

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

vestment portfolio and natural resource assets, BBNC revenues come from its subsidiaries operating in oilfield and industrial services, petroleum distribution, construction, government services, and tourism. “Roughly 65 percent of our assets are invested in controlling positions in actively managed subsidiary operating companies,” says Jeff Sinz, senior vice president and chief financial officer of BBNC. Adding to the growth of the petroleum distribution line of business BBNC acquired Bristol Express Fuels, Inc., Bristol Alliance Fuels LLC, and certain assets of Bristol Commercial Properties LLC, located in Dillingham. With successes in government contracting and commercial industries, many of BBNC’s subsidiaries operate outside of the Bristol Bay region. The corporation saw Bristol Alliance Fuels as a way to bring investment back to the region. “The BBNC board of directors adopted a strategy calling for increased in-region investing about four years ago,” Sinz says. “Acquiring Bristol Alliance Fuels represents a significant step toward implementation of that strategy.” Under BBNC’s ownership, Bristol Alliance Fuels will operate a 2.95 million gallon tank farm, a marine fueling facility, and the Bristol Express retail gas station and con-

136

venience store. The business supplies diesel fuel, regular unleaded gasoline, aviation gasoline, Jet A, and propane to commercial and residential customers in Dillingham and the surrounding area. The company employs twenty people in Dillingham. To further invest in the region BBNC established the Bristol Bay Development Fund in January, supported by an initial $5 million investment, Sinz says. The Bristol Bay Development Fund is an investment fund and wholly owned subsidiary of BBNC. “The [Bristol Bay Development] Fund makes investments in business start-ups for entrepreneurs within the region—people with an idea who may not know how to flesh out that idea or have the capital to support the start-up of a new business. The fund also helps existing businesses to grow or transition into new ownership,” Sinz says. The development fund has invested in two companies to date ranging in size from $120,000 to $325,000. The fund is authorized to make investments ranging from $20,000 to $500,000, Sinz says. The fund was designed to directly benefit the Bristol Bay region, so companies it invests in must be within BBNC’s region. Beyond investment of financial capital, the Bristol Bay Development Fund will contribute to the successful start-up and growth of support-

ed businesses through direct sharing of business expertise and referrals to its broad base of business connections and advisors.

Ahtna, Inc.

Many ANCs are investing in businesses to grow their revenue stream, but one form of investment that fueled the beginning of many ANCs is natural resources. Ahtna, Inc., based in Glennallen in Interior Alaska, actively explored oil and gas potential on state lands by licensing forty-four thousand acres near Tolsona for seismic testing in 2014 and has plans to continue, says Joe Bovee, vice president of land and resources for Ahtna, Inc. Over the last forty years, hundreds of miles of seismic work has been performed on Ahtna-owned lands. In 2013 Ahtna reprocessed about ninety miles of prior seismic work and identified a structure west of Ahtna land within state-owned lands, Bovee says. In November 2014 Ahtna contracted Global Geophysical Services to conduct a 2-D seismic survey on forty miles of state lands. After processing the new data and tying it in with the old data, Ahtna identified the structure about fifteen miles west of Glennallen. Ahtna hopes to receive reimbursement for a portion of the seismic work through the New Frontier Basin tax credits—which cost about $500,000 net. The seismic results showed a distinct oil

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

and gas structure in about twelve square miles within the forty-four thousand acres of licensed land, Bovee says. Now Ahtna is going through the permitting process and pre-engineering process to drill a new well sometime later this year or in January. “Our number one priority from the board of directors, presidents, and shareholders is to at least find a gas deposit that we can use locally to lower our cost of energy, with about 60 percent of our electricity generated by diesel fuel in the winter months,” Bovee says. “If we produce energy within the region at a lower cost, then people will be able to more affordably live in the region.” Ahtna formed Tolsona Oil and Gas Exploration LLC in June as a subsidiary to pursue the oil and gas exploration drilling program, Bovee says. Ahtna will be the primary partner in the project and will subcontract all the exploration activities.

Sitnasuak Native Corporation

Native corporations, both in the form of regional and village corporations, express through their missions and values a desire to do business in their region or village and to directly benefit their shareholders through business operations. Sitnasuak Native Corporation, the village corporation for Nome, recently ex-

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A Bonanza Fuel tanker preparing to deliver fuel in Nome and to villages and marine vessels in the surrounding area. Photo by Jenny Irene Miller/Sitnasuak Native Corporation

panded its bulk fuel terminal located at the Port of Nome, an asset of its wholly owned subsidiary Bonanza Fuel LLC. Sitnasuak expanded its tank farm to both prevent a fuel crisis that may be dictated by the sea ice coming and going and also to prepare the fuel terminal’s capacity for expected higher traffic in the region. “When the ice came in sooner than we thought [2011-2012 winter], the fuel wasn’t able to make it to Nome, so we had to bring up an icebreaker to deliver fuel to the tank farm. The expansion helps lend to the capacity in a crisis. Also, Nome is being designated as the port for the Arctic and we

want to build capacity for that. There will be a lot more ships, and we’re already seeing the effects of that,” says Richard Strutz, CEO of Sitnasuak Native Corporation. Bonanza Fuel operates the 6 million gallon bulk fuel terminal, a convenience store, and gas station. Bonanza Fuel delivers heating oil, diesel, gasoline, and propane by truck to Nome and villages in the surrounding road system, and to marine vessels. The $7.5 million expansion project was also built in anticipation of a Port of Nome expansion, Strutz says. “We had to perceive an additional volume of business. With a designation like

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the port for the Arctic by the [US] Coast Guard, [the fuel terminal expansion project] exists to meet that capacity,” Strutz says. “We want to store more fuel, and one thing we didn’t have capacity for—because we didn’t have enough tanks—was aviation fuel or Jet A in order to accommodate more airplanes at the Nome Airport,” Strutz says. Another Sitnasuak investment that diversified its business portfolio into real estate development and construction while also taking on less risk was a joint venture with Alaska-based commercial real estate developer Pfeffer Development. Nanuaq Development LLC is owned 51 percent by Sitnasuak and 49 percent by Pfeffer Development, Strutz says. The joint venture most recently worked on the Rilke Schule public K-8 grade German language immersion charter school in the Anchorage School District. The $12 million, thirty-nine-thousand-square-foot project broke ground in February with completion slated for September. The project allowed Sitnasuak to grow its business lines with a professional in the industry, he says. “Mark Pfeffer is a well-known developer in Anchorage, with high quality work, and he has lots of projects under his belt,” Strutz says. “We haven’t been a developer, and there’s a lot more to developing than you think, and we’ve learned that as we’ve done these projects. It’s definitely lowered our risk profile.”

Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation

Photo by Jenny Irene Miller/ Sitnasuak Native Corporation

Bonanza Fuel tank farm in Nome. 138

A prime example of an ANC making an investment in-region to the benefit of its shareholders and the community while building its business comes in the form of the village corporation based in Barrow, Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC), and its construction division UIC Design Plan Build. UIC Design Plan Build is currently constructing the Barrow Extended Stay Facility, a modern, fifteen unit, fully-furnished residential facility with one and two-bedroom units equipped with a kitchen, bathroom and living spaces and laundry facilities on site. “UIC exists to serve our shareholders, and so we are constantly looking for ways to provide value, whether through infrastructure development, shareholder hire opportunities, or other investments in the Barrow community,” says Senior Vice President of UIC Commercial Operations Dave Pfeifer. The Barrow Extended Stay Facility addresses the need for temporary workforce housing in Barrow. Workers with the North Slope Borough, the state of Alaska, and within the healthcare and oil and gas industries are in need of temporary housing.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

The extended stay facility is expected to be complete next February. “When we can help meet the needs of the community through investments that also provide financial benefits for our 2,500 shareholders, those are the some of the most exciting projects we can undertake,” Pfeifer says.

Sealaska

The investment story of Sealaska, the regional corporation for Southeast Alaska, may be viewed as a comeback. Sealaska, like many ANCs starting out after the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, depended on its natural resource potential through the harvest of timber on lands owned by the corporation. The timber harvest began going into significant decline in 2005, so it developed its first active investment process to diversify its business portfolio that year, says Anthony Mallott, president and CEO of Sealaska. “Unfortunately the timing left us making investments in the 2006-2007 time period—right before the big financial collapse,” Mallott says. “So after combining the financial collapse, an under-developed investment structure, and too many operating entities limiting appropriate oversite, this resulted in a string of under-perform-

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“We would like to focus on Alaska and the Pacific Northwest and on only three main business platforms, the first being natural resources, the second government contracting. We’d prefer to have a focused industry approach to government contracting where we truly build up experience, competency, and are able to compete without being fully reliant on SBA programs.”

—Anthony Mallott President and CEO, Sealaska

ing years culminating in 2013 with the heavy loss of the construction subsidiary Sealaska Constructors.” Sealaska experienced a loss of $35 million and a 22 percent drop in revenue in 2013. This result combined with previous years of underperforming operations triggered hiring a new COO and initiating a CEO search process that ended with Mallott being named president and CEO in May 2014. “We have designed an investment process based on the lessons learned from the eight year time period of underperforming investments and on the utilization of our strengths that we can invest in to limit the inherent risks of private equity,” Mallott says. Having companies spread out between

Florida, Alabama, Iowa, Colorado, and Guadalajara, Mexico, created a lack of oversight and lead to some of the serious operational issues the corporation experienced in the past, he says. One of Sealaska’s top investment filters is a more stringent focus on a specific industry platform and specific geographic region. “We would like to focus on Alaska and the Pacific Northwest and on only three main business platforms, the first being natural resources, the second government contracting. We’d prefer to have a focused industry approach to government contracting where we truly build up experience, competency, and are able to compete without being fully reliant on SBA programs,” Mallott says.

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The third industry investment for Sealaska would be a new business platform, but still within the Pacific Northwest/Alaska region—since they believe this will make it easier for the board and management to oversee. After looking for potential investment opportunities over the last eighteen months, Mallott says Sealaska decided to pursue natural foods, starting with seafood. “We attribute our decision to the growth of natural foods and healthy living and the growth of protein utilization globally. Seafood is an area that we know and have an affinity for—which is also one of our investment filters,” Mallott says. “That is a bit of a qualitative filter and it can be tough to define what having an affinity for an industry is, but seafood is one of the easiest examples we came across. We look at our connection to the ocean and our historic utilization of seafood as a significant part of our culture.” After deciding on seafood as the corporation’s next industry platform, even with an affinity for seafood, Mallott says its ability to produce cash flow is first and foremost. “It was sort of a leap of faith that we could find industries and businesses that had the financial attributes—which is the number one criteria—but also have a values and an affinity fit. If you keep adding on filters, you limit your pool to a point you may not find the right deals for yourself,” Mallott says. Although through the design of Sealaska’s investment filters, industry research, and its sourcing process involving partners in the investment banking world, the CEO says they are seeing a number of investment candidates that fit both the financial and values filters. Sealaska has reviewed over five hundred potential candidates, conducted a closer examination of forty to fifty of the companies, and have reached the letter of intent stage with more than six of the entities, Mallott says. “Some of those letters of intent have fallen through during the due diligence process, but we expect that we should be able to complete a significant deal in the next twelve to eighteen months,” Mallott says. “Going from a $35 million loss in 2013, to a more than $3 million gain in 2014, and a relatively flat 2015, we’ve setup 2016 to be a good increase over the last two years— when the long lead time business development efforts are really starting to show.” R

Russ Slaten is an Associate Editor at Alaska Business Monthly. 140

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

NORTH SLOPE ACTIVITY

OIL & GAS Chukchi & Beaufort Seas OCS Shell Planning to restart drilling in Chukchi Sea summer 2015 pending federal approvals.

Smith Bay

142

BOEM Proposed new five-year lease sale program including 2020 sale in Beaufort Sea, 2022 sale in Chukchi Sea, and 2021 sale in Cook Inlet federal waters. Published final SEIS and Record of Decision affirming 2008 Chukchi Sea Lease Sale 193.

NordAq Energy Exploratory drilling at Tulimaniq prospect deferred to 2016.

Teshekpuk Lake

Caelus Energy Sanctioned Nuna project. Constructing gravel pad and road for NDS drill site. Expected to come online in 2017.

Repsol Filed an application to form the Pikka Unit. Drilling three exploration wells near Colville River during winter 2015 season.

ConocoPhillips Planning to drill one well from CD-4 in 2015. Planning to drill 15 wells from CD-5 in early 2016.

Greater Mooses Tooth (GMT) U.S. Bureau of Land Management Issued Record of Decision for GMT-1 project that will allow development access leading to production of up to 30,000 barrels per day on federal land in NPRA. ConocoPhillips Planning 2015 seismic survey in area.

Qugruk

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QUGRUK 1

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QUGRUK 5 & 5A

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U.S. Bureau of Land Management Lease sale held on November 19 received bids on seven tracts in NPRA; winning bids totaled over $650,000.

National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska

SAExploration Horseshoe 3-D seismic survey acquired east and west of Colville River winter season 2014-2015. Brooks Range Petroleum Drilled the first well of a three-well development program at Mustang field. Planning to drill up to 13 wells during 2015 and bring field online by April 2016.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management Finished plug and abandonment operations on all federal legacy wells in the Umiat area in NPRA.

! ! UMIAT 23H ( ( " UMIAT 18 Umiat 0

20 Miles

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

North Slope Oil and Gas Activity State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas, as of May 2015

Beaufort Sea

Alaska LNG Project Geokinetics-Caelus Energy Acquiring Nuna 3-D seismic survey winter-late spring 2015 covering approximately 116 square miles in Kuparuk River, Placer, and Oooguruk Units.

Hilcorp Northstar Unit Hooligan PA approved by Division of Oil and Gas.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Preparing an EIS for the AKLNG project on impacts of construction and facility operation.

ASRC Placer Unit expanded.

BP Exploration North Prudhoe Bay 2015 3-D seismic survey conducted in 2014-2015 winter season.

Northstar

Nikaitchuq Milne Point

Beechey Point

Duck Island

Liberty " Prudhoe Bay

! (TUTTU 1

Year-round development drilling and well work in producing fields

" Deadhorse

Point Thomson Badami

Savant Alaska LLC Planning to drill two development wells at Badami late spring - fall 2015.

Global Geophysical Services Kadleroshilik River 3-D seismic survey conducted in 2014-2015 winter season. !

! !

ConocoPhillips Kuparuk River

Geokinetics Great Bear and Niksik 3-D seismic survey conducted in 2014-2015 winter season.

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Planning to construct gravel road and pad for new DS-2S development.

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Expanding DS-2N and DS-1H pads. Seeking to expand gravel pad and drill up to nine wells at Drill Site 2G.

Map Location !

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Adapting to a changing market

Drilled the Moraine 1 well from DS-3S to appraise commerciality of Torok reservoir equivalent to Nuna reservoir

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Great Bear Petroleum Drilled Alkaid 1 well, planning to drill Talitha 2 spring 2015.

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ach

ExxonMobil Continuing progress toward Q1-2016 startup of 10,000 barrel per day Initial Production System at Point Thomson.

Dewline

The accuracy of this map is subject to pending decisions currently on appeal and other administrative actions. Please visit http://dog.dnr.alaska.gov/GIS/ActivityMaps.htm to see our most current maps.

By Kirsten Swann

laskaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s North Slope has been the bustling hub of economic activity in the Last Frontier for decades. While faltering oil prices, regulatory uncertainty, and declining fields have taken a toll, the region is still busy with exploration and new development. The companies that do business there are finding new ways to respond to an evolving industry, using technology to maximize production and finding new October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

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efficiencies to speed development. Much has changed on the North Slope over the years, but one thing stays the same: It’s a magnet for the innovative and the entrepreneurial.

Business Creation

New opportunities and changing needs on the North Slope led to the creation of Lynden Oilfield Services earlier this year. The business, a division of Alaska West Express, offers a variety of services to customers working to support the North Slope oilfields. Safe and efficient transportation and logistics solutions are important to our customers, according to Alaska West Express President Scott Hicks. “What our customers are looking for are ways to strengthen their supply-chains,” Hicks says. “A resilient and reliable supply chain that can withstand interruptions such as road closures to keep projects and production moving is a high priority.” In Alaska’s ever-changing oil and gas industry, advances in some areas lead to new business demands in others. Horizontal directional drilling and other drilling advancements mean producers can develop oilfields even in the most remote and challenging areas which in turn leads to an increased need for transportation services. Far-flung fields with variable product requirements can pose new logistical challenges, Hicks says. To adapt to the shifting business, Lynden Oilfield Services leverages the services offered by other Lynden companies, providing a full menu of support options for drilling contractors, chemical suppliers, camps, and construction projects, both on and off the road system. Hicks calls them valueadded services. The business’s 15.7-acre Deadhorse facility houses lifting equipment like a ninetythousand-pound-capacity forklift, a fullservice maintenance shop, storage space, a cross-dock operation, and full intermodal capabilities. Being nearly completely selfcontained allows Lynden Oilfield Services to operate more effectively, saving customers time and money, Hicks says. The company also offers offloading and transloading and plans to focus on same-day field hauling and intra-field hauling of bulk materials around the North Slope. While Lynden Oilfield Services is a new venture, it’s part of a corporation with deep ties to Alaska’s oil and gas industry. Lynden companies include air cargo providers, marine lines, and heavy-haul trucking services. Hicks says Lynden Oilfield Services primarily serves existing customers in new and more efficient ways. The company employs twenty-nine fulltime employees on the North Slope, Hicks

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

In Deadhorse, Lynden Oilfield Services is a venture created this year to support North Slope oilfields; it’s a division of Alaska West Express. © Lynden

says. From Deadhorse, the view of Alaska’s oil and gas industry looks pretty good. “Quite honestly, over the last two years, it’s been as busy as I’ve seen it in a long time,” Hicks says.

Increasing Production

Efforts to increase production at existing fields

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are supplemented by new developments and ongoing exploration. In June, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Division of Oil and Gas approved Repsol E&P USA, Inc.’s application to form the Pikka Unit, a 63,304acre area around the Colville River Delta.

The new unit is made up of state of Alaska oil and gas leases and joint leases held by the state and Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, with the Colville River Unit to the west and the Oooguruk and Placer Units to the East, according to DNR. The area’s “sub-economic well results” and distance from existing infrastructure meant it was explored only lightly until the 1990s, the department says. Up until three years ago, only five exploration wells had been drilled within the boundaries of the proposed Pikka Unit—in 1970, 1986, and 1993. Since 2012, Repsol has doubled down on exploration, drilling six wells, two pilot holes, and two sidetracks in the area, according to DNR. During the 2015 drilling season, the company permitted three more wells: the Qugruk 8, with a projected total depth of 5,100 feet MD (measured depth); the Qugruk 9, with a projected total depth of 7,300 feet MD; and the Qugruk 301, with a projected total depth of 4,146 feet MD. But the proposed Pikka Unit exploration plan submitted to the state made no promises about future wells over the next five years, and so DNR’s approval came with an extra stipulation: By October, Repsol must submit a second exploration plan outlining proposed exploration activities in 2016. “Repsol may alternatively submit a Plan

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Courtesy of ConocoPhillips Alaska

Kuparuk.

of Development by October 1, 2015, if appropriate,” DNR ordered. Despite the incomplete plans, developing the Pikka Unit as a single area, rather than separate leases, comes with an added economic benefit. “Development on a unitized basis will prevent redundant expenditures and activities,” the state’s approval read. “Although leases included in the unit will no longer be available for competitive development the [Alaska] Division [of Oil and Gas] will ensure reasonable development through review and approval of future plans of exploration and development.” While Repsol moves forward with plans for the Pikka Unit, ConocoPhillips Alaska is working to expand the Kuparuk River Unit and advance other projects on the North Slope.

Parker Rig 272 at Prudhoe Bay oilfield. Courtesy of BP

Kuparuk Activity

An expansion application the company submitted to the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas this spring requests the addition of a 2,560acre state lease to the unit. ConocoPhillips also asked for the addition of approximately 11,900 acres to the Kuparuk Participating Area and approximately 6,100 acres to the West Sak Participating Area. The expansion would, among other things, “Promote the conservation of oil and gas by providing an efficient, integrated approach to development of the Kuparuk and West Sak Reservoirs while reducing the environmental impact by utilizing existing production facili146

ties,” according to ConocoPhillips’ application. The oil and gas giant, operating the unit on behalf of its working interest owners, has brought two additional rigs to Kuparuk over the last two years. Earlier this year, it announced approved funding for the Ku-

paruk viscous oil development 1H NEWS (Northeast West Sak), an investment expected to contribute approximately eight thousand barrels of oil per day gross at peak production, according to the company. ConocoPhillips has also signed contracts

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

with Doyon Drilling and Nabors for two new-build rigs set to begin drilling in 2016. Expanding the Kuparuk River Unit and Participating Areas would bring several advantages, according to ConocoPhillips. It would extend “benefits and protections” to parties with leases deemed likely capable of boosting production from both the Kuparuk and West Sak Reservoirs. Ultimately, it could make further development economically feasible. “The reserves discovered thus far in the Expansion Area are not large enough to support the costs of full processing facilities,” ConocoPhillips wrote in its application to DNR. “Even if stand-alone development were economic, there would be economic waste due to the existence of duplicate facilities and services that could be provided by the KRU [Kuparuk River Unit].” Expanding the unit and sharing operating infrastructure could speed development and would “result in maximum field operating life and reserve recoveries for all reservoirs due to economies of scale in production operations.” North Slope operators are turning to all kinds of methods to increase recoveries.

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Evolving Technology

Bruce Laughlin, a slope-wide reservoir manager for BP, says evolving seismic technology continues to help the company understand and target increasingly small pockets of oil. One new technology, deployed this year at Prudhoe Bay, allows workers to cover a much larger number of source points than allowed by conventional methods, speeding the exploration process and leading, hopefully, to more oil. Called independent simultaneous sources technology, Laughlin says the technology works by using vibrators that work independently and simultaneously. With more traditional methods, seismic land data is gathered by groups of vibrators operating together, “so that only one group of vibrators are recorded at a time.” The difference between independent simultaneous sources technology and the old technology is like the difference between HD-TV and an antenna, the reservoir manager says. BP spent the last eight years developing the independent simultaneous sources technology, according to Laughlin, and the north Prudhoe Bay seismic survey was the first-ever deployment in the Arctic. The survey covers 190 square miles and comes with a $78 million price tag, and the results will “support potential land-based oilfield development.” Technology has already taken Prudhoe Bay recoveries well beyond initial expected levels. While the field was expected to produce an estimated 9.6 billion barrels of oil following startup in 1977, it has now exceeded www.akbizmag.com

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Prudhoe Bay Seawater Treatment Plant

Central Gas Facility

Seawater Injection Plant

Central Compressor Plant

Miscible Gas for Injection

Valdez Gas Injection Wells

Gas Return

Seawater

Gas

Pump Station

NGL

(one of nine) Produced Water

Beaufort Sea

Trans-Alaska Pipeline Flow Station

Drillsite

Pump Station No.1

Manifold Building

How we get the oil from the ground to the Trans-Alaska pipeline.

) Produced Water (EOR & Water Gas, Oil

Seawater (EOR) Miscible Gas (EOR)

Approx. 1800' Permafrost

Gas Cap

Oil

Water

Courtesy of BP

Water

Oil deposits Approx. 9,000' below surface

TOTAL PROJECT SUPPORT

 EQUIPMENT RENTAL/PROJECT SUPPORT COMPANY  SUPPORTING THE NORTH SLOPE & COOK INLET  HEATERS, GENERATORS, VEHICLES, MANLIFTS, LIGHT PLANTS  CAMPS & CAMP SERVICES  FULL PROJECT LOGISTICS SERVICES & STAFFING 148

Prudhoe Team (907) 598-6930 marcusg@magtecalaska.com Kenai Team (907) 335-6305 kenaisales@magtecalaska.com

Crude oil at Prudhoe Bay is located in the Sadlerochit zone, a sandstone formation at approximately 9,000 feet below the earth's surface. Pressure from the formation, pushes the crude up a well to the surface where a wellhead controls the flow of crude. Wellheads are located on gravel drillsites and are covered by a well house for worker and equipment protection against the harsh arctic environment. From here the crude flows through the manifold building, also located on the drill site, where oil/gas/water ratio is determined. Crude then travels to a processing center and is separated into oil, gas and water. Natural gas is sent to the gas handling facilities for reinjection back into the field. Produced water is sent back to the drillsites and reinjected into the formation to help in the oil recovery. Oil continues its journey to Alyeska's Pump Station 1 to begin its 800 mile trip to Valdez.

12.2 billion barrels. Laughlin credits the application of technologies like horizontal and multilateral drilling, gas reinjection, and coiled tubing drilling for the nearly 50 percent recovery rate—a number unheard of just a few decades ago. Still, daily production rates are declining. At the beginning of 2015, the field was producing around 250,000 barrels of oil per day—about half the 500,000 barrels per day flowing through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. In order to keep the oil flowing, BP uses several tried-and-tested methods. Every day for the past thirteen years, field producers have pumped hundreds of thousands of barrels of seawater under the eastern end of the gas cap; more than two miles from the nearest oil wells and natural gas injection wells. As the water moves west toward the wells, it raises field pressure and increases the success of various oil recovery mechanisms. The process of gas cap water injection has generated about 200 million barrels of production, according to BP. “It’s just one of many innovative techniques that were pioneered and proven at Prudhoe Bay,” Laughlin wrote in an email. The gas cap water injection not only mitigated field pressure decline, it stabilized that pressure at around 3,400 psi, according to a 2015 report by the Office of the Federal Coordinator, Alaska Natural

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Gas Injection Technology Gas injection allows BP to reach relict and residual oil and continue production well beyond initial estimates. But it’s hard to escape the effects of time. As the field ages, producing increasingly less oil, the amount of water and gas running through Prudhoe Bay facilities only grows. Today, Laughlin says, gas fills 97 percent of processing facility volumes, water fills two percent and oil accounts for the rest. The field’s owners modified its facilities in response to the growing levels of gas, which has been reinjected and cycled through the reservoir to produce approximately 3 billion incremental barrels of oil. Here’s how it works: As BP injected gas into the reservoir over time, the gas cap expanded into the oil column, according to Laughlin. When lean gas moves from the injector well towards the producer well, it vaporizes relict oil, which is contained within the original gas cap as a liquid phase at low saturations. The lean gas also vaporizes any dropped out condensate and residual oil left behind in the expanded gas cap region.

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How North Slope Production Works Pump Station 1 Trans-Alaska Pipeline

Oil Separation Facilities (Gathering Centers and Flow Stations)

Central Gas Facility (CGF)

Gas Production (Oil,Gas & Water)

Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) Central Compression Plant (CCP) Lean Gas

Reinjection (Miscible Injectant, MI)

Reinjection (Water)

Reinjection (Lean Gas)

Gas Oil Water

Water

Courtesy of BP

Gas Transportation Projects. In fact, Prudhoe Bay is actually gaining up to 2 psi of pressure annually. By adding pressure, gas cap water injection improves the effectiveness of another “key technology” to maximizing recoveries from the giant field: gas injection. “There are still smaller pockets of black oil left, but it’s more difficult to target,” Laughlin explained.

Note: Diagram above is for illustrative purposes only.

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

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Courtesy of BP

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But according to the Office of the Federal Coordinator, the lean gas cycling process has a shelf life in Prudhoe Bay. “By the 2020s, the gas cycling will have touched most of the relict and residual oil. In fact, most already has been produced,” the office’s 2015 report read. The “fading effectiveness” of some of those long-used Prudhoe Bay production strategies would weigh into any future decisions about tapping Prudhoe Bay for major gas sales, the federal office stated. Earlier this summer, BP and Prudhoe Bay co-owner ExxonMobil asked for Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission approval of a plan to substantially increase the amount of gas allowed to be produced and sold from the North Slope field. Raising the daily gas offtake limit from 2.7 billion cubic feet to 4.1 billion cubic feet could help supply a potential gas pipeline and liquefied natural gas export project, and a public hearing on the matter was scheduled for late August. While a shift to major gas sales is in the cards for Alaska’s future, for now, oil is still king, and the North Slope is full of new players, new projects, and new challenges. At least in that respect, nothing’s changed. R Kirsten Swann is a freelance writer based in Anchorage.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

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Trans Alaska Pipeline System: TAPS Update New solutions keep oil flowing in aging pipeline By Kirsten Swann

or more than thirty-five years, the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) has sent North Slope crude to waiting tankers in Valdez via eight hundred miles of pipe and pump stations. Today, the giant system operates with nearperfect reliability, but orchestrating the migration of hundreds of millions of barrels of oil is no simple task. Keeping TAPS in motion depends on careful preparation and planning. “We spend a lot of time trying to be upfront and be proactive,” says Melanie Myles, oil movements director at Alyeska Pipeline Services Company. The company that maintains TAPS on behalf of its owners performs regular maintenance shutdowns and constant system checks to monitor pipeline valves, schedule future work, and make sure problems are fixed before they occur. These days, there are several maintenance shutdowns that occur over the course of the summer, including two long-duration shutdowns that last longer than twelve hours and involve major main152

tenance activities, Myles says. The first took place without a hitch earlier this season, and the second was scheduled for August 21. During the second major pipeline shutdown of the summer, crews were to replace Remote Gate Valve 40, part of Alyeska’s proactive approach to maintenance that aims to head off emergencies before they occur. Even proactive maintenance takes a lot of advance preparation, Myles says. “It’s an amazing amount of upfront planning, because once you take the line down and you make that first cut, you’re at the point of no return,” Myles says. Past improvements included installing new pumping units to reduce operational costs and automating the system to allow remote control of pipeline operations. An advanced supervisory control and data acquisition system allows TAPS technicians to monitor everything from pipeline valves and pressures to tank levels, temperatures, and flow rates. These days, Myles says, the company is working on different kinds of upgrades.

Right now, her top priority is to heat the line to keep the oil flowing.

Heat for Speed

As throughput declines, heat becomes increasingly important. According to data kept by Alyeska, the amount of oil moving through the pipeline fell from a daily high of more than 2.1 million barrels in January 1988 to today’s average of approximately 500,000 barrels per day. As that number falls, so does pipeline flow speed, which makes it easier for particles to separate, allowing water to freeze and wax to accumulate. At roughly 500,000 barrels per day, water begins to separate into a flowing layer at the bottom of the pipe, increasing the risk for internal corrosion damage, according to a 2011 low flow impact study published by Alyeska. The company considered the possibility of turning to cold-dry flow—the process of removing water from crude oil before it enters the pipeline—but research has shown little near-term viability for the cold-dry

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

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flow method and TAPS. The crude oil delivered to the pipeline has a relatively low water content, and the system modifications necessary to remove it would be prohibitive. Instead, Alyeska is keeping its efforts focused on heating the pipeline to keep ice at bay and “conducting other tests to research methods for prudent future operations.” In June, Alyeska submitted a lease amendment request to add approximately 2.14 acres of land next to Remote Gate Valve 65, according to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. The extra space would allow room to expand the pad and install a crude oil heater unit and fuel tanks “to help mitigate the continued decrease in crude oil temperatures,” the department reported. The installation project is expected to be complete sometime later this year. Besides adding point-source heat along the pipeline, Alyeska is working to keep the oil warm by recirculating it at Pump Stations 3, 4, and 9. The previously decommissioned Pump Station 7 was put back online specifically for recirculation.

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A Russian Diakont selfpropelled buried pipeline inspection robot. Courtesy of Diakont

pipeline to clean and test the system, but low flow makes it difficult to move the pigs from one point to another. One promising solution involves robotic pig crawlers and hydraulically activated pigs, Myles says. Because the forty-eight-inch trans-Alaska oil pipeline is much larger than other oil pipelines around the globe, and travels over hundreds of miles of unforgiving terrain, designing a self-propelled pig that will work

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for TAPS means investigating and modifying technologies created for smaller pipes. Pig crawlers that move by their own motor force have “been very successful” for the operation, Myles says. Last summer, a two hundred-pound robotic pig owned by Russian company Diakont successfully inspected around 850 feet of buried pipeline at Pump Station 3, resulting in reduced risk and cost for Alyeska, according to the com-

pany. Myles says Alyeska has now begun including the new tool in its corrosion detection processes. Another technology—a hydraulically activated pig—is undergoing testing and proof of concept now, the oil movements director says. While new technologies and system modifications can help offset the effects of low throughput, there’s one unavoidable consequence.

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“As the pipeline continues to operate, we do have more maintenance and renewal work, and a lot of that occurs during shutdowns,” Stakeholder Relations Manager Katie Pesznecker wrote in an email. A series of strategic reconfiguration facilities—the first of which came online in 2007—initially reduced availability for the pipeline system, according to an annual report from the State Pipeline Coordinator’s Office (SPCO). The legacy equipment, optimized over three decades of improvements, had achieved a system availability rate of 99.997 percent in fiscal year 2006, according to the state, and when the first strategic reconfiguration facility began

to work the next year, the SPCO tracked a sharp increase in shutdowns; a number that began to drop as more strategic reconfiguration facilities came online. The spike was temporary—by fiscal year 2014, the reconfigured pipeline system achieved the same availability as the legacy equipment. In July 2015, it maintained 100 percent availability, with a 99.5 percent rate for the year.

Oversight and Inspections

Earlier this year, the pipeline service company discovered a spill at Pump Station 10, located along the Richardson Highway at Mile 219. While the pump station had been out of

service since 1998, it was being used to support operations along the pipeline system. The spill was found around a weeping isolation fitting just north of the pump station, according to a report from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Alyeska crews discovered the release while excavating to investigate “a corrosion inspection anomaly in a separate location along the main line” and reported the spill to the state fifteen minutes later. The crude oil had gathered in the tar membrane and packing material covering the coupling, according to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation,

Courtesy of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

A herd of caribou grazing alongside TAPS.

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and it dripped from the fitting when the soil around the pipe was dug out. The weep was slow—about one drip every second— and the pipeline service company estimated that only about ten gallons were spilled. In response, Alyeska removed contaminated gravel around the site and monitored the area “on a twenty-four-hour basis” while it developed proper controls, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation reported. That spill was the first reported pipeline release since 2011, according to the Department. The pipeline system is subject to oversight from a variety of organizations, including the Anchorage-based SPCO. There’s an SPCO safety liaison who conducts routine checks of TAPS facilities and work sites and an SPCO electrical inspector who tracks code violations and performs random on-site inspections. In fiscal year 2014, the office’s safety liaison conducted eighteen annual safety inspections at TAPS pump stations, response bases, Fairbanks-area shops, and storage facilities. He conducted four work-site safety inspections similar to the annual inspections but with an added emphasis on safety programming and procedures, according to the SPCO. In the same period of time, the SPCO’s electrical inspector performed seventy inspections, issued one notice of violation, and reviewed fifty certificates of fitness, according to state data. The inspections, frequent preventative maintenance, and forward-looking system upgrades keep the pipeline in operation, propping up a multibillion-dollar industry and a huge chunk of Alaska’s economy.

The Pipeline’s Future

According to the 2011 low flow study, oil temperatures at 350,000-barrel-per-day speeds could allow the soil around buried sections of pipeline to freeze, causing potential damage. At 300,000 barrels per day, the system could experience “unacceptable pipe displacement limits and possible overstress conditions.” Those kinds of conditions would raise new questions about TAPS operations and its long-term viability. In early August, the 2015 daily average throughput hovered just below 508,000 barrels per day. In July, the system averaged around 486,600 barrels per day. Total annual throughput has decreased steadily since 2002, according to data published by Alyeska; but for now, heat helps keep TAPS moving. R Kirsten Swann is a freelance writer based in Anchorage.

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Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

HEALTH & MEDICINE

By Russ Slaten

Courtesy of the United Way of Anchorage

Alaska 2-1-1

A lifeline for Alaskans

An Alaska 2-1-1 operator answering calls from Alaskans who are looking for referrals to services offered in their communities.

n an unforeseeable event or emergency where does one look for help? Not sure where to find the right healthcare or human services assistance? Need a lifeline? It’s as easy as 2-1-1. United Way of Anchorage operates Alaska 2-1-1, a referral system that connects people throughout the state to a wide variety of vital resources within the caller’s community. Service referrals run the gamut of emergency food and shelter, healthcare, child care, transportation needs, disability services, senior services, legal assistance, counseling, drug and alcohol programs, and more. “A call to Alaska 2-1-1 starts with a compassionate voice and ends up with timely resources that are accurate,” says Sue Brogan, United Way of Anchorage vice president of Income/Health Impact. Alaska 2-1-1 is armed with a database of 158

nearly three thousand resources statewide. Every year the United Way of Anchorage ensures the database is updated with current contact information, says Brogan. United Way of Anchorage has one parttime and four full time staff members taking calls and managing the database for referrals; in addition it partners with many organizations in the process.

Eight Years Running

The use of 2-1-1 as a resource referral line began in the United States in July 2000 when the Federal Communications Commission approved the use of the number, Brogan says. Alaska 2-1-1 did not launch its line until August 2007. “It wasn’t just the United Way of Anchorage designing the system with our sister United Ways across the state; there were many partners that were with us on the

development. It was amazing to see everybody that was interested in having a system like this,” Brogan says. Funding partners for Alaska 2-1-1 include Alaska Children’s Trust, Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, the Municipality of Anchorage, and Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC), among others. Its partnering organizations have financially supported Alaska 2-1-1’s development and have also supported the database that serves all of Alaska, Brogan says. “Alaska Housing Finance Corporation has a series of programs targeted towards preventing and reducing homelessness and providing housing for people with special needs, and we used to provide funding for a whole list of organizations for information referral. When Alaska 2-1-1 came along, we recognized it as a unique opportunity to

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

fund one entity that can be the information referral system for the entire state,” says Mark Romick, director of planning and program development at AHFC. AHFC partly funds Alaska 2-1-1 to support operations which allows it to conduct outreach to all regions of the state including rural Alaska, Romick says. “We stopped funding different organizations for information referral, giving us a chance to reallocate money to direct programs and services that address homelessness,” Romick says.

Timely Referrals

Alaska 2-1-1 is best described as a coordination of housing and services of organizations throughout the state, he says. To extend AHFC’s reach and further connect the programs it provides and supports, when AHFC gives a grant to a partnering organization it is required to share information on its services with Alaska 2-1-1. “We also recognize that a system is only as good as the information that’s in it, so we require our grantees to submit their updated program information every year as a condition of their grants,” Romick says. According to Romick, the biggest challenge in maintaining a system like Alaska 2-1-1 is keeping it updated. “It’s the difference between using the old Yellow Pages and Yelp. Granted, Alaska 2-1-1 doesn’t have reviews and a social media aspect, but like Yelp it is instantly updated all the time with new information as it comes online—the old version of the Yellow Pages, not so much,” Romick says. “The fact that one organization can update the information for everybody at once—that’s really valuable.” United Way of Anchorage has proven the significance of Alaska 2-1-1 from the increase in calls and referrals from across the state. Calls have increased statewide by 18 percent, along with a 4 percent increase in referrals and a 22 percent increase in online database searches when comparing January through June 2015 to the same time period in 2014. “Since our launch we have received nearly 140,000 calls and we’ve made a little over 178,000 referrals,” Brogan says. “One call usually leads to multiple referrals, because one of the real beauties of the 2-1-1 system is that a person calls with one issue and our information and referral specialists are trained to talk to that person and lead one call to three to five different types of referrals.” The most common type of referral from Alaska 2-1-1 since its inception has been basic needs—food, housing, clothing, rent and utility assistance, and transportation, Brogan says. Basic needs made up for 39 percent of all calls in 2014; healthcare was www.akbizmag.com

at 10 percent; and employment and income boosts were also 10 percent. Alaska 2-1-1 is co-located in the Municipality Emergency Operations Center, and, outside of handling an individual crisis or the needs of a few at a time, call center specialists are trained to handle referrals in times of disaster that may affect a whole community at a time, Brogan says.

Connecting Healthcare

Referrals for healthcare may not be the bulk of referrals for Alaska 2-1-1, but they’ve increased 3 percent throughout the state and in Anchorage for the first six months of this year over the same time period in 2014—from 9 percent to 12 percent. One organization that sees the benefits of the Alaska 2-1-1 referral system is the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center, a federally-qualified community health center in Midtown Anchorage that serves more than fourteen thousand patients a year. “When patients are looking for a clinic they talk to friends, family, or other trusted sources including Alaska 2-1-1, and about 70 percent of our new patients find us because of a good referral. So having an unbiased, easy to reach source like Alaska 2-1-1 is important for identifying people in need,” says Jon Zasada, Development and Marketing director

for Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center. In some cases, people may not have resources like a trusted friend or family member that knows where to go for affordable and dependable healthcare services, and Alaska 2-1-1 fits that need, Zasada says. “The types of folks that would call Alaska 2-1-1 may be new to the community, they may be reluctant to talk to friends and family about the issues they’re having, or their friends and family just don’t know of the available services off the top of their head,” Zasada says. “The fact that there is an anonymous, reliable source for quality referrals to human service agencies like ours and the others in the system, we feel, is vitally important.” People seeking referrals can call 2-1-1 from anywhere in Alaska or dial 1-800-4782221 during normal business hours (Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) or visit the website 24/7 at Alaska211.org. “Alaska 2-1-1 has transformed the way we access human services in Alaska. Prior to this it was such a mess and so hard for people to reach those services,” Brogan says. “Alaska 2-1-1 has provided that clarity that you need when you’re looking for help.” R Russ Slaten is an Associate Editor at Alaska Business Monthly.

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HEALTHCARE

Breast Cancer Detection Center of Alaska’s traveling mobile mammography truck. The side is adorned with “A Clinical Approach” by Barbara Lavallee. The nonprofit provides services throughout the state, including in Southeast.

His and Hers Cancer Awareness Alaska is rich in resources for screening and testing By Lisa Maloney

here is no such thing as a “good” cancer, an “easy” cancer, or a “safe” cancer. But reproductive cancers can be especially devastating, perhaps because they strike at such an integral part of one’s personal identity. They also pose a particular challenge to people who, for cultural, logistical, financial, or personal reasons, don’t participate in the screenings that could save their lives. The numbers are hard to face: “Cancer has been the leading cause of death since 1993,” explains Julia Thorsness, program coordinator for the Comprehensive Cancer Control Program, which is working toward the vision of a cancer-free Alaska. One in four deaths in the state is from cancer, with

160

breast cancer being the most commonly diagnosed and a non-reproductive cancer— lung cancer—as the most frequently fatal, followed by colorectal, pancreas, breast, and prostate cancers. In most cases, Alaska’s rates for cancer diagnoses are about the same as the national average. But upon a closer look at the state statistics, Alaska Native populations have significantly higher rates of occurrence than the state’s average for several cancers: lung, colorectal, and cervical. The one outlier to that trend is prostate cancer; the Alaska Native rate of diagnosis is about half of the state’s average rate. “There’s lots of conversation about [what causes those high rates],” Thorsness says.

“But unfortunately we don’t know why.” Although she praised the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s work to provide medical care in rural communities, there’s no doubt that living in a remote community makes access to screening and treatment more difficult. “Because of our geography and many folks living far from medical care in a lot of pockets of Alaska, people are less likely to get screened. Because of the lack of screening we tend to see more advanced cancers sometimes, particularly in the Native populations,” explains Dr. Larry Daugherty, radiation oncologist at Alaska Cancer Treatment Center. Cultural factors can come into play too.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Sierra Winegarner, program director of Let Every Woman Know, an Anchorage nonprofit that educates women about gynecologic cancers and supports those with a diagnosis, points out that research has shown similarly elevated rates of cervical cancer diagnosis in other areas where there may be a cultural hesitancy toward participating in screening tests. “Cervical cancer is actually a preventable disease, thanks to pap smears and the HPV vaccine,” she says. (Several types of HPV or human papilloma virus can cause cervical cancer.)

Body Knowledge Equals Health

Getting people to participate in screening is one of the biggest hurdles to catching any cancer early—which exponentially increases the odds of beating it. Undergoing appropriate screenings, understanding possible symptoms, and responding proactively make up the three-pronged path to early detection and relatively easy treatment for reproductive cancers. If it seems like the recommendations for “best” screening practices are constantly changing, that’s because they are. Nobody’s going to dispute the usefulness of monthly breast self-exams, and many doctors even recommend monthly testicular self-exams for men. But when it comes to when to get a mammogram and whether to get a PSA test at all, patients often feel trapped in the middle of a constant tug of war between constantly updated research, doctor’s advice, and recommendations from various advocacy groups. The recommendations for screening tests provide a place to start. And for those wondering if preventative exams are covered under the Affordable Healthcare Act, the answer is generally yes for people with health insurance that falls under Affordable Care Act rules; and for those policies the full set of eighteen preventive benefits available to everybody, plus some that are specific to women and children, are available at healthcare.gov/preventive-care-benefits.

the attention of a trusted doctor. “Gynecologic cancers are generally so hard to catch for a woman because so many of our symptoms of gynecologic cancers are disguised as things that we’re used to happening to our bodies,” Winegarner says. Telling the difference between normal body variations and cancer symptoms may be especially difficult for women going through menopause, who think a little bleeding or a little pain is normal. “They write it off as changes that women experience in their bodies, and so often they are signs that something is terribly wrong.” Again, the key is to have a good rela-

tionship with a medical provider so that if anything at all abnormal persists for more than two weeks—even if just a minor itch, discoloration, pain, or un-specific feeling—they can address those concerns. A good resource can be found online at leteverywomanknow.org/resources/be-downthere-aware. “The point that I try to be most emphatic about is just how important it is to be proactive about your own health, being your own advocate,” explains Winegarner. “Oftentimes gynecologic cancers are caught very late, and that’s what makes them so deadly.” Being willing to speak up could save a life.

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Some cancers, especially gynecologic cancers, are missing from the list of screening tests. That’s because other than pap smears to detect cervical cancer, there are no true screening tests for gynecologic cancers. “If you’re having symptoms [of another cancer] we can do a CAT scan, an ultrasound, a lab draw,” Winegarner explains. “But usually we won’t know until we go in for surgery and remove the mass if it’s even cancerous.” That makes it more important than ever to stay alert to out-of-place symptoms that might otherwise seem normal, such as gas, spotting, or abdominal discomfort, and be willing to bring them to

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Resources for Cancer Treatment in Alaska

one are the days of having to fly out of state to receive cancer treatment. Nowadays, Alaska cancer care providers offer a full array of services, from free genetic counseling to top-tier physicians and participation in the latest clinical trials. The following resources are for any patient—or loved one—to start looking for support.

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Comprehensive Cancer Control Program

Alaska Cancer Care Alliance

alaskaregional.com/service/cancer-care-center; 2801 DeBarr Road, Suite C-414, Anchorage; 907-264-1431

alaskacancercarealliance.org; 2801 DeBarr Road, Suite C-414, Anchorage; 907-264-1500

The Alaska Cancer Care Alliance, located inside Alaska Regional’s Cancer Care Center, brings together providers and agencies to support patients and their families. It’s one of the best resources for finding support groups for both men and women. Alaska Cancer Treatment Center akmedicalspecialties.com; 188 W. Northern Lights Boulevard, Suite 800, Anchorage; 907-276-2083

This comprehensive treatment center offers everything from radiation to massage therapy, with a naturopathic oncologist working along the allopathictrained staff. The Alaska Cancer Treatment Center is also a designated research center participating in phase I, II, and some phase III studies.

anthc.org/chs/crs/cancer; 3900 Ambassador Drive, Suite 401, Anchorage; cancer@anthc.org

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Comprehensive Cancer Control Program works to make Alaska Natives cancer-free by providing access to comprehensive, integrated prevention, screening, treatment, support, and education. Alaska Regional Cancer Care Center Alaska Regional’s cancer resource center helps guide outpatient cancer patients toward the best treatment and education. They also assist physicians in following research protocols, maintain a library with computer access, and provide two robots in the hospital surgical suites to help surgeons make more accurate, less invasive surgeries. Alaska Women’s Cancer Care alaskawomenscancercare.com; 3851 Piper Street, U264, Anchorage; 907-562-4673

Home to two fellowship-trained, board-certified gynecologic oncologists, Alaska Women’s Cancer Care provides comprehensive treatment and support for all gynecologic cancers, including access to clinical trials. The team of doctors also works very hard to provide treatment, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay.

American Cancer Society cancer.org; 3851 Piper Street, U240, Anchorage; 907-277-8610

The American Cancer Society is one of the most widely recognized nonprofits that supports those with cancer diagnoses and their loved ones. A great source of information, referrals to other services, support groups, and help for basic needs like transportation and lodging. Breast Cancer Detection Center bcdcofalaska.org; 1905 Cowles St., Fairbanks; 907-479-3909, 800-464-4577

BCDC Mission: To increase awareness of the survivability of breast cancer and the benefits of early detection by delivering screening services and educational programs throughout the state of Alaska. Founded in 1976, BCDC offers traveling mobile mammography and education services, including to remote communities on and off the road system. Interior Alaska Cancer Association interioralaskacancer.org; Fairbanks; 907-374-0974

The Interior Alaska Cancer Association is a nonprofit organization that helps cancer patients and their families, and educates the community about cancer-related issues. The Association helps physicians and members in the Interior fight cancer by providing support groups, financial assistance, and resource guidance for those who have cancer.

To Test or Not to Test?

With as critical as it is for patients to be proactive about their own health, can one have too much information? For example, although mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes can leave women vulnerable to hereditary breast and ovarian cancers (with Angelina Jolie’s being the highestprofile case), many doctors don’t recommend genetic screening unless there are demonstrated risk factors. “The vast majority of cancers are not genetic,” explains Daugherty. “It’s only about 5 percent that are. So we don’t recommend genetic testing for every woman that gets diagnosed with breast cancer.” In a similar vein, because prostate cancer often (but not always) grows slowly and often (but not always) happens to older men, there’s a fierce tug of war over whether and why the prostate-specific antigen or PSA blood test should be used. Some cancer survivors feel fiercely that they were saved by test results that alerted them to the presence of cancer; others feel that the treatment can be worse than the disease, and they’d rather not know. “We do more of a push toward informed decision making,” Thorsness explains of the Comprehensive Cancer Control Program’s stance. “We say, if you’re going to 162

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J. Michael Carroll Cancer Center bannerhealth.com; 1650 Cowles St., Fairbanks; 907-458-5380

What about the Men?

Midnight Sun Oncology

Fairbanks Memorial Hospital’s cancer care center provides patients and their families access to expert care and support close to home. The center offers cancer diagnosis, treatment, medical oncology, radiation, prevention, clinical trials, a patient library, and support groups. It has been designated a Community Cancer Program by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer.

midnightsunoncology.com; 2490 S Woodworth Loop # 499, Palmer; 907-746-7771

Katmai Oncology Group

Providence Cancer Center

katmaioncology.com; 3851 Piper St., Anchorage; 907-562-0321; 247 N Fireweed St., Soldotna; 907-262-1310

alaska.providence.org; 3851 Piper Street, U Tower; 907-212-6870

Katmai Oncology Group provides cancer treatment with a compassionate care philosophy. Katmai is QOPI certified oncology practice in Alaska, and affiliated with Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. The group has six board-certified oncologists, six oncology-specialized ANPs, infusion-certified nurses, and support staff to lend support and guidance on a range of integrative care specialties and services. Let Every Woman Know leteverywomanknow.org; 3851 Piper Street, U264, Anchorage

This Anchorage nonprofit, run by many of the same people behind Alaska Women’s Cancer Care, focuses on raising awareness, educating,

get screened, what are you going to do with that information?”

and supporting women living with gynecologic cancers everywhere in Alaska.

Mat-Su Regional Medical Center based. Provides care for people with cancer and blood disorders who live in the Mat-Su Valley, and provides care in Homer at South Peninsula Hospital. Facilities include a clinic, lab, chemotherapy infusion room, and a caring staff.

Providence Hospital’s cancer care center provides access to a comprehensive suite of treatments, including radiation, chemotherapy, surgery, and clinical research, along with free genetic counseling, care navigators, and other support services. Southeast Radiation Oncology Center southeastradiation.com; 1701 Salmon Creek Lane, Juneau; 907-568-5762

Residents of Juneau and Southeast Alaska are served by the Southeast Radiation Oncology Center, which offers state-of-the-art radiation therapy and cancer care navigation support services. R

Men can develop breast cancer too, although the American Cancer Society calculates their risk of doing so at about one hundred times less common than for women, with a lifetime risk of about one in one thousand. “The most common cancer among men is prostate cancer,” says Daugherty, who treats both men and women in his clinic. “One in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime.” With that said, many (but not all) prostate cancers affect older men, and many (but not all) of them grow slowly, which feeds into that tug-of-war about whether testing is really necessary. Again, the best way to cut through this uncertainty, and the conflicting recommendations and personal stories, is for patients to take any concerns to a trusted medical provider who can discuss the options best suited to that patient’s particular family history and lifestyle. As common as prostate cancer is, the most lethal cancer among men is actually lung cancer—and again, Alaska Native populations have more than their

PEOPLE FIRST We are a community hospital. And we are not for profit. Which makes what we focus on all the easier. Our mission is to continually improve health care for the people in Alaska’s interior. That was our mission 43 years ago, and that hasn’t changed.

Jenifer Juette | Surgery Department

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(When) Should You Be Screened?

he following guidelines give a rough idea of how and when those without any cancer symptoms should receive preventative screenings. For those who have extra risk factors or show any questionable symptoms, a trusted physician can help choose the appropriate screening and diagnostic tests.

Breast Cancer

Colorectal Cancer

The American Cancer Society recommends screening starting at age fifty; test options include flexible sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy, or yearly stool tests. For Alaska Native populations, testing should begin at age forty.

Lung Cancer

“It depends on which national guidelines you look at,” says Dr. Larry Daugherty, radiation oncologist at Alaska Cancer Treatment Center. But most oncological associations, he explains, still recommend a baseline mammogram at forty, then tailored recommendations— often, a regular screening mammogram every year—after that.

The American Cancer Society doesn’t recommend lung cancer screening in healthy people at average risk. However, screening may be appropriate for those fifty-five or older with a heavy smoking habit and fairly good health.

Cervical Cancer Pap smears provide an excellent tool for early detection of cervical cancer. The American Cancer Society recommends that women receive Pap smears every three years starting at age twenty-one and continuing until age sixty-five. Starting at age thirty, the American Cancer Society suggests the option of pairing Pap smears with an HPV test every five years. Physicians may suggest more frequent screenings for women in high-risk populations or lifestyles.

“In general the screening answer [for prostate cancer] is ‘no,’ but it’s not as easy as that. It’s always a discussion between patient and doctor,” says Daugherty. If screening is done, it’s usually recommended starting at age fifty (or age forty-five for African Americans or men whose father or brother had prostate cancer at age sixtyfive, per the American Cancer Society). R

share. The state’s rate of lung cancer (66.1 per 100,000 people) is about the same as the nationwide rate of 64.3, but the rate amongst Alaska Native populations is 90.7 per 100,000 people. The biggest known risk factor for lung cancer is smoking. Although there are no screening tests for the general population, those with a history of heavy smoking can receive CAT scans to help catch any signs of cancer early. “If we can catch a cancer early, most often it’s going to be curable,” Daugherty says.

The Cost of Cancer

It’s hard to quantify the financial toll of reproductive cancers, although the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimated the direct medical costs of cancer— treatment only—at $88.7 billion in 2011. That said, it may come as a pleasant surprise to locals that, at the very least, Alaska cancer patients don’t have to shell out a fortune in airfare to get access to top-tier treatment. Large clinics such as the Alaska Women’s Cancer Care Center and the Alaska Cancer Treatment Center offer access to the latest research studies and clinical trials; those same clinics have attracted top physicians, including two fellowship-trained, board-certified gynecologic oncologists at the Alaska Women’s Cancer Care Center, a specialty so rare that there are less than a thousand practitioners in the country. 164

Most clinics also work with patients in various ways to help them avoid the best care possible—whether by providing social workers to help patients track down financial support or offering free genetic counseling (at the Providence Cancer Care Center) and providing chemical drug sensitivity testing of cancerous tissues at no charge to the patient (through Alaska Women’s Cancer Care Center). The emotional cost of cancer is, of course, impossible to quantify. Not just patients are affected, but also the close friends and family that care for them. Yet as difficult as it can be to watch a loved one hurt, these people are far from helpless. Often, it’s the small things—staying engaged, being willing to listen, and helping them take care of everyday tasks that improve their quality of life—that make the biggest difference to the patient. That sort of support may be especially important for single men, says Daugherty. That’s because studies have shown that married men tend to survive cancer much better than their single counterparts—presumably because their wives are an important part of their support network. “We know that men who are married tend to do better from a cancer treatment standpoint, and I think that that’s just because they have a spouse who is taking care of their nutrition, looking after them, making sure they make it to their appointments,” explains Daugherty. So for men who are single or widowed, it’s important

Prostate Cancer

for them to have a support network of some kind, whether it’s a friend coming to appointments to help write things down or family bringing meals over. Friends, family, and loved ones can help fill that gap—for any gender—by stepping in to help out. Affinityfilms, Inc. produced a documentary film called “Survive & Thrive.” Although it’s geared toward those whose loved one has received a cancer diagnosis, it’s an excellent resource for any cancer diagnosis. “Everyone’s natural inclination is to want to help,” explains Winegarner. The best advice in the world boils down to simple things that are nonetheless easy to lose or forget in the shock of a diagnosis: Be there. Let them know they’re loved. Tell them positive stories about friends or family members who have beaten the disease. Help them meet their own everyday needs. Above all, listen and make time to engage beyond the basic, mechanical inquiry of “How are you today?” Finally, those supporting someone with a cancer diagnosis should also remember to form their own support network. “I think a lot of times, the people who are loved ones ... don’t want to admit they need help. They want to be the one providing help,” Winegarner says. R

Lisa Maloney is an Anchorage-based freelance writer.

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS

Thomas, Head & Greisen PC

and support. After a thorough review of the software modules available through the existing National Joint Powers Alliance contract, the school district procured nearly the entire Infinite Visions suite, including payroll, accounts payable, general ledger, and human resources, with the goal of enhancing data analysis and increasing efficiencies by reducing paper processes.

Huling

homas Huling, senior staff CPA at Thomas, Head & Greisen PC in Anchorage, was selected as one of thirty-eight young CPAs to participate in the American Institute of CPAs seventh annual Leadership Academy in Durham, North Carolina. Huling joins an exclusive group of rising stars in the accounting profession to learn strategic planning techniques and develop personal success skills for handling complex management challenges. He earned a BA in accounting, cum laude from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Tyler Technologies, Inc.

he Kodiak Island Borough School District has signed an agreement with Tyler Technologies, Inc. for its Infinite Visions financial and personnel school solution. The agreement includes software licenses, professional services, training,

Compiled by Russ Slaten

Quintillion Subsea Holdings

lcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, the undersea cables subsidiary of AlcatelLucent, and Quintillion Subsea Holdings LLC have entered into a turnkey contract for the design and construction of a submarine cable system from Prudhoe Bay to Nome. AlcatelLucent has commenced marine route survey and installation activities for the implementation of the system. The system will consist of three fiber pairs capable of carrying one hundred wavelengths, each of which can support one hundred gigabits-per-second of data capacity. Phase 1 will be a 1,850 kilometer segment linking the communities of Nome, Kotzebue, Wainwright, Point Hope, Barrow, and Prudhoe Bay and will provide for future extensions to Asia and Europe.

Northern Powerline Constructors, Inc.

nchorage-based Northern Powerline Constructors, Inc., parent company of NPC Energy Services LLC, acquired City Electric, Inc., bringing about forty City Electric employees to the NPC companies. NPC’s activity leading up to the acquisition of City Electric ramped up in March. NPC says a priority was making sure City Electric’s backlog and their customers’ proj-

ects were taken care of during the process, along with ensuring City Electric’s employees had as smooth a transition as possible.

Ocean Renewable Power Company LLC

he 2015 RivGen Power System Demonstration Project by Ocean Renewable Power Company LLC in the Kvichak River at the remote village of Igiugig was successfully deployed and is providing power to the local microgrid, significantly decreasing the community’s diesel fuel use. Equipped with ORPC’s latest technological advancements, the twenty-five-kilowatt RivGen Power System is designed to reduce and stabilize the cost of power in remote or “islanded” communities located near rivers and tidal estuaries. The RivGen Power System Project is partially funded by the Denali Commission and Alaska Energy Authority.

GCI

CI launched a new program to recruit more Alaska students to challenging, technical jobs through the GCI Teacher Externship Program. The program puts Alaskan teachers through two weeks of intensive GCI telecommunications training at the company’s Anchorage and Bethel facilities. Teachers are selected for the externship program based upon their expertise and ability to reach a broad range of students in order to show students what future job opportunities are available. GCI boosted its investment in cloud services with the purchase of Network Business Systems. GCI offered all Network Business Systems employees positions, bringing GCI a team that has provided IT solutions for Alaska businesses while securing partnerships with major players in the technol-

Your Project, Our Responsibility. 24/7 Service Pacific Pile & Marine has a robust fleet of marine equipment including our recent addition of a 600-Ton 4600 Ringer.

www.pacificpile.com I (907) 276-3878 276-3873 www.akbizmag.com

From critical lifts to platform support, PPM is sufficiently resourced to deliver a wide range of construction services. 620B East Whitney Road I Anchorage, AK 99501 October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

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INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS ogy industry, including Net-App, Microsoft, Cisco, and HP, for nearly thirty years.

Alaska Air Group

he Alaska Air Group board of directors approved a share repurchase program authorizing the company to buy back up to $1 billion of its common stock. This is the largest repurchase program in the airline’s history, representing 10 percent of the stock market capitalization of the company. The $1 billion repurchase program will begin after the existing $650 million buyback is completed. The repurchase program allows the company to repurchase its common stock using open market stock purchases, negotiated transactions, or through other means, including accelerated share repurchases and 10b5-1 trading plans.

SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium

outhEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) consolidated their behavioral health services with Lynn Canal Counseling Services. SEARHC will provide all management and operational support to Lynn Canal, which will retain its name and become a new Haines-based department of SEARHC. Lynn Canal’s staff and clients will be blended into SEARHC’s clinic-based framework, with staffing determined by the volume of service needed. Additionally, SEARHC will assume Lynn Canal’s current lease in Haines, where behavioral health services will continue to be delivered as well as SEARHC’s Haines Health Center. An advisory committee composed of Lynn Canal board members and staff from both organizations will be established to ensure a smooth transition of services.

Compiled by Russ Slaten

Alaska Marine Highway System

Airlines also expanded its lounge agreement with American Airlines, which gives Board Room members access to all fiftyfour Admirals Club locations worldwide.

he Alaska Marine Highway System redesigned its FerryAlaska.com website, providing customers with easier access to all the information necessary to plan and book travel aboard the State of Alaska ferry system. The new website is the first step toward improving the Alaska Marine Highway System customer experience. The ferry system will unveil its new reservation system in 2016. The new system will integrate with the website and is expected to streamline the booking process for customers and staff. FerryAlaska. com was rebuilt in-house by the Alaska Marine Highway System marketing staff.

rxotica introduced new products to its lineup of high end skin care merchandise, from soaps to lip balms, accessories, and many product gift sets. Arxotica showcased its new serum infused body wash, body lotion, and moisturizers. The Quyung-lii Serum Infused Facial Moisturizer formula adheres to the quality and anti-oxidant strength of Arxotica’s Quyung-lii Anti-Aging Skin Serum with pleasing facial moisturizers.

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Hub International Limited

he Air Force Research Laboratory transferred the HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Program) site in Gakona to the University of Alaska Fairbanks in August. After receiving the ionospheric research facility from the United States Air Force, the University of Alaska Fairbanks will continue to use HAARP in the exploration of ionospheric phenomenology via a land-use cooperative research and development agreement.

Alaska Airlines

laska Airlines Mileage Plan members now have access to book nearly three thousand more daily flights on partner American Airlines as it brings all US Airways flights under the American code this fall. Mileage Plan members will enjoy seamless access to the world’s largest airline and have even more options to earn and redeem miles for award travel. Alaska

Arxotica

hicago-based Hub International Limited, a leading global insurance brokerage, acquired Pippel Insurance Agency, Inc., a multi-line insurance brokerage based in Palmer. Pippel will become part of the Hub International Northwest operations. Hub Northwest has maintained an office in Anchorage since 2011.

UAF Geophysical Institute

he University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute is the new host of the National Science Foundation’s EarthScope National Office, a rotating, university-based office. It is the focal point for engagement with science related to the EarthScope project and coordinates education and outreach efforts for the EarthScope community. The Geophysical Institute will receive more than $2.5 mil-

Your Project, Our Responsibility. 24/7 Service

Pacific Pile & Marine has a robust fleet of marine equipment including our recent addition of a 600-Ton 4600 Ringer.

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From critical lifts to platform support, PPM is sufficiently resourced to deliver a wide range of construction services. 620B East Whitney Road I Anchorage, AK 99501

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INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS lion over a four-year period which will cover two new full-time staff and multiple student positions. EarthScope is installing the Transportable Array, which is a grid of temporary seismometers across Alaska and the adjacent parts of Canada, which will provide a rich data set to study earthquakes and the structure of the Earth beneath North America.

Mini Stop Grocery

-Haul Company of Alaska is pleased to announce that Mini Stop Grocery has signed on as a U-Haul neighborhood dealer to serve Anchorage. Mini Stop Grocery at 1565 Bragaw Street will offer U-Haul trucks, trailers, towing equipment, support rental items, and in-store pickup for boxes from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 11 p.m. on Sunday.

Alaskan Brewing Company

laskan Brewing Company’s newest beer is Alaskan Pumpkin Ale, a fall seasonal that will appear on taps and shelves throughout the company’s seventeen-state distribution footprint. Alaskan brewers have put a new spin on the Pumpkin Porter that has come out the past two years and produced a smooth brown alebased recipe that combines holiday spices and organic pumpkin. Alaskan Pumpkin Ale will be available in most markets by mid-August, as Alaskan Summer Ale begins to leave the shelves, and will run until November when Winter Ale ships out.

Tongass Timber Sale

he Tongass National Forest Navy Timber Sale Record of Decision makes

Compiled by Russ Slaten

about 13.1 million board feet of sawlog and utility timber available for harvest from about 1,252 acres of commercial forest land on Etolin Island approximately twenty-two miles south of Wrangell. The existing road system and the Anita Bay log transfer facilities will be used to transport the timber off the island. This decision requires construction of about 0.6 miles and reconstruction of 0.8 miles of National Forest System road and construction of 2.7 miles of temporary road. No sales will be advertised until the timber appraises with positive values, according to the Tongass forest supervisor.

Alaska Aerospace Corporation

laska Aerospace Corporation and California-based Garvey Spacecraft Corporation achieved an important milestone in their collaborative venture to path-find operations for a commercial nanosat launch vehicle at Alaska Aerospace Corporation’s Pacific Spaceport Complex–Alaska on Kodiak Island. Just one month after starting, the team worked through the logistics to enable Garvey Spacecraft Corporation to ship a prototype first stage and then successfully demonstrate on-site fuel loading into the vehicle. Garvey Spacecraft Corporation is developing a series of nanosat launch vehicles to provide dedicated launch services to the emerging cubesat and nanosat user communities.

TerraSond Limited

he first use of an Autonomous Surface Vehicle, manufactured by ASV Limited, performed bathymetry to update the US nautical charts for NOAA in the Alaska Arctic this summer. Surveying alongside TerraSond’s mother-vessel, the Autono-

mous Surface Vehicle collected data simultaneously on adjacent survey lines, effectively doubling the production rate. The Autonomous Surface Vehicle also surveyed by itself in areas too shallow and dangerous for the larger vessel to work, eliminating some risk to the surveyors.

Buy Alaska

uy Alaska, a nonprofit program partner of the Alaska Small Business Development Center and the University of Alaska Anchorage, unrolled a major new commercial contracts feature upgrade to their website buyalaska.com. This feature empowers local Alaskan businesses to place bids and respond to opportunities through Buy Alaska’s proprietary online platform. Every Alaskan owned or operated business is eligible to become a registered Buy Alaska business by creating a free business profile. Once registered, the commercial contracts feature is also free. If every Alaskan shifted just 10 percent of their Outside purchases back to Alaska, the Alaska economy would be bolstered by 1.1 billion dollars and 4,400 jobs.

The Wilson Agency

he Wilson Agency, Alaska’s largest private employee benefits firm, and Albers & Company, the South Puget Sound’s largest, private employee benefits firm, announced a definitive merger agreement to enhance their service offering to Alaska and Washington business owners. The acquisition of Albers & Company, based in Tacoma, Washington, further increases The Wilson Agency’s share in the employee benefit, financial services, and individual insurance market. The merged entities will continue to operate under their respective names for the time being. R

• General Contracting • Marine Infrastructure • Design Build

Dutch Harbor - Unalaska, Alaska

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RIGHT MOVES JW Industries Group

JW Industries Group announces four new hires. Susan Kent-Crafts was named Chief Financial Officer of JW Industries Group. Kent-Crafts holds more than thirty years of management and executive-level Kent-Crafts experience in finance, accounting, and organizational leadership. She earned an MBA from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Kim Leming is the new Director of Grant Writing/ Community Outreach. Leming has more than twenty-five years of grant writing, business development, and marketing experience in Alaska. She holds a BA Leming in Marketing and MSW from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Dan Slatter y joins as Construction and Logistics Coordinator. Slattery is a seasoned business and project manager with over ten years of experience managing and leading small service-focused businesses. Slattery He holds a BBA in Economics and Finance from the University of Alaska Anchorage. C a m e ro n P e r r y j o i n s a s C o n t r a c t Administrator. Perry has a wide range of project management and technical experience. He holds a BBS in Logistics and an MS in Global Supply Chain Management from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Perry

AECOM

AECOM added many new faces to its Anchorage office staff. Suz Kyzer joins AECOM’s Anchorage office after transferring from the firm’s Seattle operation. Kyzer has twenty-four years of experience performing contract administration on a variety of contracts for many Kyzer federal and state agencies and various municipalities.

Compiled by Russ Slaten Erik Dahl joins AECOM’s Anchorage office as a senior environmental engineer. Dahl has over six years of worldwide experience in environmental fieldwork management, field sample collection, laboratory and field analytical Dahl testing, air emissions modeling, report writing, data qualification, remediation system design, and construction and risk assessments. Lymari Ortiz joins AECOM’s Anchorage office as a contracts and procurement lead for the Alaska LNG Project. Ortiz has over twenty years of experience and specialized qualifications in project management, auditing, Ortiz and supply management. Nathaniel Webb joins AECOM’s Anchorage office as a senior chemist. Webb has more than seventeen years of experience with remedial investigations and actions throughout Alaska and the Pacific region. Webb Corinne Cogger joins AECOM’s Anchorage office as an environmental scientist. Cogger has about two years of experience in contaminated sites field work and document production. She earned a BA in geography from Humboldt Cogger State University.

Bureau of Land Management Alaska

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) welcomes new district managers for the Anchorage and Fairbanks District Offices. Mark Spencer is the new BLM Anchorage District Manager. Spencer was Field Manager at BLM’s Red Rock Canyon and Sloan Canyon National Conservation Areas in Nevada and served as Field Manager for the Pahrump Spencer (Nevada) Field Office. He earned a Master of Planning from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Science from George Mason University.

Geoff Beyersdorf is the new BLM Fairbanks District Manager. Beyersdorf was the Lewistown Field Manager in central Montana and began his BLM career as the Subsistence Biologist for the Anchorage Field Office in 2008. Beyersdorf Beyersdorf spent sixteen years with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska as a PilotBiologist. He earned a master’s in Wildlife Biology at Humboldt State University and a bachelor’s in Wildlife Research from the University of Michigan.

Denali Daniels and Associates, Inc.

Holly Spoth-Torres joins Denali Daniels and Associates, Inc. as an equity partner and will serve as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. She has a wealth of experience in the public and nonprofit sectors. Spoth-Torres was Spoth-Torres the Park Superintendent at the Municipality of Anchorage Parks and Recreation Department for the last nine years.

NANA Management Services

Jason Carlson was promoted to Camp Services Vice President of Operations for NANA Management Services. Carlson was Director of Operations at NANA Management Services and held several positions with Alaska Airlines. He holds a BA Carlson in Organizational Management from Alaska Pacific University.

Erickson Incorporated

Erickson Incorporated names Michael Williams as Alaska Regional Manager. Williams has an extensive history of successfully managing teams for legacy and start-up projects, he has considerable consulting experience in business and Williams process improvement, and was a Structural Engineering Specialist in the US Air Force. Williams earned a bachelor’s in Engineering Business Management from the University of Texas-Arlington, and attended the US Air Force Academy.

OH MY! 168

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

RIGHT MOVES First National Bank Alaska

First National Bank Alaska’s board of directors elected Lucy Mahan to Vice Chair. Mahan is a licensed professional counselor and owns and facilitates Transitional Counseling LLC with offices in Anchorage and Homer. She earned degrees from Mahan the University of Colorado and Alaska Pacific University.

Doyon, Limited

Walter Williams joins Doyon Limited as corporate controller. He was a senior manager at KPMG LLP since 2007 advising ANCSA corporation clients in accounting and business matters. Williams holds a bachelor’s Williams in Ethics and Public Policy from UC Santa Barbara, an MBA from the University of Alaska Anchorage, and is a licensed CPA.

University of Alaska Fairbanks

University of Alaska Regent Mike Powers was selected for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Interim Chancellor position. Powers was an executive at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital for nearly three decades, first as chief Powers financial officer and, for the past twenty years, as chief executive officer.

Tongass Federal Credit Union

Helen L. Mickel was promoted to CEO/President of Tongass Federal Credit Union. She was the Chief Operating Officer/Vice President and joined the credit union in 2003. Mickel has more than three decades’ experience in financial Mickel services in lending, operations, and managerial positions. She is a graduate of the Western CUNA Management School.

US Army Corps of Engineers– Alaska District

Col. Michael S. Brooks assumed command of the US Army Corps of Engineers–Alaska District at

Compiled by Russ Slaten and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. Pohjola earned a BA in management from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. Brooks is the former deputy chief and engineer planner for the Domestic Operations Division at US Northern Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Brooks

Webb’s Consulting & Management Services, Inc.

Guy

Jennifer Bolding joins Webb’s Consulting & Management Services, Inc. as operations manager for the downtown summer Anchorage Market & Festival, several holiday gift shows, and the annual Chugiak/ Eagle River Bear Paw booths. Bolding

CIRI Alaska Tourism

Exxon Mobil Corporation

Calista Corporation

Calista Corporation’s Board of Directors voted in the first chairwoman in corporate history, Margaret Pohjola. She has an accounting background with Cook Inlet Tribal Council, NANA, Pohjola

Evan

Paul George Guy was reelected to vicechair. Robert L. Beans was voted in as secretary. Johnny Evan was voted in as treasurer.

UIC Design Plan Build

Katie Reeves joins CIRI Alaska Tourism as Lodging Sales Manager. She was with Connect Alaska and the State of Alaska Division of Economic Development over the past three years. Reeves is also Reeves an experienced Olympic Trials swimmer and triathlete, published author, and on-air Anchor/Reporter Producer for Channel 11 in both Fairbanks and Anchorage. She earned a BS in Communications from Northwestern University. Cory Quarles was appointed as the Alaska Production Manager for Exxon Mobil Corporation. Quarles joined ExxonMobil in 1998 and has since held various technical and supervisory positions in the United States and the United Kingdom. Quarles Quarles earned a chemical engineering degree from Texas A&M University.

Beans

Rob Luis joins UIC Design Plan Build as Construction Division General Manager. He was a Division Manager for Sunland Construction in Colorado. Luis holds a bachelor’s in aeronautics from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and an MBA Luis from Keller Graduate School.

Anchorage Superior Court

Herman G. Walker Jr. was appointed as an Anchorage Superior Court Judge. He is a practicing attorney of twenty-two years. Walker has worked in both private practice and the public sector throughout Alaska. He was Walker a partner at Limón & Walker for the past fifteen years and worked for the Office of Public Advocacy and the State Public Defender Agency. He earned a bachelor’s in political science from Arizona State University, and a JD from the University of Wyoming College of Law.

University of Alaska System

The University of Alaska Board of Regents appointed Dr. James R. Johnsen as president of the University of Alaska System. Johnsen worked as a University of Alaska executive, before working as Senior Vice President Johnsen of Human Resources and Process Transformation at Alaska Communications. R

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AGENDA

Compiled By Tasha Anderson

October IEDC Annual Conference

October 4-7—Anchorage: The annual conference of the International Economic Development Council. Join economic developers from around the world to discuss the most important issues in economic development today: “Foundational Transformations: Creating Future Growth & Prosperity.” iedcevents.org/AnnualConference

Alaska Travel Industry Association Convention & Trade Show

October 5-8—Juneau: The 2015 “In Your Wildest Dreams” ATIA convention is for Alaska’s tourism industry leaders with delegates from tour operators, wholesalers, Alaska vendors, destination marketing organizations, and elected officials. alaskatia.org

Alaska Recreation & Park Association Conference

October 7-10—Land’s End, Homer: Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Alaska Recreation & Park Association as well as participate in the organization’s annual conference. alaskarpa.org

October 8-10—Sheraton Anchorage Hotel and Spa, Anchorage: A continuing medical education conference put on by the Alaska Academy of Physicians Assistants, providing up to 25 CMEs. akapa.org

October 12-14—Westmark Fairbanks Hotel and Conference Center, Fairbanks: Open to the public, the Alaska Chamber’s Annual Conference is the state’s premier business conference. Traditionally held in the fall, the Conference draws 200 to 225 attendees and features keynote speakers, panel discussions, and breakout sessions on issues of statewide concern to Alaska business. alaskachamber.com

Elders & Youth Conference

October 12-14—Dena’ina Center, Anchorage. This year’s theme “Not in Our Smokehouse!” speaks to cherishing, protecting, reclaiming, and strengthening our Alaska Native Ways of Life, standing together as advocates for the well-being of our cultures, languages, lands, and our entire statewide community. firstalaskans.org

Alaska Native Business Summit

n 170

October 14—UAA/APU Consortium Library, Anchorage. This first annual event is for participants to identify barriers and develop solutions and policy ideas to move the Alaska economy forward. Designed to

October 23-25—Sitka: Biennial conference for teachers of math and science of all grade levels. This year’s theme is “Navigating the Tides of Change.” amsc2015.org

NWPPA/APA Alaska Electric Utility Conference

ALASBO Annual Conference

October 26-30—Dena’ina Center, Anchorage: The conference provides a mix of education and networking, along with more than seventy exhibit booths. It also provides ample opportunities to learn about the latest best practices, innovations, and technology concerning utilities. nwppa.org

Alaska Peer Partnership Conference

November 8-10—Hilton Anchorage, Anchorage: This conference features nationally renowned speakers from the peer movement, as well as local presenters who offer workshops about innovative projects and inspiring models of recovery and wellness for all. akpeersupport.org

Associated General Contractors of Alaska Annual Conference

November 11-14—AGC of Alaska is a nonprofit construction trade association dedicated to improving the professional standards of the construction industry. agcak.org

Alaska RTI Conference

November 15-16—Anchorage: The Alaska Association of Municipal Clerks is an organization that focuses on providing educational training and mentoring and professional growth opportunities. alaskaclerks.org

Annual Local Government Conference

November 16-20—Anchorage: The Alaska Municipal League is a voluntary, nonprofit, nonpartisan, statewide organization of 162 cities, boroughs, and unified municipalities, representing over 97 percent of Alaska’s residents. akml.org

January 23-24—Dena’ina Center, Anchorage: The theme this year is Integrating Behavior and Academics Into A Seamless Multi-Tiered System of Supports. Invited presenters included Dr. Louisa Moats, Nicole Frazier (Engaged Classrooms), Tom Hierck (Visible Learning for School Leaders) Karen Karp, Tricia Skyles, Anita Archer, and many others. asdn.org/2016-alaska-rti-conference

Anchorage AEYC Early Childhood Conference

January 27-30—Hilton Anchorage, Anchorage: “Our Children, Our Families, Our Community: Building Resiliency.” Join other early childhood community members to learn new strategies, hear about the latest research, try out a few practical techniques, and discover new tools and resources to help face any challenge. anchorageaeyc.org

Junior Achievement of Alaska Awards Banquet

January 28—Dena’ina Center, Anchorage: Four new Alaskans will be inducted and recognized with this prestigious award. Attended by over four hundred business representations, the program consists of a networking reception, dinner, and awards ceremony. juniorachievement.org

Alaska Peony Growers Association Winter Conference

AAMC Conference

December 6-9—Hotel Captain Cook, Anchorage: Annual conference of the Alaska Association of School Business Officials. alasbo.org

January 2016

November

Alaska Chamber Policy Forum and Conference

October 22-25—Dena’ina Center, Anchorage: This year’s conference celebrates Anchorage’s Centennial. “Contribute to the future of design in Alaska by participating in the discussion of its history.” aiaalaska.org

November 18-19—The conference provides timely updates on projects and prospects, addresses key issues and challenges, and considers the implications of state and federal policies on Alaska oil and gas, mining, and other resource development sectors. akrdc.org

December

Alaska Math and Science Conference

October 12-14—Anchorage: Events include keynote speakers and training sessions. alaskahousing-homeless.org/conference October 12-15—Hotel Captain Cook, Anchorage: This is the annual conference of the Alaska Association of Harbormasters & Port Administrators. alaskaharbors.org

October 22-24—BP Energy Center, Anchorage: The National Association of Social Workers Alaska Chapter is an organization for professional social workers with close to 500 members in Alaska and 150,000 members in the Unites States and abroad. naswak.org

AIA Alaska Annual State Conference

AAHPA Annual Conference

October 15-17—Dena’ina Center, Anchorage: Annual gathering of Alaska Native peoples to discuss current news and events on a state, national, and international level. nativefederation.org

NASW Alaska Chapter Conference

Alaska Coalition on Housing and Homelessness Conference

RDC Annual Conference: Alaska Resources

Alaska Federation of Natives Annual Convention

All-Alaska Medical Conference

facilitate dialogues between Alaska Native Corporations, the University of Alaska Anchorage, and the state of Alaska. uaa. alaska.edu/cbpp/anbs

January 28-31—The Alaska Peony Growers Association is a membership organization comprised of commercial peony growers as well as those interested in the emerging peony industry in Alaska. alaskapeonies.org

February 2016 Health Summit

February 2-4—Hotel Captain Cook, Anchorage: The 2016 summit tracks will be policy and advocacy, social and economic determinants of health, interdisciplinary and partnerships, research and evaluation, and health promotion/communication/ education. alaskapublichealth.org R

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

Your passport to

ALASKA THIS MONTH By Tasha Anderson

passion.

DINING

Photos courtesy of North Star Bakery

North Star Bakery

The baker’s fresh made carrot cake and crescent rolls.

2015-2016 Season

ne of North Star Bakery’s customers joked with Owner Donna Young about starting a twelve-step program to help those who have gone to the bakery, tried the morning buns, and now find themselves returning time after time for the delicious pastries. Donna and her husband Gary own North Star Bakery, but it was Gary’s interest in bread that led them to open their doors in December 2004. “Gary was always fascinated with the science of bread and how it all works, and he studied and educated himself and started experimenting… After a few years of this, people kept saying, ‘You’re in the wrong business; this is so good, you need to sell this.’” And now they do, in one main location and two smaller cafés. North Star Bakery, located at 4931 East Mayflower Lane in Wasilla, offers homemade soups and sandwiches made from their bread in addition to their pastries and European style breads such as sourdough, ciabatta, French bread, a multi-grain, and variations of those. Their smaller café stands are located in the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and in Benteh Nuutah Valley Native Primary Care Center. Donna says that North Star Bakery also provides catering services, “anywhere from a sweet roll and fresh fruit to prime rib and halibut dinners.” It’s worth stopping by the bakery even once: “The first time people come in, we always give them a morning bun [similar in design to a cinnamon roll, made with croissant dough and vanilla sugar], and then they’re hooked for life,” Donna laughs. northstarbakery.com R www.akbizmag.com

Modern Boutique.

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171 8/30/12 1:38 PM

ALASKA THIS MONTH

Alaskans serving Alaskans. Oxford is proud to be the only gold refiner and bullion dealer to maintain two locations in Alaska for more than 30 years.

By Tasha Anderson

TRAVEL

Alaska Day

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Above: Men dressed in period military regalia at the 2014 Alaska Day Transfer Re-Enactment. Left: Women in period garb attended the 2014 Alaska Day Transfer Re-Enactment.

he Alaska Day Festival takes place in honor of the purchase of Alaska by the United States from Russia in Sitka on October 18, 1867. According to Elaine Strelow, secretary for the Alaska Day Committee, it “celebrates the diversity of cultures and historical perspectives of our people.” The 2015 theme of the Alaska Day Festival is “Meet me at the Centennial.” While Alaska was transferred in a single day, the festival commemorating the event spans approximately a week starting October 10, culminating on October 18 with the annual parade and re-enactment ceremony. “For me, what we do with the transfer reenactment on Castle Hill is the most meaningful,” says Strelow. “It brings together hundreds of people of many cultures and background experiences to commemorate an event that changed the history of our area, of Alaska, and far beyond.” Other favorite annual activities are The New Archangel Dancers show, the Variety Show, the Army Band Concert, a Ball, and a memorial service. This year there will also be kayak races at Swan Lake, a barn dance, a running/shooting biathlon, writing contest, and showings of “Paris of the Pacific,” a “melodrama of love, life, poverty, and strife in 1867 Sitka” produced by the Greater Sitka Arts Council. Other than specific events, all of Sitka celebrates with programs at museums and parks, exhibits and displays, and historic sites and buildings tours. More information and a schedule of events can be found online. alaskadayfestival.org R

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Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

EVENTS CALENDAR ANCHORAGE

2 Harvest of Wines Sample wines from around the world while listening to the tunes of Tom Bargelski and Friends: wine, hors d’oeuvres, silent auction, and a VIP experience in The Vault. Anchorage Marriott Downtown, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. alaskapublic.org/special-events 2-4 Make It Alaskan Festival Each year thousands of attendees, wholesale buyers, and vendors share an inside look at what’s made locally in Alaska. Sullivan Arena, Friday Noon to 8 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. makeitalaskanfestival.com 7 Paul Nicklen: Polar Obsession Paul’s stories have taken him from swimming with leopard seals in Antarctica to living alone for three months on the high Arctic tundra with bears and wolves. Nat Geo Live launches an exciting new speaker series in partnership with the Anchorage Museum and the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts this fall. See the world through the eyes of extreme explorers, filmmakers, and photographers during these popular and entertaining multimedia presentations. Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, 7:30 p.m. anchoragemuseum.org

Compiled by Tasha Anderson 17 International Friendship Day Celebrate cultural diversity with performances and ethnic food booths. Alaska Centennial Center for the Arts, Pioneer Park, Noon. explorefairbanks.com

GIRDWOOD

31 Alyeska Halloween Concert This is one of the biggest Halloween parties around, appropriate for those twenty-one years of age and older this year with all-girl cover band Lez Zeppelin. Alyeska Resort Daylodge, 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. alyeskaresort.com

PALMER

31 Halloween Hollow Raven Hall is definitely treat, not trick, and a carnival atmosphere prevails with over thirty-five games and activities for children up to fourteen years of age. Everyone is encouraged to wear their costumes. Visit the concession stand for food and drinks while children participate in the festivities. Pets are not allowed. Alaska State Fairgrounds, 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. alaskavisit.com

PETERSBURG

16-17 Extra Life 2015 Anchorage’s first twenty-four-hour Gaming Marathon event will raise money for kids suffering from disease and illness in Anchorage. Alaska Airlines Center, 5 p.m. to 5 p.m. 907gamers.com/extra-life

1-31 Octoberfest Celebration Petersburg celebrates Octoberfest throughout the month with concerts, gallery walks, the Humpy 500 Go-cart Race, Devil’s Thumb Chili Feed and Brewfest, Octoberfest Artshare, and the Rain Country Quilters Quilt Show, among other events. petersburg.org

10/22-11/15 Other Desert Cities In this drama, Brooke Wyeth returns home to Palm Springs after a six-year absence to celebrate Christmas with her parents, her brother, and her aunt. Brooke announces that she is about to publish a memoir dredging up a pivotal and tragic event in the family’s history—a wound they don’t want reopened. In effect, she draws a line in the sand and dares them all to cross it. Cyrano’s, Thursday through Saturday 7 p.m., Sunday 3 p.m. cyranos.org

3 Seasons End Celebration This event is a thank you to the Sitka community and includes live music, Running of the Boots, free food, and a beer garden. Lincoln Street, noon. sitkachamber.com

31 Skinny Raven Frightening 4K Back for the third year, this fun out-and-back course is an opportunity to see all the awesome costumes. There will be a team and individual costume contest with great prizes after the run. All activities are based on the 4th Avenue side of the Hotel Captain Cook. After running, hit businesses downtown with the kids for Trick or Treat Street starting at 12:00 p.m. Hotel Captain Cook, 11 a.m. skinnyraven.com 31 Zoo Boo Put on a costume and visit the Alaska Zoo to celebrate Halloween. There will be spooky trail decorations, event staff in costumes, and trick-or-treat stations throughout zoo grounds. The fun gets underway at 5 p.m. and runs until 8 p.m. Dress warm and carry a flashlight to help light the way around the zoo while visiting our animals in this nocturnal setting. The Alaska Zoo, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. alaskazoo.org

FAIRBANKS

10-11 Go Winter! Expo This event focuses on winter: how to get through it safely and sanely while having some fun. This year will include the Interior Alaska Gun show, as well as indoor and outdoor activities, food, and information about winterization, home care, and travel ideas. Carlson Center, Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. fairbanksevents.com

www.akbizmag.com

SITKA

31 Downtown Trick-or-Treating Downtown Trick-or-Treating will once again be offered to Sitka’s children! The merchants will have baskets of ghoulish and ghostly treats for the children. Halloween costumes are encouraged for all. Downtown Sitka, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. sitkachamber.com

SKAGWAY

16-18 Fall Festival This weekend celebrates the arts, music, and life in the North. skagway.com/events

VALDEZ

16-17 Homebrew Competition and Oktoberfest Mix the best batch of beer and win $4,000 in cash and prizes. Enjoy music, games, contests, beer, wine, and delicious food. Bid on awesome auction items like exciting travel packages and other amazing items. valdezalaska.org

WASILLA

10/16-11/8 Bell, Book and Candle Gillian Holroyd is one of the few modern people who can actually cast spells and perform feats of supernaturalism. She casts a spell over an unattached publisher, Shepherd Henderson, partly to keep him away from a rival and partly because she is attracted to him. He falls head over heels in love with her at once and wants to marry her. But witches, unfortunately, cannot fall in love, and this minute of imperfection leads into a number of difficulties. Valley Performing Arts: Fridays and Saturdays 7 p.m.; Sundays 2 p.m. valleyperformingarts.org October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

173

ALASKA TRENDS

By Amy Miller

Alaska’s Private Sector Employment Mirrors Nation

lthough everyone knows we do things a little differently in Alaska, when it comes to the makeup of the private sector, Alaska closely resembles its regional neighbors and the nation as a whole. Alaska’s private sector was composed of roughly 19,976 establishments in 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and most were classified as “small”—with fewer than five employees (59 percent). Another 17 percent employed between five and nine people, bringing the total percentage of employers in Alaska with fewer than ten employees to 76 percent. Likewise, the share of employers with four or fewer employers in the United States is 62 percent and with fewer than ten is 77 percent. The same similarities hold up as firm sizes increase. Firms with more than five hundred employees account for just 0.14 percent in Alaska and 0.16 percent in the rest of the United States. Although large employers make up a tiny percentage of overall businesses, a sizeable chunk—39.4 percent—of private-sector employees in Alaska work for a large firm (firms with more than one hundred employees are considered “large” and represent 1.44 percent of Alaska employers). By comparison, 42.4 percent of all Americans

work for large employers, which make up 1.46 percent of total employers in the country. Where Alaska differs from the rest of the United States is in the types of business that dominate local wages. Not surprisingly, in Alaska the oil and gas industry pays a disproportionate share of wages to Alaskans. While 39.4 percent of Alaskans work for large firms, large firms pay 58 percent of the wages. This is mostly due to the impact of high-paying oil and gas and mining industry jobs, in which the average annual wage is $130,738. This compares to a statewide average annual wage of $54,636. Utilities work is the second-most lucrative for Alaskan wage earners, with an average annual take home of $82,857. Meanwhile, healthcare, retail trade, and accommodation and food services are the industries that employed the most Alaskans in terms of sheer numbers. Average monthly employment in Alaska as a whole was 237,124 in 2014; healthcare was 43,517 with an average wage of $47,732; retail was 36,721 with an average wage of $30,254; and accommodation and food services was 29,346 with an average wage of $22,591. R Alaska Trends, an outline of significant statewide statistics, is provided by the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development.

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Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

ALASKA TRENDS

By Amy Miller

Alaska # of Employers and % of workforce All sizes <5 5 to 9 10 to 19 20 to 49 50 to 99 100 to 249 250 to 499 500 to 999 1000+

Alaska # of Employers

100% 59.46% 17.45% 11.51% 7.34% 2.36% 1.38% 0.36% 0.08% 0.07%

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

US # of Employers and % of workforce All sizes <5 5 to 9 10 to 19 20 to 49 50 to 99 100 to 249 250 to 499 500 to 999 1000+

US # of Employers

100% 62.2% 15.5% 10.7% 7.3% 2.5% 1.4% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1%

2,000,000

4,000,000

6,000,000

8,000,000

10,000,000

Alaska # of Employees and % of workforce All sizes <5 5 to 9 10 to 19 20 to 49 50 to 99 100 to 249 250 to 499 500 to 999 1000+

Alaska # of Employees

100% 7.3% 9.5% 12.5% 17.8% 13.1% 17.1% 9.7% 4.5% 8.1%

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

US # of Employees and % of workforce All sizes <5 5 to 9 10 to 19 20 to 49 50 to 99 100 to 249 250 to 499 500 to 999 1000+

US # of Employees

100% 7.4% 8.1% 11.4% 17.3% 13.4% 16.4% 9.2% 6.4% 10.4%

20,000,000

40,000,000

60,000,000

80,000,000

100,000,000

Based on first quarter 2014, which is the only quarter the BLS reports. # of Employees 120,000,000 is a quarterly average

Alaska Private Employment Annual Figures

Industry Goods-producing Natural resources and mining

Annual Establishments

Annual Average Employment

Total Annual Wages

Annual Average Weekly Wage

Annual Wages per Employee

Annual Average Employment Location Quotient

Total Annual Wages Location Quotient

3,492

50,211

4,322,551,680

1,656

86,088

1.02

1.4

477

18,762

2,364,662,790

2,424

126,034

3.75

7.61

Construction

2,491

17,060

1,352,009,383

1,524

79,253

1.16

1.6

Manufacturing

524

14,389

605,879,507

810

42,106

0.49

0.31

Service-providing

16,484

203,242

9,015,020,122

853

44,356

0.88

0.76

Trade, transportation, and utilities

4,247

64,646

2,833,790,281

843

43,836

1.03

1.01

Information

364

6,235

388,647,467

1,199

62,331

0.94

0.62

Financial activities

1,375

11,763

620,109,022

1,014

52,717

0.63

0.38

Professional and business services

3,343

29,934

1,865,517,145

1,198

62,321

0.65

0.58

Education and health services

2,363

45,770

2,145,817,001

902

46,882

0.92

0.9

Leisure and hospitality

2,457

34,132

761,789,222

429

22,319

0.97

0.99

Other services

1,724

10,119

373,929,748

711

36,953

0.99

1.04

Unclassified Total, all industries

612

643

25,420,236

760

39,529

1.22

0.94

19,976

253,453

$13,337,571,802

$1,012

$52,623

0.91

0.9

http://www.bls.gov/cew/apps/table_maker/v4/table_maker.htm#type=11&year=2014&qtr=A&own=5&area=US000&supp=0

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October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

175

ALASKA TRENDS

Indicator

By Amy Miller

Units

Period

Latest Report Period

Previous Report Period (revised)

Year Ago Period

Year Over Year Change

GENERAL Personal Income—Alaska US $ 1stQ15 39,836 39,218 37,534 6.13% Personal Income—United States US $ 1stQ15 15,100,011 14,941,804 14,360,913 5.15% Consumer Prices—Anchorage 1982-1984 = 100 1stH15 217.11 216.83 213.91 1.50% Consumer Prices—United States 1982-1984 = 100 1stH15 236.27 237.09 233.55 1.16% Bankruptcies Alaska Total Number Filed June 36 36 29 19.44% Anchorage Total Number Filed June 32 28 24 25.00% Fairbanks Total Number Filed June 3 6 3 0.00% EMPLOYMENT Alaska Thousands June 346.06 342.23 348.63 -0.74% Anchorage & Mat-Su Thousands June 192.93 192.18 188.91 2.13% Fairbanks Thousands June 43.80 45.29 42.98 1.91% Southeast Thousands June 36.84 36.24 39.26 -6.16% Gulf Coast Thousands June 38.31 36.71 40.65 -5.76% Sectorial Distribution—Alaska Total Nonfarm Thousands June 357.5 343.6 353.5 1.13% Goods Producing Thousands June 55.2 47.2 56.1 -1.60% Services Providing Thousands June 302.3 296.4 297.4 1.65% Mining and Logging Thousands June 18.1 17.7 19.0 -4.74% Mining Thousands June 17.7 17.4 18.4 -3.80% Oil & Gas Thousands June 15.1 14.8 14.8 2.03% Construction Thousands June 20.3 18.4 18.0 12.78% Manufacturing Thousands June 16.8 11.1 19.1 -12.04% Seafood Processing Thousands June 12.7 7.0 14.6 -13.01% Trade/Transportation/Utilities Thousands June 71.7 69.9 70.1 2.28% Wholesale Trade Thousands June 6.7 6.6 6.7 0.00% Retail Trade Thousands June 39.9 38.7 39.2 1.79% Food & Beverage Stores Thousands June 6.5 6.3 7.0 -7.14% General Merchandise Stores Thousands June 10.1 9.9 10.6 -4.72% Trans/Warehouse/Utilities Thousands June 25.1 24.6 24.2 3.72% Air Transportation Thousands June 6.8 6.4 6.8 0.00% Information Thousands June 6.2 6.2 6.3 -1.59% Telecommunications Thousands June 4.3 4.3 4.1 4.88% Financial Activities Thousands June 12.1 11.8 12.2 -0.82% Professional & Business Svcs Thousands June 30.1 29.5 30.9 -2.59% Educational & Health Services Thousands June 47.9 48.3 46.3 3.46% Health Care Thousands June 35.0 34.7 33.9 3.24% Leisure & Hospitality Thousands June 39.7 35.2 37.8 5.03% Accommodation Thousands June 11.8 9.5 9.1 29.67% Food Svcs & Drinking Places Thousands June 22.0 20.6 23.1 -4.76% Other Services Thousands June 12.2 12.1 11.5 6.09% Government Thousands June 82.4 83.4 82.3 0.12% Federal Government Thousands June 15.5 15.1 15.5 0.00% State Government Thousands June 25.2 25.9 25.3 -0.40% State Education Thousands June 6.0 7.4 6.2 -3.23% Local Government Thousands June 41.7 42.4 41.5 0.48% Local Education Thousands June 22.5 24.0 22.3 0.90% Tribal Government Thousands June 3.9 3.8 4.2 -7.14% Labor Force Alaska Thousands June 371.60 366.57 374.08 -0.66% Anchorage & Mat-Su Thousands June 205.41 203.90 201.03 2.18% Fairbanks Thousands June 46.58 48.04 45.81 1.68% Southeast Thousands June 39.32 38.64 41.83 -6.00% Gulf Coast Thousands June 41.31 39.39 43.60 -5.25% Unemployment Rate Alaska Percent June 6.9 6.6 6.8 1.47% Anchorage & Mat-Su Percent June 6.1 5.7 6.0 1.67% Fairbanks Percent June 6.0 5.3 6.2 -3.23% 176

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com

ALASKA TRENDS

Indicator

Southeast Gulf Coast United States

By Amy Miller

Units

Period

Latest Report Period

Percent Percent Percent

June June June

6.3 7.3 5.3

Previous Report Period (revised)

6.1 7.3 5.5

Year Ago Period

6.1 6.8 6.1

Year Over Year Change

3.28% 7.35% -13.11%

PETROLEUM/MINING Crude Oil Production—Alaska Millions of Barrels June 11.0 14.7 14.53 -24.29% Natural Gas Field Production—Alaska Billions of Cubic Ft. June 7.9 8.4 7.91 -0.13% ANS West Coast Average Spot Price $ per Barrel June 64.40 64.37 110.76 -41.86% Hughes Rig Count Alaska Active Rigs June 10 10 10 0.00% United States Active Rigs June 861 889 1861 -53.73% Gold Prices $ Per Troy Oz. June 1181.88 1181.88 1278.48 -7.56% Silver Prices $ Per Troy Oz. June 16.10 16.80 19.78 -18.60% Zinc Prices Per Pound June 2.09 2.29 2.12 -1.42% REAL ESTATE Anchorage Building Permit Valuations Total Millions of $ 82.32 54.80 67.0 22.87% Residential Millions of $ 26.01 18.56 27.9 -6.77% Commercial Millions of $ 52.02 18.75 30.4 71.12% Deeds of Trust Recorded Anchorage—Recording District Total Deeds June 998 819 768*GeoNorth 6.64% Fairbanks—Recording District Total Deeds June * * 223 * VISITOR INDUSTRY Total Air Passenger Traffic—Anchorage Thousands June 619.25 472.50 554.10 Total Air Passenger Traffic—Fairbanks Thousands June 118.69 92.20 116.61

11.76% 1.78%

ALASKA PERMANENT FUND Equity Millions of $ June 52800.50 54638.00 51213.70 Assets Millions of $ June 55003.50 55433.00 53220.50 Net Income Millions of $ June 76.10 324.20 222.00 Net Income—Year to Date Millions of $ June -540.60 327.80 721.20 Marketable Debt Securities Millions of $ June -146.40 -75.50 -6.10 Real Estate Investments Millions of $ June 62.60 -8.20 76.50 Preferred and Common Stock Millions of $ June -450.90 -49.70 413.00

3.10% 3.35% -65.72% -174.96% -2300.00% -18.17% -209.18%

BANKING (excludes interstate branches) Total Bank Assets—Alaska Millions of $ 1stQ15 5,913.90 3,994.74 5,477.64 Cash & Balances Due Millions of $ 1stQ15 222.57 207.48 347.62 Securities Millions of $ 1stQ15 151.28 154.35 139.05 Net Loans and Leases Millions of $ 1stQ15 2,866.23 2,313.63 2,517.48 Other Real Estate Owned Millions of $ 1stQ15 19.95 10.57 18.63 Total Liabilities Millions of $ 1stQ15 5,109.57 3,506.48 4,731.67 Total Bank Deposits—Alaska Millions of $ 1stQ15 4,334.37 3,340.30 4,070.91 Noninterest-bearing deposits Millions of $ 1stQ15 1,779.18 1,000.84 1,612.83 Interest- bearing deposits Millions of $ 1stQ15 2,555.19 2,327.83 2,458.08

7.96% -35.97% 8.80% 13.85% 7.09% 7.99% 6.47% 10.31% 3.95%

FOREIGN TRADE Value of the Dollar In Japanese Yen Yen June 123.82 120.67 102.05 21.33% In Canadian Dollars Canadian $ June 1.24 1.22 1.08 14.81% In British Pounds Pounds June 0.64 0.65 0.59 8.47% In European Monetary Unit Euro June 0.89 0.90 0.74 20.27% In Chinese Yuan Yuan June 6.11 6.10 6.16 -0.81% Notes: 1. Source of Anchorage deeds of trust (GeoNorth) is cited in the data field. 2. Banking data has been updated to include Alaska State Banks and Alaska’s sole federally chartered, Alaska-based bank, First National Bank Alaska 3. Deeds of trust data for Fairbanks in May and June were unavailable as of press time www.akbizmag.com

October 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly

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ADVERTISERS INDEX Advanced Physical Therapy of Alaska...........9 AE Solutions Alaska LLC................................147 Afognak Leasing LLC........................................73 Ahtna Inc.............................................................. 71 Alaska Air Cargo - Alaska Airlines................. 13 Alaska Executive Search (AES).................... 115 Alaska Industrial Hardware (AIH)............... 119 Alaska Mergers & Acquisitions LLC..............16 Alaska Miners Association...........................140 Alaska Photobooth Co.....................................43 Alaska Process Industry Career Consortium (APICC)................... 153 Alaska Procurement Techinical Assistance Center...................37 Alaska Rubber..................................................150 Alaska USA Federal Credit Union................. 51 Alaska USA Insurance Brokers......................53 Alyeska Resort................................................... 29 American Marine / Penco.............................174 Anchorage Chrysler Dodge...........................30 Anchorage Opera............................................ 171 Arctic Office Products...................................127 Arctic Spine....................................................... 161 ASRC Energy.....................................................145 AT&T......................................................................19 Avis Rent-A-Car..................................................41 BDO.......................................................................54 Beacon Media & Marketing.........................108 Bering Straits Native Corp............................ 137 Blood Bank of Alaska......................................179 Bowhead Transport Co. LLC.........................139 Bristol Bay Native Corp. ............................... 133 Builders Choice..................................................69 Business Insurance Associates Inc...............21 C & R Pipe and Steel Inc................................. 46

178

California Coast University............................ 24 Calista Corp......................................................109 Capitol Glass/Northerm Windows............105 Carlile Transportation Systems.............40, 59 Chris Arend Photography..............................178 Chugach Alaska Corp.....................................136 Colville Inc.........................................................154 Construction Machinery Industrial................2 Cornerstone Advisors...................................... 17 Crowley Alaska Inc............................................57 Cruz Companies................................................70 CRW Engineering Group.................................75 Delta Leasing LLC........................................... 149 Diamond Airport Parking.............................. 117 Donlin Gold.........................................................93 DOWL...................................................................95 Doyon Limited..................................................141 Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.......................163 Fairweather LLC................................................111 First National Bank Alaska................................5 GCI.............................................................155, 180 Geneva Woods Pharmacy...............................97 Global Services Inc..........................................123 Golder Associates Inc.....................................156 Great Originals Inc..........................................125 Hattenburg Dilley & Linnell (HDL).............109 Helimax Aviation .............................................. 49 Historic Anchorage Hotel............................. 171 Hotel Captain Cook......................................... 42 Ilisagvik College..................................................32 Judy Patrick Agency........................................48 Junior Achievement of Alaska...................... 28 Kassbohrer All Terrain Vehicle Pisten Bully................................................144 Katmai Onocology Group.............................159

Kinross Fort Knox..............................................72 Landâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s End Resort............................................. 24 Lynden Inc...........................................................67 Magtec Alaska.................................................148 Matanuska Electric Association (MEA).....121 MatSu Business Alliance Inc...........................47 Medical Park Family Care Inc.......................162 Matanuska Telephone Assoc. (MTA)...........47 N C Machinery.................................................157 Nalco Champion...............................................147 Nana Regional Corp......................................... 89 NCB....................................................................140 NMS Lodging...................................................... 31 North Slope Telecom....................................... 46 Northern Air Cargo............................... 168, 169 Olgoonik.............................................................. 68 Oxford Assaying & Refining Inc..................172 Pacific Alaska Freightways Inc.................... 113 Pacific Alaska Lumber...................................144 Pacific Pile & Marine.....................165, 166, 167 Parker Smith & Feek......................................... 15 PenAir...................................................................79 Personnel Plus..................................................172 Petro Marine.......................................................35 Petrotechnical Resources Alaska (PRA)........ 3 Procomm Alaska LLC........................................45 Quality Asphalt Paving (QAP)....................... 49 Ravn Alaska.........................................................23 Roger Hickel Contracting Inc.........................77 RSA Engineering Inc....................................... 115 Rural CAP-Rural Alaska Community Action Plan Inc.....................18 Samson Tug & Barge.........................................12 Sandar & Sandar Financial Strategies Group.......................25

Sealaska Corp.....................................................83 Shred Alaska.....................................................108 Sonic Drive-in.....................................................63 Span Alaska Transportation Inc.................... 66 Spenard Builders Supply A Probuild Company..................................39 Stellar Designs Inc...........................................156 STG Inc.................................................................18 T. Rowe Price......................................................55 The Medallion Foundation Inc......................48 The Superior Group........................................123 Think Office........................................................16 Total Safety.......................................................156 Trailercraft Inc/Freightliner of Alaska.........87 Truckwell of Alaska......................................... 153 Tundra Tours..................................................... 117 Udelhoven Oilfield System Services Inc.....91 UIC Bowhead-Crowley LLC.......................... 151 UIC Design Plan Build.................................... 135 Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corp. (UIC)....................103 United Way of Anchorage...............................27 University of Alaska Anchorage....................65 Usibelli Coal Mine............................................ 115 Visit Anchorage..................................................81 Vitus Energy...................................................... 115 Washington Crane & Hoist.............................33 Waste Management..........................................37 Watterson Construction.................................85 Wealth Strategies of Alaska...........................52 Wells Fargo Bank Alaska..................................11 West Mark Service Center...........................156 Westmark Hotels - Princess Lodges............12 Westpac Logistics LLC...................................125 Yukon Equipment Inc....................................107

Alaska Business Monthly | October 2015 www.akbizmag.com