The Alaska Gasline Development Corporation named Texas-based Glenfarne Group as the company interested in taking over the $44 billion Alaska LNG Project. The agreement would cover an 800-mile pipeline from the North Slope to an LNG export facility in Nikiski. Glenfarne has a separate agreement with ENSTAR Natural Gas to advance import infrastructure in the same facility. Founded in 2011, Glenfarne has primary offices in Houston and New York. The company develops, owns, and operates energy infrastructure, such as the Texas LNG Project slated to export gas by 2028 from Brownsville, Texas.

glenfarnegroup.com

The most-read news website and newspaper in Alaska is getting new leadership. David Hulen, a thirty-eight-year veteran of the Anchorage Daily News and its editor since 2015, is retiring effective March 15. Managing editor Vicky Ho becomes interim editor during the search for a permanent successor. Meanwhile, publisher Andy Pennington is departing to become regional president and publisher for Adams Publishing Group in Southern Wisconsin. Pennington has overseen operations since 2018, and he will continue to consult while owner and president Ryan Binkley steps up as publisher. Also, Kea Cuaresma is promoted from chief revenue officer to vice president of revenue and community engagement, overseeing sales, subscriptions, events, and community relations. Binkley says the changes in leadership “signal an inflection point in the history of the ADN. I think when we look back on the beginning of 2025 it will mark the start of a new phase, and it’s one that I’m very excited about.”

adn.com

Anchorage-based holding company Blue Umbrella is acquiring Alaska Permanent Capital Management (APCM), an investment advising company founded in 1992 by Dave Rose, the first executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation. As the transaction closes this month, Blue Umbrella becomes majority owner of APCM and its subsidiary company, Alaska Wealth Advisors. Dave Rose’s son Evan Rose is stepping down as CEO to become Chief Compliance Officer, while company veteran Bill Lierman steps up as CEO of APCM. Alaska Wealth Advisors CEO Laura Bruce and her team will remain in place. Established in 2021, Blue Umbrella specializes in succession planning for middle-market companies.

apcm.net

Effective on April 1, Southeast Medical Clinic (SMC) in Juneau joins the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC). The addition of SMC’s internal medicine expertise complements SEARHC’s family medicine practice and specialty care expansion. SMC founder Dr. Catherine Peimann says, “Our shared commitment to recruiting and retaining highly trained and compassionate medical professionals, while bringing increasingly advanced technologies and innovations to Juneau, helps us deliver on that vision.” As SEARHC and SMC finalize the transition, the goal is to begin seeing patients as SEARHC employees at the current clinic on Willoughby Avenue.

searhc.org

The Anchorage branch of law firm Lane Powell is now part of the Ballard Spahr organization. Under the Ballard Spahr name, Peter Michaud leads the combined firm as chair. Barbara J. Duffy, who served as Lane Powell’s president, now serves on Ballard Spahr’s executive committee. Duffy says, “Combining with Ballard enables us to bring a far greater range of services—and a national platform—to our clients.” The combination expands the firm to more than 750 lawyers in eighteen offices, with capabilities in litigation, corporate transactions, real estate, finance, and intellectual property.

ballardspahr.com

The pyrotechnic thriller at the gateway to Houston moved into more permanent quarters, just ahead of the New Year’s Eve sales blitz. Gorilla Fireworks has been selling from an open-air stand along Parks Highway near Big Lake Road since 1990, but a change to municipal rules in 2009 requires an indoor structure in compliance with state fire code. After a lengthy grace period, construction began in 2019, and Gorilla Fireworks was able to move in by November 2024. Manager Samantha Bouma calls the new building a “cool” and “exciting” space.

gorillafireworks.com

Majority and minority ownership of Alaska Growth Capital (AGC) is trading places. Bristol Bay Native Corporation now holds a 75 percent stake, after holding a minority stake since 2022, when McKinley Management acquired the business line from Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. McKinley remains a partner and 25 percent owner and will continue to provide strategic support. Logan Birch continues as AGC president, but the company unveiled a new logo—a hemlock bough and cone—to represent “evergreen” impact on the community.

bbnc.net

In addition to a favorable court decision regarding its possession of roads across the Kuparuk River Unit, ConocoPhillips notched another win on the North Slope scoreboard as 2024 wrapped up. On December 17, the company reported first oil from Nuna, the forty-ninth drill site developed in the Kuparuk area and the first in nearly a decade. ConocoPhillips Alaska says the project was achieved ahead of schedule and under budget, using the first sea-lifted module fabricated in Alaska for ConocoPhillips in more than twenty years. Drilling at site 3T began in September and is expected to continue for a few years, adding twenty-nine development wells, on-pad infrastructure, and pipelines to Kuparuk processing facilities.

alaska.conocophillips.com

The insurance firm known as Parker, Smith & Feek (PS&F) is rebranding with the name of its strategic partner, IMA Financial Group. PS&F entered the Alaska market in 1986 and was acquired by IMA in 2021. The team of more than fifty associates in Anchorage join a majority employee-owned company with 2,700 colleagues nationwide. The firm specializes in risk and wealth management services.

imacorp.com/pnw