best in class…
- Best load capacities
- Best attachment lengths
- Best transportability
- Best serviceability
- Best accessibility with flat deck
- Best distributor and factory support
best in class…
- Best load capacities
- Best attachment lengths
- Best transportability
- Best serviceability
- Best accessibility with flat deck
- Best distributor and factory support
- Best load capacities
- Best attachment lengths
- Best transportability
- Best serviceability
- Best accessibility with flat deck
- Best distributor and factory support
Contents
Features
By Tracy Barbour
By Rachael Kvapil
By Tracy Barbour
Local Suppliers Have the Right Supplies
By Richard Perry
By Daniel P. Hoffman
By Scott Rhode
By Scott Rhode
By Tracy Barbour
By Rachael Kvapil
By Tracy Barbour
Local Suppliers Have the Right Supplies
By Richard Perry
By Daniel P. Hoffman
Quick Reads
By Katie Pesznecker
By Alexandra Kay
About The Cover
You are not alone. These are the same paths that enterprising spirits have taken to become Alaska’s Top 49ers. Their bold choices have led to success in the fields of aviation, tourism, oil and gas, fishing, government contracting, and many more.
The creator of this month’s cover, Lucas Elliott, left silhouetted figures so that you can imagine yourself in the place of these intrepid adventurers. A professor of graphic design at UAA, Elliott is also the author of Battle Star, a comic about a warrior echinoderm, and he illustrated the graphic novel version of the 2015 local film Moose: The Movie. He could hardly have imagined these wild destinations before embarking on his journey of ink and paint. Such is life, and such is this magazine.
Treasures await you within. Stake your claim with a single step:
For the editor’s welcome to this special issue, choose this article.
From the Editor
Separately, in meetings marked by a decidedly different tone, the Alaska Business editorial and ownership team made another determination: we decided to adjust the criteria for eligibility to be a Top 49er. Instead of requiring that an organization be at least 51 percent Alaskan-owned, we are admitting companies to the Top 49ers if they were established in Alaska and remain headquartered here—and, of course, their gross revenue is high enough to make the ranks.
Kerry Tasker
Billie Martin
press@akbizmag.com
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anking is pretty much the same all over, at its core. Banks and credit unions operate in a highly commoditized industry that leaves little room to compete on price, so creating a positive customer experience is especially critical.
Customer experience encompasses every interaction an individual has with a company and its brand: in-branch contact, email, call center, online banking system, online advertising, digital apps, and even social media. And it involves the customer’s senses, emotions, feelings, perceptions, evaluations, engagement, and even memories. A pleasant experience—one that is helpful, convenient, fast, and friendly—can make people feel seen, heard, and appreciated. Ultimately, favorable customer experiences help companies differentiate themselves and increase their competitive advantage, brand loyalty, customer retention, and revenue.
he 5,620 nonprofits in Alaska range from sports leagues and outdoor recreation organizations to rural and urban hospitals, clinics, and community health centers. Nonprofits provide housing—for seniors, individuals with disabilities, or low-income populations—as well as childcare services, youth programs, and vocational training. Civic and social clubs count as nonprofits, and so do colleges, universities, labor unions, and volunteer associations.
According to Alaska’s Nonprofit Sector: Generating Economic Impact, a report released by The Foraker Group in December 2021, Alaska’s nonprofits not only provide essential services but also create jobs, directly employing more than 38,105 Alaskans. Those jobs, as well as the goods and services that nonprofits require, in turn sustain another 57,922 jobs in the state. Altogether, these jobs translate into $4.1 billion in direct, indirect, and induced wages generated by the nonprofit sector. Seven previous reports have reached similar conclusions.
Alaska Isn’t Just Any State.
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The consultants in USI’s Anchorage & Sitka offices know Alaska like their own back yard because, well, it is.
With decades of presence & experience in the state, our Alaskan teams deliverinformed perspectives & customized brokerage & consulting solutions to aid Alaska-based businesses in addressing the specific & unique challenges they face.
Sitka: 907.747.8625 or visit usi.com
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orkers have nothing to lose but their chains, said Karl Marx. But what if workers own the chains?
Rope, wire, hoses, tubes, and chains are the stock-in-trade at Alaska Rubber Group (ARG), an employee-owned business in Anchorage. Its former CEO, Janeece Higgins, retired at the end of 2020, but she’s still busy as a board member of The ESOP Association, a national nonprofit that promotes employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), a financial mechanism for returning the value of a company to its workers.
The association guided ARG through the ESOP transition in 2006. “We didn’t know what we didn’t know, and ESOPs are a very different animal that most of us had very little experience with,” Higgins says.
ore than ever before, the executive recruiting environment is changing. Attracting top talent is a topic many organizations are currently examining. Hiring trends and the lack of available workers make national headlines daily. According to the US Department of Labor, labor participation rates have not recovered to pre-pandemic numbers, with 69.2% of eligible men and 57.4% of eligible women contributing to the US workforce in 2019, an entire percentage point higher than current levels. So, where have all the workers gone?
Lives
he first time a neighbor shared her generations-old sourdough starter with me, I felt like that scene in Disney’s The Lion King in which Rafiki holds newborn Simba up to a rising crescendo of “The Circle of Life.” The passing down of such a legacy left me humbled—and worried that I could live up to the awe-inspiring breakfasts she made. There was nothing quite like her Sunday morning spreads that included sourdough pancakes and waffles adorned with locally harvested berries and slathered with birch syrup.
Sourdough—a symbiotic colony of yeast and bacteria used for leavening—is as tied to Alaska lore as dog sleds, snow, and a pair of Sorel boots. Pioneers who wandered the territory carrying sourdough starter in their packs became known as “sourdoughs”—a term that is now used to label an Alaskan old timer.
Ken Edmier | Alaska Railroad Corporation
Throttle
resumes a growth
trajectory after
pandemic disruptions
By Rachael Kvapil
oncluding its first century of existence, the Alaska Railroad Corporation (ARRC) has a lot to celebrate. After the pandemic disrupted an upward trajectory in 2019, the state-owned railroad is rebounding from a brutal downturn in 2020 and preparing for growth in the coming years. With increased revenue from freight, passenger, and real estate, ARRC is ready to undertake a significant tourism and cargo project in Seward that will have economic ripple effects to the end of its tracks.
Ken Edmier | Alaska Railroad Corporation
Full
Throttle
The Alaska Railroad
resumes a growth
trajectory after
pandemic disruptions
By Rachael Kvapil
oncluding its first century of existence, the Alaska Railroad Corporation (ARRC) has a lot to celebrate. After the pandemic disrupted an upward trajectory in 2019, the state-owned railroad is rebounding from a brutal downturn in 2020 and preparing for growth in the coming years. With increased revenue from freight, passenger, and real estate, ARRC is ready to undertake a significant tourism and cargo project in Seward that will have economic ripple effects to the end of its tracks.
hoices lay before you, but before you embark, let us set the scene: It’s 2022, and for the last two years every business, not-for-profit, and nonprofit across the globe has been operating to the best of its ability under the demands of a worldwide pandemic.
Not every business made it: some saw an unanticipated and unavoidable drought, markets or customers drying up seemingly overnight, while others chose a downhill route that led over a steep cliff—an unfortunate end.
Other businesses worked their way through the labyrinth, emerging at the end with bumps and scrapes and a whole lot of lessons learned. They navigated plot twists that arose from working and living at home, social distancing, PPE shortages, logistics issues, and a growing demand for houseplants.
Phone: (907) 488-5983 • Fax: (907) 488-9830
ll of the data for the Top 49ers is submitted through an annual survey. As part of our surveying process, each year we ask the responding companies to answer a question related to our theme, which this year is “Choose Adventure!”
The question we asked for 2022 is:
As your organization looks at the path forward, what opportunities are you excited about? What “adventure” is your business poised to embark on?
providing excellent
services in a very
unique and challenging
environment.
he list of the Top 49ers is fairly consistent, though it never repeats itself exactly. Some companies don’t have the revenue year after year to make the list, others may opt to participate one year and not another. Every so often, a new company builds its revenue sufficiently to qualify for the first time, a feat we often recognize in our special section and annual luncheon presentation.
This year is unique as we welcome three “new” Top 49ers to the ranks. Craig Taylor Equipment fits our traditional sense of a new 49er, as 2022 is its first ever appearance on the list.
Kerry Tasker
f the politics of 1958 had played out slightly differently and Alaska statehood was delayed by six months or so, Hawaii would have laid claim to the 49th star on the US flag. As the fiftieth state, Alaska would ascribe special significance to that number instead, and thus our annual list of top companies by revenue would have room for one more entry.
But history played out as it did, so the ranks are closed at forty-nine. Inevitably, some businesses don’t make the list—including those that have easily landed on it previously, as the bottom line continues to climb year after year.
SOPHIE STATION RENOVATES
The freshly remodeled Summit Suite at Sophie Station Suites affords guests an opportunity to indulge in a one-of-a-kind luxury experience in Fairbanks. The condostyle, 1,581-square-foot unit is complete with:
- a full kitchen with Cosentino Dekton countertops, professional-grade appliances, a 10-foot island with seating for four, and an 11-foot walnut dining table that seats ten
- a separate living room with custom-built furniture, an 85-inch smart television, surround sound, and dedicated internet service able to accommodate hybrid meetings
- two bedrooms with king-size beds, custom-made furniture, 65-inch smart TVs, and a vanity/desk area
- two bathrooms with spa-like features, including custom-fabricated floor tiles, 3-by-7-foot walk-in showers with dual shower heads, and LED-lit vanity mirrors
hink of a handful of iconic Alaska businesses—those that have graced the pages of this magazine, those that have given back to our community, and those that employ our friends and neighbors. While their industries, teams, and cultures may be different, they undoubtedly have one thing in common: they have found a way to tell their story—and you should too.
A brand story is something every business should invest in. It’s a powerful tool for shaping any organization in all aspects of culture, service, operations, and more. And frankly, it’s just good business sense.
MARKETING
To Catch a Z
An insider perspective on post-Millennial marketing
By Rachael Kvapil
Carter Damaska
s a Gen Zer, Jordan Green knows how to market to younger generations. When he started Glacier Marketing Group last year, he wasn’t old enough to file for an LLC and had to co-sign with a tax attorney who fully transferred over the business when he turned eighteen a few months later. Green had already been developing content for social media prior to his decision to start an official marketing company, a process he went into thoughtfully. Green says he wanted to do more than just start a business. He wanted to build a brand with the potential to positively impact people.
“I really wanted something that reflects my values as an entrepreneur and as an Alaskan,” says Green. “Something that was more than just about making money.”
Telecom & Tech
Coding in 907
An open frontier for software developers
By Scott Rhode
arages were famously the birthplace of companies that dominate software development. Alaska has garages; therefore, nothing stands in the way of Alaska becoming the Silicon Slope. Nothing, that is, except that everywhere else has garages, too.
Undaunted, some Alaskans have grabbed at a slice of the silicon pie. MTA spun off its AlasConnect service as Ampersand, a tech solutions developer. Tech accelerator Launch Alaska is currently boosting startups like the Remora logistics app and Kartorium, an Anchorage company behind a 3D training tool. App shoppers can also find software tools for learning Alaska Native languages, designed and built in the state.
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Join us and we’ll all be stronger.
To get started with a first-time campaign, call 907.263.3809.
Shoe Is
Dropping
he carbon-emissions problem has far-reaching ramifications, and it requires everyone working together to address the issue. Earth’s climate has always fluctuated, often driven by changes in the atmosphere, but changes observed in recent decades are faster and more extreme than at any recorded time. Human burning of fossil fuels has led to atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations not seen for millions of years, says Francis Wiese, science director of climate solutions at Stantec in Anchorage.
Oil & Gas
Carter Damaska | Alaska Business
Local Suppliers Have the Right Supplies
n Alaska there are wider temperature variations than almost anywhere in the United States: near Fairbanks, temperatures range from 80°F or 90°F in the summer to -70°F in the winter. As harsh as that is on people, those conditions are especially brutal on machines and materials.
Normal asphalt, for example, isn’t up to meeting those demands. That is where polymer-modified asphalt comes in. The polymer stiffens the asphalt and increases its resilience in high temperatures, resulting in reduced cracking and rutting. At low temperatures, polymer-modified asphalt resists thermal cracking.
PIPEFITTERS & WELDERS
of the UNITED ASSOCIATION
Pipelines for Over 40 Years
APPRENTICESHIP INTERVIEWS YEAR AROUND
risis management and contingency planning. Those five simple words can cause the most competent business executives to lose more than a few good nights’ sleep. Everyone is busy, and most managers and administrators tend to expend the majority of their focus and energies putting out the operational fires of the day (or week, month, quarter, et cetera). When asked to consider the dire consequences and ramifications of a potential event—especially for those that likely have a small chance of actually occurring—it’s often far too easy to place consideration for such matters on one’s to-do list, perhaps when things quiet down somewhat.
The problem, of course, is that things are never going to quiet down. A whole new set of problems and other “high-priority” issues invariably come to the fore, making it all too easy to push emergency management and contingency planning to the bottom of the pile. If a business or organization is lucky, there will be no real consequence realized from such inaction, as—by definition—the low-frequency event will likely never materialize. However, if such an event were to happen, the high consequence nature of such circumstances could derail an entire operation and perhaps even bankrupt one’s business. Given the high stakes involved, can you really afford to gamble when it comes to such planning?
By Charles Bell
Vice President of Sales
ccording to a research study by IPG Media Lab and Forbes, memory recall for sponsored content is twice as long as for traditional advertisements. Sponsored content also improves brand favorability and increases the likelihood of developing new business opportunities.
In the pages of Alaska Business, sponsored content appears in the form of Business Profiles or our HR Matters and Legal Speak features, all clearly marked as sponsored content.
BALANCED BOUNDARIES
By Woodrie Burich
Pavel Sevryukov | iStock
e know the benefits of effort well.
The drive. The push. The excellence and outcomes that accompany it.
We know what it takes to push ourselves personally, and we’ve learned how to support our teams in learning this skill too. We know the motivational techniques, the key performance indicators, and the data we need to keep our teams and stakeholders pleased—and we drive our results towards these.
inter presents all sorts of fun activities to look forward to, but no one looks forward to slippery roads and sidewalks. From twelve-inch snowfalls to dreaded freezing rain, the risks of slip-and-fall injuries for visitors, tenants, and employees are a real concern for businesses. Since slips and falls can happen anywhere, injuries sustained in cases covered by premises liability insurance and workers’ compensation can be equally diverse and very costly.
The legal theory behind premises liability is that the owners and operators of a property need to exercise a reasonable amount of care to ensure that the property is safe for the people who use it. Tort allegations resulting from negligent care of a property can be very costly. The National Floor Safety Institute estimates that the average cost to defend against a slip-and-fall lawsuit is $50,000, and the average judgment awarded in cases that go to trial is $100,000.
Alaska USA Federal Credit Union
Alaska USA Federal Credit Union finalized a merger with Spokane-based Global Credit Union. The merger combines Alaska USA’s 700,000 members with Global’s 45,000 members. Global operates nine branches in Washington and Idaho and an additional three branches in Italy on US military installations. Alaska USA has sixty-seven branches in Alaska, Washington, California, and Arizona.
alaskausa.org
Ucore Rare Metals
ucore.com
464,864 barrels
-3.6% change from previous month
Source: Alaska Department of Natural Resources
$101.36 per barrel
-6.8% change from previous month
Source: Alaska Department of Natural Resources
4.5% unemployment
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Alaska Trends
et’s not overstate the explosion of popularity that sourdough bread enjoyed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, as Vanessa Orr’s “Sourdough Lives” reports, home baking experienced such a surge in March 2020 that stores ran short of baker’s yeast. Bakers improvised with wild yeast, which in symbiosis with acid-secreting bacteria gives sourdough its distinct flavor and texture.
However, an article from a month before the COVID-19 lockdown was already reporting that sourdough bread was on the rise (so to speak). And, as is not uncommon for such trend pieces, the same phenomenon was reported years earlier, a perennial novelty.
At a Glance
Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith [a.k.a. J.K. Rowling].
What charity or cause are you passionate about?
I’m on the board of the Healing Hand Foundation. It’s a charity that supports Natives and veterans in Southeast Alaska to meet their copay requirements for the Indian Health Service arm down here.
What’s the first thing you do when you get home after a long day at work?
I go straight to the gym. I work out after work. It’s the way I relieve stress.
What vacation spot is on your bucket list?
The Great Barrier Reef. I love to scuba dive.
If you could domesticate a wild animal, what animal would it be?
None! [he laughs] I don’t want to clean up after a domesticated wild animal!
At a Glance
Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith [a.k.a. J.K. Rowling].
What charity or cause are you passionate about?
I’m on the board of the Healing Hand Foundation. It’s a charity that supports Natives and veterans in Southeast Alaska to meet their copay requirements for the Indian Health Service arm down here.
What’s the first thing you do when you get home after a long day at work?
I go straight to the gym. I work out after work. It’s the way I relieve stress.
What vacation spot is on your bucket list?
The Great Barrier Reef. I love to scuba dive.
If you could domesticate a wild animal, what animal would it be?
None! [he laughs] I don’t want to clean up after a domesticated wild animal!
Off the Cuff
oming from Wasilla, the career of a professional surfer didn’t make sense to McHugh Pierre, much as he wished it could. Instead, he followed another dream. He studied journalism at UAA and worked in TV news. Covering public issues led to an interest in government, so he joined the communications office of then-Governor Frank Murkowski. After running his own public relations firm, Quantum Communications, Pierre was hired by the urban Native corporation for Juneau, Goldbelt, Inc., in 2015. Within five years he was elevated to CEO. Now he oversees 1,500 employees across various business sectors.
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Thank You Alaska!
Thank you to our friends, neighbors, and valued customers for your ongoing support and partnership, and special thanks to each of our dedicated employees for their continued care, expertise, and ingenuity as we all work together to keep Alaska moving. We look forward to continuing to serve our communities by providing multi-modal transportation and logistics solutions across the entire state!