KeyBank Hires Area Leader for Alaska Branches
Photo Credit: KeyBank
Nicolle Welch joined KeyBank as Senior Area Retail Leader for the Alaska market.
In this role, Welch is responsible for overseeing KeyBank’s network of ten Alaska branches and supporting the small business segment.
With more than eighteen years of banking experience, including district management at Wells Fargo, Welch brings a wealth of expertise to her new role. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, and is a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School.
A resident of Alaska for more than a decade, Welch is eager to leverage her skills and passion to make a positive impact on clients, colleagues, and the community.
In This Issue
New Oil on the North Slope
August 2026
In mid-May it was 19°F and windy at the Aurora Hotel in Deadhorse. As I stood in the parking lot surveying the surroundings, I chatted with a gentleman from Texas who works for Nabors Alaska Drilling and was in town as part of a crew tasked with getting a previously inactive drill rig up and running. He said that, according to his supervisor, spring is the windy season on the North Slope. The gusts were bracing, numbing the fingers holding my camera, but most of my attention was focused on what I could capture through the lens: work trucks, shipping containers, buildings obscured by snow whipped up by the wind.