Upcoming Editorial ✎
Want a sneak peek of what’s running in the April 2024 edition? Check out the headlines and summaries below.
Also, if you’re looking even further ahead, our May and June 2024 initial lineup is ready for you to view.
♦April Special Section ♦
Corporate 100
Corporate 100 Directory
The Corporate 100 are Alaska’s largest companies as ranked by number of Alaska employees; any organization with an active Alaska Business license is eligible to submit employment figures. This annual ranking and special section celebrates those who are creating jobs for Alaskans.
Overview of HR Professionals
Guest Authors Lincoln Garrick and Patty Hickock provide an overview of HR professionals in Alaska.
The Roles of Presidents & CEOs
In many businesses the roles of president and CEO are often combined on one desk, but that isn’t always the case. What is the difference between a president and CEO, and what are the pros and cons of combining the roles or assigning them to different people?
Longest Employee
This profile connects our readers with an employee that has a long history of work at one of the Corporate 100 companies, exploring how the company and employee worked together for a decades-long career that benefited both.
Nontraditional Work Experience
When evaluating a potential employee, many companies traditionally have considered education and work experience. But many people have skills and experience outside a typical workplace that can translate into excellent job performance. A new trend of considering nontraditional work experience is picking up: what does it mean for employees and employers?
Skill Bridge
Skill Bridge lends service members to civilian businesses to train for post-military careers, often in healthcare or IT but not exclusively. Alaska Business explores the benefits of this program for service members and the businesses involved.
Telecom & Tech: Using Technology to Enhance Employee Productivity
Companies are always seeking innovative ways to use technology to enhance work productivity, and with the unrelenting labor shortage, it’s even more important for businesses to harness the potential of technology to boost employee productivity. From automation to communication platforms and analytics tools, technology offers innovative ways to optimize efficiency and employee performance.
Mining: University of Alaska: Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals Center
The US Department of Energy selected the University of Alaska as one of thirteen Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) Centers across the country to conduct research on resource extraction, resource processing, and manufacturing of high-value, nonfuel, carbon-based products.
Engineering: Electrical Engineering
From automation systems to power distribution, electrical engineers design a range of solutions for today’s workplaces, which are highly dependent on technology and systems to provide safe and efficient environments.
Environmental: Anchorage’s New Central Transfer Station
Solid Waste Services has completed construction on the new Central Transfer Station in Anchorage; this article looks more at the project’s scope of work and benefits to Municipality of Anchorage residents.
Alaska Native: Powder Reserve West
The Municipality of Anchorage and Eklutna, Incorporated have signed an amended Methane Gas Settlement Agreement that will bring more housing to Eagle River in the form of a phased housing development: Powder Ridge Reserve West. Alaska Business looks at the history of this partnership and provides additional information on what’s planned so far.
Professional Services: Culture & Team Building
Many companies are finding it difficult to recruit skilled workers; in such an environment, retaining a company’s current, quality workforce is essential. Experts and local businesses share best practices for how to build a healthy workplace culture and strengthen teams internally.
Economic Development: Anchorage Midtown Business Improvement District
The Anchorage Community Development Authority is facilitating discussions to explore the feasibility of forming a Midtown Business Improvement District, which is a geographically defined area in which property owners pay an additional annual assessment to provide services, in addition to those provided by the mMunicipality, that benefit the district.
Nonprofits: Rasmuson as a Catalyst
The Rasmuson Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance to a variety of community projects around Alaska. Understandably, the Foundation receives many more requests for funding than it can provide and has developed criteria to determine what projects and organizations receive funding.
Retail: KANA on Kodiak
Kodiak Area Native Association recently opened Kodiak Marketplace, which provides a public-use conference center and meeting areas as well as housing community-focused tenant spaces, such as a market, coffee shop, bookstore, bakery, hair salon, and post office. We learn more about the impetus behind the investment and how it will benefit Kodiak residents.
Energy: Grants and Incentives for Onsite Renewable Energy Generators
There are federal grants and other incentives to encourage rural agricultural and other businesses to take advantage of small, onsite renewable energy generators. This article explores what resources are available, the projects they can fund, and gets insights from organizations that have already taken advantage of the programs.
Editorial Focus
Mining, Engineering, Environmental, Alaska Native
Deadlines
Space: February 20, 2024
Art: February 26, 2024
Editorial Content: February 12, 2024
Editorial Focus
Oil & Gas
Construction, Tourism, Telecom & Tech, and Transportation
Deadlines
Space: March 20, 2024
Art: March 27, 2024
Editorial Content: March 11, 2024
♦ May Special Section ♦
Oil & Gas
ConocoPhillips Update
After new oil from Greater Mooses Tooth 2 boosted overall output from the North Slope in 2022, ConocoPhillips is poised to make an even bigger impact with Willow, announcing a final investment decision in December while anticipating drilling this year at Nuna. The company updates us on its exciting developments.
Baseball Cards: Cook Inlet’s Oil & Gas Players
Can’t tell the players without a program, so to help sort out the vital oil and gas fields of Cook Inlet, we once again present a primer in the form of baseball cards. Clip them, trade them, and collect the whole set of onshore and offshore producers.
CNG Vehicle Fuel
In addition to its single gasoline/diesel station, Utqiaġvik has a compressed natural gas (CNG) filling station. Meanwhile, Alaska CNG is the distributor for Norgasco, the Deadhorse-based utility pioneering CNG for ground transport, including Fairbanks North Star Borough buses. The expense of vehicle conversion keeps CNG marginal as a fuel, but the potential is there.
Waste Oil Utilization
By reheating leftovers, waste oil technology extends the life of energy resources. Nenana Heating Services sells furnaces that burn waste oil, and Holland America Princess is fueling tour buses with cooking oil from cruise ship kitchens. Find out about technology that can squeeze energy from a waste product.
TRUapp Energy by Tex R Us
Tex R Us is an Anchorage-based software developer that makes TRUapp Energy, which the oil and gas industry uses to help manage its assets. Get to know the coders behind the app and take a peek at a new software-as-service that will be its next product.
Alaska Oil & Gas Historical Society
The history of oil and gas in Alaska is long, but the history of the Alaska Oil & Gas Historical Society only started in February 2023. What does the society do, and what stories does it have to tell?
Construction: Project-based Joint Ventures
On projects big and small (but mostly big), contractors sometimes team up as a joint venture (JV). For example, ChemTrack and Cornerstone formed a JV when they had to remove a runway in Kaktovik. We look at when competitors decide to cooperate on joint bids and how these partnerships work.
Transportation: Community Winter Access Trail
Full-sized cars and trucks drive the streets of Alaska’s northernmost town, but how did they get there? Discover the state’s other highway system, the Community Winter Access Trail, a seasonal economic asset that connects Utqiaġvik over the frozen tundra to points south.
Tourism: Cross-Gulf Cruises
New for 2024, Princess Cruises is adding a package to fly passengers to see the world-famous bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve. Learn more about the tidal wave of visitor traffic across the Gulf of Alaska and the shoreside attractions off the usual cruise track.
Telecom & Tech: Ethics of AI
Software tools based on machine learning open new possibilities for creative workflow, but what are the ethical implications? As various industries find uses for generative AI, they wrestle with disclosure, transparency, and intellectual property questions.
Fisheries: ALFA BETA
The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association received a $700,000 federal grant for ALFA BETA, the Boat Energy Transition Accelerator, to replace diesel motors with hybrid and electric ones. How far will the money go toward modifying the fleet, and what kind of sparks fly when electric boats hit the water?
Energy: Railbelt Decarbonization Study
A report by the Alaska Center for Energy and Power at UAF concludes that Railbelt communities could indeed generate 96 percent of electricity from non-fossil-fuel sources by 2050, but there’s a catch. Dive into the Railbelt Decarbonization study and discover how much capital investment would be required to meet the lofty sustainability goal.
Education: Alaska Resource Education
Alaska Resource Education (ARE) is praised for introducing young people to the state’s major industries, including oil & gas. For example, the Pipeline Training Center in Fairbanks hosted a summer camp for school-aged kids, and ARE started a course for teen girls, sending them on field trips to various energy resource sites. What else is ARE up to? What impact does it have?
Manufacturing: Build a Better Bunny Boot
Alaska Gear Company is the new brand for Airframes Alaska, reflecting how the Palmer-based company doesn’t just make bush plane parts and tents for Arctic whalers, but industrial portable shelters through TundraTech Alaska and all sorts of spinoffs. The latest gear is an innovative boot that’s out for field testing. Check out the journey an Alaska-made product takes to enter the market.
Media & Arts: Music Census
Whether as a serious hobby or as a profession, Alaska musicians keep busy on stages and in recording studios. Who gets into this business? How far does their talent take them? And how can event organizers hire a music act that’s right for them? A recent census by the nonprofit Alaska Independent Musicians Initiative begins to answer those questions.
♦ June Special Section ♦
Transportation
Saltchuk Family of Companies
Some familiar brands provide Alaskans with land, sea, and air transport: Carlile, TOTE Maritime, Cook Inlet Tug and Barge, Ryan Air, Northern Air Cargo. A less familiar brand unites them all in one big corporate family. Get to know Seattle-based Saltchuk and its diverse holdings.
Alaska Airlines Extended Range
Founded in the 49th State, Alaska Airlines is reaching into the 50th by acquiring Hawaiian Air. Combined with its longest-ever routes to the East Coast, enabled by new 737-8 jets, the Seattle-based carrier is spreading its wings, so to speak, to new corners of the globe.
Sorting & Packing
The arrival of an Amazon hub in Anchorage adds to the demand for sorting and packing workers. FedEx Express is already a major employer in that field, expanding its services in the city, while on the other side of the airport complex, a new cargo facility is under construction by NorthLink Aviation. Check out the latest logistical twists.
Animal Transport
When pets move in or out of Alaska by airliner or overland through Canada, they need a health certificate. Still, a shortage of veterinary technicians makes appointments hard to schedule. Enter Anchorage Pet Travel Certificates, a business formed as a service to four-legged globetrotters. Learn more about the logistics of transporting live animals.
Rural Retail Redux
Extending coverage from a report in last September’s issue, meet the retailers, wholesalers, and distributors that form a lifeline for rural Alaska. Supply lines are long and thin and tie the Bush together in a lacy logistical web.
Finance: Out-of-State Reach
For some reason, Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union has one branch located in, of all places, Waipahu, Hawaii. Learn why and discover how other Alaska financial institutions maintain a presence in the Lower 48 and beyond.
Oil & Gas: Tankers to Anacortes
Crude oil from the North Slope doesn’t stop at the pipeline terminus in Valdez; it keeps moving in tankers all the way to a refinery in Anacortes, Washington. Track the flow all the way to the industrial center that readies Alaska’s petroleum wealth for consumption.
Education: Professional Finish
Every doctor and lawyer in Alaska had to choose to bring their skills back into the state after learning them elsewhere. Although there are no medical or law schools locally, aspiring professionals have various entry points to those career pathways. This article provides an overview of what’s available for undergrads and which schools Alaskans most commonly attend out of state.
Mining: Transboundary Issues
The border between the Alaska Panhandle and neighboring British Columbia crosses several watersheds, placing the state downstream from Canadian resource development projects. Peek over the fence to meet the Red Chris and KSM Mine to see how what happens in Canada affects the Southeast.
International Trade: Opportunities & Lessons in Singapore & India
The Alaska International Business Center is leading a trade mission to Singapore and India this year, much like past excursions that strengthened commercial ties between South Asia and businesses in the state. See what goes into planning and executing a successful junket and how interhemispheric networking pays off for the local economy.
Fisheries: Processor Downsizing
Fluctuations in the seafood market will ripple for years to come, as three major processors announced plans to temporarily close or permanently sell Alaska facilities. Grapple with the turbulent conditions that drove Trident, Peter Pan Seafood Company, and OBI Seafoods to make consequential decisions.
Manufacturing: Bay Weld Boats
In its fiftieth year of operations in Homer, Bay Weld Boats is finishing a multi-year project with Huna Totem on the Icy Strait Point fleet of passenger vessels, as well as other projects supporting tourism, government, and fisheries. This Alaska success story reflects a booming marine industry in Homer, overcoming the unique challenges of building. high-end custom vessels in Alaska.
Environmental: Resolve Marine to the Rescue
From its base in Dutch Harbor, Resolve Marine provides drydock and shipyard services, and last year, the company established a presence in Tacoma, Washington, for ship husbandry, marine construction, emergency firefighting, and environmental response. Get to know a global leader in ship and vessel salvage and rescue, emergency response, and specialized marine services.
Retail: Postage Meters and Office Machines
The US Postal Service is changing the rules for postage meters, which means every office that uses the devices is due for an overhaul. Get to know the behind-the-scenes magic of office machinery from Alaska Enterprise Solutions.
Small Business: A Little Slice of the Islands
Lei’s Poke Stop in Muldoon is more than just a shop selling shaved ice and Hawaiian snacks. It’s a hub for the Polynesian community in Anchorage, a taste of the tropics in the subarctic. Meet the proprietor and the customers who treat the business as a lifeline to the islands.
Editorial Focus
Transportation
Finance, Oil & Gas, Education, Mining
Deadlines
Space:April 22, 2024
Art: April 29, 2024
Editorial Content: April 10, 2024