Alaska Native village corporations on the move: rapid growth creates new opportunities for businesses, shareholders.

• Author: Liles, Patricia

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A growing force in the Alaska economy stems from Alaska Native village corporations, business entities that are maturing in age and experience and have the ability to provide literally a world of opportunities for shareholders interested in working throughout the United States or even overseas.

These Native-owned business operations are generating millions in revenues, creating hundreds of jobs for Alaskans and non-Alaskans alike and earning profits that return to the Alaska business headquarters, creating a substantial impact to the state's economy.

"We're finally growing up and maturing now--figuring out the rules of the game and what it means to be a business," said Vicki Otte, executive director of the ANCSA Regional Corporation Presidents and CEOs. Otte also has served for 24 years on the board of directors for her village corporation, MTNT Inc., a business consortium representing four villages headquartered in McGrath.

"Most of the resource development in Alaska comes off of Native corporation land," Otte said. "If you look at that, and in Anchorage, how many regional and village corporations have offices in the urban area and how many people they employ, it's a huge role."

VILLAGE CORPORATIONS CLIMB TO THE TOP

The growing economic impact of Alaska Native village corporations can be seen in the annual listing of the Top 49 Alaska-based businesses, a ranking compiled by Alaska Business Monthly based on business revenue. In 2007, eight of the Top 49ers were Alaska Native village corporations, several of which posted double-digit or triple-digit growth.

One such growing organization is Afognak Native Corp., which represents more than 700 Alaska Native shareholders descending from the Alutiiq settlements on Afognak Island in the Kodiak Archipelago. Afognak, through its business subsidiary Alutiiq LLC, grew business revenue 127 percent in two years, from $236 million in 2004 to $537 million in 2006.

"Yes, we have been growing and I think we'll see a leveling off. We won't see the exponential growth, but we will continue to grow," said Sarah Lukin, director of external relations at Afognak. "The most significant contributor would be construction and construction management ... it has really boomed in the last few years and we anticipate it will provide a continued significant portion of our portfolio."

In 2006, construction represented $196.6 million of Afognak's business revenues, about 36.5 percent of the corporation's total for the year, Lukin said.

"We have a significant amount of work nationwide that is coming back to benefit the state economy and our shareholders," Lukin said. "We want to encourage our shareholders to work in all areas of the company, but many prefer to stay in Alaska."

As Afognak and other village corporations continue to grow their business revenue and operations, a handful are catching up to, and even surpassing, the much larger Alaska Native regional corporations that typically have many more shareholder members and significantly more acres Of land resources.

"We've had lots of ups and downs, bumps and bruises ... the village corporations are far more diversified than regional corporations," Otte said.

After struggling through the initial years of starting operations in the business world, Native village corporations began finding successful ventures...