Cape Fox Corp. triples revenues to $224 million in 1 year: board chairman finds living in Alabama integral to growth.

• Author: Stomierowski, Peg
• Position: 2009 Alaska's Top 49ers: TRAILBLAZERS leading the state's top business

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Albert White is board chairman of Saxman/Ketchikan-based Cape Fox Corp., a Top 49er company and Alaska Native village corporation whose revenues reportedly more than tripled in a year from $60.4 million in 2007 to $224.19 million in 2008.

In 2003, it was just $8 million, but then Bruce Borup, CEO from 2003 to 2008, ushered in a period of rapid growth, financial momentum and greater diversification. And with the current management team of Mike Brown as CEO of the federal contracting group and Dave Landis as interim CEO for the Saxman local group, White says the future looks bright. Both have a participative leadership style, he said, and Albert expects the company to realize a more structured environment while working to increase profits with less risk.

Currently the firm and its subsidiaries, which are involved in construction, commercial real estate, information technology, aerospace manufacturing and engineering, tourism and hospitality, and retail goods, employ 625 people, including 114 in Alaska.

The village corporation has 307 shareholders, about 121 of whom live within the city of Saxman. Home of Cape Fox Corp., this historic Tlingit village founded in 1884 and known for having the largest totem park in the world, is a popular attraction of tourists who debark from cruise ships at Ketchikan. As a young man, Albert White worked as a tour host for Shore Excursions. As a youth he had great interest in indigenous culture, and Cape Fox Tours allowed him to engage in the culture while sharing with visitors who came to the community to visit.

Under ANCSA (the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act), Cape Fox Corp. started out in 1971 with 198 shareholders. One of them was Albert's father, William G. White Jr., a full-blooded Tlingit. His father moved him to Saxman when Albert was 6 because he wanted his son to grow up experiencing traditional ways. White continued living there for 22 years, rising in the Cape Fox corporate structure and helping to provide community leadership while practicing the old ways.

"I started with Cape Fox when I was 12 and I worked for them for 18 years," says White, who still does. Three years ago, he went Outside to Huntsville, Ala., to investigate certain operations with hopes of application to Saxman facilities.

"Being Tlingit gave me the discipline I needed in order to have the initiative to get out and be involved in the community," he said. "The Tlingits were fierce and assertive. That's...