Goldbelt Inc.: targeting shareholder development.

• Author: Kalytiak, Tracy
• Position: Top 49ers Spotlight: Superheroes of Success

Nineteen years ago Gail Dabaluz found a job working as a receptionist for Goldbelt Inc., a Juneau-based, timber-focused Alaska Native corporation in which she was a shareholder.

After a year, Dabaluz left to work for the City of Juneau. She went on to earn a bachelor's degree in cultural anthropology, entered into federal contracting with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, worked as a grant manager for the State of Alaska and earned a master's degree in rural development.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

While Dabaluz was away, Goldbelt changed. It shifted its emphasis from timber to real estate to tourism and then to government-contracting opportunities.

Those promising new opportunities drew Dabaluz back to Goldbelt, and now her career is in high gear. Dabaluz began working as a technical writer earlier this year, transitioning into a mid-career management trainee for a Goldbelt-sponsored, motor-vehicle sales and leasing contractor, and now is poised to start a full-time job with Goldbelt's Wolf division in Virginia.

"The management trainee position was perfect for where I was personally and professionally," Dabaluz said. "I'm really happy the board and executive management think outside the box to try and place shareholders in 8(a) corporation opportunities. I haven't heard of other Native corporations that have a mid-career development program. There's some capital that needs to be had to fund them, and that comes from the 8(a) companies."

Goldbelt is named after a richly mineralized zone in Southeast Alaska stretching along the mainland from Frederick Sound on the south to Berners Bay on the north - an area encompassing Goldbelt's land holdings, which include property in Hobart Bay, West Douglas and Echo Cove.

The Alaska Native corporation, founded in 1973 and incorporated Jan. 4,1974, was organized under the terms of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) and currently has 3,451 shareholders. The total value of its assets is $83,650,627, according to Goldbelt's 2010 annual report, which also stated that Goldbelt ended the year with a net income of $2.41 million.

Its primary business activities are Small Business Administration 8(a) government contracting, tourism and lands development. Goldbelt employs approximately 200 people in Alaska and 1,300 people outside the state.

Elliott "Chuck" Wimberly, president and chief executive officer, says Goldbelt's goal is to develop projects and businesses in Southeast Alaska that create job...