Goldbelt Rising on a Global Scale: Federal contracting spells local success.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: Alaska Native - Financial report

Goldbelt, Inc. is headquartered in Juneau. It's an urban Alaska Native Corporation that was formed in 1974, named after a 33,000-acre mineralized zone in Southeast Alaska that stretches along the mainland from Frederick Sound to Berners Bay.

The company has honored its namesake, finding success to the tune of $236 million in gross revenue in 2016, ranking the company at number 15 in the 2017 Alaska Business Top 49ers. That same year, Goldbelt was the only Alaska-based company to recive the Presidential

Award for Export Achievement; this "E" Certificate was awarded for "outstanding contribution to the Export Expansion Program of the United States of America."

Also in 2016, Goldbelt was ranked 7 of 4,500 8(a) companies for volume of business awarded by the federal government. The following year Goldbelt was recognized as the 2017 Small Business of the Year by the US Department of State for facilitating more than fifty worldwide international meetings sponsored by the department.

Growing Up and Out

While Goldbelt has deep and binding ties to Alaska, it has certainly spread its influence beyond the state's borders.

Goldbelt President and CEO Elliott Wimberly says the company's business model in Alaska is built on tourism, marine transportation, and managing the lands awarded to Goldbelt as part of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Outside Alaska, Goldbelt is engaged primarily in federal contracting, "which constitutes about 96 percent of our revenue source," Wimberly says. Goldbelt's service sectors include construction, operating as a general contractor on commercial and government contracts; IT sector support; medical services; and military support, providing weapons, ammunition, and vehicles. "We have a relationship with original equipment manufacturers and then, as a broker, resell to both the US government as well as foreign governments," Wimberly explains.

While much of that work is done within the United States, Goldbelt has global operations, performing work on five continents: North America, Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe. Working internationally "is a recent development in the last ten years and an extension of our services that we provide to the federal government," Wimberly says.

As an urban corporation, and unlike the regional and village corporations, while Goldbelt was awarded lands as part of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, it was not awarded any money. For the first ten years that Goldbelt...