'Work hard, ask for help': CEO Schutt hopes to inspire with success.

• Author: Hollander, Zaz
• Position: Dayon Limited - Aaron Schutt

Aaron Schutt serves as president and chief executive officer of Doyon Limited. Schutt started working at Doyon six years ago, moved to senior vice president and chief operation officer in 2008, and became CEO last year. He has seen the corporation double its shareholders and its revenues, expand operations into the Lower 48, and become one of the state's dominant players in the oil and defense industries--and Schutt hasn't even turned 40 yet.

Fueling such early success, the 39-year-old Koyukon Athabascan learned quickly that hard work only gets you so far.

"I was always a successful student," Schutt says by phone while getting ready for one of his near-constant trips between his Anchorage hometown and Fairbanks, where Doyon is headquartered. "The hardest thing I ever had to do was acknowledge I needed help and then go find it."

That's a lesson he takes with him on his regular visits into villages in the Interior region, within which about a quarter of Doyon's shareholders live. Schutt reflects upon Doyon's past leaders, such as former president and CEO Morris Thompson, coming to speak at the school in Tok where he grew up. The leaders spoke about opportunities and life lessons. Their visits proved so meaningful that Schutt remembers them to this day.

Now he makes a point to visit villages in hopes of having the same impact. He hopes to address some of the social problems afflicting shareholders, such as unemployment and the resulting hopelessness.

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"I really try to focus on the young people to offer a sense of hope with some real encouragement on hard work and dedication," he says.

Children growing up in rural Alaska have a lot of gifts, including ample fish and game, adventure and family ties--but those gifts don't necessarily make for an easy transition to college, particularly to large public universities. That's a lesson Schutt knows personally: He attended Washington State and Stanford universities.

"You don't necessarily have the level of preparation that someone going to private school in New York City gets," he says. "You've got to overcome that. The only way you can do that is hard work, and finding the resources to help you out."

The Benefits of Youth

Schutt demurs when asked if he's really the state's youngest CEO heading up an Alaska Native Corporation, as he's known. Well, he says, Jason Metrokin is about the same age.

For the record, Bristol Bay Native Corp. leader Metrokin is older by a year or so, but...