Meini Huser, President and CEO: Alaska Dreams Inc.

• Author: Gallion, Mari
• Position: View from the Top

Meini Huser was born and raised on a small dairy farm in a ski resort town in the Swiss Alps. As a child, Huser dreamed about Alaska, reading and collecting every written article or book about Alaska he could get his hands on. His earlier trips to the remote Alaska mountains proved Alaska to be everything that Huser had previously dreamed of. In 1984, Huser--a mountain and skiing guide at the time who worked as a steel erector in the snow-less months--moved to Alaska and founded Alaska Dreams Inc., which specializes in selling or renting and constructing advanced fabric covered steel buildings and pre-engineered metal buildings for oil and mining industries; city, state and federal government; and private sectors in Alaska, as well as Europe, Canada, Russia and of course the Lower 48.

UNIQUE VISION: The main driving force in the design and engineering of our structures is always powered by our customer needs and requirements. Our main focus is to provide our customer with the best possible and most cost effective building solution. This approach has proven us as the leader in the sector of fabric covered structures not just in Alaska but nationwide.

A FAMILY AFFAIR: The key players in our company are mostly family members. My wife Anna (vice president and CFO) and I (CEO) are partners and owners of Alaska Dreams Inc. Our son Peter leads the estimating division. He returned to Alaska to work in the company after working in the Lower 48 for several years. Our daughter, Trista, the administrative assistant, assists with payroll and handles the event rental structure division, tracking reservations and scheduling the events. Brittany, our youngest daughter, also works as an administrative assistant. She is the primary point of contact and greets everybody walking into AKD's office with a great smile, and directs all the incoming phone calls. In addition we have other great people working for us: Homer Eggleston, project manager and safety coordinator/trainer; Maria Muehlenkamp, human resources coordinator; Chris Dibb, operations supervisor; and AKD's field foremen Dewayne Hailey and Taylor Thompson, plus a great...