Mr. Wally J. Hickel, Jr.: President and CEO of Hickel Investment Company.

• Author: Gallion, Mari
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Junior Achievement--2014 Laureate - Company overview

When Alaskans hear the name "Wally" Hickel, naturally their thoughts default to Walter J. "Wally" Hickel Sr., the well-known business entrepreneur who served as Governor of Alaska in two separate terms more than ten years apart and served a term as Secretary of the Interior that demonstrated his strength of character as an independent thinker. Some can even still remember all the lyrics to the campaign jingle that preceded his second term in 1990, "Alaska Man," and how Governor Hickel would cheerfully haunt the halls and establishments of the uniquely Alaskan hotel that he founded: the Hotel Captain Cook.

However, now it is his son, Wally J. Hickel Jr., who is the captain of "The Cook," a role he has carried longer than the lives of the children who were charmed by his father's commercial. As president and CEO of Hickel Investment Company, Hickel Jr. oversees six properties in the greater Anchorage area, of which Hotel Captain Cook is one.

"Dad founded the business and was largely responsible for its early success," Hickel Jr. says. "When Dad became politically active and was elected governor in 1966, his brother Vernon helped to run the business. The business was run from 1972 on by my brother and me. I was elected chief executive officer in 2008 after my brother retired."

Hickel Jr. was raised in the Turnagain neighborhood in Anchorage by his father Walter and his mother Ermalee alongside his five brothers. He attended elementary and middle school in west Anchorage and graduated from West High in 1966. The family attended church every Sunday, followed by Sunday breakfast at the Travelers' Inn of Anchorage.

Despite his illustrious family, Hickel Jr. was never spared the often unpleasant character-building component of hard work in his youth.

"All six of the sons had regular chores around the house, including mowing a huge yard," Hickel Jr. says. "Each son wanted to mow the back yard, which was closest to where clippings were disposed, and no one wanted the front yard with all the trees to avoid."

Nor was he spared the indispensable education on every aspect of running a hotel. "During high school I worked part time in the laundry, the bell desk, and the front desk at the Hotel Captain Cook."

After graduating from college in 1972, Hickel Jr. worked as director of sales for the Hotel Captain Cook. In 1974, he interned at the San Francisco Fairmont Hotel to learn all of the facets of hotel operations: from front desk and food and beverage...