New blood: AGC takes on the challenge ahead.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: BUILDING ALASKA

John MacKinnon was hired as executive director of Associated General Contractors (AGC) last year, replacing Dick Cattanach who had almost a decade of leadership. As MacKinnon leads the state's construction and contracting industry into one of the most challenging and promising eras in history, his colleagues say that already he is exceeding all expectations.

As the former Deputy Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, a Juneau building contractor for 25 years and a former politician, he has the touch when it comes to finding common-sense solutions to problems facing the industry without letting the process bog down progress. "He is just so damn smooth," Sam Robert Brice, owner of member-company Brice Inc., and a long-term leader in AGC says. "He's calm, he presents a good face for AGC and he commands a lot of respect because of his background, knowledge and his connections on the inside." As the new leader of AGC, MacKinnon will oversee 650 members, manage the organization's day-to-day operations and act as an advocate for the construction industry in Alaska.

ABM: You are assuming this position at a time when Alaska is in the middle of a construction boom, while at the same time the industry is looking ahead to mega contracting projects that are almost certain, including construction of a gas pipeline. What does this mean for AGC?

MacKinnon: We have just finished 20 years of continuous growth in the Alaska economy: the question is can it keep growing? With the U.S. and global recession, I do not think we can continue, but I don't believe we will feel quite the impact that the rest of the country will. Much of Alaska construction effort is working on federal and State appropriations from two years ago, and Congress and the legislature have been very generous with appropriations since then. That tells me that the next two years will be okay. The construction economy has been very healthy during that same period.

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Looking ahead, we will be okay in most sectors of the construction economy for the next two years, but there are uncertainties beyond that. I don't know what the new Congress and administration will bring, but we do not need any more federal actions that make it more difficult to maintain our resource-based economy. I often quip that 'Our economy is being threatened by threatened species.' Alaska is one of the short-term solutions to America's energy independence and energy...