Great Northwest never gives up: Great Northwest Inc. overcomes adverse beginnings.

• Author: Stomierowski, Peg
• Position: 2008 Alaska's Top 49ers: North to the Future

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John Minder, chief executive of Great Northwest Inc. out of Fairbanks, likes to think the company's success in the rough-and-tumble general construction arena reflects in part his own eye for adventure, risk and talent, the latter of which he regards as the key variable.

"It's a talent I was born with," he says of feeling out the right people for the job in a changing work force. "If you surround yourself with highly motivated people like I have, it filters down through the company."

Great Northwest, an earth-moving contractor, reports revenues last year of about $52 million, up from $32 million the year before. The firm specializes in road and airport construction, ice-road and oil-field support, site development and reclamation, underground utilities, and remote-site projects. This year it's wrapping up an $18 million project at Fairbanks International Airport.

Primary customers include ConocoPhillips, BP, the city of Fairbanks, Doyon Ltd., Flowline Alaska, MAPCO Petroleum, Phillips Alaska, Princess Tours, the State of Alaska, the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Minder, who likes to be upbeat, concedes this can be a bruising field.

"I don't think I could have picked a harder business to be in," he reflects. "We basically have five to six months to complete millions of dollars worth of projects. The hours are long and a couple of our projects are miles away from town, the elements can be horrifying, and we are under constant deadlines to reach the finish line by Nov. 1."

So after that marker passes, on the first weekend in November, the company holds a year-end party at the local Princess Lodge and fills the ballroom with up to 300 people.

Great Northwest started out in the mid-70s as a small landscaping enterprise with basic equipment that employed a handful of people. Started by Minder and Howard "Buzz" Otis, now economic development advisor for the City of North Pole, the men worked winters together on the pipeline and started subcontracting in Alaska's short summer season landscaping yards and shopping centers. First-year volume was about $25,000.

In the early '80s, an era of greater public recreational support, they branched out to projects at ball fields and recreational parks and began acquiring more heavy equipment. But in 1986, when oil prices collapsed, Minder says, these were the first projects to be cut, and his company was left with a heavy debt load.

HITTING BOTTOM

He retains vivid...