NDC E-Bulletin Vol. 3, No. 2 • March 27, 2008
President's Message
Helvi Sandvik
NDC President
Last year was the 35th anniversary of the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) and the creation of NANA Regional Corporation. It is noteworthy that last year also was the year that NANA achieved many critical milestones. Sound business decisions, the fact that Teck Cominco had paid off its investment in the Red Dog Mine, the state of the economy, and most importantly, the hard work of the nearly 7,000 NANA employees worldwide enabled us to achieve nearly $1 billion in revenues last year.
In 2007, we were able provide our more than 11,400 shareholders – the Inupiat from Northwest Alaska – with the highest dividend ever, $15 per share. This is significant! The first dividend that NANA paid was $.50 per share in 1973. Since then, we have grown as a company, and over time, have distributed over $80 million in dividends to our shareholders.
How did we get here? It didn’t happen overnight. NANA’s success is built on strategic partnerships, our commitment and strong values, taking advantage of opportunities and turning challenges into opportunities. Our business ties and the relationships we cultivate along the way coupled with providing quality work, professional people, and a can-do attitude have and continue to open many doors. We have had some difficult challenges and a few setbacks over the years, but never have we allowed those challenges to overcome us.
In the early years, especially, we nurtured relationships with other companies to help us build a foundation for long-term financial success. In recent years, while maintaining those outside relationships, we have built a solid platform of companies and we are well positioned for the opportunities of the future.
Just like our Inupiaq culture, we believe our success as a company comes from the strength of our family. We have set aggressive growth expectations for our company. We believe there is abundant growth opportunity that will come from working with one another. As individual companies get stronger, NANA gets stronger. We are excited about the new partnering relationships that are being built across the company. We are stronger together – like a family – than we are alone. For example, WHPacific, located in the western states and Alaska, is seeing opportunities with Charlotte, N.C.-based Akima, complementing one another’s skill set to serve respective clients better. NANA Management Services (NMS) partner – Sodexo – is working with NANA Services, building off an already established partnership. Alaska-based Purcell Security, an NMS company, has been able to add value to proposals of other companies within NANA’s business family.
While we celebrate the success of the past, let's look forward to an even brighter future!
2008 is going to be a great year!
Helvi Sandvik
President
NANA Companies Participate in RES 2008
WHPacific provides a wide range of services to more than 400 tribal organizations. Larry Anderson, Richard Frederkind and Eric Stoehr, all architects for WHPacific, manned the display at RES 2008.
Six NANA businesses – WHPacific, Ikun, Qivliq, NANA Services, NANA Management Services, and Ki Professional Services Group – displayed their services together at the 22nd Annual Reservation Economic Summit & American Indian Business Trade Fair, commonly referred to as RES 2008, in Las Vegas March 3 – 6, 2008. RES 2008 is the largest and longest running national American Indian business development conference and trade fair in the United States.
RES 2008 attendees include American Indian entrepreneurs, tribal economic and business development decision makers, tribal leaders, and government and corporate executive buyers seeking Alaska Native and Indian suppliers and contractors. More than 3,000 attended this year’s event, which featured more than 350 exhibitors, presentations on the latest government policies and economic development trends, in addition to numerous networking opportunities. According to Ken Robbins, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and President/CEO of the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development (NCAIED), more than one-half billion dollars in contracting procurement resulted from the RES 2007 conference.
“WHPacific has provided a range of design services from transportation planning, infrastructure, and housing projects to school, health care, and gaming facilities to more than 400 tribes. Our participation in RES gives us the chance to reconnect with old friends, to learn about new opportunities for our company, and to hear about issues that are important to our customers," said Eric Stoehr, AIA, national director of WHPacific's Architecture Business Line.
TKC Global Launches Innovative Telemedicine Service in North America
Bonnie Savage, program manager for TKC Global, with the Televisit™ unit
PHD Medical, a Canadian company that specializes in affordable, telemedicine systems, has chosen TKC Global to launch its Televisit™ product line in North America. Televisit™ is a proprietary technology that allows doctors to carry out patient appointments anywhere in the world. During a typical appointment, the doctor can interact with the patient in real time through high quality video and audio, take the patient’s vital signs, monitor various medical scopes, enter a diagnosis and determine a treatment path. Once the appointment is completed, the medical record is stored into a secure system so that it can be reviewed at a later date or referred to a specialist within the Televisit™ network of physicians.
The Televisit™ technology is FDA approved and is more advanced and integrated than the telemedicine services that many Alaska Natives have experienced in rural Alaska. Physicians can conduct appointments from their office, home or any other location with a broadband Internet connection using a standard PC or laptop. This flexible platform is a compelling reason for physicians to join the network, which in turn, increases available medical services and distributes much needed specialist resources.
TKC Global’s information technology expertise enhances this service through satellite uplinks, end-user support and distribution centers. The focus for network expansion will include rural clinics, schools, nursing homes, correctional institutions, emergency medical disaster support centers, and geographically remote locations where health care services are needed, but difficult to access. Because the system was designed to work on standard broadband connections and does not need special networks, it is easily available to those who really need it.
PHD Medical designs products and services to meet the specific needs of the home diagnostic and telemedicine markets. For more information, visit www.phdmedical.com.
Microsoft Names TKCC Premier Regional Partner
On Feb. 19, 2008, at the Microsoft North Central Partner Briefing in St. Louis, Missouri, Kim Tubbs-Herron, general manager for Microsoft North Central Region, presented TKC Communications with the prestigious Microsoft North Central General Manager Award for TKCC’s commitment to being the premier Microsoft regional partner out of the hundreds of partners in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska. A few of the many TKCC achievements Microsoft recognized included:
- TKCC was hand picked to be managed by Microsoft within just six months of establishing a Microsoft commercial practice, which is unprecedented!
- TKCC leads all St. Louis partners in infrastructure, messaging, and management solutions within only one year of establishing a Microsoft commercial practice.
- TKCC deployed the first Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager solution in St. Louis, while still in beta – special thanks to Luis Coronado.
- TKCC-sponsored Microsoft events have driven more demand and business for Microsoft than 95 percent of the partner community.
- TKCC is one of only two partners certified for Microsoft Desktop Deployment Planning Services funding – up to $1,500 per day for each client engagement.
- TKCC established a partner-to-partner model that Microsoft is using as a case study for how partners should work together.
Alaska News
Alaska Mining Industry Update: Ballot Initiatives May Shut Down Mining in Alaska
Two anti-mining initiatives slated to appear on the August 2008 Alaska ballot would, if passed, shut down exiting minds and prohibit future mines.
“If these so called "Clean Water" initiatives pass, they will shut down jobs, shut down a rapidly growing sector of Alaska’s economy and, for many communities, shut down hope,” said Marie Greene, NANA Regional Corporation president. “We are very concerned. We, too, are interested in clean water. However, we believe these initiatives are written in a way that is confusing to the public. Mines can be developed in a way that is protective of the environment and there are many examples of this across the world, and in fact, in our own NANA region.”
Development of natural resources, in some parts of the state, is the only viable economic development possibility. Prohibition of future mines, or expansion of existing mines is especially worrisome for rural Alaska where mining is the path to self-sufficiency. Red Dog Mine, north of Kotzebue, provides 60 percent of the Northwest Arctic Borough’s revenues. The Alaska Gold Company is the fourth largest property tax payer in Nome. These initiatives would shut down these mines and ensure future mines would never be developed.
In 2007, Teck Cominco had fully recovered its capital investment, accrued interest and advance royalties under the terms of its agreement with NANA Regional Corporation at Red Dog Mine. As a result, NANA now receives 25 percent of the mine’s net profits and will eventually receive 50 percent! The increase in revenues allows NANA to contribute 60 percent of Red Dog royalties to the 11 other ANCSA corporations under the article 7i of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA ). Those corporations then further distribute the royalties to small village corporations, as required by article 7j of ANCSA. Many small villages depend upon these revenues to sustain their existence.
NANA is running educational radio and television ads to educate Alaskans on the economic benefits Red Dog Mine provides all Alaskans. In addition, NANA and other concerned Alaskans are speaking with small and large groups across the state to ensure they understand the issue. To hear the spots and learn more, visit www.nana.com.
Winning NANA/DOWL Team Feeds Hungry in Alaska
Some of DOWL’s 20-member team pose in front of their Juror’s Favorite can-food structure. DOWL raised roughly $7,600 to buy more than 7,500 cans.
NANA Development Corporation’s generous support helped Stephanie, Alan and Chris build this sandwich.
DOWL Engineers (DOWL), part of the NANA family of companies, received the juror’s choice award for its “Big, Wild Alaska PiCANic” while helping to fill the empty shelves of the Food Bank of Alaska at Canstruction®, which took place Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, at the University Center Mall in Anchorage, Alaska.
Canstruction®, a national event and a Society for Design Administration (SDA) foundation, is a friendly design/build competition between engineering and architectural firms. Teams design and build elaborate structures entirely out of full cans of food, which are later donated to the local food banks. Linda Hulteen, corporate development manager at DOWL, was on the steering committee that brought Canstruction® back to Alaska after a 10-year hiatus.
DOWL was one of eight local engineering and architectural firms participating in the 2008 Anchorage event. The company raised money to buy the cans of food that was used to create its structure based on this year’s theme “Big Wild Alaska.” A panel of judges chose winners in the following categories: best meal, best use of labels, and the coveted prize –juror’s favorite.
The structures remained on display until March 9, 2008. The community was encouraged to stop by to preview and vote for the “People’s Choice” category. People voted by dropping cans of food in the bin adjacent to their favorite structure. One can of food equaled one vote – Dowl’s “Big, Wild Alaska PiCANic” took the People’s Choice award, too. After judging, more than 30,000 pounds of food was donated to the Food Bank of Alaska for distribution to needy Alaska families.
NANA Regional Corporation, Inc. Announces Special Dividend
In mid-March, NANA Regional Corporation board of directors announced a special one-time dividend of $9 per share to commemorate its 35th anniversary and to celebrate its 2007 accomplishments. Dividends will be paid on April 11, 2008, to NANA shareholders of record as of March 17, 2008.
“Our 35th Anniversary was one of the best years in NANA’s history. We achieved record revenues of nearly $1 billion,” said Marie Greene, Kasannaaluk, president and CEO of NANA Regional Corporation, Inc. “We shared this financial success with other Alaska Native Corporations across the state, as well as our more than 11,400 shareholders. We provided shareholders with job training and job opportunities. Now we’re pleased to be able to provide this additional, one-time dividend to shareholders to celebrate our achievements.”
Notable 2007 accomplishments include:
- NANA revenues approached $1 billion.
- NANA shared approximately 60 percent of Red Dog royalties with the other 12 ANCSA corporations – roughly $96 million.
- Increased business growth and increased royalties from Red Dog Mine result in a record net income of $37.4 million.
- In November 2007, NANA paid out a record high shareholder dividend of $15 per share; NANA’s first shareholder dividend was $.50 per share in 1976.
- NANA contributed $36 million in salaries to NANA shareholders.
- More than $625,000 in direct scholarship contributions were made to 300 NANA shareholders and another $5 million in annual distributions were made to the scholarship endowment fund.
- Preparations began on an Elder Settlement Trust, which acknowledges cultural contributions of our Elders. NANA has dedicated $32.5 million to the Trust to provide for its Elders.
- A Coastal Inupiaq language CD-ROM was created to preserve the language. Work began on a Kobuk dialect CD.
For more information, visit www.nana.com.