Bering Straits Native Corp., which is the Alaska Native regional corporation for the Nome area, along with area village corporation Sitnasuak Native Corp. jointly own Banner Wind LLC.  Banner Wind built an 18-turbines wind farm in the Snake River Valley that has begun producing 10 percent of the energy needs in Nome.

The wind turbines, designed for cold weather and year-round operation, are similar to Kotzebue Electric Association’s 17-turbine wind farm. Kotzebue’s experience with similar turbine models has resulted in a savings of 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel per year, which at last year’s prices amounted to $250,000, and this year’s cost savings are expected to be well above $300,000.

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Jason Metrokin will serve Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) as President and Chief Executive Officer effective today, January 16, 2009.

Mr. Metrokin replaces President/CEO Hjalmar Olson, who announced his retirement from BBNC on November 5, 2008 after sixteen years of service. Metrokin was the Director of Shareholder and Corporate Relations of BBNC as well as a director of the Board.

The appointment of Mr. Metrokin, age 36, marks the first time an Alaska Native Regional Corporation has employed a CEO that is was born after the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act enrollment date.  Metrokin is a descendant of an original shareholder and inherited his stock.  He joined BBNC in 2005 from the First Alaskans Institute where he served as Vice President of Development and an earlier career with National Bank of Alaska which later became Wells Fargo. His leadership experience is marked by his role as a founding member of the Alaska Native Professional Association, graduation from BBNC’s Training Without Walls, a management training program and service on several corporate and nonprofit governing boards.

Morgan Howard Productions was pleased to play a small part in the success of the 2008 Sealaska Information Fair held in Juneau, Alaska on November 25th.  Please view photos here.

Jason Fujioka works with a Sealaska Shareholder.  Fujioka is the Director of Diversity Sales and Marketing in the Office of Diversity Solutions.
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Susanne Fleek-Green will be Begich’s Alaska state director, based in Anchorage.  She’s an Alaska Native from Anchorage who returned home several years ago after working on her career out of state.

She worked for Begich in the city office of economic and community development before joining the campaign. Fleek-Green is a former climate change program officer for the Alaska Conservation Foundation and previously worked for Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the American Farmland Trust and the U.S. Department of Interior.

Fleek-Green has a Bachelor’s degree in political economies from University of California, Berkeley and master’s degree in public policy from University of California, Berkeley.

She is a volunteer for the Alaska Youth for Environmental Action and board member at the Alaska Conservation Alliance.

While attending AFN this year, I heard some discussion about this decision.  AFN’s board of directors had been alternating between Anchorage and Fairbanks for the last four years.

This from the “News-Miner” -Sen. Albert Kookesh, who serves as co-chairman of the federation, noted the new Anchorage convention center heavily courted the federation, offering free space for the event. He also said the federation’s gatherings in Fairbanks struggled to attract people from more distant parts of the state — only a few people from the North Slope and the Aleutian Islands, for example, could attend.

“We were concerned about that,” Kookesh said by cell phone Monday.

Kookesh said the new Anchorage convention center is situated far better in the city — within a couple minutes’ walk from three or four hotels — than the Carlson Center, pointing to that fact as another major reason to hold next year’s gathering in Anchorage.