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hi everybody i'm debbie atech i'm a bering straits native corporation shareholder and a portfolio specialist for skyview investment advisors please be sure to watch to the end for an important disclaimer this series is a series of interviews that i'm doing to explore the economic opportunities and challenges for business development in alaska primarily for the alaska native corporations today is my honor to be able to speak with susan bell who spent her career doing research to bring economic opportunities to alaska susan bell is currently the ceo of mcdowell group a subsidiary of mckinley capital and is the largest and oldest economic research firm in alaska some of the large projects that susan has either advised on or consulted on include the alaska marine highway strategic plan a major project for the bristol bay area sorry bristol bay native association the state's renewable and traditional energy resources in a site expansion at icy straight point in huna i'm excited about that susan has also served as vice president for gold belt the juno village native corporation and the commissioner of the alaska department of commerce welcome susan well thank you very much i'm so glad you're here one shareholder to another bearing straights and sydney's lock right we're both shareholders in both the same corporations well i uh i shared with you some ideas of some things we could talk about and what we we decided we would get started with was where you're at now and some of your experience in the region in the bering straits uh region absolutely well as you mentioned i'm with mcdowell group and um it's an organization that was founded in 1972 make bringing it um as we with our angsta corporations nearly 50-year horizon of serving clients in alaska and in the northwest and it's it's part of um part of what really brings me to this work is that i had come in on the client side and had been advised on um on on projects about markets about feasibility studies and i found that work really gratifying and and i came originally in 2001 and as you mentioned i did spend five years serving as commissioner of the department of commerce and and there might be time to talk about that today but i came back about five and a half years ago having had that experience and um just redoubled my commitment to this organization i'm really excited about the work we do and our array of work really does span the state i'm in our juno office but some of the work that we've done in the gnome region includes work for the port of gnome we that particularly was timely as army corps of engineers was making its decisions about arctic port and the port needed to update some of its planning documents to reflect that um last year we did a big body of work with coerc and we brought in our team that does program evaluations and needs assessment on on things related to child care and early learning and um that was that was a very rewarding project we've also worked with cinesoc and berry state's native corporation as well on some small projects throughout the years too so i i particularly enjoy working when i have an opportunity to to uh either travel to gnome or at least be focusing on the on the area where my family's from i like that so much so um i believe i have this right it's your uncle george bell who was like the first chairman of the board well my father george was an incorporator of bering straits native corporation at the time he was um at the time he was a banker young in his career our family moved from gnome to fairbanks in 1970 and he um i continued to serve in a banking capacity my mom was a teacher but yeah he was an incorporator and when i think back you know i was a child at the time when i think back at what that meant in terms of the work the unknown the um you know it's it's really extraordinary to think you know each each organization each individual what what they were doing to pioneer something that now is has so much visibility and so much opportunity it is really amazing so your family moved back at about the same time that my dad moved back he and i just did a recorded an interview and he talked about the um sequence of events that led him to go back in 1971 to uh begin working at the at the corporation he was working in the land department and it's it is interesting to to start to look back now 50 years back and you mentioned that in the opening that it's been 50 years now and so these alaska native corporations have certainly evolved and i'm glad to see that they've evolved to the point where they can use the research like economic research firms like mcdowell group to do uh serious like big work the projects that you mentioned are significant and that's exactly what i think the intent was to be able to provide some of the work that you did for querick which is on the social side the nonprofit side which is not in the purview for the for-profits but i'm glad to hear that they're doing such important work for our communities um making sure that early childhood development is being taken care of in rural alaska as we know that's something that that is an early predictor of success in life is whether or not children have access to that so i'm so glad to hear that you worked on that yeah well i wanted to um make sure that we talked about some of the current events one of the projects that you've worked on is the expansion of icy straight in huna and that's a big project i've been reading about it and i i can't believe the numbers like the expectation is was pre-covet i think that this year they were expecting 400 boats and of course that didn't happen big boats but um i was wondering if we could talk about what when you worked on that site expansion project if you developed it with a mind to include or to provide a pathway for small businesses to develop around the site expansion or just talk about that project and its evolution in general absolutely in in its um over the years there's been many uh many projects that we've conducted um for the the village corporation is huna totem corporation and they're based in in huna alaska very close to juno um you know by statewide standards 15-minute flight or a couple hours on a boat um and their corporate office um they have an office here in juneau as well and our relationship with the corporation began before icy straight point but if you look back at about 15 years ago when they were initially conceiving of investment in their home community there's a cannery that they had acquired it it operated until fairly recently but a beautiful setting they own the land around it beautiful cannery and the intention was to create a cruise ship destination cruise ship uh the visitor industry is significant in to alaska but particularly in southeast with the cruise ships and part of as we began to serve their organization um we were involved in the initial feasibility studies for that work that helped them secure grants from eda and others um you know certainly the corporation invested in the um you know in the cannery itself and as the as the destination began to develop um you know from being a small number of cruise ships to now as you mentioned what was anticipated for this year would have been over 400 000 cruise passengers so really significant growth um that it showed the destination itself not only showcases the cannery but it has to be really equivalent from a passenger and cruise ship um it they have to be able to provide enough entertainment and opportunity and cultural experiences um tours to to take place in a cruise ship itinerary just like any other port so skagway juno ketchup can hanes um so some of the things that they've done over the years uh you know the whale watching is extraordinary in that area as is the bear viewing so having wildlife viewing opportunities are certainly appeal the adventure element of what they offer is really exciting this summer they completed um completed one and are completing a second gondola they've had they have the zipline courses at the first the zip line course is in place um you know from kayaking and biking and hiking um you know there's a there's been an array of activities that are available to passengers so so part of what i really think about um you know again our work through the years began from that those initial feasibility studies to economic impact studies helping them show in the community their employment opportunities their you know their impact their a significant taxpayer you know helped increase overall economic development also back to your point by creating business opportunities on on the site for small businesses to offer tours retail um sell some of you know sell some of the um crafts and and food products that are manufactured in the area as well as business opportunities in the community the icy straight point is just a short few minute drive from downtown huna but i think that it's been really clear as we as we look at the tour operators retail opportunities transportation providers that there's been a lot of a lot of development throughout the whole community not just at the not just at the destination so and how much if i can interject for a second how much of that has included um what i guess we would call cultural tourism or walking tours is that something that they have uh put in place or is that still something that is um to be developed what because the destination was developed by huna totem corporation their cultural the the community and the people's history and cultural identity i think is really clear um it's it's an aspect i think of it's it's an aspect of the experience that is really central you know so while they are you know while guests are able to as i mentioned maybe go bear viewing or whale watching or something they they have the opportunity to to learn about the history of the community the people the culture part of part of how that happens is that the percentage of local hire is very very high so it's an it's an employment opportunity for community members for corporation shareholders it's been around long enough that there's sort of a second generation you know people's kids are now um in you know employees um and so what you so you know if it's a traditional cooking um class people may have an opportunity to learn about the local you know local foods but also there is that you know learning about how people live today as well as traditionally that that just i think makes the destination really unique um amongst other ports in alaska i noticed that the partnership the press release for the partnership that did the expansion that the cruise ship line made sure to mention that this they said that the cultural element i'm not going to get this quote right i don't have it written down but that it was um you couldn't buy the cultural authenticity and i was wondering if you know i i've traveled in the caribbean some and it seems like many ports of call look identical and i was wondering do the people who take cruises to alaska are they different than the people who take cruises to the caribbean do they look for more cultural aspects to their ports of call i mean rather than just getting off the boat and going shopping at the same shops that the cruise lines own at all of the ports of call well you know some of them some of the things that are our real clear motives for coming to alaska are you know uh adventure natural beauty wildlife viewing i think that um learning about the learning about alaska's people and culture is something that i think it really enriches people's experience it for some it's very high in their motives for others again some of these big things about you know they they're very interested in the you know the natural beauty and the adventure but as they as they come to alaska and have an opportunity to you know to engage with people i think those are the things that really enrich their experience and so back to icy straight it's it's how they've defined you know how they've how they've helped make that port experience very unique um in it and i think i'm really glad to hear that i i think that that's something that is kind of the um holy grail for some of our destinations around alaska where um well anchorage did it right increase created the um center for alaska native um culture the oscar cultural center heritage center yeah they'll ask any of heritage center thank you uh so they did that they and i think they did that pretty successfully bringing people in and our my family's dance group has had the opportunity to um perform you know to have a couple of weeks per summer um not currently but we've done in the past and we've been there for like an entire weekend and doing like three shows a day and um not only doing the dancing but also doing some talking and some sharing and teaching in between and there's definitely some people that are more interested than others but um and i think that was a model that uh if you may not you probably do know like jane ingvig and i don't remember who else was so involved with um getting that off the ground but my understanding was that they had actually modeled that after the hawaiian cultural center the polynesian cultural center in hawaii i might not have that right i you know i'm not as familiar with its history but i certainly get there often for you know conferences and events and forums that are held there it's it's a real asset for our state and it really is they had a recent uh fundraiser which i want to make sure that people have been to the alaska native heritage center that they have been doing some fundraising because kovit has reduced the number of visits this year so i really want to put in a plug for the work that they're doing over there to make sure that they are able to keep their programming in place their staff in place for when they can reopen um i want to make sure that we have time to talk about some of the other questions that i had and these have more to do with uh specifically with projects you did in juno with gold belt and the tram and i was wondering if there were any uh takeaways from that experience you could talk about in terms of securing public and private funding i mean what we just talked about with icy straight they have certainly done some of that but it at juno at gold belt was the tram financed partially with public funds and partially with private well and i came to gold belt in 1998 um i was there for three years and the tram had been constructed part of what gold belt did at the time that i was there joe biedel was the president and ceo i was one of the vice presidents and it was a huge time of expansion and much of what we did was through partnerships at the at the time the corporation was really committed to investing in the region creating employment opportunities for shareholders and the and regional members and also definitely having a return you know financial return on the investments it's visitor industry experience um was grew considerably um at that time there was the acquisition of the gold belt hotel um a facility across the street called the sidro marine complex which had mortgage for small ships office space and you know base of operations for glacier bay tours and cruises which was not under my direction but another significant investment at the time the tramway was a partnership with investors that had experience in in trams in the ski industry and then gobel became the sole owner in 1998 concurrent it would the decision had been made by the board but it was concurrent with my coming to the organization so we really needed to be sure that we recruited people that um as we were going forward that that could ensure the safe operations and high level of customer service but know that they were going to help build the skill within the corporation um to continue operating and here we are now now almost 25 years later where you know again safe operation expansion of the um you know it's a it's a tramway that goes up you know in downtown juneau but the facility at the top of the mountain has grown and expanded uh you know as visitor volume has grown and as their experience has grown and in responding to what people are looking for so now there's a small adventure center raptor center they've continued to develop the trails and they' e invested also back to your point about cultural you know as you know with time there's been an increasing number of things like uh you know traditional art totem poles and you know and other things that are there that you know have been have been built um you know not only as an opportunity to engage visitors you know so that you might have a carver or you might have someone doing some skin sewing or other things that so it's an opportunity to um engage visitors increase their understanding of the of your traditional life and arts and you know some of these things are now on display and increase you know increase what people can experience and learn about which you know then in turn may increase their interest in purchasing items or exploring that more fully or you know so it builds you know i guess that's my main point is that the destination and the attractions that we've been talking about have really um not only responded to changes in kind of visitor interest but reinvested in themselves and i think that's really important that's an interesting point so i had the opportunity to get a tour of the um adventure center not the adventure center the raptor center the walking trails to see where the carver who was uh on site uh at the time he wasn't there but there was a work in progress i got to see that and i um it is uh i think a beautifully beautifully done um site and then uh ben cornell is that his name he said that they could conceivably um accommodate twice as many people per day if they built another tram so they have lots of lots of opportunity to expand as i understand it again that was pre-coveted so we'll see what happens um you know you have any idea about what's going to happen to cruise traffic some people are questioning whether or not americans will be willing to get back on cruise ships i am ever the optimist on that and i think yes as soon as it's we get the okay people are gonna pile back into those boats because people love cruises people people do enjoy cruising you know we we see in our market research for um individual communities for the state that there's you know what there are people who cruise to alaska on their first trip and then maybe have a better sense of the destination and come back as independent visitors there's also people who come back cruising because they really enjoy you know they enjoy the ease they enjoy the entertainment they enjoy the engagement with um you know with with others on board so it is definitely popular i think that what's been clear is that you know the industry signaled this that for businesses you know this was supposed to be a record year for for businesses to really have a longer horizon it's not about it's not about recovery in 2021 that to really look at their business model and it's going to be probably a few years but i think there's a confidence it's just that it's going to be both economic and safety that have to work together and so i i really i i think it's fair to say that that we'll probably see a a few year horizon to get back to the kind of levels that people had but you're optimistic that it will return i i want to switch to the um time that you spent and i wasn't sure if we'd get to this but let's see what we have in time um we have a few more minutes so when you were working at the state of alaska as a department of commissioner you were responsible for enhancing the business climate in alaska is that truly your job description or well one i i enjoyed that opportunity i learned it i learned a tremendous amount you know um the department of commerce community and economic development is a mouthful but it has some importance some of the it doesn't roll off the time um commerce but it has a number of entities in the state that engage with businesses and community and so that from community and regional affairs where there's you know a lot of work with small small communities either in grant administration or training on you know just community operations like elections and um you know just basic basic community functions to bigger entities like the alaska railroad is is um you know one of the agencies in the department of commerce um the alaska seafood marketing institute the state's tourism marketing programs um also alaska energy authority and at the time that i was serving as commissioner we had we had significant capital budgets and so there was an opportunity through entities like uh alaska energy authority to invest in communities through the renewable energy program a lot of training took place so again that you know the array of entities that are part of department of commerce was it it was a real it was a real privilege to be part of that sort of investment in infrastructure investment in renewable energy and also really trying to partner with businesses to promote alaska internationally so tell me more about the stuff that you did internationally what was the intent there so you were trying to draw people to come and invest in the state from abroad or some of it was promoting our our products and services and experiences so you know two of the bigger programs when i think about from a marketing standpoint you as me operated then and in well over 20 countries so the international seafood marketing program had aspects that were targeted at community um directly at consumers some was more at food service organizations and restaurants and um so you know again being part of their programs was it's it was an easy story to tell because we're proud of our state but we're also really proud of our seafood excuse me um and i hit do not disturb there uh similarly the the state's tourism marketing program has a lot of a lot of business participation in it and again um you know there's states um i mean there's countries that we've had a long relationship with you know from asian countries to australia to german speaking europe so again having a chance to be part of those you know developing the marketing program sometimes being part of their outreach um it's it it was a privilege to stand there with other businesses and and you know talk about what we offer because it's just so easy to be proud of that um it's incredible were you part of the contingency that went with governor walker to china or were you already back at mcdowell group when he did that i served under governor parnell but definitely had the opportunity to be in um in asia in um in german-speaking europe and in the uk and other you know in other countries as part of our marketing efforts it was also some of the early years of the gasoline development corporation which was another agency in commerce and certainly as you mentioned you know work has continued on that front since there and uh in asia is an important market that's looked out for our energy i was wondering how much you think that this um the state's economy has changed since you were in that position um as i mentioned we had the we had resources through capital budgets and through program funding um you know when i i still have a lot of friends that work you know both um you know in commerce and other state agencies that it was it was really nice to be a part of the state at a time when we were you know we were building and investing and certainly when we have a significant state government operation now that's still doing good work but you know the timing of the you know my opportunity to serve was uh some pretty significant investment and that was you know that was exciting because much of it was in you know invested right in you know in infrastructure and programs in our state um so i know it's i know it's more challenging you know from a budget standpoint and then certainly as we've touched on um their pro profound impacts across all industries from the um from covet you know and um and so as we head into as we head into the fall and winter months and another budget cycle i i think it's going to be um it's gonna be very very uh challenging for policymakers to to really um navigate through this but it's right it's an important words of their constituents and balance that with the budget shortfalls yeah but it's important work it has to be done and we you know we um we rely on our state agencies in in so many ways from education to public safety to health to um you know and through the pandemic i think that we've all learned to really appreciate some of the frontline um you know not only our healthcare providers but just even realizing that there's a person like dr zink there who's you know from a policy level we just i really appreciate dr zink's update so when i am on facebook and i see that there is a live update going on i try to catch that every chance i get before we oh go ahead before we end it i want to be mindful of the time um one of the questions that i wanted to um get to was about how the alaska native corporations now contribute to the state budget and how they have increased in i mean in profile because they've become large entities so they have more influence in the state but they also significantly contribute to the state um what do you think some of the growth areas are for the alaska native corporations in state or do you think that their best opportunities might lie outside of the state for growth for our our native corporations you know each each has had the opportunity to think about their own you know their own investment um opportunities you know certainly some began you know began with more natural resources and you know i think one of the things that is unique is our as the wealth sharing that happens across the regional and village corporations but but i remain very optimistic about the growth opportunities in our state we are still we still have a wealth of resources the native corporations have um not only a commitment to the state but also you know in employment base um through the shareholders and their community members and also a land base so all of those things together you know that while you know certainly certainly corporations have investment opportunities and revenue opportunities outside of the state i i am very bullish on what you know we can do here and our opportunities going forward um and they're key you know and it's one i'd like to touch on your parent corporation as mckinley capital has um been able to receive half of the allocation for the alaska permanent fund's in-state private equity um mandate so that's a hundred million dollars well it's 200 million dollars altogether that is meant to be invested within the state or for the benefit of state residents but i really hope that money is invested in state and and that they don't use that as a way to put money into other states that might have some products flow to alaska i think that's a little bit of a it's a little bit squishy so i really hope that um the businesses that there's some um strong businesses locally that are going to be able to um access those funds i'm keeping my fingers crossed about that well and as you mentioned that it was just about a year ago that they were you know the announcement from the alaska permanent fund corporation selected mckinley capital and bearings and so you know i know they've been very hard at work on the due diligence and it was only in january that we announced publicly that mcdowell group had been acquired by mckinley capitals and just you know as we go forward i think that um you know they're certainly their commitment to the state is high and um you know and our acquisition was part of their diversification and focus on alaska so it's um it's an exciting time to be not only at mcdowell group but it's an exciting time to be part of this larger organization and what they're doing well i think this is the perfect place to start thank you thank you so much for being here you