CIRI Shareholders Vote

The 32nd Annual Meeting of CIRI shareholders was held on June 4 in Anchorage. I have attended in person (or in proxy) nearly every annual meeting our company has had, but this is the first one as CIRI's president. I truly enjoyed the day and thank those of you who attended in person for the respect and consideration that you showed me. We can all take pride in the manner in which the annual meeting was conducted.

I offer my congratulations to our returning board members Agnes Brown, Roy Huhndorf, Patrick Marrs, and Robert Rude. I also congratulate and welcome first time director Penny Carty, who will be an asset to our Board with her experience as president of Salamatof Native Association. These are all shareholders that I know have the experience and dedication to contribute to their important roles as directors of the company. I look forward to working with all members of the Board of Directors.

As you know, this year the Board of Directors decided to develop a new proxy form that provided that both board-endorsed candidates and other candidates be listed on the form. Shareholders put this new proxy form to good use and using this form supported the board-endorsed slate by a strong margin of 78.39 percent.

With the election season behind us, CIRI staff is continuing to implement the Board's strategic plan and working to achieve the 2005 corporate-wide goals. We are actively working to enter the government contracting field. We are in the process of expanding our ownership in and oversight of Alaska Interstate Construction, Inc., one of the two construction and oil field services companies that we own in partnership with Nabors Industries, Ltd. We are monitoring the construction of our new resort near Austin, Texas, which is scheduled to open next year. We are working with our partners to manage the interests in the resorts that we currently have operating. We are developing plans for our real estate holdings at Makahuena, Hawaii, and in San Diego, Calif. We soon will be calling for a strategic planning session for our CIRI Alaska Tourism Company, which holds and manages our Alaska-based tourism operations, to assure that we are properly positioned in this growing market. We are moving ahead in an attempt to resolve our disputes with the IRS on CIRI's 2000-2002 tax audits that have been discussed in the annual report and newsletter.

In keeping with our strategic plan that identifies the ever-growing need for energy in this country, we are investigating several opportunities in the energy-related sector and pursuing legislative initiatives that will assist these endeavors. Our efforts are as diverse as advancing our continued support for the opening of ANWR and continued interest in participating in the Alaska Natural Gas pipeline to exploring a wind-energy farm on our lands at Fire Island.

As we move to the latter half of the year, I am constantly reminded that this is an exciting time for CIRI. My enthusiasm stems from our new teamwork at CIRI. As independent thinkers, the CIRI Board will continue to have their differences in view, but they have shown themselves to be able to work together as a team to advance CIRI's interest when it is necessary. As to staff, we at CIRI are absorbing changes and pulling ourselves together into a team that is eagerly looking forward to the challenges and the opportunities that are ahead of us.