Interviews were recently conducted with CIRI Board-endorsed candidates Karen Caindec, Gosta Dagg, Bart Garber, Bill Prosser, and Clare Swan. Due to limited space, four responses from each candidate were selected for publication. Comments have been edited for length. We invite you to talk to candidates about these issues and their statements. Or, use the phone card you recently received to call a CIRI Board-endorsed candidate.

Caindec:
I envision CIRI as a strong, vibrant, economically sound Alaska Native corporation that enriches and empowers the lives of its shareholders, while remaining respectful of our unique heritage.

Garber:
CIRI will be a strong, successful, unified company of which shareholders want to be a part, because it welcomes their participation and promotes their financial independence and social well-being.

Dagg:
To succeed financially so we can continue – and hopefully increase – economic, social, and cultural benefits to the shareholders and their descendants.

Dagg:
Yes, but the future will require more. We will all be elders; our Elders’ Settlement Trust, if voted in, will be irrevocable and adequately funded. It will benefit all our elder original shareholders. We face a challenge to our future youth, since our scholarship fund is available to the descendants of original shareholders, an ever-increasing number. To maintain our current level of assistance, we must have growth in the parent company so increased dollars can be available for the scholarship fund.

Swan:
Certainly, CIRI provides opportunities for education, training and employment through The CIRI Foundation and non-profits. We are continually looking for ways to preserve our heritage and it starts with taking care of elders. That’s why the Elders’ Trust is so important.

Caindec:
1. Protect the dividend stream from economic fluctuation. 2. Identify income-producing investments that will contribute to our annual net income. 3. Identify ways to lessen the tax burden for the corporation and shareholders, now that CIRI is a tax-paying entity.

Dagg:
To invest in the areas of our strength, such as in the infrastructure of Alaska natural resources, and inside and outside Alaska in areas in which we can use our experience and our niche as a Native company.
Prosser:
Carefully preserve CIRI’s strength while laying a sound foundation for future growth.

Caindec:
CIRI has experienced a once-in-a-lifetime gain from the VoiceStream/DeutscheTelekom investment. It is up to the Board and management to work together to identify investment goals for these funds that will meet these two sometimes competing priorities of growth capital and consistent distribution of shareholder dividends. Through a closely managed, appropriately diversified investment portfolio, we can work to meet both of these needs.

Swan:
By standing firm and holding fast to what our business sense, and those who work for us, advise. We have to trust their advice and refuse to be bullied into unwise short-term distributions.

Dagg:
The question contains the answer. We must indeed balance growth against dividends. We are committed to continue dividends primarily because the stock is not salable. To do this, we must make sound investments. Shareholders must be educated to understand this balance, and give their support to this sound business concept.

Garber:
CIRI has developed expertise and has found success, even in the midst of boom and bust cycles, in real estate, energy-related industries, and the financing of new technology. Over time, I believe that CIRI will be able to find profitable niches in the tourism and gaming industries.

Swan:
At the moment, the oil and gas industry looks promising; I am also optimistic that our gaming business will be a sound, profitable business.

Prosser:
CIRI is, and always has been, opportunistic. At the moment, the best opportunities appear to me to be gaming and the Trans-Alaska gas pipeline. The answer to this question changes constantly. Our strength is in proactively opening new opportunities by good use of our unique advantages.

Garber:
Managers of large companies will probably always earn more than the average person believes they should. What is important is to clearly define what management is supposed to accomplish for the company and the shareholders. If those goals are clearly stated and measurable and real effort is required to achieve them, then fair compensation packages can be negotiated and monitored.

Prosser:
All successful companies tie management compensation to performance. Our company’s performance has been outstanding in the past few years, in my judgment, and management’s salaries are at appropriate levels. There is no reason to believe that lowering current salaries would lead to performance exceeding the last few years.

Caindec:
CIRI follows the philosophy of seeking to compensate its employees at the mid-range of the pay scale for similar businesses. The executives are compensated in line with this policy. I also agree with the philosophy of “pay for performance.” Bonuses are commensurate with CIRI’s success.

Garber:
Yes. We must get past issues of individual power and politics and reexamine what shareholders want us to accomplish as a group. I do not believe that CIRI’s only mission is to make money. We need our shareholders to help reexamine and renew CIRI’s mission. I think it is harder to define that mission now that the battles with the federal government are over and we are left with the task of managing ourselves. It is easier to fight one another than to answer these questions: Who are we and what are we to do with our company and ourselves?

Swan:
Yes. We just need to stop it. We weren’t elected to fight with each other. We all know our charge as Directors – to work together and guide CIRI to financial stability – so there is simply no excuse for this behavior.

Prosser:
Our shareholder population is divided on the issue of how much of the company’s assets should be used now (dividends) or used for future growth (investment). The struggle between the Board majority and the Alliance is a manifestation of this conflict, I believe.