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With 12.5 million acres, Doyon Ltd., the Interior Alaska Native regional corporation, is one of the nation's largest private landowners with a land base bigger than some states.
The boundaries of the Doyon region are immense, stretching from the Canadian border in the east to the Lower Yukon River on the Seward Peninsula in the west, the Alaska Range to the south and the Brooks Range to the north.
Doyon's region includes some of the nation's largest national parks and wildlife refuges, as well as a large amount of land owned by the state and local municipalities and the military bases. And don't forget a big section of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System snakes through Doyon's holdings.
Although Doyon's own lands are scattered through this area, the corporation has a stake in virtually everything that happens across this vast region.
Doyon now has 18,200 shareholders, having opened its rolls to younger Alaska Natives born since the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was passed in 1971. There were originally 9,000 Doyon shareholders.
"We have been profitable for 26 years, we must be doing something right," said former Doyon President Norm Phillips.
Phillips retired in September 2011. Aaron Schutt was appointed as his replacement.
Doyon's before-tax net income was $31.27 million in 2010, and the corporation has set a goal of increasing its net income to $50 million by 2015.
Like all of the Native regional corporations, Doyon has a diversified mix of investments and businesses, including industrial and government services, real estate and a small holding in tourism. And like other Native corporations, it is active in promoting minerals and oil and gas exploration, although Doyon is also exploring for oil and gas with partners on state lands.
What is distinctive about Doyon is that the corporation has successfully penetrated one of the nation's highest-tech industries - oil and gas drilling - and is well launched in a second high-tech industry - power plant operation and construction.
Doyon also has diversified its oil field and institutional services group with related services like engineering,...