ASRC is a fun case. The Alaska Native corporations were set up in the 70s to settle land claim lawsuits and to provide Alaska Natives a way to a better economic future.

From what I understand, the federal government sets aside contracts for small businesses owned by certain disadvantaged classes (disabled veterans, women, Alaska Natives, etc). But apparently ASRC is able to continually spin off wholly-owned subsidiaries that are considered Alaska Native-owned small businesses, even if the overall ASRC is too big to qualify for those set-aside contracts.

Today ASRC is the most successful of the Alaska Native corporations, but along the way has basically become an evil oil company mixed with an evil government contracting company. But hey, they give each of their Inupiat shareholders a multi-thousand dollar dividend every year, so they seem to be a necessary evil.

Notably, ASRC just quit the Alaska Federation of Natives, basically because the AFN acknowledges a climate emergency but ASRC just wants to keep drilling for more oil.

I've also noticed ASRC contains a fair amount of what might be seen as nepotism elsewhere. The CEO's family and the chairman's family are certainly well represented in the company's ranks. But on the other hand there aren't a whole lot of employers in the North Slope so maybe that's just to be expected.

I'm sure the 'ASRC Federal' holding company acts as a nice firewall between ASRC proper and the Federal subsidiaries actually getting the government contracts. It's probably just about impossible for the board to keep tabs on what's going on (esp from Barrow).

I did some work for them about 10 years ago and the setup seemed pretty gross at the time (although the people i actually worked with were great).

Yeah, the whole concept of a modern corporation that restricts ownership to members of a certain ethnic background feels backward in this day and age. Yes, I know the actual requirement to be a shareholder is tribal membership and as Elizabeth Warren will tell you, tribal membership is not equivalent to ethnicity ... but it's a pretty close proxy here.

Apparently when the Alaska Native Corporations were set up, folks were aware of what a terrible failure the Indian Reservation system had been in the lower 48 and knew they had to do something different. And as far as I can tell, Alaska Natives have a much higher opinion of their native corporations than American Indians do of their reservations. So I dunno ... it's a gross corporation, like many others around the world, but it's a gross corporation that belongs to, and works on behalf of a population that could easily just be victims of said corporations. At least they've got one deep-pocketed organization in their corner.

Mixed feelings about the board too. I wonder how many other multi-billion dollar companies have a board member without a college degree? ASRC has several! On the other hand, 4 board members are female and there are a wide range of ages too, so their democratic board selection might yield a good diversity of experience and outlook.