Sitnasuak Native Corporation is headquartered in Nome, Alaska. (Flickr/CC

Sitnasuak Native Corporation (SNC), the largest of 16 village corporations in Alaska’s Bering Strait region, welcomed its new CEO this month: shareholder and former board director Charles E. Fagerstrom (Iñupiaq).

Headquartered in Nome, Alaska, SNC is owned by about 2,900 Alaska Native shareholders and counts operations throughout Alaska — in Nome, Anchorage, Wasilla and Fairbanks— as well as in Virginia and Puerto Rico. 

Fagerstrom is tasked with overseeing SNC’s family of businesses and brands that generate more than $170 million in annual revenues.  

SNC’s family of businesses and brands includes:

  • Bonanza Fuel, LLC
  • Bonanza Express
  • Nome Outfitters
  • Fidelity Title Agency of Alaska, LLC
  • Mat-Su Title Agency, LLC
  • Nanuaq, LLC
  • Mocean, LLC
  • SNC Technical Services, LLC
  • SNC Manufacturing, LLC
  • Aurora Industries, LLC

“After a thorough search process, the Board has chosen a highly qualified candidate to steer our village corporation,” said Board Chair Dr. Barb Amarok. “Charles has decades of business experience at the executive level and experience as an SNC director. His father was one of the original SNC incorporators in 1973 and a past President from 2011-2015, and his late uncle was a former Sitnasuak President and CEO. We are very excited that Charles has joined the management team and we are confident that our shareholders and corporation will benefit from his extensive professional experience, integrity and dedication to our shareholders and corporation.”

Born and raised in Nome, Alaska, Fagerstrom is Iñupiaq, with family roots in Nome and the Bering Strait region. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business finance from Seattle Pacific University, a master’s degree in health services administration and planning from the University of Hawaii, and a master’s degree in health administration from the University of Colorado.

During his 25-year career, he has been an executive in the healthcare field with organizations ranging in size from $20 to $500 million in annual revenues. Most recently, he was the Health Director of Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, where he was responsible for management of operations across Aleutian Pribilof Island communities. This experience strengthened his leadership with remote communities and reinforced the importance of keeping them connected. This experience will be valuable in the CEO role at SNC, with its diverse subsidiaries located from Alaska to Virginia to Puerto Rico.

“I look forward to using my experience to work for our shareholders. My values-based leadership style is grounded in integrity, honesty, humility and teamwork,” Mr. Fagerstrom said, “and I have used these values to cultivate and build effective teams. I’ve managed large-scale capital projects and implemented service-delivery expansions that resulted in increased access to care and decreased costs.

“I believe we’re more powerful together than any one of us is alone,” he continued. “None of us has the best answer on our own. I intend to leverage the power of Sitnasuak’s great team to diversify our business, grow profitability and increase shareholder benefits. More than anything, I intend to preserve the integrity of our Native corporation and protect our lands.”