Koniag Gets a New President

Mitch Borden/KMXT

Shauna Hegna became Koniag, Inc.’s new president at the beginning of September after its former president and CEO, Elizabeth Perry, announced she’d be resigning.

Hegna is originally from Port Lions and was Koniag’s executive vice president of shareholder services and lands management. She loved rolling up her sleeves and serving Koniag shareholders in that position, but as president she’ll be working on a wider range of things day to day.

“So one moment I might be supporting some of our region advocacy issues and talking about rural education and the importance of keeping our schools open in our villages. Or I might be talking with board members about an upcoming board meeting.”

Ron Ugner is the chairman of Koniag’s board of directors. He’ll be the interim CEO for the next two years. Hegna says the corporation is in a strong position as it’s going through these changes.

“We’ve had four years of profitable growth. We’ve been focused on expanding our shareholder benefits and increasing our lands management activities.”

Looking forward Hegna says Koniag is working on creating long term land and shareholder benefit management plans. She also says it wants to expand.

“We are actually in the process of looking at the potential of buying additional companies so we could continue to grow.”

Hegna says she’s a little nervous about becoming Koniag’s president, but she says she has the support of a wonderful staff and the board of directors, so she’ll be fine.