Koniag, Inc, one of Alaska's Native Regional Corporations, announced in a press release yesterday that their top executive, on March 22nd, agreed to step down effective immediately.

Will Anderson has been at the helm of Koniag Inc for the past seven years as President and Chief Executive Officer. No reason has been given for the very sudden departure that Anderson made from the regional corporation that encompasses Kodiak Island and land adjacent to it.

Koniag’s press release, which they placed on their website, had very little to say about the reason for the transition, but did say that Tom Panamaroff would be taking over as Interim President, while Ron Unger would step in as the Interim CEO of the corporation.

Ron Unger sent out an email to shareholders, informing them of the formation of a committee to guide the recruiting effort for a new President and CEO.

Also, in his letter to shareholders, Unger related the poor financial performance suffered by the corporation that led to a steep decline shareholder’s dividends which were released at the first of the year. He pointed out that the board took decisive actions to address those issues.

Unger went on to say, “Koniag has the right strategy, but we must implement it effectively. We will continue to focus on our core business sectors and sell non-core assets. We are streamlining operations, managing costs and reducing corporate overhead. New leadership will energize Koniag and return it to profitability. Positive, necessary actions are happening, but results will take time.”

Anderson took over as top executive of Koniag in July of 2006. Before assuming that position, Anderson served as the Chief Financial Officer of Koniag, as well as the finance director for Afognak Native Corporation. Anderson was also employed by Integrated Concepts and Research Corportation as the Vice-President of Finance.

ICRC, a former subsidiary of Koniag’s, was recently in the news in connection with a lawsuit taken up by the city of Anchorage over the failed port facilities there. ICRC had the oversight on that project.

Koniag holds approximately 123,000 acres of surface Land and approximately 900,000 acres of subsurface rights on or near Kodiak Island and has about 3,500 shareholders.