How Calista’s Holding Lines Influenced Our Growth
Storyknife, July/August 2025 edition | Adapted from the 2024 Annual Report
How did Calista’s business grow by nearly 70 percent in the past five years? This growth was not accidental, it came from strategic planning by company leaders.
The sources of Calista’s growth are its holding lines—Yulista Holding, Calista Brice, Bektuq Holding, and Ena Holding—but they did not always exist.
A strategic plan to create holding lines, a little over 10 years ago, helped unleash the growth that we are seeing today.
That growth is phenomenal. For example, in 2013, when the holding lines were established, Bilista Holding, one of the five holding companies established, had six subsidiaries with revenues in the $50-70 million range. A little more than ten years later, in 2024, Bilista Holding, now known as Calista Brice, had 22 companies and revenue of about $520 million.
This growth supports our growing Shareholder population with distributions, benefits and job opportunities.
GENESIS OF THE HOLDING LINES
Originally, Calista subsidiaries operated independently, with no easy way to share resources or business strategy.
Josh Herren, now president of Calista’s largest holding line, Yulista, remembers the holding line discussion starting at Calista’s headquarters in 2010.
We learned we had a lot more capability than we ever knew or were tracking.
Josh Herren, Yulista Holding President
Herren explains, “from an operating standpoint, it made sense to group similar businesses together. We also liked the concept from a governance standpoint—all 30 subsidiaries at the time had their own boards, and their own boards, and their own board meetings—we would be in meetings all week long.”
Calista President and CEO Andrew Guy and the executive team worked with the Board of Directors to evaluate different options for how Calista and its subsidiaries could best be organized and governed. Throughout 2011, options were discussed in committee meetings and meetings of the board as a whole.
“We learned we had a lot more capability than we ever knew or were tracking,” says Herron.
In January 2012, the Calista Board of Directors approved a management recommendation to reorganize Calista’s subsidiaries into business (holding) lines, each headed by a holding company.
UNLEASHING GROWTH
It was clear early on that holding lines would catalyze Calista’s business growth.
“It created a framework for us to acquire and create new companies” says Calista Brice President Sam Robert Brice, noting the acquisition of STG Incorporated and Alaska Crane, and the creation of subsidiaries that take on large construction, engineering and environmental projects in Alaska, the Lower 48 and the Pacific Rim.
The reorganization enabled subsidiaries to focus on their own business performance while the holding companies took on the responsibility for growth.
For example, when Josh Herren was tapped to lead Yulista Holding, its main subsidiary relied almost exclusively on a single government contract. “Having the holding company in place allowed me to look at the whole landscape and ask, ‘Why are we so big here and not growing everywhere else?” Herren says.
“We were able to outline a strategy for growth and leverage performance and expertise across our groups. By doing that, we learned we had a lot more capability than we ever knew or were tracking,” Herren adds.
GROWING THROUGH COLLABORATION
Calista’s holding companies regularly share opportunities and lessons learned with each other.
The key to our success is the partnerships we have throughout Calista—with our own subsidiaries, with other holding lines—and the continuous support from Calista’s leadership team.
Stefan Rearden, Calista Brice Chief Operating Officer & Calista Shareholder
Three years ago, for example, Yulista Holding organized its subsidiaries into groups involved in similar work, such as maintenance or base operations support. Recently, Yulista leadership helped advise Calista Brice on implementing a parallel structure of ‘business units’ within its holding line.
Stefan Rearden, Calista Brice Chief Operating Officer, says creating the business units was a natural progression. “We are aiming for continuous improvement in how we work together.
“The key to our success is the partnerships we have throughout Calista—with our own subsidiaries, with other holding lines—and the continuous support from Calista’s leadership team.”