President’s Message: To Lead is To Serve

Andrew Guy, President and CEO

Storyknife, November/December 2024 edition

Our traditional home and governance structures rightly and properly revolve around the parents. Parent in Yugtun is Angayuqaq which is a base word for authority and nation too. The Yup’ik parents are like Euro-Asian peoples’ king and queen in the sense that they provide direction and set the rules for the family and nation. Ultimately, they serve the family and teach the children to live according to our way of life—Yuuyaraq.

Andrew Guy, Calista Corp. President/CEO

Andrew Guy, Calista Corp. President/CEO

When you’re a parent, you teach the rules and processes, so your kids know what’s expected of them to live properly and productively.

Similarly in the business world, you need to have policies and procedures in place so everyone knows how they’re expected to act and what they’re expected to achieve. These set a path to review performance and clearly measure results.

Once you review the results of your performance, it provides time to reflect and see how you can improve. This process of Continuous Improvement is Elluarqurluni in Yugtun. Our corporate Core Value of “Continuous Improvement, development and learning in all we do” is based on this Central Yup’ik cultural value.

Parents lead and serve the family the same way the board and management lead and serve the corporation. I serve the Shareholders with the knowledge I’ve learned from both parents and in the experience I’ve gained from my professional life.

To lead is to serve. I’ve learned through a household and village that centered life around the parents and the grandparents. Our Elders pass on that cultural knowledge so we may thrive and pass it on to our children. In the same sense, we serve and provide guidance to our workers to know our expectations and to know how we can continuously improve. As a company, our ultimate goal is to provide benefits to and serve our Shareholders.