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Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
Currently, the company has a staff of twelve,
including full- and part-time employees. BeadedStream has also found customers outside of
Alaska and the Lower 48. While a current focus is on market opportunities in Canada, the
company has successfully exported products
to a variety of other countries including Spain,
Norway, and Australia. Although the design
and engineering of the company’s products are
carried out locally, the firm is continually striving to manufacture a greater percentage of the
final product within Alaska.
ADS-B Technologies is an Anchorage-based
software development company that is on the
leading edge of ADS-B, the next generation of
radar for the aviation industry. The company’s
offices and facilities are located at Merrill Field
in East Anchorage. Founded by former Navy
pilot Skip Nelson, the small firm has done some
pioneering work in the development of ADS-B
and its related systems, including being the first
company to successfully demonstrate the technology in both Asia and Africa. ADS-B Technologies has designed and constructed ADS-B
ground stations and installed the technology
in hundreds of aircraft. Nelson sees the success of companies like his as a way for Alaska
to diversify its economy and to attract the best
and brightest minds to the state. He sees opportunities for clean and light manufacturing
to prosper in the state based on several factors
such as the air cargo capabilities of Ted Stevens
Anchorage International Airport; the large,
expansive areas in the state for testing various
technologies; and a favorable tax structure for
entrepreneurs. The company has exported to
a variety of countries including China, Japan,
South Korea, Portugal, and the UK.
Alaska’s cadre of tech exporters is paving the
way for other such companies to find a home
on Alaska’s silicon tundra. Companies like
these need a labor force skilled in fields such as
mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, and other related areas;
the state’s universities and technical colleges
are graduating future employees with degrees
and certificates in these fields. And Alaska’s
unique character and quality of life is attractive to retain and recruit qualified workers.
With a relatively small local market of just
over 700,000 citizens, Alaskan tech exporters look to both the Lower 48 and overseas
for scalability and expanded market opportunities. For many of them, it is the overseas
markets that hold the greatest potential, especially in the fast growing markets across
Asia. R
Greg Wolf has been the Executive
Director of the World Trade Center in
Anchorage since 2002. Prior to joining
the Center, he served as the State of
Alaska’s Director of International Trade
and Market Development and was the
Vice President of Overseas Projects for
the Anchorage Economic Development
Corporation. He is the founder of the
Arctic Ambitions Conference and Trade
Show.
