Ahtna West Sacramento staff and some of AGSC’s current/former employees, clients, and subcontractors who joined in our celebration.

By Leslie Jacques | Marketing Manager, Ahtna Government Services Corporation

AGSC Turns 20

This year, Ahtna Government Services Corporation celebrates its 20-year anniversary. AGSC was established in May 27, 1999. On June 13th, AGSC celebrated this milestone by rolling out its 20th anniversary logo and by hosting a luncheon in Ahtna’s West Sacramento office with employees, clients, subcontractors, and vendors.

Craig O’Rourke (AGSC President, 2013 – present) offered: “I’m very proud that our team has been able to continue AGSC as a successful and profitable company over a decade since graduating from the SBA’s 8(a) program. It’s a tribute to the competitive drive, motivation, and work ethic of our staff; said Craig. He added, “AGSC has been able to successfully transition from solely a government contractor during the 8(a) era to a multi-faceted commercial company today targeted primarily on public utilities and other large businesses in California. One area of service that we’ve been able to grow substantially the last several years is our stormwater services group, which has grown from a few certified staff in northern CA 8 years ago to over a dozen certified staff in multiple offices today. This team provides stormwater plans and inspections for several public utilities and their contractors throughout California. Relatedly, we’ve also become a high valued contractor to PG&E for installing stormwater engineering controls the last 5 years, and to date we’ve provided these services on over 400 construction sites and received many commendations from PG&E for our responsiveness and high-quality service. I’m very excited about the future of AGSC as we continue to partner with large government contractors and A/E firms on commercial and government agency environmental and civil construction contracts. In addition, we just received approval from the SBA under their new “All Small” mentor protégé program to form a joint venture with a large environmental and infrastructure company that will enable us to utilize their past performance and qualifications to pursue small business set-aside opportunities the next several years. With this JV, we will primarily be focused on multi-million dollar levee repair and improvement contracts in California and across the country in areas with significant flood risks. Thanks to a great team and solid guidance from our management and board of directors, I look forward to another decade of successful performance and meaningful contributions to our shareholders.”

This anniversary is about thanking and honoring our clients who have trusted us through the years and our employees (then and now) who work hard every day to ensure our success. It is also about gratitude for our parent company and our shareholders for supporting AGSC’s goals and providing resources for us to achieve those goals.

Here are some words from a few of AGSC’s employees from its inception to the present:

Chris Smith, Senior Program Manager for AFSI who joined AGSC in April 1999 as General Manager of the California Division and was promoted as President and CEO in 2001 said, “I have many memorable AGSC projects I am proud of. My most memorable contract was the sole sourced Second Line of Defense (SLD) contract that gave us a worldwide presence and for which we received a national award for project management from PMI for one of our challenging sites. Our Stillwell Hall Demolition (USACE) and Little Grass Valley Boat Ramp (USFS) projects received media attention for excellence and creativity. Our Alaska National Guard IDIQ Performance got us named top contractor in the country. And of course, post 911, the Coast Guard called us first when they needed support for building floating docks for their harbor gun patrol boats!” He wishes AGSC continued success and added, “AGSC developed the foundation of the safety culture for Ahtna. We hired Pete Rice and pushed him to instill in our employees the work ethic of safety – safety in the workplace and safety at home. I’m proud that in my tenure, we hired quality hard working people who took that safety culture and ran with it. We worked safely, productively and we also had fun and built a strong foundation for the future!”

David Frenzel, Vice President of Operations, AGSC (June 2008 – present): “I was hired as Construction Operations Manager for the SLD Program and my role was to manage all overseas field operations. One of my most memorable projects was the first phase of Spring Creek Iron Mountain mine superfund site closure project, and I was the Program Manager for this project. It was a 2-year project that gave us some hard back log and this led to two additional contracts on this site. Our successful implementation enabled the construction team to close this EPA Superfund site out two years ahead of schedule and the EPA prime contractor that we worked for won an award for our exceptional efforts. Another project that was instrumental in AGSC’s success over the last few years was a low-level radiological clean-up project we did for AMEC Foster Wheeler at the former Alameda Naval Air Station in 2015. This was another project that went very well and the client was exceptionally happy with the results and again our prime contractor client won an award for this project from NAVFAC Southwest Division. We have an awesome group of employees that work for AGSC and I want to thank them for all their hard work and dedication over the years. These staff deserve the recognition since they are the ones with boots on the ground that keep our clients happy and enable us to get follow on work.”

Randy Rogers, Senior Program Manager, AGSC (Sept. 1999 – present) and AGSC’s longest term employee: “Dredging, pier installation, and the Spring Creek Remediation project were some of the most memorable projects I have managed. They were original, required establishing new teams and were very challenging. Completion always had a very rewarding and satisfying feeling. I wish AGSC to continue to be like family, always focusing on safety first, and to continue to provide support to the Ahtna community. Being part of an organization that gives back to their shareholders is a great benefit. It has been a great honor and privilege to work with the group of people here for the last 20 years.”