Less than a year ago, Ed Warren was out of work and getting by, as he says, “with a lot of help from the village and a lot of smoked salmon from friends.”

Now, he is the chairman of Klukwan, Inc., one of the more profitable Native village corporations in all of Alaska. 

The 55-year-old Warren took over the corporation’s top spot Aug. 24, when the nine-member board of directors ousted longtime chairman Bill Thomas in a 5-4 vote. Thomas, chairman of Klukwan Inc., for 68 ½ years, resigned from the board along with the three other directors who voted to keep him in the top spot. 

In the meantime, four new board members have been selected – Ralph Strong, James Strong, Johanna Hotch and Norman Hotch. Thomas has been removed as president of the Long Island logging subsidiary and Warren is slowly moving into his new office. Book shelves are still empty, pictures still lean against the wall, waiting to be hung, and there’s about a 2-foot-tall stack of books on the uncluttered desk top. The title of the books:” “Rules of the Game – inside the Corporate Boardrooms.” 

The books, in addition to Ed Warren’s mannerisms, quickly point out the difference in styles between the old and new chairman of the board. 

Where Thomas, 38, had the look and style of a politician, some calling it charisma, Warren is not flashy. 

Dressed in faded blue jeans, walking shoes, a short-sleeved shirt and vest, without any jewelry except a wedding band, it’s hard to imagine Ed Warren as being in charge of a corporation that reports its assets at $85 million. His way of speaking is as unassuming as his dress. 

The words come out quietly and slowly, as if he is choosing each one very carefully. “My personal philosophy on how to perform is that with all my prior training, I won’t be of any value unless I listen, unless I listen carefully, not just passively, and perform as needed.” 

He mentions that the skills of communications, including that of listening, became important concepts to him during his seven years with Toastmasters International, an organization that stresses better speaking techniques 

And he speaks of failures and unaccomplished goals, as well as his steadfast religious beliefs. 

He speaks of his college days in the 1950s that ended when he got married his junior year, ending his pre-med college route. He talks about his first marriage, that also ended, and how he resume college in the late 1970s, “six or seven kids later, (when) I found I’d been out of college too long,” and of his second marriage that remains strong. 

Warren’s jobs have been checkered with diversity – from being an X-ray technician in Seattle, Wash., to managing a public health service hospital in that city; from being jobless with his only income coming from Klukwan Inc. board meetings, to writing grants for the Village of Klukwan, which started last November. 

Warren grew up on Jones Point, right outside his office at the Kluwan Inc., headquarters. After graduating from Sheldon Jackson High School in Sitka, he went to Park College at Markville, Mo., to study biology. He returned for schooling to South Seattle Community College for night classes in the mid-60s and eventually became a fulltime student at Seattle Central Community College from 1978-1980 rounding out his medical technician training with courses ranging from english and mathematics to accounting a music. 

But it was a move in the mid-1970s that brought him back to Alaska, to the Village of Klukwan, and eventually to Klukwan Inc. 

Before that, Warren was entrenched with various positions in the Lower 48. For 20 years, he worked in a variety of hospitals, from the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Chicago , Ill., to the V.A. Research Hospital there, to the Radiology Division of the University of Washington in Seattle, to the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital there. 

In 1975, he quit the health service hospital to return to Klukwan so he could become more involved with interpreting the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 as it applied to the Village of Klukwan. He also became a member of the board at Klukwan Inc. 

After that, Warren went to Juneau as emergency medical services coordinator of the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Corp., then to Seattle to resume his X-ray technician job with the V.A. hospital. In 1983, he returned to Klukwan to be part of the Klukwan Inc., management committee, which reviewed contracts and the corporation’s operating procedures. 

He had to resign from that committee to settle divorce proceedings in Seattle and returned to Klukwan in November as an unemployed person, a head of household of 10 with his second wife. 

Warren quickly convinces anyone visiting him in his new office that ego is not a major ingredient in this corporate shakeup. “Being chairman of the board is mainly a matter of keeping relatively organized,” he said of his new job. “The board members say what’s to be done and the top management works out the details of when and where.” 

While he said he’s still adjusting to the top role, the transition from board member to chairman of the board wasn’t difficult. “I feel the responsibility. It’s there, certainly.”

“But I’m a practicing believer that there’s a Lord. I keep daily contact with him. If I do that, everything will stay in check,” Warren said. “There are bigger things out there than Ed Warren. We’re all expendable and the organization does work whether the chairman’s here or not.”

As for any changes at Klukwan Inc., Warren said the corporation is looking into the possibility of “vertical integration,” which means seeing if Klukwan Inc., can enter into the marketing realm to sell the logs it falls, trucks , and stores. 

He will not comment on any of Thomas’ views as to why he was ousted from the corporation’s top seat, which Thomas said resulted from personnel matters. But Warren said the most important part of the business is personnel matters, “Without people, nothing gets done.” 

The only structural change, he said, is the change at Long Island. Thomas, who was president of the lucrative logging camp, was removed from that position and replaced by David Strong. The title also was changed to chief executive officer and chairman of Long Island. 

Warren is not on that board either. “I can’t add anymore (to the corporation) if I serve on the Long Island board,” he said, explaining why he wanted someone else to fill the position formerly held by the chairman of the board. “The more people involved, the more problem solving gets done. It’s like adding another brain,” said the man who owns the top spot. “What more could I add to that board.”