PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Hepworth Agency opens doors to Alaska

Entrepreneur puts 30 years’ experience to work helping Outside companies gain a foothold to doing business in Alaska

Q. Where is Hepworth Agency located?

A. My office is located at 612 E. 3rd Ave. in Anchorage, Alaska.

Q. What year was the company founded, who founded it, and what was its original name?

A. I started it part time in 2000 as Hepworth Investigations doing research/investigative work for a Lower 48 client. The marketing direction and name were changed to Hepworth Agency in August 2005 so I could reach a broader market and provide full-time services to my clients.

Q. Who heads up Hepworth Agency and who is on its senior management team?

A. Wadeen Hepworth is the owner and contracts out services as needed.

Q. What are the company’s target business sectors? What services does the company offer?

A. They are the oil, gas, mining and construction industries. Services include marketing assistance, company representation for products and services, editing and research, event planning and promotion, trouble shooting/problem solving, customer service and public relations. I specialize in services to companies outside the state that need advance marketing presentations and information gathering in order to obtain future Alaska business. In 2006 I will also provide courthouse research services to private investigators and attorneys in the Lower 48.

My services are tailored to meet client needs, and I take pride in my ability to represent companies in a professional manner. I can design a marketing/sales/promotion package to promote organizations to the companies they want to reach.

Q. Who are the company’s main clients?

A. I am the Alaska Company Representative for Carolina Mat Company, of Plymouth, N.C.; Canadian Mat Systems Inc., Edmonton, Alberta; and Trinity Inspection Services, Fort Smith, Ark.

Q. Is your company expanding its operations and/or locations?

A. I have a five-year plan to expand Hepworth Agency to include manufacturing and international marketing work. I am in the process of developing the first phase of the plan that will provide future jobs for Alaskans.

Q. What is Hepworth Agency’s main strength, i.e. its edge over the competition?

A. I have more than 28 years experience in marketing, sales, advertising and promotion in Alaska’s oil, gas, mining and construction industries. I represented the Alaska Railroad Corp. as the Freight Sales Manager and as the Assistant to the Vice President of Marketing; also was Assistant to the Publisher of Petroleum News.

I have worked with Japanese trading and shipping companies throughout North America and Alaska. I also worked with German, Danish and Korean shipping companies as well as ship agents, custom brokers and stevedoring companies overseeing the shipment of steel products to the oil fields.

I am a published writer and have a broad background in public relations. I’ve been responsible for large advertising/promotion budgets and have designed, set up and manned booths at conferences and trade shows throughout the United States and Canada.

My business travel has included all of North America and Alaska (including Prudhoe Bay, Unalaska and western Alaska.) I’ve ridden the Haul Road on a truck, climbed on drill rigs, stayed at construction camps and visited pipe-laying sites at Prudhoe Bay. I know the territory, which is absolutely critical in such an undeveloped state.

Q. What new markets, clients and/or projects did Hepworth Agency attract in the last year?

A. I introduced the two new mat companies and a pipeline inspection company to Alaska in 2005.

Q. What is the most challenging job your company has undertaken?

A. Gathering engineering information to help in the redesign of a drill rig mat to meet the heavier drill rig needs in the Alaska market.

Q. What do you see as your company’s biggest challenge in the next five years?

A. Launching a new manufacturing company and marketing the products both in Alaska and Russia.

Q. What do you see as future trends or opportunities for Hepworth Agency from events such as long-term weather fluctuations?

A. Warm weather and slushy muddy terrain are a nice combination for selling drill rig and road/platform mats.

Q. What is the most humorous story from Hepworth Agency’s years in the business in Alaska?

A. As a sales representative at Alaska Railroad I convinced ARCO Alaska to ship 60-foot line pipe with Alaska Railroad from Anchorage through to Prudhoe Bay during breakup. This required transferring loads at Hilltop on the Haul Road and I thought it rather strange that the truckers (their managers were my two best trucking buddies) didn’t mingle in the coffee shop. At dinner I got the word that the North Slope contractor refused to unload the trucks. Without realizing it, I had put together a deal between a union and non-union trucking company, and no one had mentioned the fact — we just had a job to do. (By the way, they unloaded those trucks!)

Q. What is Hepworth Agency’s safety record?

A. So far Wadeen has managed to stay on her feet during icy weather which is a safety record in itself; she also refrained from cooking to avoid burning her office down.

Q. How can people get in touch with you?

A. My contact information is: Hepworth Agency, 612 E. 3rd Ave., Anchorage, AK 99501, telephone: (907) 272-5766, fax: (907) 274-5766, and email: [email protected].