The spreadsheet said ninety percent. That's how much revenue was about to disappear when ASCI's largest oil-and-gas client pulled out in 2020. Christine Hopkins stared at the numbers in her Anchorage office, the Chugach Mountains framed in the window behind her, and made a decision that defied every reasonable calculation.
She didn't close the company. She rebuilt it.
Christine had never planned to run a business. She was a military wife, following her husband's career across duty stations, raising their family in the rhythm of relocations and deployments. When she joined ASCI years earlier, it was as an employee learning the ropes of a small Alaskan firm. But she paid attention. She asked questions. She understood that survival in business, like survival in military life, meant adapting to whatever terrain you found yourself on.
When COVID gutted the oil-and-gas sector and ASCI's future evaporated almost overnight, Christine became the majority owner of a company with almost nothing left to own. The logical move was to wind down, salvage what she could, move on.
She chose the illogical move instead.
Federal contracting. It was a world she barely knew — dense with acronyms, regulations, and procurement processes that could bury a newcomer in paperwork. But Christine saw what others missed. Alaska's unique position. The capabilities her team still had. The doors that might open if she knocked hard enough and long enough.
She knocked.
Three years of learning a new language. Three years of building relationships with agencies, proving ASCI's value, winning trust one contract at a time. Her team watched her work through problems that would have broken someone looking for quick wins. She wasn't looking for quick wins. She was looking for a company that would still be standing when her grandchildren were grown.
In 2023, the Small Business Administration named ASCI the Alaska Small Business of the Year. Shortly after, Christine earned a seat on the Enterprising Women Advisory Board, joining a network of women business leaders shaping policy and mentoring the next generation.
The spreadsheet that once showed ninety percent loss now tells a different story. ASCI is diversified, resilient, and growing in ways Christine couldn't have imagined when she was just an employee taking notes.
People sometimes ask her what gave her the confidence to pivot so completely, to bet everything on a market she didn't know.
She doesn't talk about confidence. She talks about necessity. About the people who depended on ASCI for their livelihoods. About refusing to let a crisis write the ending.
The oil-and-gas client didn't sink her company. It revealed who was actually steering the ship.
Christine Hopkins never planned to become a business owner. But when the moment came to decide whether ASCI would survive, she discovered something important: *she'd been ready all along.*
