A Jeanne's Wish

For two decades, the President of the Maui Economic Development Board fulfilled the needs of the business community. Now, it's her turn to talk.

One morning in 1984, Jeanne Skog scanned a Maui newspaper for job listings and struck gold. The president of the Maui Economic Development Board (a one-man organization at the time) had placed an ad for an executive assistant – preferably one with a college education and work experience. Skog had a bachelor’s in English from a private college in Minnesota and had taught high school for a year. She also had sales experience. The job seemed like a good fit. She applied and received an offer.

20 YEARS AND RUNNING: Jeanne Skog, president of the Maui Economic Development Board, has always had a firm grasp of the business community. Photo: Ron Dahlquist

At the time, she and her family had just returned to Maui after three years in Hong Kong. Her two children were barely in preschool, and husband, Gregory, had recently started an architect firm on the island. The position at the MEDB seemed like a good match; plus the hours were flexible. “I thought, ‘This could be good for a year,’” she recalls.

One year became five, then five turned into 10, then 15. Soon, she was appointed president and chief executive officer. Next year marks her 20th anniversary at the board. “I feel that I was very lucky, because the president was a fantastic mentor, who was always pushing me for more responsibilities,” she says. “There was a lot of room for me to grow.”

Maui’s economy also was poised for growth at the time. The visitor industry had suffered from United Airlines strikes but had reclaimed its reputation as a world-class resort destination. Construction projects were under way. Pineapple and sugar companies thrived. Local business leaders, however, knew they could not put their eggs in one basket. They needed to diversify.

“We looked at these conditions and said, ‘Where can we go to balance the economy?’” Skog recalls. “Out of this convergence came the idea of high technology.” A long-term plan was created, involving public-private partnerships. Outside resources were sought, and international and U.S. mainland companies began to open offices on Maui. Ever the teacher, Skog educated Maui’s residents about the benefits of high technology. None of these efforts happened overnight, of course. Each vignette was a tiny chapter that later filled volumes of tech success stories.

Fast forward to the present. Today, Maui’s tech companies employ about 1,000 people, with a payroll of $40 million. The industry is expected to generate $121 million in total gross annual sales this year. “There is some really hot, world-class stuff happening here,” Skog says. “And no one wonders where Maui is. We’re not like a small town in Iowa. That’s great. That’s a plus for us.”

Today, technology on Maui is like the thread that connects the island’s various industries: technology and education; technology and agriculture; technology and tourism; the list goes on. “We have to take advantage of that,” Skog says. “We recognized that the successful visitor industry was attracting the kind of people we want to talk to about contributing to high-tech Maui. Whether it is a CEO or a president, they come here all the time to vacation.” In fact, last year, visitors and conventions for the Maui supercomputing center generated 10,200 visitor nights, or $10.2 million in sales.

The momentum will continue, as long as Skog and her team continue to develop new programs, such as the Women in Technology Project. The federally funded program was created four years ago to increase the number of women and girls in the high-tech work force. It reaches out to girls in the junior high and high school levels, particularly girls on Maui, Kauai and the Big Island. Today, women comprise between 0 percent and 13 percent of Maui’s high-tech work force. “We’ve got to start [high-tech recruitment] as early as possible, especially with women and minorities,” Skog says.

This is a philosophy that trickles into her personal life, too. Skog’s daughter is a Pomona College student and, according to Skog, “will probably go into science.” Her son, Ellerey, has a computer science degree from the University of Minnesota and is employed by Akimeka LLC. “This job [for 20 years] allowed me to get to the games, the piano lessons and the practices,” she says. It’s payback time.

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