www.honhl.com 808.681.7500 loansonline@honhl.com Question: I’m a small business owner. What should I do to ensure I’m in the best position to finance a new home? Answer: When someone wants to buy a home or refinance one, a mortgage company looks at three main criteria: the applicant’s credit, funds for the down payment and closing costs, and debt-to-income ratio. The first…
Danny Boren, founder of Maui-based Skyline Eco Adventures, understands that philanthropy is serious business. To date, Boren says, Skyline has donated more than $600,000 to Hawaii nonprofits and was the first zipline company in the world to join the “1% for the Planet” alliance, whose members contribute at least 1 percent of all sales to environmental groups. In addition, employees…
In 2005, Lourdes Vergara Marcelo left her job as head nurse at Tripler Army Medical Center to start her own company in Mililani with just one client and another certified nursing assistant. Soon, Marcelo had hired three more CNAs and her home healthcare agency was thriving, but she knew she needed a boost to reach her goal: growing her business…
Name: Marc Kassis, Ph.D. Job: Support Astronomer for W.M. Keck Observatory Years of Experience: 9 Starting out: In high school, Kassis thought physics was “the coolest stuff ever” and went on to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy from Boston University. He also educated himself on the ins and outs of computers. “It’s very important to have a rounded education that…
Child & Family Service – one of Hawaii’s biggest nonprofit, social-service providers – now offers a personalized care program called Kupuna Concierge as part of an effort to divesify its income. Prices start at $38 an hour. The idea of nonprofits operating for-profit divisions is not new. But the challenges of fundraising and cuts in government funding that began with…
Hawaii is known worldwide for its beautiful beaches, but most local golf courses import their sand from Vietnam or California. In fact, golf-course and athletic-field constructors prefer the more manageable, industrial varieties of sand based on silicon dioxide, as opposed to regular sand. “Silica sand is less contaminated than beach sand, which makes it more suitable for our uses,” says…
There’s a new mantra going around Hawaii offices: Ditch your seat and get on your feet. Standing and sit-stand workstations are not just for geeks any more. Eric Shearer used to suffer excruciating pain from sitting in front of his computer eight hours a day. The senior corporate writer at HMSA has a history of low-back problems primarily due to…
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ Papakilo search engine and database aims to become a one-stop site for all things Hawaiian. Though still a work in progress, Papakilo’s creators consider it a “database of databases” as it offers online access to more than 500,000 records from local archives. Many documents can be downloaded and others are provided with index information that…
Training for Fellows in the omidyar program goes through three stages: • Looking at yourself, including strengths and weaknesses; • Looking at You as part of a team; and • Looking at your leadership in the community. Mark your calendars, future leaders of Hawaii: June 30 is the deadline to apply to join the second cohort of the Omidyar Fellows. The Omidyar program is the…
It’s impossible to really say what a human life is really worth, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying. It happens all the time in wrongful-death suits, which are designed to compensate family members and dependents for their economic loss. According to tort law, the value of an individual life is closely related to that person’s future income. For example,…
Dustin Sellers is a poster child (and adult) of the evolution of Hawaii soccer. ProService Hawaii’s president of business development and marketing was 5 when the American Youth Soccer Organization launched its first season in the Islands in 1974. “My parents ran an advertising agency and one of their biggest accounts was Meadow Gold Dairies,” explains Sellers. “My Dad had…
Interactive Alphabet What’s Learned? Letters Description: Hawaii-connected app-maker Piikea Street won instant recognition for Interactive Alphabet, which charms your littlest technophile through the early stages of literacy with easy, interactive play. Latest versions offer lower-, upper- and mixed-case letters and words. Feed Me! (Hawaiian) What’s Learned? Hawaiian-language vocabulary, colors, shapes and numbers Description: Practicing vocabulary gets easier when every…
Thursday, 2:17 PM Diagnostic Laboratory Services, Aiea Photographer David Croxford >> Medical laboratory technician Jayson Ababa checks complete blood count samples using an automated hematology analyzer system. DLS tests samples from Hawaii, Guam and Saipan and performs about 37,000 tests a day. Categories: Health & Wellness, Media, Parting Shot
Problem: Box jellyfish kill more swimmers than sharks in Australia and elsewhere in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Stings from the smaller Hawaii species can be painful and debilitating. Controversial “antivenom” treatments have a poor 40-year track record and fail to prevent death in animals injected with venom. Inspiration: An encounter with box jellyfish while swimming in Waikiki 16 years ago left…
A lot of you have shared this bittersweet moment: Your child is graduating from college (hurray!) and has found a great job (double hurray!), but that job is thousands of miles away. Sigh. My son, James, our first child, graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y, on May 25, and next month starts working for GE Capital. He has…
What changes have you seen in the healthcare industry during the five years you’ve been with Kaiser? We’re seeing more accountability and transparency around quality, and we’re seeing the healthcare systems beginning to integrate. The hospitals are hiring doctors and opening primary-care clinics, moving toward an integrated model that looks more like a Kaiser model. Payment reform, coupled with the…
Photo: JJ Johson The costs add up because even small sports events need planning, permits, cones, cops, signs, safety and much more On any given Sunday, hundreds or thousands of weekend warriors are on the roads and in the ocean competing in run, bike or swim events around Hawaii. Whether you are in the race or stalled in traffic waiting…
How We Create the List Welcome to Hawaii Business magazine’s Top 100 Realtors for 2013. This is the only objective ranking of Realtors in the state. The information was compiled using the Multiple Listing Service databases from the Honolulu Board of Realtors, the Realtors Association of Maui and Hawaii Information Services, which manages the MLS data for Hawaii Island and…
Bill Chee, CEO of Locations LLC, has always been ahead of the curve. In 1969, when he was 24 and just starting in real estate, he launched a primitive database of sales information long before others even thought of such things. “We were so young, we could only depend on facts, not reputation. So we started to acquire real estate…
18 Insights from the BOSS survey of 401 local business leaders Plus 10 nuances we thought you should know about 1. Performance Plateau The Performance Index is at 113, virtually unchanged from October 2012. This index is the BOSS survey’s broadest measure, covering revenues, jobs and profits for 401 local businesses. 2. Future Still Looks Bright The Optimism Index measures…
OK, so you grew up in Hawaii. You know your spam musubi and hula kahiko. Then you moved away – for education, for work, to prove yourself. You’re having a great time. You visit often, but never stay. Then, maybe, you surprise yourself by tearing up as the flight lifts off from the tarmac at HNL. Or you find yourself…
Name: BRADLEY COATES Job: DIVORCE AND FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY Years of experience: 36 START: When Bradley Coates attended the University of Southern California in the 1970s, his plan was to get his Ph.D. and become a history professor – until he saw how much money history professors made. “The dean of the department actually showed me his paycheck,” says Coates, 61, laughing….
Lauren Rusert “My bees were dying. I was crying. I had 40 hives and 36 of them were dead. My friends said, ‘Find a new job. The bee business is done.’ ” Diminutive Puna beekeeper Jen Rasmussen recounts the devastation she faced in 2010 when two predatory pests rapidly invaded Hawaii Island. She thought her apiary career was finished along…
Retired TWA pilot Peter Forman says the growing airline industry is not prepared for a looming pilot shortage and that’s why he wants to grow the Commercial Aviation Program at UH’s Honolulu Community College. Forman is the coordinator of the two-year associate-degree program that conducts flight lessons from Kalaeloa Airport and holds classes in a refurbished World World II hangar…