J.P. Schmidt President & CEO, Family Health Hawaii familyhealthhawaii.com Question: What steps should I take to make sure I choose the right health insurance for my employees without breaking the bank? Answer: Dealing with health insurance doesn’t have to be intimidating if you keep things simple. Here are a few tips. When comparing plans, ask important questions. For instance: How…
Noy Worachit moved more during her adolescence – over 15 times – than most people do in their entire lives. As a teenager, she also spent time in corrections facilities and gave birth to her daughter. Worachit’s youth, like that of many foster children, was full of challenges and problems. But one woman who volunteered to be her advocate made all…
Name: Vivienne Lim Job: Owner and artistic director, Royal Academy of Ballet Experience: Three decades in ballet Start: Born in Malaysia, Lim was just 3 when her parents enrolled her in a ballet program certified by the esteemed Royal Academy of Dance in London. After her family moved to New York City, she continued dancing, but running a ballet school…
Name: Katie Wright Pere Job: Stuntwoman Experience: 14 years Start: While Pere attended Florida State University, she trained two to three hours a day, six days a week, as a competitive swimmer. She also rode Jet Skis and water skied. “I was really physically strong and I could handle myself in a lot of different situations,” she says. When she…
Executive Director, Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association Ryan brings wide experience to her role, from managing an information office in Kailua to serving as a state senator. This Kamehameha Schools alumna plans to focus on culture and authenticity during her tenure, which started in January. How does your varied background benefit you in this role? My experience with tourism was directly…
When David Yamashiro opened his 65-square-foot shave ice shop in Lahaina in December 2008, he had to beg people to try his product. “In the beginning, we were selling about 15 shave ice from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.,” Yamashiro remembers. “It was so bad that I handed out coupons, but nobody would come, even for free.” He doesn’t have…
In the downstairs office of a quiet home tucked into a side street in Pukalani, a 49-year-old married mother of two is plotting her next murder. And with a production schedule that sees her churning out five to six new books a year, she’s got a tight deadline to keep. Meet Toby Neal, a social worker-turned-novelist who may be Hawaii’s…
Steady leadership is essential when bad things happen to good companies. Public relations expert Julie Ford shares advice on how C-suite executives can be prepared for – and effectively meet – a crisis. 1. Be prepared Even the best organizations experience accidents, have rogue employees or make unpopular decisions. The first step to crisis planning is to plug any…
Creator: Briand Achong, president and co-founder of Greenpath Technologies Inc., was an accountant and small-business consultant before establishing his photovoltaic business. “We looked at it from a roofing perspective,” he says. “The roof is the only part of a building that can’t generate any income. We thought PV had the opportunity to generate some income for a landowner.” Product: The…
pay raise ahead roadsignThirty-nine percent of Americans believe they are underpaid – 42 percent of women versus 33 percent of men, according to a survey this year by the career website Glassdoor.com. If you are in that group, be aware that there are right and wrong ways to ask for a raise, and the right way begins with good timing….
To Donalyn Dela Cruz, coaches were people who led basketball practice and volleyball clinics – not shape executives into leaders. But when she entered the prestigious Omidyar Fellows program in 2012, she was paired with a professional coach who helped her transition into a new job, build on her strengths as a leader and find work-life balance. “It was part therapy…
My wife earns more money than I do. For many men, that would be a humiliating admission, but I’m proud of that fact and of her. And, though most of the credit for her success belongs to her hard work and intelligence, I will claim a small slice of the credit in a moment. Senior writer Beverly Creamer’s story on…
Twenty miles west of downtown Honolulu, inside a compact industrial building in Kapolei, engineers decked in white lab coats and safety goggles are carefully dipping silicon wafers into baths under industrial hoods and studying readouts that flash on monitors mounted around the cleanroom. Ten miles east of downtown Honolulu, in a home atop Hawaii Loa Ridge, a group of barefoot…
If patients and their families worry about acquiring an infection in the hospital, they’re probably thinking about the drug-resistant staph infection called MRSA. But hospital administrators and health officials say MRSA is no longer a major risk, with more patients coming in with infections they’ve acquired in the community than picking up the bug in their hospital beds. Instead, the…
Photos around Straub Hospital for the Hawaii Pacific Health Foundation and Wall-to-Wall Studios. For the 2011 Annual Report and Hospital Image Libraries 1- Healing Garden + Infusion 2- Simulation Lab – teaching doctor 3- Dr. Ping in ER 4- Waiting Room Lobby Area 5- Social Worker talk 6- Orthopedic Doctor Maeda with patient Sean and physical therapist Matt 7- Staff…
Hawaiian Telcom Executive Amy Aapala for Hawaii Business Magazine.As Brian Adrian stands atop a 42-foot ladder on a Dallas construction site, the alarm on his mobile phone rings. It’s time to call his wife, so he secures his grip and hits speed dial. Almost 4,000 miles away in Honolulu, Amy Aapala gets her cheery 7 a.m. wake-up call. After she…
If you want your new business to make the world better, not just make money, consider launching it at Impact Hub Honolulu. That’s where social entrepreneurs will find inexpensive office space, training and other resources, and a network of like-minded people, says Shanah Trevenna, a local expert on sustainability and co-founder of the Honolulu hub. “Social entrepreneurship is using your…