By sixth grade, Cedric Gates’ future already looked bleak: Severe childhood obesity had pushed his weight over 200 pounds. A year later things got worse: His mother collapsed at work and died from heart disease. By the time he was 14, Gates was running with a wild crowd. At 15, he’d dropped out of Waianae High School. Tenth grade was…
Feral chickens are a growing pest problem in Hawaii, partly because they have no natural predators. “The most common problem is roosters crowing,” says Michael Botha, president of Sandwich Isle Pest Solutions. “And the other part of it is they’re scratching around looking for worms, roaches and centipedes. They make holes and … defecate on people’s lawns, decks, all kinds…
For 17 years , Derek Kobayashi has dedicated so much of his spare time to free legal aid that it’s earned him the nickname “Mr. Pro Bono.” “Since about 1998, I’ve always tried to maintain at least one active pro bono case as part of my load,” explains Kobayashi, 51, a litigation partner with the law firm Schlack Ito. “I…
When you’re surrounded by some of the world’s most gorgeous landscapes and seascapes, painting outdoors instead of in a studio makes sense. But painting outside requires a different technique than painting indoors, says artist Lynne Boyer. Boyer teaches painting in plein air, French for “open air,” to anyone with at least basic art experience. Three-day intensive workshops, with no more…
Profiles of five great local companies that you should know about.
If you coach a local sports team that needs uniforms or run a business that uses logo wear, you probably know about Kenjo Inc. in Kalihi. For 28 years, Sidney Lynch has been the quiet, steady force behind Hawaii’s second-oldest embroidery factory. My former life and business partner, Mike Wu, and I started Kenjo in 1987 as a totally new…
Question: Is there an easy way to protect my company’s intellectual property? Answer: Protecting your IP is simple if you follow a few basic steps. If you have already started your company, consider the types of intellectual property you have and get appropriate registrations. Your business, service and product names are some of your IP assets. Applications for trademarks can…
Photo: Aaron Yoshino Final look Friday, 12:52 p.m. Hawaii Camera, Kaimuki Photo by Aaron Yoshino Josh Strickland, founder and CEO of Hawaii Camera, inspects one before renting it out. Since opening its doors in 2009, the company says, it has serviced 15,000 clients, ranging from high-school students to Hawaii Five-0 producers. The company has more than 1,200 rental products, including…
The Boys and Girls Club has changed the lives of young people in Hawaii for 40 years. This year alone, it has 2,000 members between the ages of 7 and 17 at its 14 club sites, says Tim Motts, president and CEO. “The Boys and Girls Club has been around for over 100 years nationally,” says Motts. “We’re the largest…
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 required that colleges provide services and help students with disabilities. Eighteen years later, partly because of a series of lawsuits, Congress radically enlarged the definition. In the past, disabilities primarily included blindness, deafness and immobility. Not after 2008. “Congress said, ‘Stop restricting,’ ” says Ann Ito, director of Kokua Services at UH-Manoa. “It…
YouthBuild offers a second chance to young people who dropped out of school or face other serious challenges. The Honolulu city-run program provides hands-on training in painting, carpentry, plumbing, electrical and other real-world skills, while students work toward a high school diploma. YouthBuild also partners with local agencies so students can put their training to work, renovating or building low-income…
Teresa Bill goes to work every day at UH’s Bridge to Hope program knowing that she makes a difference in people’s lives. Bridge to Hope began 15 years ago to help welfare recipients, victims of domestic violence and struggling single parents re-enter education and, ultimately, the workforce. So far, Bill says, it has helped more than 700 people earn degrees…
Mericris Neyra knew she wanted to be a nurse back when she was at Farrington High School, so she enrolled in nursing at UH Manoa. But as she neared graduation in December 2014, the 22-year-old faced a saturated nursing-job market in Hawaii. She knew her high GPA and degree might not be enough to distinguish her as employers waded through…
It was not your idea to vie for this job; the UH Board of Regents asked you to apply. Given the troubles facing the UH, what made you accept the challenge? This is the only grownup job I’ve ever had. I came here when I was 22 years old. Personally and professionally the institution has been great to me and…
This tunnel-boring machine, with a 13-foot diameter, will cut its way through basalt rock to create a 3.1-mile tunnel that will bring sewage from the Kaneohe pre-treatment plant to the Kailua treatment plant. The estimated cost of the project is $175 million. The open compartments on the face of the machine are designed to hold the cutters that chip away…
The App Mobile Emergency Response and Command Interface, aptly called MERCI, is an app developed by Oceanit Laboratories Inc. that streamlines the documentation of disasters to speed recovery and relief. All on one device, MERCI allows people to record the severity, location and cost of the damage after a disaster, natural or manmade. Users can photograph damage and geotag the…
How do Hawaii’s emerging leaders develop the skills they need to run the state’s top companies, nonprofits and government agencies? They have a lot of options. Here are six of the most important leadership-training programs in Hawaii and a quick take on what makes each unique. Pacific Century Fellows Program: Founded by former mayor Mufi Hannemann, PCF is based on…
It’s true,” says David Striph, senior VP for the Howard Hughes Corp. and the man occupying a corner office with two walls of windows framed by the iconic concrete arches of Honolulu’s IBM Building. “I sit here every day and birds really don’t perch there, or nest there.” And they don’t poop there. To prove the point, we both took…
For many years, Vassilis Syrmos didn’t spend much time thinking about business. An electrical engineer with a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech and a new career in academia, he was happy to focus on pure research. “When you’re a young assistant professor,” he explains, “your science is the most important thing to you.” That changed in the mid-1990s, when he spent…
Since the ukulele arrived in the Islands late in the 19th century, it has been a symbol of Hawaii and the aloha spirit. That aloha is shared widely and generously by ukulele makers, performers and teachers, both locally and around the world. Alan Okami, president of ukulele manufacturer KoAloha, says his parents, who founded the company in 1995, always gave,…
Patrick Oki says he was assigned to his first fraud investigation in the mid-1990s, just a few years after graduating from UH-Manoa and joining an accounting firm. “We had to go to our client’s site on a Saturday and we were going through the president’s desk, looking for invoices and being protected by a guard with a gun,” Oki says….
Here are the 24 local entrepreneurs, companies and champions honored for the 2015 Small Business Administration Awards.
After all the hullabaloo, the hearings, legislation, planning, permits and protests, the concept of an urban, gentrified Kakaako is now an urban reality in progress. Cranes fill the skyline from one end of Kakaako to the other, with at least five projects underway now, and possibly another couple by the time you read this. With all this Kakaako development…
Private and public schools discover many benefits to their sustainability programs, including financial, educational, motivational and recruiting returns. For companies, the path to sustainability often starts with a volunteer task force (a “green team”) and some small initiatives with quick financial paybacks, before moving on to larger projects. A similar movement is underway to green many of Hawaii’s private and public…