Steve Petranik has been an editor and reporter for almost four decades and now is the editor of Hawaii Business. Before joining the magazine in 2009, he spent 18 years as an editor at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and five years at the Honolulu Advertiser. He’s reported from six countries on three continents and his stories have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.
Local leaders focus on what’s needed to lead in this period of crisis and rapid change This is an edited and condensed transcript of the opening session of this year’s Hawaii Business Magazine Leadership Conference, held July 28-30. The participants…
Small step could pay big dividends The pandemic has put a hold on a perennial Hawai‘i debate: Do we need more tourists to drive job creation, tax revenue and the overall economy or do we have too many tourists who…
Interview with Jan Harada, Executive Director, H.T. Hayashi Foundation How has your organization been able to continue its core mission? Our mission is to build a healthier Hawai‘i by investing in Hawai‘i-based organizations that are rooted in arts and culture,…
The pandemic and resulting recession has transformed the way Hawai‘i uses energy: who consumes it, when and how much, says Scott Glenn, the state’s chief energy officer.
The Hawaii Business team is small but mighty. We won 16 statewide awards last week from the Hawai‘i chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, including 10 first-place and five second-place awards for work published in 2019. Our total awards…
If you want to support public education in Hawai‘i, the time is now, during this education crisis caused by the pandemic.
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices and other physical locations. Fortunately, at Pacxa, we have been able to conduct virtually all of our business remotely since mid-March. Our team is well-versed in providing…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices and other physical locations. Construction was declared an essential industry during COVID-19. All staff, both field and office, reported to work as usual. Of course, we complied…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices and other physical locations. Many of our JLL-managed Maui retail centers, like Maui Mall and the Outlets of Maui, have tenants that offer essential services, and as…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices or other physical locations. As a local health insurer, HMAA continued operations without disruption throughout the safer-at-home orders, and our office remained open to service our clients,…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices and other physical locations. The employees that need to go into the office for hands-on work will do so a few times a week. And we have…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices and other physical locations. We reopened our customer service offices statewide on June 29 with limited hours Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Our…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices and other physical locations. We were lucky enough to be considered essential, so we have been working throughout this period of uncertainty. Our field crews and office…
Interview with Josiah Akau, Chairman of the Board Of Directors, Kinai ‘Eha How has your organization been able to continue its core mission(s)? Kinai ‘Eha in Hawaiian means “To Extinguish Pain.” Our work focuses on extinguishing the pain of our…
Interview with Lipoa Kahaleuahi, Executive Director, Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke How has your organization been able to continue its core mission(s)? Our core mission – to provide youth with a way to learn that makes sense to them, that builds…
Head of School Ryan Masa describes the changes that will make it safe for students to learn Assets School, a private school with two O‘ahu campuses, hopes to resume in-person learning in mid-August. The school focuses on students with ADD,…
Richard Matsui has moved back home and thinks others will do the same Richard Matsui, the founder and CEO of kWh Analytics, has moved back to Hawai‘i and thinks many others in the tech world will consider doing the same…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices or other physical locations. We initiated a three-phase return to our corporate offices, beginning in early May. We put extensive consideration into the strategy and logistics of…
The pandemic so far has not had a major impact nationally on the residential real estate market but there are interesting trends worth watching, says real estate expert Stefan Swanepoel.
How the market for Hawaiʻi homes has been transformed by the pandemic, tech, customer preferences and other changes.
Interview with Dan Epstein, President and CEO, Special Olympics Hawaii How has your organization been able to continue its core mission(s)? When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we made the necessary decision to cancel all of our in-person sports training and…
Interview with Kim-Anh T. Nguyen, MD, Ph.D., President and CEO, Blood Bank of Hawaii How has your organization been able to continue its core mission? Blood Bank of Hawaii’s core mission is to provide a safe and adequate blood supply…
Interview with Robert Landau, Founder and Strategist, Two Roads Education Landau is an education consultant and leader and the former executive director of the Hawai‘i Association for Independent Schools. What do you envision for education in the future? This is…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices, factories and other physical locations. As a food manufacturer and an essential business, Sun Noodle factories have remained open throughout the pandemic. Our Honolulu facility is following…
On June 25, 2020, Hawaii Business Magazine received nine national awards, including being named the country’s best regional business magazine for the third year in a row.
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices, branches or other physical locations. As of June 1, we reopened all of our branches and returned to our normal operating hours. As an essential business, six…
These are tough times for working people. Please us how your members have been affected? Our members are fortunate because they continue to work full-time hours. Being telecommunication workers, our members are essential workers and they are proud to keep…
Interview: Michael Broderick, President & CEO, YMCA of Honolulu Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices, stores, restaurants, warehouses or other physical locations. It has been almost three months since we shut the doors…
Interview: Halona Norton-Westbrook, Director, Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA) Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your museum and other physical locations. We’re excited to welcome the entire community back to the Honolulu Museum of Art…
Interview with John Leong, CEO, Pono Pacific and Kupu How and when you are conducting your return to your offices or other physical locations. Ho‘okupu Center is starting to have its youth programs so we arranged the space so everyone…
Almost half of Hawai‘i households have lost income during the COVID-19 pandemic and about 1 in 4 have fallen behind on some of their bills. Those are among the dire findings from a survey released Thursday by the Bank of…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices and other physical locations. We weren’t required to close, but we did work remotely even though deemed essential. We kept one or two people in each office.…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices, stores, restaurants, warehouses or other physical locations. As a provider of essential communication services, Hawaiian Telcom has been fully operational throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders.…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices or other physical locations. We started working from home on March 16 and most of Hawaiʻi Energy’s employees have adjusted well to our new schedules and surroundings.…
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling on June 15 that protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In Hawai‘i, state law already made it unlawful for employers to discriminate…
Interview with Stacie Kunihisa, Principal, Kanoelani Elementary School How did you lead through the transition and create a routine confronted by this sudden change? The biggest shift we made when this pandemic first hit was changing our mindset as a…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your physical locations at Wet’n’Wild Hawaii. We did our homework, prepared our plans and kept our irons in the fire so that when we were allowed to re-open we…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices or other physical locations. Progressive Communications is categorized as a critical infrastructure IT business. We support scores of Department of Defense installations throughout the globe as well…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices and other physical locations. When it was first announced that the Hawaii work-from-home order was going to be eased on May 31, we started our return-to-the-office planning.…
Please describe how and when you are conducting your return to your offices and other physical locations. While it seems Hawai‘i has gotten past the immediate health crisis for now, it is still important to take precautions as we slowly…
