This House Offers Hope
The Rev. Samuel Cox doesn’t talk like a preacher when he speaks about the odds of a woman starting a new life after prison. He calls it like a gambler: “The dice are loaded,” and not in the woman’s favor.…
Leadership
Talk Story: Omar and Tarik Sultan
The Sultan brothers are a major new force in Hawaii’s venture capital and startup communities. Their two platforms are Sultan Ventures, a Hawaii-based venture capital firm, and XLR8UH. Last year, the two of you and UH launched XLR8UH, a public-private…
Talk Story with David Ige
David Ige surprised political observers last year by upsetting incumbent Neil Abercrombie in the Democratic primary, then beating Duke Aiona and Mufi Hannemann in the general election to become governor. Senior writer Dennis Hollier asked Ige about successes and controversies…
Learn How to Lead
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…
Overcoming Hardship
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…
Meaning Built Into the State Capitol
Some say symbols are all around us if we know how to look and that’s certainly true at the state Capitol, which is imbued with representations of Hawaii’s culture, history and aina. One major theme of the design is the…
5 Steps to Becoming an Empathetic Leader
Empathetic leadership means human-centered mindfulness throughout an organization. Community developer Neenz Faleafine, who has studied and practiced design thinking and leadership development, says learning to become an empathetic leader can be condensed into a five-step ALIVE process if you are…
Talk Story: Richard Wacker
Richard Wacker didn’t start as a banker. An engineer by training, he spent 20 years in executive positions at General Electric. His first banking job came in 2004, when he left GE to run the troubled Korea Exchange Bank for…
Lots in Common
Daniel B.T. Lau, co-founder of Finance Factors, was born in 1919, the year the treaty officially ending World War I was signed, and Congress approved Constitutional amendments that created Prohibition and gave the vote to women. Stephen Haugse, the owner…
How Does Hawaii’s 529 Plan Rate?
HI529, Hawaii’s College Savings Program, now boasts assets of $67 million and some 4,260 participants – an average of about $16,000 per investor set aside for a keiki’s education. National analysts give Hawaii’s program good marks on the investment returns…
Facing Future
“There was always something else. When pineapple closed, the resorts were there. When the ranch closed, Monsanto was still there. There was always an answer. We don’t have the answer now.” —Kimberly Mikami Svetin, Store owner To some people, Monsanto…
Talk Story with Paul Yokota
President of FCH Enterprises, owner of Zippy’s restaurants Brothers Francis and Charlie Higa made a wise choice in 1966, when they opened a drive-in restaurant called Zippy’s on South King Street instead of a car wash, and launched one of…
Audacious Beginnings for Hawaii Business
It was 1955. The FDA approved the Salk polio vaccine and Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. The Brooklyn Dodgers won the World Series for the first time and Disneyland opened. Jimmy Stewart and…
Talk Story with Shari Chang
CEO, Girl Scouts of Hawaii Girl Scouting runs through Shari Chang’s veins. Her grandmother and mother were both scouts. While growing up, she was a scout in four different states and a foreign country. Her two daughters, who grew up…
Urban Gardens Grow Food & Raise Consciousness
The Manoa community gardens sit in the center of the valley, with the Koolau rising around them like the sides of a deep, green bowl. On one bright, blue morning, Katherine Carreira dug up nut grass, turned clods of clay…
Start-Up Paradise
Reif Tauati got the idea for his startup after visiting Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for the first time since the second grade. “I remember walking through the lava tube and hearing about how ancient Hawaiians stored poi and water there.…
Three Leaders in One
Dr. Kim-Ahn Nguyen has understood the importance of collaborating and adapting to change since childhood. She was just 7 when her family was evacuated from Vietnam and deposited in a small town in New Jersey to start a new life…
State Website Turns Heads
It’s three years into the state’s Business and Information Technology Transformation 12-year plan and some improvements are becoming noticeable. This year, the newly redesigned hawaii.gov website won seven awards, including the Center for Digital Government’s top award for 2014, best…
Yes, you can become an Affordable Housing Developer
Some people think that a partial solution to Hawaii’s critical shortage of affordable housing is right in our own homes. These advocates want to boost the supply of affordable rentals by relaxing restrictions on ohana units – known officially as…
Dealing with Resistance to Change
The Faith of Leadership: Insights from Hawaii’s Leaders Watermark Publishing www.bookshawaii.net Excerpt from the Book’s Introduction This is not a cookbook on leadership; there really is no such thing. There are no proven recipes that will tell you what specific…
Mixing Love and Business
I grew up in a home where mom and dad successfully owned and worked together in a business for over 25 years. As a child, I helped in the business over the summers and learned some of the most enduring…
Native Niche
Maybe being a tree farmer means having the ability to look into the future: When Jonathan Keyser and Ethan Romanchak hold a seed, they can already see the tall, strong koa it will one day become. So although there was…
Talk Story with Mike McCartney
Chief of Staff to Gov. David Ige The former CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority has also been a state senator, executive director of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, director of the state Department of Human Resource Development, CEO of…
The Value of Heeia
Some of the most valuable lands in ancient Hawaii were located in Kaneohe, and prized by kings and chiefs. There on the windward side of Oahu, mountain springs flowed into acres of terraced loi that grew kalo in fertile soil,…