Think your commute is tough? Next time you’re sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic for an hour, spare a thought for Brad Smith. The founder of Kahala Capital Advisers, a private investment firm, and Kahala Aviation travels regularly to his offices in…
Hawaii’s oldest continuously operated companies and nonprofits include many familiar names and a few lesser-known ones. Here are 11 enduring ranches, churches, schools and other organizations, each with a history that stretches back at least 165 years. Mokuaikaua Church Mokuaikaua…
Charity Navigator has been using the same method to rate the nation’s nonprofits since 2002. In this issue, Hawaii Business looks at the 27 local charities on the list. But it’s worth remembering that any such rating system, though valuable,…
Brittany Thornton is an experienced interisland flyer. For five years, the licensed nurse lived on Kauai and would visit Oahu nearly every month to see friends, shop or work. Thornton would always check a large rolling suitcase, often half-empty, ready…
We looked into the story of the island’s freshwater, including where it comes from, how good it is and whether we’re taking care of it.
JEANA IWALANI NALUAI calls her business a getaway from the masses. Hoomana Spa is on Piiholo Road near the Makawao Forest Reserve, an hour by car from Kaanapali and Lahaina and 40 minutes from Kihei and Wailua – the places where…
Phuong-Thao Nguyen’s work at Hawaiian Telcom will affect everyone in the state. It’s important to maintain the passion that first drew you to STEM, says Phuong-Thao Nguyen of Hawaiian Telcom. “Passion is your sense of curiosity,…
Designers across Hawaii and around the world are reinventing the aloha shirt with both new and retro styles, for business and pau hana AFTER A PERIOD when many fashion-conscious young men in Hawaii looked askance at the aloha shirt, it…
There must be blood in the water. Until last year, when Hawaiian Electric Industries announced its intent to merge with Florida energy giant NextEra, the company seemed like a permanent fixture of the local economy. Only a few zealous renewable-energy…
Nicole Velasco: Struggling While Starting Out It was 2008, the depth of the Great Recession, and Nicole Velasco had just graduated from Princeton University. She quickly found that even an Ivy…
10 years after Norwegian Cruise Lines went all-American with its around-the-Islands cruises, the Pride of America still sails every week, each time at…
YOU ARE ENGROSSED IN the latest action movie, noise-canceling headphones in place, halfway through your book chapter or, worst, sleeping. The flight attendant comes down the aisle, interrupting everyone’s mid-flight routine, and says, “Please fill this out.” You get the…
RESTAURATEURS SEEM TO lead charmed lives. They pick where they work, set their own hours, create a pleasant atmosphere and run a place where…
While at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass., Deanna Rose grew skeptical of conventional body products. “I was seeking solutions to my thick Armenian hair and dry Northeastern skin that I could feel good about using, and so around my sophomore…
IT WILL TAKE a lot to pull us out of Hawaii’s housing crisis, but here are thoughts on some partial solutions. ADUs are a good idea, and each county has different rules on what are formally called accessory dwelling units. Honolulu…
George Atta, director of the Department of Planning and Permitting and a former principal at the architectural firm Group 70 international, knows just how swamped Honolulu's permitting system is. Hideo Simon can barely contain his frustration. “It took me six…
High-rises in Kakaako, condos and a new wing at Ala Moana Center, development in and around Kapolei, rail, sewers and a host of other projects are keeping developers and construction companies hopping. However, they know from long experience that what…
Barber had been Hawaiian Telcom’s COO since 2013. He was promoted this June when former CEO Eric Yeaman left for First Hawaiian Bank. Your career began more than three decades ago as a phone company lineworker in California. What was…
WAIMANALO – David Yarber hands out samples of his locally brewed kombucha, a popular fermented tea that’s touted for its health benefits, to a group of Japanese visitors at his Waimanalo brewery. It's obvious from their nodding heads and polite…
WE THINK WE DO good work at Hawaii Business magazine, but it’s always reassuring when we receive affirmation from others – whether our readers or peers. At the end of June, we got a lot of reassurance. In the annual statewide…
The payday lending industry in Hawaii offers short-term loans with annual interest rates of up to 459 percent. The companies say they are providing an important service, but critics argue they are soaking the needy and driving them further into…
Hawaii Business launched the list of Hawaii’s Most Profitable Companies in 2011 to add another dimension to the Top 250 list. We use the “top line” of gross sales to rank our Top 250. But the top line won’t stay…
It feels like offshore-owned companies are taking over Hawaii, but the reality is their number peaked in 2007. Meanwhile, the number of locally owned companies has grown seven times faster since 1995. The same forces that ate so many local…
FEW ASPECTS OF LIFE are as thrilling, complicated, satisfying and maddening as our jobs. Victory can puff us up with satisfaction, a promotion and a bigger salary. Defeat can destroy our confidence. That’s because we express and define ourselves via our…