Executive Director, Pacific Resource Partnership PRP, a unique partnership between Hawaii’s top contractors and the Hawaii Carpenters Union, is a powerful supporter of rail. White talks about integrated communities and how they will help guide Oahu’s development. What are…
1947 Roy and Estelle Kelley build their first hotel: the five-story, 50-room Islander Hotel on Seaside Avenue, the first in Waikiki to cater to middle-income travelers and families. Four more hotels follow over 12 years. The…
Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the U.S. – the average American eats more than four pounds a year. But nearly all of it is imported and most of that farm-raised in Asia and South America. Those are well-known…
Erica Shin graduated from Kalani High School in May with an ambitious plan that carried a huge price tag: biology major and pre-med student at UH-Manoa, before attending the John A. Burns School of Medicine. That’s why she was surprised…
Problem: Doctors didn’t have a reliable, noninvasive method to measure changes to the water in a patient’s lungs – an important factor in the early detection of heart failure. Heart failure affects an estimated 5.1 million people in the U.S.…
For a couple of years in the late 1990s, Robert Iopa worked in Kuala Lumpur for WATG, the Honolulu-based, international architecture firm specializing in resort development. For the young architect from Hawaii, it was an exciting time, but doing this…
Each of these 10 vacant buildings has problems, whether termites, fumes, asbestos or just a lack of tenants. Some owners are moving forward with new plans, while others are still trying to figure out what to do. While new buildings…
No matter which lens you use, Kakaako is where the transformations in Hawaii’s 21st-century life are most clear. The demographic lens: You already know there are more older people today, while young people are delaying both marriage and their families,…
Credit cards are no longer an “if” question for most businesses, but “what” and “who” questions. “What technology should I use to process credit card payments and who will be my partner?” Answer those questions well, and you will take…
Hawaii Pacific University is suffering financial problems that have prompted layoffs of more than 100 faculty and staff, and major cuts in the scholarships that for decades have encouraged local students to attend the state’s largest private university. Meanwhile, the…
Successful business owners in Hawaii know they have to focus on more than just the bottom line. They must support employees, commit to customers, conduct business ethically and support the communities that sustain them. For some small businesses, community outreach…
Name: Guy Hagi Job: Weather anchor at Hawaii News Now Experience: 15 years Hagi will never forget his first day as the weather anchor at KGMB. He had just returned from a family vacation to New York City. It was…
Name: Dan Ching Job: Aquaponics farmer Experience: Two years START: When Ching, 65, retired as a structural engineer, he wanted to keep busy. He decided to farm with aquaponics, a method that uses fish effluent in water to grow plants…
Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin Franklin. Jilly Bean, Lemon Haze and Bubba Kush. Those two types of green are flowing in and out of Colorado’s 200 dispensaries: lots of cash to buy potent strains of cannabis. Nearly $19…
Thirteen years after he and his partner, Kaleo Taft, founded their fuel cell startup in a Waikiki apartment. Nine years after he put the company on NASDAQ in a $21 million IPO. Seven years after he and his colleagues gave…
Photography Courtesy of Northwest Energy Innovation Devices to measure wave energy and convert it into electricity will be deployed in Kaneohe Bay near Marine Corps Base Hawaii starting this year, say the Navy, state Rep. Cynthia Thielen and a…
In last month’s edition, Hawaii Business published a conversation with seven of Hawaii’s best-known leaders: George Ariyoshi, John Dean, Walter Dods, Mark Dunkerley, Constance Lau, Kathryn Matayoshi and Colbert Matsumoto. They discussed the qualities of great leaders, the role of…
Photography by David Croxford In April, the state Public Utilities Commission ordered Hawaiian Electric’s utilities on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii Island to take action in four ways: “aggressively pursue energy-cost reductions, proactively respond to emerging renewable-energy-integration challenges, improve the…
The boss called one of his employees into the office. “Rob,” he said, “you’ve been with the company for a year. You started off in the mailroom, one week later you were promoted to a sales position, and one month…
For Maui native Brittany Yap, the opportunity to be president of FemCity Honolulu came at a good time. Yap had been working in communications and living in Northern California for almost two years before she decided to return to Hawaii.…
Hawaii-born Russell Leu loves working in China, though he recognizes living there offers challenges. The Hawaii attorney wears a top quality, high-tech, air-filter mask on the street on days with heavy air pollution, and has a phone app that tells…
To learn about leadership in Hawaii, Hawaii Business senior writer Dennis Hollier interviewed seven of the state’s most powerful and effective leaders, past and present. Among the questions he asked: What are the key attributes of great leaders? How do…
Roberta Oaks, Fashion Designer and Retailer Oaks did not start out to be a fashion designer. She majored in photography and art history, and then worked in restaurants for 10 years. Not until her late 20s did it hit her:…
Companies love social media because they can be inexpensive ways to reach lots of customers. But, companies worry about social media because they have little control over what others say about them. In fact, one of the biggest concerns companies…