What does giving back mean to you?
Giving back to the community is a natural extension of taking care of your ‘ohana. Especially here in Hawai‘i, it is just what we do as a small community. Everyone benefits from acts of aloha, but especially the giver. 

My family grew up that way—sharing mangos, flowers, fish, jellies, and baked goods as well as helping the extended family. In my professional life, if I’m able to contribute my skills to help others with my experience, ideas, leadership, or networking, it is just natural to want to “share what you have been given” to help others. It’s not too different from sharing mangos.

How do you give back to your community?
Over my career as a real estate and hospitality consultant at KPMG LLP and in real estate development at Kamehameha Schools, I have always been involved at a leadership level with non-profits and community organizations. These have included the Waikīkī Improvement Association, Waikiki Business Improvement District, Historic Hawai‘i Foundation, & Old Town Mo‘ili‘ili Business Association, among others.

Since my retirement, it was surprising to me (and rewarding!) how many opportunities to give back have continued to find me. I am a board member, the former board chair, and the Campus Planning Committee Chair for the Waikīkī Community Center, an organization I have passionately served for almost 20 years. I am also the immediate past chair for Lambda Alpha International, a national honorary land economics society, and serve on their National Membership Committee. I also briefly served a second term as the chair of the Hawai‘i Community Development Authority.

What have been your most rewarding accomplishments?
One of the most rewarding things to me is when you are able to take a big idea, bring people together and successfully develop a vision and direction for something that has not been done before. I am so grateful to have been a part of the consultant team which helped with development of the Kamehameha Schools 2000-2015 Strategic Plan. This entailed outreach, listening and more listening, distilling, continuous feedback, and then developing consensus.

When I later joined KS, the challenge was to redevelop a Royal Hawaiian Center which would also bring the local community, Hawaiian culture and educational elements back into the ‘āina which had been overshadowed previously. Again, the key was putting together a solid and diversified team, strong planning processes, and having good discussions with mutual respect.  One of the things that still makes me happy is visiting the places or events at Helumoa, Hale‘iwa, Windward O‘ahu, Mo‘ili‘ili Summer Fest and East Honolulu that I had a hand in helping create and seeing everyone, especially the local community, enjoying these places as they were meant to be shared.

Are there any exciting projects coming up in your career?
Yes, the Waikīkī Community Center (WCC) just announced keiki, kupuna and community in July that it is working with the State of Hawai‘i on plans to redevelop our “campus” on Paoakalani Avenue, on lands it leases from the State. The current WCC buildings are old and nearing the end of their useful lives.

A redeveloped center would permit significant improvement to the functioning, accessibility, flexibility and technological innovations which can be designed into a new facility. The other exciting feature is we are thinking of serving the community holistically and potentially including affordable rental housing on the upper portions of the space plan. 

As chair of the Campus Planning Committee, it is so exciting to be able to use my career skills to work with others on the board, committee, State, community and other entities to someday bring this vision to life.

How do you support local businesses?
The pandemic has made me much more acutely aware of how important it is to nurture a more resilient local business economy.  I am supporting more Hawai‘i companies in the restaurant, local farm, grocery, and retail crafter businesses than ever before. 

Although Amazon is a competitor to many local businesses, I’m hopeful that perhaps their brand new Honolulu distribution facility might open other out-of-State markets to local businesses also.