HIPA’s Board and Advisors represent a diversity of Hawaii’s most prominent leaders of business, labor, community and government. This collaboration provides oversight and guidance on HIPA’s development, public policy projects, and fundraising endeavors.
Director—Wealth Management Financial Advisor, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
Chair, Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs (HIPA)
Pete K.G. Thompson is director – wealth management financial advisor for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. He also sits on the board of the Native Hawaiian Development Corporation and is a former board member of the Hawaii Alliance of Non-Profit Organizations. Mr. Thompson was raised in Kalihi and is a graduate of the Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawaii.
Executive Vice President, Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc.
Robbie Alm is executive vice president for Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc. He also is active in the community, and is chair of PBS Hawaii and of Enterprise Honolulu; and serves on the boards for Helping Hands Hawaii, Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs, Bishop Museum, and The Friends of Iolani Palace, among others.
Mr. Alm teaches a graduate course on leadership in the Public Administration program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Prior to joining Hawaiian Electric, he was an executive vice president at First Hawaiian Bank and Director of the State of Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and worked for U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye.
Executive Administrator and Secretary, University of Hawaii’s Board of Regents
Keith Amemiya is the Executive Administrator and Secretary for the University of Hawaii’s Board of Regents. He also serves on the Hawaii State Board of Education. Prior to joining the University of Hawaii, he served as the Executive Director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association from 1998 to 2010, and was a litigation attorney for two Honolulu law firms from 1991 to 1998. Mr. Amemiya also serves on the boards for the Shane Victorino Foundation, the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, and the National Football League’s Pro Bowl Ohana Host Committee, among others.
Mr. Amemiya is a former President of the Hawaii State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division, and is a past recipient of HIPA’s Ho’oulu Leadership Award, the University of Hawaii-Manoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law’s Public Service Award, Punahou School’s Charles S. Judd, Jr. Humanitarian Award (Outstanding Service to the State), the Governor’s Innovation Award, and the Honolulu Quarterback Club’s Neal Blaisdell Award (Outstanding Community Service to Athletics), among others.
Local Secretary-Treasurer, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
Guy K. Fujimura has served as a voice for working families in our community since joining the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), Local 142 in 1974, when he began working at Love’s Bakery.
The ILWU’s local secretary-treasurer for over 26 years, Mr. Fujimura heads the 20,000-member union’s political action program, chairs the Hotel Industry ILWU Pension Plan, co-chairs the ILWU (Hawaii) Employers General Pension Plan, and serves as a trustee on two ILWU Health and Welfare Trust Funds.
Mr. Fujimura currently serves on the board of directors for PBS Hawaii, the Public Schools of Hawaii Foundation, and the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs.
Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer, The Queen’s Health Systems
Richard C. Keene is the senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of The Queen’s Health Systems. He joined Queen’s in April 2007, and has system-wide financial and information technology responsibility. Queen’s is a nonprofit healthcare organization based in Honolulu, Hawaii. Among other entities, Queen’s operates The Queen’s Medical Center, the largest private hospital in Hawaii, that was established in 1859 by Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV.
Prior to joining Queen’s, Mr. Keene served as vice chairman and chief financial officer of Bank of Hawaii Corporation in Honolulu.
Director of Strategic Planning and Reporting, Kamehameha Schools
Lauren Nahme is the director of strategic planning and reporting at Kamehameha Schools. In that role, she is responsible for facilitating the planning, monitoring and reporting processes of the organization. She was formally the controller for the organization and among other things, worked jointly with the Strategic Planning Division to synchronize organization-wide planning and budgeting activities. She has worked for other organizations including Hawaii State Federal Credit Union, City Bank, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and has been involved in numerous community service activities throughout her career.
Executive Vice President for Corporate and Community Advancement, Hawaiian Electric Industries
Alan Oshima is Executive Vice President - Corporate and Community Advancement at Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc., where he is focused on the company’s goal of being a recognized leader in improving the economic well-being of the state and benefitting its communities. He attended public schools in Honolulu, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, California. Between college and law school, he served as a Supply Corps officer in the US Navy for four years. He returned to Honolulu to practice law in 1976. Alan served as the lead Hawai`i regulatory counsel to The Carlyle Group in its acquisition of Verizon Hawaii in 2005.
He left private practice to join Hawaiian Telcom as its Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. In that role, he also became responsible for overseeing many of the administrative functions of the Company. In 2008, he became the Senior Advisor to Hawaiian Telcom and served on its Board of Directors until the company emerged from reorganization in late 2010. He was previously on the Board of Hawaiian Electric Company and has served the community on behalf of youth, public schools, early childhood development, public policy and economic development. He was the chair of the board of the YMCA of Honolulu, is currently the chair of its Emeritus Board, was one of the founders and is the current chair of Hawaii 3Rs, serves as a director of the non-partisan Hawaii public policy think tank, the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs, is a member of the advisory board of The Learning Coalition, and was the co-chair of the speakers’ bureau for the Hawaii’s Children First campaign to pass the constitutional amendment for the appointed school board.
Vice Chairman and Chief Administrative Officer, Bank of Hawaii
Mark Rossi joined Bank of Hawaii in February 2007. Mr. Rossi holds the positions of vice chairman, chief administrative officer and general counsel, and is a member of the bank’s Managing Committee.
Prior to joining Bank of Hawaii, Mr. Rossi was a partner at Lane Powell from 1996-2006, where he concentrated his practice on a broad array of banking issues. Lane Powell is a Seattle, Washington-based law firm comprised of over 200 attorneys, with six offices located in Oregon, Washington, Alaska and London, England. Mr. Rossi served as the firm’s managing partner and president from 2004-2006.
President, Hoakea Communications
Barbara J. Tanabe, former CEO of Hill & Knowlton Hawaii, is owner and partner of Hoakea Communications, a public affairs company in Hawaii. In 1999, she was also honored with the first Pioneer Award by the Hawaii chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association and the Special Recognition Award by the national Asian American Journalists Association during its Unity Conference.
She is currently a director of Bank of Hawaii, past chair of the board of the Japan America Society of Hawaii, a member of the board of Pacific Forum (the Asia arm of the Center for Strategic and International Studies) and founding chair of the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs. Ms. Tanabe has been inducted into the University of Hawaii College of Business Administration Alumni Hall of Honor. She is one of the pioneer journalists featured in the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
President & CEO, Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii
Jim Tollefson was named president and chief executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii in August 2001. He came to the position with a long history of involvement at the Chamber, having served as its chairman and a member of its Board of Directors, and is a member of the Chamber’s Executive Committee.
Before joining the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, Tollefson was executive vice president at Bank of Hawaii. Prior to joining Bank of Hawaii in 1987, Tollefson worked in management capacities at First Interstate Bank, Sanwa Bank, and Trans World Airlines. Tollefson served as an artillery officer in the U.S. Army in Korea.