UH Board of Regents swears in new members

News Release from University of Hawaii

Three new members of the University of Hawaii Board of Regents have been sworn in.

John Dean, Benjamin Kudo and Tom Shigemoto begin their terms as regents July 1. A fourth incoming regent, Jeffrey Acido, will be sworn in at a later date. His term also begins July 1.

Dean, representing Honolulu County, is president and chief executive officer of Central Pacific Bank and Central Pacific Financial Corporation.

Kudo, an at-large representative, is an attorney and the chief financial officer and manager of the land use, administrative and environmental law group of Imanaka Kudo & Fujimoto.

Shigemoto, representing Kauai County, is vice president of planning for A&B Properties, Inc., the real estate development division of Alexander and Baldwin, Inc.

Acido is the student regent and is a graduate student working towards an MA in Asian studies, focusing on the Philippines, with a concentration in Ilokano.

The board also recognized members whose terms are ending June 30. Outgoing regents honored included Ramon de la Pena, Dennis Hirota, Teena Rasmussen and Matthew Williams.

de la Pena has represented Kauai County on the Board of Regents since 2004. A retired UH Manoa professor and agronomist, he previously served as superintendent of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources’ Kauai Branch Research Station and director of the Kauai County Office of Economic Development.

Hirota joined the Board of Regents in 2008 representing Honolulu County. He is the president of Sam Hirota, Inc., a 45-year-old civil engineering and surveying consulting company. As a licensed civil engineer, land surveyor and land court surveyor, he has been involved in the design of private, commercial, residential and federal projects throughout the Pacific region.

A regent since 2008, Rasmussen is coordinator of the Office of Economic Development for Maui and is involved with her family-owned company, Paradise Flower Farms. A tireless proponent of locally grown produce and flowers, she has been a member and treasurer of the Hawaii Tropical Flower Council, and is a founding member of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture’s Hawaii Seal of Quality program.

Williams, who currently holds the student seat on the Board, is a graduate with an MS in nursing and an MBA from UH Manoa. He worked in banking, insurance, emergency medicine and other fields while taking community college courses before entering the UH Manoa nursing program.

A charge nurse at Kahi Mohala Behavioral Health Hospital, he oversees care of children and adolescent patients and is helping implement programs to advance hospital services.

UH Board of Regents re-elects Martinson, Carlson and Lee as officers

The University of Hawaii Board of Regents re-elected Regent Eric Martinson to a one-year term as chair and Regents Carl Carlson and James Lee to one-year terms as vice chairs of the 15-member board.

Born and raised in Honolulu, Martinson joined the board in 2009. He has more than 25 years of institutional investment and asset management experience.

He is executive vice president of The Queen’s Health Systems and president of Queen Emma Land Company. He serves on the Boards of Directors of Hawaii-based solar technology company, Sopogy, Inc., and previously served on the boards of Hoike Holdings, BPA Technologies and DSH International. Martinson is a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a BBA in finance and holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Carlson is founder of Huehue Ventures, a real estate consulting and agricultural property management firm. He has more than 40 years of experience in real estate, ranching and agriculture in Hawaii.

Active in community affairs, he is currently the chair of the Advisory Committee of the Kukio Community Fund, a charitable fund administered under the umbrella of the Hawaii Community Foundation. He also serves as the facilitator of the Kona Water Roundtable and is one of its founders. Carlson obtained a BS from California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.

Lee is a partner in the Honolulu law firm of Devens, Nakano, Saito, Lee, Wong and Ching. He has experience in the restaurant industry, having served as managing director of Let’s Eat Hawaii, owner and operator of Sam Choy’s Restaurants in Hawaii, Japan and Guam, and managing director of the K. B. Lee Corp., a real estate development company and owner and operator of the Hee Hing Restaurant.

He has served as president of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Honolulu and chair of the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Foundation. Lee received his BBA in accounting from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and JD from UH Manoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law.