Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 9, 1 September 2016 — TWO ICONIC HAWAIIAN LEADERS... William K. "Bill" Richardson and Micah Kane [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TWO ICONIC HAWAIIAN LEADERS... William K. "Bill" Richardson and Micah Kane

I read with great interest two artieles in the August 12, 2016 issue of Paeihe Business

News, as they told of two ieonie Hawaiian leaders in our community: entrepreneur and venture capitalist "Bill" Richardson, one who was picked to help revive a struggling UH Office of Technology Transfer and Eeonomie Development eome out of debt; and the other, Hawai'i Community Foundation President/COO Mieah Kane, whose CEO TKevin TaketaT

created this positon of President/ Chief Operation Officer to be a co-leader with him, although he reports directly to the CEO. Kevin wanted a Co-Leader of this non-

profit of Non-Profits. 1) I thought of myself at OHA when I first got elected Trustee and read Bill's story. Let me use Bill Richardson's words . . . .When he said that he learned early on that his lofty expectations for the department were beyond his reach... "I quickly found that they weren't up for major changes," he said of UH administrators. They were up for 'Incremental' changes. He cited lawyers who saw themselves as decision makers, instead of sources of information, something he did not encounter in the private sector. "...some Regents instill fear in management and create a riskaverse mentality when they speak for themselves and not for the Board. As a result, it's more important to keep your job than to do your job," he said. These are some

of the major challenges when working in a semi-autonomous state environment. Bill makes

it clear that he is leaving due to personal health issues, and not because of the job challengesPBN, Aug.l2, 2016. 2) The specific issues Mieah Kane deals with are similar to OHA's. "A lot of them were already involved in issues such as: Education, Poverty and Homelessness. They are verv defined

complex, but defined." I visualized a parallel with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs where our Chair ean work with the CEO in a co-lead-ership role, even though the CEO reports directly

to the Chair of Trustees. I feel this working relationship ean be better served by having the CEO's office and staff moved from the top floor to the 2nd floor, the same level as the Trustees' offices of our office building, Nā Lama Kukui. (In My Humhle Opinion). Also, with Mieah Kane serving as KS Trustee and being involved with the Friends of 'Iolani Palaee he brings an interesting perspective to the job. PBN Reporter: Do you think it would be helpful if people from business took on executive director roles in non-profits and vice versa? "Absolutely, I see a lot of nonprofit leaders who could be effective in the for-profit community. . ,.but, I realized that everything I was doing, even in the corporate arena, ended up having a community focus," said Mieah Kane. — PBN, Aug.l2, 2016. ■

EcStor's note: in accordance with an Otfice oīHawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees policy based on state ethics guidelines, any trustee running for re-election is suspended from publishing his or her regular eolumn until the elections are eompiele, except for those trustees running unopposed.

Leina'ala Ahu lsa, Ph.D. Trustee, At-large

William K. "Bill" Richardson

Mieah Kane