Posted on: Monday, August 6, 2001

Trade Winds

Advertiser Staff

• HOWARD R. HANADA, partner in the international accounting and management consulting firm Grant Thornton LLP, was installed as chairman of the Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce. Other officers include Chairman-elect Ronald Migita (vice chairman and president/chief executive officer of City Bank); First Vice Chairman Arnold Hirotsu (president of PSH Insurance); Second Vice Chairman Gregg Mueller (general manager of KIKU-TV); Secretary Yuri Giga (president and chief executive officer of Halekulani Corp.); and Treasurer Tony Masamitsu (chairman of Tony Hawai'i Automotive Group).

• CAMPBELL PALFREY III, vice president of Greystone Communities, the firm contracted to plan, manage sales for and oversee operations of the planned retirement community Kahala Nui, has been named the facility's director of marketing. Construction is scheduled to start next year on the project on the 'ewa portion of Star of the Sea Parish and School. Kahala Nui will comprise 251 independent living units with one, two or three bedrooms; 41 assisted-living suites; 41 "memory support" suites; and 60 skilled-nursing units.

• Veteran hotelier BRAD SNYDER returns to Hawai'i with his appointment as general manager of the 387-room JW Marriott 'Ihilani Resort and Spa at Ko 'Olina. Snyder was general manager of the Kaua'i Marriott, and director of Pacific Islands of Marriott and Renaissance, from 1995 to 1999, and previously an executive with Maui Marriott Resort. He was most immediately area manager for the chain's North Dallas cluster of properties, including Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott and Marriott Residence

• RON SEIPLE has been promoted to senior vice president of programs for STI, overseeing all aspects of Science & Technology International's programs related to national defense.

• Thomas E. Herman Jr., director of sales and marketing of the 313-room Doubletree Alana Waikiki, has been promoted to general manager. His career, which began with a job as a Sheraton Waikiki Hotel junior stock clerk, has included positions as Coco Palms Resort director of sales and marketing; Turtle Bay Hilton Golf and Tennis Resort director of sales; Hilton Resorts Hawai'i regional director of leisure sales, and Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort director of revenue management.

• DR. PETER RONEY, former chairman of Castle Medical Center's department of surgery, has been named to a two-year term as the facility's chief of staff. The board-certified ophthalmologist, in private practice on Windward O'ahu, joined Castle's medical staff in 1986.

• In other Castle appointments, Dale Northrop was named vice president of finance and David Earles director of marketing.

Northrop succeeds Cheryl Curry, who continues to work on special projects. Northrop was most recently Castle's director of financial services and, before that, with Castle's parent company, the Adventist Health system for 17 years.

Earles, who began with Castle as development department intern, served for the past two years as the first director of development for Catholic Charities of Hawai'i.

• JOHN GEPPERT, director of Tiffany & Co. at Ala Moana Center, has been elected chairman of the board of the Retail Merchants of Hawai'i, a trade association. Three new members also were elected to the association's board of directors' executive committee: Luigi Votano, Ferragmo Hawai'i Inc. managing director; DALE RUFF, Celine Hawai'i managing director; and Riki Morimoto, ABC Stores executive vice president.