HPU honors distinguished alumni
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Advertiser Staff
Hawai'i Pacific University has built its reputation during the past 35 years, attracting thousands of students locally and abroad each year. Meanwhile, its alumni have built their reputations, excelling professionally and contributing to their communities.
This year, HPU will, for the first time, recognize its outstanding alumni for their achievements since graduation with The Paul C.T. Loo Distinguished Alumni Awards. The awards are named in honor of Paul C.T. Loo, one of HPU's founders. Loo is also the vice president of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.
The awards will be presented in ceremonies from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday at The Willows.
The winners of HPU's first alumni awards are:
• Young Alumni Award: William Koo, B.S. 1998, summa cum laude.
This award is for alumni who graduated from the classes of 1995-2000 and who are outstanding role models for future alumni.
Koo came to HPU in 1995 from Singapore to study Travel Industry Management.
He joined Aston Hotels & Resorts as Assistant Information Manager following graduation and since then has been named director of Internet sales and marketing and, this spring, director of marketing.
Key contributions to Aston include creating spreadsheets for the company revenue budgets, creating the templates used companywide for all property sales and marketing plans and transforming Aston's Web site from an informational site to an e-commerce site with projected annual revenues in excess of $3 million.
Koo is pursuing a master's degree in information systems and a master's of business administration in marketing at HPU.
• Alumni Volunteer of the Year Award: Dr. Chrisanne M. Christensen, B.A. 1983, Hawai'i Loa College (Hawai'i Loa merged into HPU in 1992), M.A. 1986, Webster University, Ph.D. 1996, Walden University.
As an assistant professor of psychology at Sul Ross State University Rio Grande College, Christensen combines educational objectives in student projects with community service needs.
She has served as an advisory board member with the American Red Cross and the Uvalde Ministerial Alliance special committee to oversee the gift of a large historic house. She has organized a local food drive to stock the food pantries of local churches and spearheaded a project that is now called "Team Uvalde."
A $1 million grant has recently been confirmed as part of the initial fruits of this project.
• Alumni Service Award: Bradford Harrison, B.S./B.A. 1985, summa cum laude, B.A. 1985, M.B.A. 1995
This award is given for outstanding service to HPU.
Harrison is vice president and director of marketing and client relations for Bishop Street Capital Management, a subsidiary of First Hawaiian Bank. He is also an adjunct professor in marketing and management at HPU.
For 17 years Harrison has taught as well as recommended other business professionals for positions with the university; he has contributed his image, often being used as a picture boy in HPU business marketing campaigns; and he has contributed financially. He is a member of the President's Club, a group of distinguished university contributors.
Nominations for the alumni awards were accepted in January and February. The recipients were selected by a committee comprised of nine deans from HPU.
