Trade Winds
Advertiser Staff
• GLENN M. MOTOGAWA, a 25-year veteran of Island Insurance Companies, and who has overseen the successful development and implementation of the company's major technology projects, has been named vice president, and chief technology information officer. He will also be a member of the company's executive committee. Since January, Motogawa has been working as vice president of the project management office of Island Insurance Companies' affiliated information technology company, Ho'ike.
• Also appointed recently at Island Insurance Companies is BEVERLY C. AMENT, named vice president and general manager of the Commercial Insurance Division. She had been serving as acting general manager since June.
• LEON YOSHIDA has been named executive director of The Honolulu Festival Foundation, parent body for The Honolulu Festival. The annual celebration has drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors annually since 1994 in an effort to promote cultural understanding, economic cooperation and ethic harmony between Hawai'i and the Asia-Pacific region, particularly Japan. Yoshida's career includes nearly 30 years of experience with Hawai'i's visitor industry, including director of sales and marketing for Hyatt Hotels Hawai'i, with an emphasis on the Asia-Pacific market. In 1990, he started hospitality marketing firm Kagari Inc., and he currently serves as president of Sawayaka Hawai'i, a Japanese in-bound tour operator, handling 30,000 visitors a year.
• JON TAPNER, vice president and managing director of the Arizona-based Fountains Retirement Communities Inc., has been named to manage operations for the firm's as-yet unnamed, fee-simple retirement condominium planned for Waikiki. The project, formerly known as the 'Ohana Waikiki Hobron Hotel, will be the first Fountains retirement community in Hawai'i. Tapner's local experience includes a stint as assistant director of food and beverage at the Westin Kaua'i Resort, before joining The Fountains in 1996.
• DENISE WARDLOW, former director of sales and marketing for the Sheraton Maui, has returned to Kaua'i in the same position for the Sheraton Kaua'i Resort. The 20-year travel industry veteran has also been director of conventions and catering at Princeville Hotel and director of rooms and revenue management at Sheraton Maui.
• Fifteen-year Marriott International-Hawai'i veteran EDGAR GUM has been named general manager of the 231-two-bedroom villa resort, Waiohai Beach Club, scheduled to open in January at Po'ipu, Kaua'i. Gum, who has also worked at Maui Marriott Resort and Kaua'i Marriott Resort and Beach Club, was most recently resident manager of the JW Marriott 'Ihilani Resort and Spa at Ko Olina.
• Also named was HIROKO MARCINKOWSKI, new director of finance and controller for sales and marketing at Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club. She is a past vice president and controller at Square USA Inc., controller at Mitsui Real Estate Sales Hawai'i Co. Ltd. and accountant at Deloitte & Touche.
Announcements of promotions and job changes can be sent to: Trade Winds, Business Section, The Hono-lulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802; faxed to 525-6763, or e-mailed to business@honoluluadvertiser.com. Photographs may be included, but must be identified on the back.
