Tourism board struggles in exec hunt

By Katherine Nichols
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii Tourism Authority board members yesterday struggled to find a middle ground between the urgency of finding the authority a new executive director and the new board members' desires to be more involved with the process.

Board members whose tenures end June 30 and new board members who start July 1 finally agreed that Inkinen & Associates, the executive search firm charged with narrowing the candidate pool, would supply names of three finalists to the board, with a recommendation for a top candidate.

The board could then interview one, two or all three of the candidates, or reject all if it believed the choices did not meet the criteria.

Board members deliberated about confidentiality issues, the number of candidates that would be brought to the board from a pool that numbered 120 earlier this year, and how the interview process might damage the already slim possibilities.

"My great fear is that we'll destroy the candidate field through the process," said search committee member David Carey, president and chief executive officer of Outrigger Enterprises Inc., parent company of Outrigger Hotels & Resorts.

Carey said he believed that top executives in the community would remove themselves from a multiple-interview process for fear of losing their current positions for a job they might not get.

Kathy Inkinen said the interview process, which would first narrow the candidates to a list of six or eight, and finally down to three, would take about six weeks.

She said her firm received guidance on criteria for selecting a new executive director from current and future board members who answered a detailed questionnaire.

She said most said the most important requirement was that the new executive director possess top administrative skills. Marketing experience was less essential because it was something that could be delegated to an outside contractor.

The search committee working with Inkinen & Associates includes three existing board members along with new board members Mike McCartney, Larry Johnson, Lorrie Lee Stone and community member Joyce Tsunoda, senior vice president and chancellor for the community colleges.

The authority, the state organization charged with overseeing $61 million in tourism marketing money, has been searching for a new executive director since November when former executive director Robert Fishman resigned after being called up for active duty at the Pentagon. Richard Humphreys, the board's interim chief, took the temporary post for $1 a year.