Trade Winds

Advertiser Staff

• Gov. Linda Lingle has appointed Honolulu attorney CARLITO CALIBOSO as chairman of the Public Utilities Commission. Caliboso, whose appointment is subject to state Senate confirmation, is a partner with the Honolulu law firm of Catalani Nakanishi & Caliboso, and has focused his law practice on business and transactional matters, including real-estate transactions, land use, and commercial finance and leasing.

• LINDA CHOCK, most recently director of developing international markets for the Hawai'i Visitors and Conventions Bureau, has been named director of group sales for the Polynesian Cultural Center. She will be responsible for special-events planning, sales and representation of the PCC at industry trade shows. The hospitality and tourism industry veteran has also worked at the Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel, Jetour Hawaii, Hawaiian Regent, Pacific Beach Hotel and Keauhou Beach Hotel.

• Two recent appointments have been announced at the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel:

• KEN FURUTA, who has risen through the ranks as saute cook, garde manger and sous chef after joining the hotel's Hau Tree Lanai in 1987, has been named the restaurant's executive chef.
• FRANK BALTERO, named hotel assistant food and beverage manager in 1999, has been named sales and marketing manager. He has also served in the hotel's reservations department, in the front office and as a night auditor.

• Sixteen-year Grace Pacific Corp. veteran ROBERT CREPS, formerly vice president of finance and administration, has been promoted to senior vice president of administration for the asphalt-paving contractor. He will oversee the company's financial, legal, risk and environmental matters. Before joining Grace Pacific as controller in 1986, he had been owner of The Fiberglass Shop, and an auditor for Deloitte Haskins and Sells.

• CHRISTY T. De VLUGT and JOY O. YAMAUCHI have been hired by locally owned and managed property casualty insurance company Island Insurance Companies as entry underwriters in the Personal Insurance Division. De Vlugt is a former underwriting rater/coder at Grange Insurance Group, Seattle; Yamauchi was a personal lines customer service representative at a number of local insurance agencies. LEILA L. CAMEROS, formerly a regulatory-rate analyst, was promoted to regulatory supervisor.

• TONY YOUNG, former founder and co-owner of Cardio Club in Honolulu, has been named spa director for the Halekulani hotel's new SpaHalekulani, which opened April 1. Young will oversee management, operation and personnel matters, and work with spa consultant Sylvia Sepielle, who designed the facility's concept and the menu of treatments, facials, pedicures and massages.

Young, a 13-year veteran of administration, staff development and operations, was most recently spa director of Mandara Spa in Honolulu, and before that, director of spa development for Re:fresh day spa in San Francisco — where he played an integral role in development and design from concept to completion — and spa director at Western Athletics, San Francisco. He has also been associated with Honolulu Club.

• DOUGLAS M. SAKAMOTO, who began with First Hawaiian Bank as a clerk in 1973 — and has risen through the ranks as teller, operations supervisor, assistant bank manager and data processing officer — has been promoted to assistant vice president in the bank's transaction management department.

Other officer promotions include JOY P. CABILDO, to vice president in the asset lending department; and CHERISE M. LEMOINE, to assistant vice president, advertising department.

First Hawaiian also announced officer appointments: SARAH T. CANTO to service manager, Kahului, Maui, branch; BARBARA E. LUM LEE to manager, Kapolei branch; TERESITA S. POWERS to employee benefits officer, trust employee benefits department; and TRONG SON to personal banking officer, Kailua branch.

• GIM LIM JEZIERNY has been named vice president for the Maui Theatre in Lahaina, Maui, overseeing marketing, sales and operations for the production 'Ulalena, playing there since 1999. Previously Jezierny has been advertising manager for "Guide to Maui" and owned Fun Promotions Etc., a specialty advertising and promotion business on Maui.

• JACOB SILVER, former sous chef of Michael's at the Colony Surf Hotel, has been named banquet sous chef for the Hawai'i Convention Center, assisting the center's executive chef with daily operation of the kitchen, including ordering, staffing, production and general supervision. The 15-year veteran of the culinary industry was most recently entremetier and garde manger at Alain Ducasse restaurant at the Essex House, New York.

• EARL MCCASKILL, president of Honolulu-based Hawaiian Cement, has been named vice president-operations for parent company Knife River Corp., assigned to the company's Medford, Ore., location. Taking his place as president is CARL SIMONS, who will also continue in his post as president of West Hawaii Concrete Ltd., also a Knife River subsidiary. With the changes, JASON MACY, vice president of West Hawaii Concrete, has been named vice president and general manager.

• MATT TANAKA has been named vice president and Honolulu branch manager for TD Waterhouse Investor Services. He is an 18-year veteran of service with Charles Schwab & co. and YCMNET Advisors.

Announcements of promotions and job changes can be sent to: Trade Winds, Business Section, The Honolulu 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.