Trade Winds

Advertiser Staff

• DENISE YAMAUCHI has been promoted to Hawai'i managing director for Kazi Foods Inc., operator of 27 KFC and 20 Burger King restaurants in the state. She had been district manager.

• MICHAEL TURNER has been named to a newly created position of document technology analyst at Xerox Hawai'i, to help clients integrate their office equipment and technology with the Xerox products and service line. He was a sales analyst at Xerox Hawai'i in 1997 and returns to the company after working for Automatic Data Processing and National Computer Systems.

• BOB CROWELL, a Bank of Hawaii executive vice president, has been named head of the Tax-Free Fixed Income Team and portfolio manager of Hawaiian Tax-Free Trust within the bank's Asset Management Group.

The trust was founded 18 years ago by Aquila management Corp. and was the first mutual fund providing tax-free income to Hawai'i investors. The trust has nearly 12,000 shareholders and more than $725 million in assets.

As treasurer, Crowell managed the bank's fixed-income investment portfolio during a time when municipal securities were as much as 70 percent of the bank's investment portfolio. From 1984 to 1993, he was also the principal of the BOH Municipal Securities Dealer operations. He has been in banking for 33 years.

BILL BARTON, Bank of Hawaii chief investment officer and senior vice president, will continue to oversee the Asset Management Group and provide support to Hawaiian Tax-Free Trust.

• NORINE YOSHIZAWA has been named customer category manager coordinator for Kraft Foods Hawai'i, a support role for company representatives that call on supermarket headquarters. She was previously sales secretary for L.H. Gamble.

Also joining Kraft are two sales representatives: JOANN BAIDACK, formerly sales account manager for Eastman Kodak Co., and BRIAN LUNA, formerly key account manager at Pepsi Bottling Group, now Kraft sales rep for the Big Island.

• ANTHONY TAM, former banquet captain at the Radisson Waikiki Prince Kuhio Hotel, has been promoted to catering sales manager, with primary focus on Hawai'i's Chinese community. He is a former Hong Kong travel agent.

• JULIE RUKSTAD has been named chief financial officer for Hawai'i Health Systems Corp., East Hawai'i region, overseeing financial operations of the company's Hilo Medical Center, Hale Ho'ola Hamakua and Ka'u Hospital. Previously Rukstad was vice president of finance for Hawai'i Pacific Health. Rukstad, who was born in Rangoon, Burma, has been in hospital finance and corporate management for 16 years.

• KARL E. BAKER, kumu hula for the award-winning Halau I Ka Wekiu, is among three new employees at American Savings Bank:

• Baker, a 14-year veteran of mortgage lending who has been in management for more than eight years, has been hired as a sales manager in the residential loan sales division, responsible for American Savings Neighbor Island mortgage loan centers in Lihu'e, Kaua'i; Kahului, Maui; and Kona, Hilo and Waimea on the Big Island. He was formerly with City Bank.
• DENNIS CHONG, a 13-year veteran of the mortgage industry and formerly with First Hawaiian Bank, has been hired as senior loan officer.
• VIANNE TABATA, a 15-year banking veteran, formerly with Bank of Hawaii, has joined American Savings Bank as a residential loan officer, in the residential loan sales division on Kaua'i.

• Island Insurance Companies, a locally owned and managed property and casualty insurance carrier, has hired HELEN C. MAO as senior underwriter in the commercial insurance division. Mao, who has had 20 years experience in the industry, will be responsible for the selection, pricing and sale of commercial risk insurance.

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.