Trade Winds

Advertiser Staff

• Waikiki Health Center has a new board of directors and — for the first time in more than 25 years — a new executive director. PAUL STRAUSS has returned to Hawai'i after 12 years in Arizona to become executive director of the center, replacing the Rev. Frank Chong, who resigned last year. Lin Becker had been serving as interim executive director.

Strauss has more than 20 years of management and consulting experience in the public and private healthcare sectors. In Hawai'i he has worked with Kaiser Permanente, St. Francis Medical Center and Hawaii Medical Service Association. He was most recently chief health plan and strategic planning officer of Maricopa Integrated Health System in Phoenix.

Chong continues his work in public-policy advocacy for the poor and disenfranchised as a public-policy specialist with AlohaCare, an insurance company formed by Hawai'i's community health centers. The board of directors for Waikiki Health Center: president, PHILLIP KINNICUTT, director of marketing and brand management, University of Hawai'i; vice president, Dr. NEAL WINN, chief medical officer, Kapiolani Medical Specialists; treasurer, MICHAEL BURNETT, retired executive director, Gregory House Programs; and secretary, ROSE ANN POYZER, nurse, and vice president, Health Care Association of Hawaii, homecare and hospice division.

• PAUL AH COOK has been promoted to director of all three Ruth's Chris locations in Hawai'i. He joined Desert Island Restaurants in April as general manager of Ruth's Chris Steak House in Restaurant Row. He will be responsible for the Ruth's Chris restaurants on Front Street, Lahaina, Maui, and in The Shops at Wailea, Maui. His experience has included stints as director of operations and general manager of Sam Choy's Restaurants and Let's Eat Hawaii Product Line and Catering Co.; and general manager, Michel's restaurant, Colony Surf Hotel.

• Longtime television personality and broadcast consultant DON ROBBS is among three community leaders with new terms as members of the board of directors of EASTER SEALS HAWAII. Robbs returns to the board after serving his second term as chairman, in 2002. He is a 28-year volunteer with Easter Seals, and has hosted 24 telethons and five Taste of Honolulu television specials for the charity.

Also named to the board is TERRY LEE, founder of First Pacific Corp., a local investment management company with more than 3,000 investment accounts and $180 million in assets; and VALERY O'BRIEN, a veteran of the local hotel and shopping center industry, who is now marketing director for Kamehameha Investment Corp., working for the Keauhou Resort on the Big Island.

• Big Island resident SUSANNE SOUZA has been named Big Island marketing representative for XEROX HAWAII, bringing to three the number of representatives at its Hilo headquarters. Souza previously was account executive for AT&T Wireless and US Cellular in Hilo. With its headquarters on O'ahu, Xerox Hawai'i also has offices in Lihu'e, Kaua'i; Hilo and Kona on the Big Island; and Kahului, Maui.

• WILLIAM HERAN has been promoted to director of outpatient and community services at Kahi Mohala, a behavioral health facility. Heran has been a clinical therapist with the adolescent inpatient program. Among the duties of his new position is responsibility for developing psychiatric evaluation services for various community groups, including deaf and hearing-impaired children through the state Department of Education.

Before joining the 'Ewa Beach facility, Heran was a psychodynamic psychotherapist on the East Coast. He is a doctoral student in clinical social work at Smith College. A therapist for both children and adults, Heran still conducts therapy sessions, and is creator of the Healthy Circles group therapy program. Kahi Mohala offers behavioral healthcare for children, adolescents and adults, including inpatient, outpatient and partial hospitalization services.

• The University of Hawai'i Foundation has hired UH alumna LORI ABE as associate vice president of marketing and communications, responsible for marketing, public relations and strategic communications for the fund-raising arm of the university. She will also be responsible for the university's alumni relations division. Abe previously was public relations director for Aquent, a Boston-based business services company in information technology, marketing, healthcare and financial services. Abe is also a past vice president at McNeil Wilson Communications, and public relations manager for Hilton Hotels in Hawai'i.

• WILLIAM D. BROOKS, project architect for the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station under construction in Antarctica, joins architect TROY M. MIYASATO as new principals named to the architectural firm Ferraro Choi and Associates. Brooks has been architect for historic renovations at Punahou School (Cooke, Pauahi and Dillingham halls) and Honolulu Academy of Arts (Linekona Art Center, and the Western, Asian and Philippine galleries). Miyasato's experience has included projects such as the Honolulu Design Center, healthcare projects for Molokai General Hospital and Kaiser Permanente; state and University of Hawai'i educational projects, and retail and corporate interior renovation projects.

• AMERICAN SAVINGS BANK has announced these appointments:

• DAVID HUDSON has returned to the state to join American Savings Bank as senior vice president for retail sales and service. He is credited with opening Hawai'i's first supermarket branches nine years ago with Bank of America and HonFed Bank. He has more than 20 years' experience in the industry and was recently a process design executive with Bank of America's Consumer Bank, and with Crocker National Bank and First Nationwide Bank, both in San Francisco.
• ROBYN CHUNG was hired as retail business intelligence manager in the retail services and sales department. She is responsible for managing design and creation of analysis, measurement and reporting tools used to evaluate bank retail sales, service and productivity. She was most recently a Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. technical manager in San Francisco.
• MELANIE SHISHIDO, formerly a business credit officer with First Hawaiian Bank, has joined American Savings Bank as a commercial banking officer in the commercial banking department.

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.