Business Notebook

Advertiser Staff

• ERNEST MATERAZZO and SAL SORBERA, operators of the Kirby of Honolulu distributorship, have won every award available in the international company's yearlong "Challenge of Champions Campaign." The distinction earns them a number of prizes. Their performance in the yearlong business-goals promotion placed them in the top 1 percent of distributorships in more than 60 countries worldwide.

• JOHN FORD, a former ecologist with the Army Corps of Engineers, Nature Conservancy of Hawaii and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has been named manager of the new Honolulu offices of the Phoenix-based environmental consulting firm SWCA ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANTS. The office, at Seven Waterfront Plaza on Ala Moana, joins 14 regional offices, mostly in the western Mainland states. The office is focused on endangered species and water-resource consulting services, including surveys, mitigation plans, and federal and state consultations.

• AM PARTNERS, a Hawai'i-based architectural firm specializing in school design, has been recognized by the U.S. Air Force for its design of elementary and middle schools at Andersen Air Base on Guam. The company, founded in 1985 and based in Honolulu, specializes in architecture, interior design, planning, graphic design and branding/imaging services. Dick Pacific built the Guam schools.

• BELT COLLINS, a Hawai'i-based planning, engineering, landscape architecture and environmental consulting firm, has been named among the top 200 international design firms as listed in the Engineering News-Record. The firm ranked at No. 121; it was the first time the firm had submitted information to the list. The company has six other offices worldwide, and more than half of its work is done internationally.

• Cash advance company KIHEI KASH and title insurer and escrow company FIDELITY NATIONAL TITLE have opened in the renovated Kihei Plaza on Maui. The shopping center is located at South Kihei Road and Lipoa Street.

• MCKENNA MOTOR CARS in Kailua on the Big Island has been named a Hyundai franchise. The new McKenna Hyundai Dealership is at 75-563 Palani Road.