New CEO ready to revamp Maui Land
By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer
The new head of Maui Land & Pineapple Co., who brings an unlikely combination of technology and organic farming experience to the job, needs to find a way to make the pineapple business work.
COLE
After millions of dollars of losses, the Kahului-based diversified real-estate and agriculture company is searching for a new strategy.
Enter David Cole, the Hawai'i-raised 50-year-old owner of Sunnyside Farms in Washington, Va., and former America Online executive, who will start as chief executive of Maui Land & Pine on Oct. 15.
David Cole will be a keynote speaker at the Hawaii Agriculture and Landscape Industry Conference • Oct. 15 at Kapi'olani Park, Oct. 16 at Pacific Beach Hotel • Advance registration cost: $125 for all events • For information, call the Hawaii Farm Bureau on O'ahu, 848-2074
"There needs to be a good deal more thought into how we bring agriculture and some of our development opportunities into an integrated context," Cole said. "I see no reason why people should live so far away from fresh food."
Event details
With Maui in particular, Cole said: "I'm very excited about the natural resource base ... It's one of the more exciting projects that I've seen in my career, really finding a way to live within the traditional Hawaiian planning and framework."
Cole said he was eager to return to Hawai'i.
"It is my home. My parents are here, my heart is here and most of my friends are here," Cole said. "I'm attracted to MLP because of the people and the properties and the potential the company offers me at this stage of life."
Although born in Pennsylvania, Cole moved to Hawai'i as an infant, grew up in Kailua and earned a bachelor's degree in liberal studies from the University of Hawai'i.
Cole spent much of his professional life working in the technology industry, heading up software company Ashton-Tate, computer magazine publisher Ziff Communications and Internet-based software company NaviSoft Inc.
He became an officer at America Online after it acquired NaviSoft in 1994 and worked with former AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case, a Punahou School graduate, who owns 43.5 percent of Maui Land & Pine.
In 1996, Cole bought and became chairman of 425-acre Sunnyside Farms, and is also chairman of the Twin Farms Collection, a luxury resort company with properties in Vermont and California.
"I've always had an interest in biology dating back to when I was a kid here in Hawai'i," Cole said. Later, he said, "I had a hankering to own a farm."
After he left America Online in 1997, he decided to spend time learning about organic farming. The land at Sunnyside had been depleted by conventional farming and Cole removed diseased trees, planted new plants, restored soil, installed an irrigation system and earned organic certification.
Cole said he may consider expanding Maui Land & Pine's nascent organic pineapple program, which consists of about 50 acres.
Maui Land & Pine has been selling off retail properties in an attempt to return to profitability, and its remaining major assets are pineapple production, Kapalua Resort, residential real-estate development and commercial property.
Next month, Cole will speak about linking farmers to markets to benefit businesses at the Hawaii Agriculture and Landscape Industry Conference.
Cole said he will be at Maui Land & Pine "as long as it takes" to complete the turnaround, but intends to stay in Hawai'i after the job is done.
David Heenan, Maui Land & Pine's non-executive chairman, said Cole was selected for the job because he has "the fluidity of thought to analyze a number of different industries and understand their profit dynamics."
Reach Kelly Yamanouchi at 535-2470, or at kyamanouchi@honoluluadvertiser.com.
