Posted on: Tuesday, December 21, 2004
HEI gets new board member
By Deborah Adamson
Advertiser Staff Writer
Barry Taniguchi, president and CEO of KTA Super Stores on the Big Island, will be joining Adm. Thomas Fargo, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, on the Hawaiian Electric Industries board of directors as the company seeks to add more outside voices.
Hawaiian Electric Industries, the parent of Hawaiian Electric Co. and American Savings Bank, said yesterday it is adding the two outsiders to strengthen the board's independence.
In the wake of the Enron scandal, scrutiny of corporations and their boards of directors have escalated, chiefly through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The act's goal is to strengthen internal controls of a company to prevent self-dealing and financial abuses by insiders.
"Hawaiian Electric Industries has endeavored to stay in the forefront of corporate governance best practices," said Robert Clarke, chairman, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries, in a statement.
To make room for the new members, T. Michael May and Constance Lau will no longer be on the board. They will, however, continue to attend Hawaiian Electric Industries board meetings as directors of Hawaiian Electric Co. and American Savings Bank, respectively. May is president and chief executive of Hawaiian Electric Co. and Lau is president and CEO of American Savings Bank.
Taniguchi will be joining the Hawaiian Electric Industries board on Dec. 31, while Fargo, whose appointment to the board was announced earlier, will join as soon as a new leader of the U.S. Pacific Command is named. The Hawaiian Electric Industries board will stay at 12 directors.
Taniguchi currently serves on the Hawaiian Electric Co. and American Savings boards as well.
After the change, Clarke will be the only corporate insider on the board.
Hawaiian Electric Co. also announced yesterday that two directors are leaving: Diane Plotts, a business adviser, and Shirley Daniel, managing director at the Center for Entrepreneurship and E-Business at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa's College of Business Administration.
However, Daniel will be joining American Savings' board. Plotts will stay on as a director of HEI and American Savings.
Three will be added to Hawaiian Electric Co.'s board: Maurice Myers, retired chairman, president and CEO of Waste Management Inc.; Kelvin Taketa, president and CEO, Hawaii Community Foundation; and Adm. Fargo. The board will total nine directors.
American Savings Bank will add two other directors besides Daniel: Don Carroll, chairman of Oceanic Cablevision, and Victor Hao Li, co-chairman of the Asia Pacific Consulting Group. The board will expand to 13 directors. Carroll and Hao Li also serve on the board of Hawaiian Electric Industries.
Reach Deborah Adamson at dadamson@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8088.
