No Ka 'Oi
Advertiser Staff
• Two Hawai'i-based design firms, Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo and Belt Collins, have been recognized among the Top 500 Design Firms globally by the Engineering News-Record. WATG, an international architecture, design, planning and consulting firm, was ranked 190 on the list, and Belt Collins, a planning, engineering, landscape architecture and environmental consulting firm, was ranked No. 294. The list is based on design revenue of each firm surveyed. In 2004, WATG reported revenues of $45.8 million, up from $38.3 million in 2003. Belt Collins had revenues of $30.8 million, an increase of more than $10 million from the year before.
• FRIEDA S. TAKAKI, president and chief executive officer of Chart Rehabilitation of Hawai'i Inc., has been named the 2005 Outstanding Board of Governors Member by the ESOP Association, a national trade association for companies with employee stock ownership plans. She was recognized for outstanding service, including on the executive committee's State and Regional Chapter Council the past year, current service on the association's Special Task Force on Meetings, and vice chairmanship of the association, since May.
• MIKE YAMAMOTO, area construction manager for McDonald's Restaurants of Hawai'i, has been given the parent company's Golden Arch Partner Award, recognizing 25 years of continuous service with the company. As such, his name is added to a bronze plaque at the company's corporate headquarters in Illinois. Yamamoto joined McDonald's in 1980, following a decade in the aerospace industry. Through the years, he has served as safety manager, training manager, operations consultant and business consultant, before a promotion to area construction manager last year.
• The 624th Regional Support Group of the Air Force Reserve Command has, for the first year, recognized the civilian employer which has best offered support to its reservist employees. Receiving the first Civilian Employer of the Year Award, in the large private business division, was AIG HAWAII INSURANCE CO. The company was nominated by an AIG Hawaii computer technician and Air National Guardsman for the support — including full salary and benefits — for his year deployment in Iraq.
• Hawai'i Rep. Ed Case has recognized the family-owned Smith's Motor Boat Service Inc. as having become, after four generations, "a beloved part of Kaua'i tradition, as well as a model of (small-business entrepreneurial) success." The recognition came after Walter "Kamika" Smith, general manager of the Kapa'a, Kaua'i, firm received the national 2005 Jeffrey H. Butland Family-Owned Business Champion award by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Case is a member of the House Small Business Committee.
• Alexander and Baldwin Properties Inc. has been named Developer of the Year by the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. The Kukulu Hale Award was given to The A&B Inc. subsidiary in recognition of a variety of recent projects, including acquisition and office condominium conversion of Alakea Corporate Tower; acquisition of 270 acres at Wailea Resort; the new Lanikea residential condominium in Waikiki, and the joint venture Hokua luxury condominium. Also recognized as part of the 2005 awards program was former First Hawaiian Bank President WALTER DODS, for a more-than-35-year career that saw him rise from director of advertising and public relations to company president and chairman; and Robert Midkiff for his "active role in private and public sector efforts to create a vibrant downtown Honolulu." Also recognized for excellence in the real-estate industry were a number of local projects, including at Iolani and Punahou schools; the Abner Paki Hale courthouse in Kane'ohe and nearby Windward Community College projects, including the Paliku Theatre; Kailua Town Center, Phase 1; Cycle City Hawai'i; Hawai'i Theatre Center; University of Hawai'i John Burns School of Medicine; and the Alakea Corporate Tower.
Announcements of business-related awards and honors can be sent to: Business Awards, Business Section, The Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802; faxed to 525-6763, or e-mailed to business@honoluluadvertiser.com. For e-mailed releases, please make sure the information is included in the body of the message, not as an attachment.
