Susan Utsugi is the vice president and regional manager for Central Pacific Bank. She is responsible for CPB's nine branches in West O'ahu.

Q. You're involved in several women's business organizations?

A. I'm on the board of the Hawai'i Women's Business Center, which is a nonprofit organization that provides very reasonably priced programs and seminars for women in business. Central Pacific Bank started our own program called Women's Business Central, and that was to provide assistance to women. We found that women in business like to get information, they like to network, and they're looking for resources to help them in establishing or developing their business. So Women's Business Central was designed to do that because women-owned business is a fast-growing sector and they're big contributors to our economy and our community and we wanted to be able to provide something that will help them. I had the opportunity to spearhead our Women's Business Central program and put on events for our customers and women-owned business.

Q. Are there different challenges that face women business owners than men?

A. Not necessarily. All business owners face a lot of the same challenges and they have the same banking needs. But some differences may be that women tend to take on a lot of roles. Not only do they have a business, they may also have to take care of children, or take care of parents, and they do a lot. What we try to do with our program is provide them with information that they can access as well as networking opportunities. In general, business owners have the same banking needs, but women, because they do so much more just in general, maybe face some different challenges that their male counterparts don't.

Q. What are some of the challenges facing the banking industry?

A. Everybody knows that the economy is softening and costs are going up, so for customers the biggest concern is making sure that they can control their costs, making sure that they understand where their revenue sources are from so that they can focus. A lot of customers are starting to see some of the effects of the slowing economy, but it's interesting that we still see a lot of entrepreneurs starting up new businesses, so there is still that optimism out there as well.

Q. What are your challenges?

A. It's always a challenge to balance family, work and my personal interests. I have two daughters, a 14-year-old and an 11-year-old, and I have a husband, and my family is my priority. It's a matter of knowing my priorities and making sure that I keep my priorities straight.

Q. What are your responsibilities at CPB?

A. I oversee the branches as well as the business banking and we have a commercial banking team in the region, which handles our commercial lending and commercial real estate loans. As a regional manager I also try and get involved in the community and our branch managers get involved in the community as well.

Q. How many regions are under CPB?

A. There are six regions. On O'ahu there are five: West O'ahu, East, Kalihi, Kane'ohe, Metro and an International region. The sixth region is our Neighbor Island region.

Q. Do you have a lot of say in what goes on in your region?

A. The whole concept of community banking at Central Pacific Bank and dividing ourselves into regions is so that we can get closer to the community, closer to the customer. Being that a lot of us live and work in that area, we're familiar with the needs of the community, and every area is unique. So within the region we do have more say in the kind of community efforts that we want to pursue.

Q. Can you give some examples of initiatives that you've implemented?

A. Some of our managers have gotten involved in the schools within the area, have gotten involved with the community associations and the local events that go on. For example, there's the Wahiawa Pineapple Festival and the Wahiawa branch manager was part of that planning committee. So it's very localized and very much a grass-roots effort. CPB's community banking officially was launched in October of last year, so it's fairly recent. What's great about having it more decentralized is you can make adjustments that make sense for your area quickly and make sure you're meeting the needs of your marketplace in that area as well as your community.

Q. Did you always want to get into banking?

A. I can't say that it was always something that I wanted to get into, although my father was in banking and my sister was in banking, so when I went to college a business degree was a pretty safe degree to pursue. I was able to get into a management training program right out of college and that's how I started in banking and I've been in it since. The great thing about banking is there are a lot of different aspects to it. Not only is there the financial and analytical side, but it's really a people business and a service business. So I get to work with people every day and help people every day and that's what I enjoy about my job.

Q. How has banking changed since you started?

A. It's become much more competitive and technology has played a big part in our industry. One thing that's great about Central Pacific Bank is they were willing to invest in me and send me to the Pacific Coast Banking School, which is a two-year program. We take two weeks out of the year for three years and basically what you learn is how to run a bank. Always learning is a part of staying on top of things in your industry and I was able to do that. I wouldn't say that I'm technologically savvy, but you have to learn technology in order to remain competitive. I remember doing credit analysis on a legal pad when I first started in banking and now you hardly even write.

Q. What are your goals while you're at CPB?

A. My short-term goal is for us to be the top region in the bank and to make sure that the people that I work with are inspired, they're encouraged, and that they love their jobs. My goal is to make them successful. Long term I think the industry is going to continue to change and I hope that I can continue to play a part in the bank and be able to have an influence in decisions going forward. I would like to see the West O'ahu region continue to expand because out west is where we see a lot of expansion and I'd like to see that region expand, not only in terms of number of branches, but definitely our market share.