Planning for today. Preparing for tomorrow.

When it comes to money, most people don’t worry about headlines until they hit home. Rising interest rates, market volatility, inflation—it can all feel overwhelming. But for Chris Lee, principal and financial advisor at Edward Jones, those shifts are simply part of a larger conversation: helping families in Hawai‘i prepare for the future.

“It’s easy to get caught up in the rate cuts and economic news,” Lee says. “But what really matters is how these changes affect your personal goals—buying a home, upgrading your family car, saving for retirement, or ensuring you have health care coverage when you need it most.”

Hawai‘i’s complex financial picture

The economic picture in Hawai‘i is complex. The labor market remains resilient, and equity markets have delivered above-average gains in recent years. But residents still face unique challenges: Along with high housing costs and rising health care expenses, there’s uncertainty around Social Security and pensions. Lee points out that financial priorities differ across generations:

• Millennials often focus on saving for a first home while managing student loans.

• Gen Xers are balancing careers and maximizing 401(k)s and IRAs.

• Baby Boomers want to maintain the lifestyles they’ve worked hard to build, while preparing for increasing health care needs.

• High-net-worth families are focused on generational wealth transfer and legacy planning.

That’s why Lee emphasizes diversification—not just in equities and bonds, but also across credit qualities, sectors and time horizons. “We still see fixed income as a valuable strategy, especially when it’s diversified,” he explains. “We also remain opportunistic in U.S. equities, particularly quality companies in technology and AI. But the key is building a plan that fits your risk tolerance and long-term goals.”

Retirement and legacy planning

Lee offers strong guidance about retirement planning. “Don’t overload your portfolio with cash. Inflation erodes value over time. And for many retirees, delaying Social Security can strengthen their financial position in later years.” For Lee, financial advising is more than numbers on a page. “This is about people’s lives—their families, their legacies, their security. Robo-advisors can’t replicate that human side of planning. Listening, understanding, and building trust is what makes the difference.”

Growth and innovation at Edward Jones

That people-first philosophy is backed by firm-level investments. “We’re growing in so many ways, so it’s not about one single growth opportunity,” Lee says. “I’m really excited that Edward Jones continues to make ongoing investments to enhance the high-net-worth client experience.”

Edward Jones is expanding its product offerings to help these clients diversify their portfolios and optimize their taxes. Many of these enhancements are in support of Edward Jones Generations®, the firm’s first private client service, which officially launched in May. The program offers tax strategies and wealth-transfer solutions designed to help families prepare across multiple generations.

At the same time, Edward Jones is investing $1.5 billion in financial technology to empower advisors with innovative solutions. “Our technology is designed to free up capacity for financial advisors to grow their practices,” Lee explains. “That allows us to focus even more on complex planning needs, while balancing innovative digital tools with the personal service that clients in Hawai‘i expect and deserve.”

Looking ahead

Lee acknowledges risks on the horizon—geopolitical uncertainty, inflationary pressures, and inevitable market volatility. But he also sees opportunities.

“The future of wealth in North America is about resiliency and planning,” he says. “With the right guidance, clients can feel confident no matter what the markets bring.”

With humor, grit, courage and grace, women panelists, speakers and attendees shared advice on how to not only survive but thrive in a business world still dominated by men.

The theme of finding community and supporting each other dominated Hawaii Business Magazine’s 2025 Wahine forum, attended by more than 1,000 people at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu on Friday. The conference, whose presenting sponsor is the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, is the state’s largest annual event that addresses issues women face in their business careers.

Keynote Speaker, Nicole Lapin Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Keynote speaker Nicole Lapin — a New York Times best-selling author, television news anchor, and founder of the Money News Network — joined panelists in addressing a range of topics, with recurring themes of resilience in the face of adversity and taking control rather than simply reacting.

For Lapin, the ultimate setback occurred early this year when Los Angeles fires destroyed her family’s home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, forcing her and her husband to flee with their 3-week-old baby.

“When your home burns, your sense of self burns with it,” Lapin said. “You’re left asking the question that every woman asks in her life, maybe not because of an actual fire but because of something else that has scorched her world: Who am I when everything is gone?”

She said the calamity forced her to reassess her relationship with money — and to confront what it can and cannot do to provide security against unexpected events — learning new lessons about insurance, for instance.

Her nuggets of advice included: “Stress-test your life the way you stress-test your balance sheet”; “You fall to the level of your preparation — preparation is peace”; “Systems are built to serve process, not people”; and “Document everything — evidence moves money, and documentation is evidence.”

Lapin also advised others who have gone through traumatic assaults on their lives to rebuild not just to make a comeback but to redesign their lives for a future shaped by the knowledge they have gained through the experience.

“When the next fire comes, study it, process it, harness it,” she says. “That’s what women do. You are the architect.”

Nicole Lapin during Wahine Forum’s Opening Session Photo: Aaron Yoshino

In breakout panels, experts covered many more topics, including how to get a seat at the table where business decisions are made, how to harness AI to their advantage, and how to keep from getting overwhelmed by the demands of their jobs once they’ve landed at the top. They also shared pearls of wisdom on how to balance family demands when the job extends into evenings, weekends and holidays.

“Last week was so stressful, I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest,” said Jen Lau, executive vice president at Finance Enterprises, in a session titled “Burnout, Boundaries and Balance: Thriving in a Demanding World.”

She said at such times she relies on her mother’s advice to take control and slow things down.

“She’d say, you want to be able to go fast enough but not so fast that a little pebble throws you off the racetrack,” adding that flexibility is also key. “You constantly need to adjust and re-evaluate – what works in one situation won’t in another.”

Lau’s advice for women trying to make an imprint: “I just want to do a good job, to kick ass for my team. There’s no substitute for hard work. You have to put in the time.”

Also important as a way to prevent burnout, added Emi Au, chief financial officer at HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union, is setting boundaries, such as no video calls before 10 am. She says she’s often working until 1 and 2 in the morning because “my brain is on at night, that’s when I work well.”

Au added that pushback from colleagues against those boundaries sometimes “means your boundaries are working”.

When facing difficult decisions that might seem overwhelming, Au says she consults AI. The process of writing out the problem that she poses to ChatGPT, for instance, can help her find a solution.

“Sometimes articulating it is key, it helps formulate the issue,” Au says, quickly adding that once she has the AI answer, “I say okay, now I’ll go ask my dad.”

Her advice for preventing burnout draws on an analogy to machines used in manufacturing. “If you run it at 100% capacity, it will break down, but 75-80% is a good balance. You’ll have a little extra capacity so if something unexpected hits, you can adjust.”

A well-attended workshop focused on “Negotiating Strategies for Wahine Who Want More,” covering everything from advice about asking for a raise to persuading colleagues to approve a business plan or proposal.

Unyong Nakata, founder of Nakata Advisory LLC Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Unyong Nakata, founder of Nakata Advisory LLC, shared solutions that focused on vocabulary, body language and attitudes, all factors that can affect the outcome of negotiations.

Playing the long game, she said, is the “ultimate return on investment,” reminding attendees to remember that “this is a small town” where social networks are intertwined and reputations formed in one company can affect how people are treated elsewhere.

In negotiations, she says, “when you hear ‘no’ or ‘not now’, keep your tone calm, curious and open” while trying to pivot a conversation toward solutions that include “we” or “us”.

“I don’t want to stab them with my words,” she said, laughing.

Women bring their own style in negotiating in a male-dominated business setting, says Sharlee Tokunaga, executive business developer at Sperber Companies.

“When you step up to the table, it’s sometimes challenging because men don’t fight nearly the same way that women do,” Tokunaga says. “I mean think of when you speak to your husband. They fight differently, right?”

The power of example, and seeing other women in leadership roles, has a compounding effect, according to many attendees.

Wendy Hensel, president of the University of Hawai‘i Ann Teranishi, president and CEO of American Savings Bank Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Wendy Hensel, president of the University of Hawaii, and Ann Teranishi, president and CEO of American Savings Bank, both said they never imagined earlier in their career that they would be in the roles they now serve.

Indeed, taking risks and stepping outside of comfortable or expected paths can lead to rewarding careers.

Hensel recalled that after seeing a teaching job become available at Georgia State University College of Law, she stepped away from a career track at a law firm, deciding that teaching was something she’d wanted to try.

“In taking that chance….it was the best moment in my life,” she recalls. “I found my passion — my passion for my students and the ability to reach someone right in front of you but also literally generations of people who are affected by what you do in our classrooms.”

Hensel recalled her interest in academia stemmed from seeing a female provost and thinking, “I could do that.”

“The power of seeing someone who looks like you and is recognizable in a position you want to be in should never be overstated. It is really very powerful. I started thinking I want to be an administrator, and later I became the dean of a law school, and was elevated to provost.”

Photo: Aaron Yoshino

For younger women who might see in her the role-model they’d like to emulate, Hensel cautioned that “it was not all sunshine and roses,” but she reached the moment when life exceeded her expectations through “grit and resolve and resilience.”

Teranishi, who was selected Hawaii Business 2025 CEO of the Year, was asked what advice she would have given her younger self: “I would say trust in yourself. … Take a little more risk…Don’t look so much backward, look forward…Have faith in the journey and the process.”

Other nuggets of advice gleaned from a range of conference attendees:

• Build a community of trusted friends and business colleagues who can be a sounding board for ideas and career advice.
• Be alert to signs that you’ve taken on too much and are risking a negative stress cycle
• You must be present and commit to doing the hard work needed for success.
• Be mindful to nurture the next generation of female leaders and help them gain skills and articulate the vision for them to succeed.
• Hawaii values culture, respect and community. Those aren’t soft skills needed to succeed; those are hard skills.
• You’re going to fail. Whether you ultimately succeed depends on showing up the next day and proving you’re not going to give up.
• Always remember that the ones who are most important are those who are waiting for you at home.

For other resources suggested by keynote speaker Lapin and others, click on Resources – Hawaii Business Magazine.

Last year was like an oasis of calm for Hawai‘i’s economy. The ravages of the pandemic had faded and the economy grew. The destruction on Maui in 2023, which reverberated across the state, had turned into a building boom. And tariffs, funding cuts and deportations weren’t upturning business plans.

About 5,500 jobs were added in 2024, unemployment was at 2.9% and the number of visitors to the Islands had inched up to about 93% of pre-pandemic levels, according to a March 5 report from the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

As measured by real gross domestic product, Hawai‘i’s economy finally exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2024, by 1.5%, according to DBEDT.

These economic trends are reflected in the new Top 250 list, which reports 2024 gross revenue for many of Hawai‘i’s largest and most influential companies and nonprofits. The list serves as a bellwether of every important sector of the local economy and tracks the ups and downs of individual organizations.

Companies and nonprofits on the Top 250 list reported nearly 13% more revenue, on average, in 2024 than the previous year, based on self-reported and publicly available data. The nonprofit sector was up 44% on average, and construction and development companies were up 14%. Organizations in finance, health care, transportation, insurance and education saw average revenue increases of 7% to 13%.

Gross revenue in the real estate and retail and wholesale sectors increased more modestly, at about 2%, while tourism slipped by nearly 2%. Energy companies on the list saw the biggest slide, down 12% in 2024 on average from the previous year, in part because of falling fuel prices.

While 70% of Top 250 companies and nonprofits reported gains in 2024, economists are concerned about the current year. The UH Economic Research Organization downgraded projections for 2025 in a May 9 update:

“Hawai‘i’s economic outlook has taken a decisive turn for the worse, as expansive federal policy shifts look poised to tip the local economy into a mild recession. Sharp increases in U.S. import tariffs, sweeping federal layoffs, and volatile fiscal and immigration policies are undermining consumer confidence, raising inflation expectations and worsening the business outlook – both nationally and in Hawai‘i’s visitor-dependent economy.”

Goodfellow Bros.’ gross revenue increased 49% in 2024 in large part because of government infrastructure projects, including preparing a 57-acre site for the Ka La‘i Ola housing development in Lahaina | Photo courtesy: Goodfellow Bros.

How the state’s biggest organizations fared

Among the 10 largest organizations on this year’s list, health insurance giant HMSA, with nearly 800,000 members and $4.35 billion in gross revenue, ranked first – a position it’s held nearly every year over the past decade.

Health care insurers and providers on the list posted healthy gains in 2024, including HMSA at 5.2%. The health insurer traditionally spends most of the revenue it receives, and in its 2023 financial statement – the most recent one available – net income was just 0.2% of gross revenue.

Looking forward, health care providers such as Kaiser Permanente (No. 7), The Queen’s Health Systems (No. 9) and Hawai‘i Pacific Health (No. 10) could be affected by the domestic policy bill passed by Congress that calls for deep cuts to the federally funded Medicaid program.

About 21% of Hawai‘i residents are enrolled in Medicaid, and cuts would hurt beneficiaries as well as strain state spending, health care and nursing facilities, and clinicians, according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Servco jumped to the No. 2 spot on the Top 250, posting $3.86 billion in gross revenue in 2024 – a 20% increase from the previous year. According to an email from Servco executives, the growth comes from acquiring car dealerships in Hawai‘i and Australia: Big Island Toyota, with dealerships in Hilo and Kona, and the Motorama Dealership Group, with 18 locations across the state of Queensland.

In third position is Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, which for the first time reported combined income for its Hawai‘i-based operations: more than $3.8 billion in 2024. Alaska Air Group Inc. completed its acquisition of Hawaiian Holdings Inc. on Sept. 18, 2024.

But a slowdown in international travel is expected to impact all the airlines serving Hawai‘i. A DBEDT report from May 28 says the total number of air seats to Hawai‘i will likely drop by 0.5% in 2025, based on airline flight schedules.

In contrast to the higher Alaska-Hawaiian revenue in 2024, Hawaiian Electric Industries (No. 6) sold 90.1% of its ownership interest in American Savings Bank at the end of last year. The company excluded ASB’s revenue when reporting 2024 data for the Top 250 list, which shows gross revenue down 12.6% from the previous year, at $3.2 billion.

Scott Seu, president and CEO of HEI, announced on Dec. 31, 2024, that the sale allows the company “to use the proceeds to reduce holding company debt, increasing flexibility for how HEI funds the HEI and Hawaiian Electric wildfire settlement contributions and key utility initiatives.”

In February of this year, the company agreed to pay about half of a $4 billion settlement to compensate victims of the 2023 Maui wildfires. In the profit/loss section of the Top 250 survey, HEI reported a nearly $1.43 billion net loss in 2024.

Matson (No. 5) had a strong year, with more than $3.4 billion in gross revenue in 2024, up 10.6% from the previous year. The main factor driving growth was its shipping lines between China and Long Beach, Calif., which saw a small increase in volume and a more significant increase in freight rates, according to the company’s fourth-quarter conference call with investors.

Rates were hiked globally last year after Yemen-based Houthis launched attacks on ships in the Red Sea, which disrupted the critical international trade route and caused delays and congestion, longer alternate routes and higher insurance costs.

In late February of this year, Matson released upbeat statements about the company’s 2024 results and projections for the current year. But those projections changed on May 5 when it posted its first-quarter results for 2025, about a month after the Trump administration imposed “reciprocal tariffs” on trading partners:

“Currently, there is significant uncertainty regarding tariffs and global trade, regulatory measures, the trajectory of the U.S. economy and other geopolitical factors. Since the tariffs were implemented in April, the company’s container volume has declined approximately 30% year over year,” wrote Chairman and CEO Matt Cox.

As of May 14, average U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports were 51%, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, after spiking to 145% on April 9.

In a final note about the top 10 organizations on this year’s list, the University of Hawai‘i System (No. 8) reported $2.2 billion in gross revenue in 2024, up 8.4% from the year before. But the flagship research campus at UH Mānoa, in particular, is now dealing with federal funding cuts, many targeting scientific research.

In a May 22 statement, UH President Wendy Hensel said that 69 federally funded grants had been terminated, representing about $83.4 million in funding and impacting more than 90 employees. Other grants received stop-work orders or drawdowns.

“As expected, the number and scale of terminations is accelerating and will undoubtedly take a significant toll on the university,” the statement said.

Construction remains a bright spot

Even in the depths of the pandemic, Hawai‘i’s busy construction companies were a lifeline in a flagging economy. The industry continues to be strong, with expectations for growth in 2025.

On this year’s Top 250 list, gross revenue among construction and development companies was up 14% on average in 2024. The number of payroll jobs in construction increased 9.2% in 2024 compared to 2023, according to estimates by DBEDT.

UHERO’s May 9 report says that public infrastructure projects and rebuilding on Maui have contributed to the industry’s growth, which can be seen on the Top 250 list.

Hensel Phelps (No. 20), for example, reported a 47% increase in gross revenue last year over the previous year, to about $560 million. In a note to Hawaii Business Magazine, the company says it expanded into education and health care construction, including major projects with Kaiser Permanente, UH Mānoa and the state Department of Education.

Maui-based construction company Goodfellow Bros. (No. 25) also saw huge growth in 2024, with gross revenue rising 49% to $452 million. Hawai‘i Division President Edward Brown says government contracts made up about 60% of the company’s business last year.

Among its projects, the company worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to clear the Lahaina burn zone last year. It also worked with the state on infrastructure for the Ka La‘i Ola housing development, including building a massive water tank, blasting rocks and grading the site, and installing transmission lines.

It was a major undertaking – “a seven-day-a-week, 10-hour-days, fast-track project,” he says. The first occupants received keys to their temporary homes a year after much of Lahaina was destroyed.

And Goodfellow Bros. has been inundated with military projects, says Brown, including updates to water and sewer lines at housing complexes, as well as work on a “massive facility” to repair submarines on O‘ahu and a major Space Force facility on Maui.

“You’re going to see a huge influx of money coming in from the military in the next few years,” he says.

On Moloka‘i, the company is creating residential lots for the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. And on Lāna‘i, it’s working with Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who owns 98% of the island, on updates to his vast estate, as well as community improvements such as roads, water lines, a health center and amphitheater.

Brown says tariffs haven’t affected Goodfellow Bros.’ business yet, and the immediate future looks promising. But some challenges persist: “It still takes a lot to get things going in Hawai‘i. Permits take a long time, entitlements take a long time. People who are successful here are the ones who are patient.”

DBEDT forecasts that construction will be strong in coming years. It says the number of residential housing units authorized in 2024 increased by 78% from 2023, and more than 1,000 hotel units were under construction or expected to start construction soon.

But a UHERO forecast sees tariffs on imported materials plus labor constraints weighing on future activity, with construction employment starting to recede by 2027.

Maui recovery lifts CNHA and other nonprofits

Some of the largest nonprofits on this year’s Top 250 list are also actively involved in Maui recovery efforts.

The state’s biggest nonprofit, the Hawai‘i Community Foundation (No. 76), raised more than $114 million in 2024 and awarded $92 million through its Maui Strong Fund to organizations working in housing, health and social services, and other initiatives.

But its overall revenue in 2024 was less than half of what it was in 2023, when a surge of donations poured in from around the world after the Aug. 8 wildfires.

Other nonprofits involved in the recovery saw dramatic growth in 2024, including the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (No. 96), the Maui Food Bank (No. 102) and Maui Economic Opportunity (No. 130).

CNHA’s revenue jumped 91% in 2024, to nearly $86 million, putting it third among charitable nonprofits after HCF and the UH Foundation. The organization has diversified its operations and uses a “fee for hire” model instead of billing for services at completion, says CEO Kūhiō Lewis.

He says the increase in revenue is directly related to its expansion on Maui, which includes opening in-person resource centers and temporary housing units and helping people with rental assistance, building permits and legal advice.

“When there’s a need, we jump at it and make it happen, and people want to support that work. The work comes to us,” says Lewis.

In recent years, the organization has moved into tourism management with large contracts from the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, expanded loan programs that it oversees as a federally funded community development financial institution, and increased offerings at its Hawaiian Trades Academy.

“We’re creating an ecosystem,” says Lewis. “We have a loan fund that supports business development. We have workforce development, which supports construction-related projects that we’re working on. All of the different tentacles support our growth.”

Another growth area is the organization’s asset portfolio, which now includes apartment buildings and landholdings, says Lewis. In 2024, for example, CNHA acquired 44 acres in the Kaumana neighborhood in Hilo, where it plans to develop workforce housing.

Lewis says he and his organization try “to fill the voids” in Hawai‘i and develop programs based on their lived experiences, including the difficulties of trying to support a family or buy a home – hardships that Lewis faced himself as a young single father.

“I like to challenge the status quo, to refine the way of doing things,” says Lewis. “I’ve seen how things don’t work, so we’re doing things differently.”

As for the future, he says, the organization has spent the post-pandemic years becoming more self-sufficient through private- and public-sector contracts and revenue-generating operations. “We might lose $1 million or $2 million in 2025, but we have lots of other legs to stand on.”

The complete Top 250 rankings are only in the August print issue of Hawaii Business Magazine.

Order your copy here.

Join Jean Chatzky and WestPac Wealth Partners Founder and CEO Nash Subotic at Hawaii Business Magazine’s second annual Money Matters Financial Conference, taking place Saturday, November 22 at Punahou School.  

Jean Chatzky is the founder and CEO of HerMoney, as well as the creator of the financial coaching programs FinanceFixx and InvestingFixx. She hosts the popular podcast HerMoney with Jean Chatzky and appears on the PBS television series Opportunity Knock$. Jean is also a columnist for AARP and serves as an education fellow for the Alliance for Lifetime Income. She is best known for her 25-year role as the financial editor of NBC’s Today Show.  

“Money Matters offers four distinct tracks for those looking to improve their financial future,” says Hawaii Business Publisher Kent Coules. “Whether you’re planning for retirement, just getting started, or need to get back on track, there are sessions tailored to every stage of your financial journey.” 

Spots are limited and this event is expected to sell out—register today to secure your seat! 

At the time, the company was shifting employees to a new open floor plan, and Ho believed it was important for executives to model the change.

“It made more sense to be with the team,” he told me as we walked through the airy open space, lined with floor-to-ceiling glass that looks out over downtown Honolulu and the Pacific Ocean.

It was a powerful gesture – one that speaks volumes about how Ho views leadership: not from above, but from within. For him, leading means putting others first, a philosophy that has shaped Bank of Hawai‘i’s culture and earned him loyalty within the organization.

After nearly three decades covering Wall Street, I couldn’t help but think of Jamie Dimon, the longtime CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who similarly embraces humility, hard work and listening as core leadership values.

“I’ve enjoyed every second of it,” Ho said. “It is the best job – maybe in the world, but certainly in this town, to me. But ultimately, what’s really meaningful is making a difference for our employees, for the community.”

That mindset is echoed by Donna Ramirez, Ho’s executive assistant, who has worked alongside him for more than three decades.

“Peter sets the bar high and he’s tough when it counts,” she said, “but he’s also shown me what it looks like to lead with heart. He genuinely cares about people and the community. I’ve been blessed to know and work for him for 30-plus years.”

Under Ho’s leadership, Bank of Hawai‘i has become a nationally respected financial institution. In 2024, the bank cracked the $1 billion mark in annual revenue – a milestone reflecting sustained growth.

Time magazine recently named it one of America’s Best Midsize Companies of 2025. The bank has also landed on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Banks for 15 consecutive years and earned a spot on Newsweek’s Most Trustworthy Companies in Banking – the only Hawai‘i-based company on the list.

Ho was named president of Bank of Hawai‘i in 2008 and added the titles of chairman and CEO in 2010. In July 2024, James C. Polk was promoted to president, while Ho retained the dual roles of chairman and CEO. A board member since 2005, Ho began his banking career in 1987 with Manufacturers Hanover in New York City.

COMMITTED PHILANTHROPIST

Ho’s influence extends far beyond the walls of the bank.

A committed philanthropist, he serves as chair of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation’s Board of Governors, a role he’s held since 2019 after joining the board more than a decade earlier. He and his wife, Michelle, also established the Peter & Michelle Ho Family Foundation Fund, which supports essential services across the state – from basic needs to health and human services – guided by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and a belief in helping underserved communities through sustainable, high-impact initiatives.

He’s a regular contributor to the Hawai‘i Community Foundation’s Catalyst Fund, an unrestricted resource that enables the organization to fund innovation, research and operational needs. His giving philosophy reflects his approach to leadership: support the infrastructure, trust the process and empower people to do meaningful work.

In 2021, Ho joined the Board of Trustees of Punahou School, his alma mater, and he also serves on the boards of several other key institutions, including the Hawaii Business Roundtable and various nonprofits committed to strengthening the local community.

A DEPARTURE FROM GLOBALIZATION

The following is a condensed version of a two-hour conversation I had with Ho at the bank’s downtown Honolulu headquarters.

HB: Given the persistent tariff wars and global uncertainty, what keeps you up at night and worries you the most?

PH: I think that there are a ton of countervailing currents happening at the global, national and local level that are creating all sorts of challenges and all sorts of mischief – a redirection of trends that are really difficult to get your arms around.

Let’s talk about Trump’s agenda, which is basically a departure from globalization – and a kind of rewiring back to a very domestic agenda. That is a complete shift from the past 20 to 40 years.

I’m not making a judgment. That might be the right call today, but whether it is or is not, that is an abrupt shift. When things that big and that far-reaching shift like that – abruptly – there are oftentimes dislocations and unintended consequences. It’s really difficult to see what’s coming.

HB: Is this a black swan event?

PH: I don’t know if it’s a black swan event, although there have been a lot of black swan events in the 21st century.

Anytime you break things that have been a consistent pattern for decades, there’s the opportunity for a lot of mischief. Your logic train has been built on the last 20 years, 30 years for corporate leaders, for community leaders, for everybody.

What keeps me up at night is the fact that there is a lot of change happening right now.

AI is a dramatic, technological, operational shift that’s happening in front of our very eyes. As much as I believe in the accretive power of that capability, they’re elements that I just don’t know how they ultimately play out for our organization, for our community longer-term.

It’s a time for everyone to try to be agile and nimble and aware of what’s happening in the world because things are coming so quickly at everything and everyone right now.

BILLION DOLLARS IN REVENUE

HB: Bank of Hawai‘i had a good 2024, cracking $1 billion in revenue with $150 million in profits. How does it feel to break the billion-dollar mark?

PH: $1 billion sounds great. I try really hard to denominate what we do in this organization, in dollars and cents and in loans and deposits and fees and things like that.

I really try to think from a first-principle standpoint: What are we trying to do here? As much as I love the idea of $1 billion – it sounds cool – I’d be much happier to hear that we really moved the dial on customer experience last year. I’d be really blown away to hear our employee experience numbers really shot through the roof or the trust that people have is at another level. Those things are frankly more actionable to us, and if we follow that path, the rest will follow and Wall Street will be more than taken care of.

HB: Can you expand on the first principles theme?

PH: There are two ways to hear that. One way to hear that is “We’re going to generate X thousand dollars of fees. Terrific! They’ll add to a pile of fees.”

The other way to think about it is, “Wow, that’s a customer that somehow our team has been able to earn the trust of, probably through really great work, probably through people that really care passionately about this individual. Let’s keep doing that.” If we focus on that, we will accrue the earnings and financial success.

But that must be the center of the plate what we’re focused on. The conversation does not begin with, “How do we make more and more money for this organization?” It’s a reminder that our value starts with people and customers and our employees. And it gets denominated in financial outcome, which is important. But sometimes people can get carried away in how they think about what they do.

HB: So if you’re too attached to your stock price or revenue figures, other things suffer.

PH: You begin to make decisions for what seemed like an obvious reason, but for the wrong reason.

HB: What’s Bank of Hawai‘i’s investment strategy now?

PH: Prior to 2000, we were quite possibly the world’s smallest international money center bank. We had operations in the South Pacific, the West Pacific, Asia, Southeast Asia, on the U.S. Mainland, East Coast and West Coast.

The strategy was to be really expansive. That turned out to be a very difficult strategy for Bank of Hawai‘i. We were overstretched. We frankly didn’t quite have the capital base to make a go of that. And the company suffered as a result.

What we learned was our home is in Hawai‘i. The core of the competitive capabilities and advantage of Bank of Hawai‘i is in Hawai‘i. No surprise.

What we did over the course of a couple of years – and this was kind of seven, eight years into my term at Bank of Hawai‘i – is that we brought everything back to the Islands. We brought all our capital back to the Islands, all our operational focus back to the Islands and the West Pacific. We have a good-sized presence in the West Pacific as well.

And the mantra was rewired back to “We need to focus on Hawai‘i. We need to focus on understanding this marketplace better and better and better – and in a way unique to a 127-year-old Hawaiian company.” And that really ought to be our core competitive advantage as an organization and as a team. We’ve been running that strategy pretty much full tilt for going on 26 years now. It’s been highly successful.

The investment thesis is we have been in Hawai‘i for over 100 years. We understand the uniqueness of this marketplace better than most, we like to think. In terms of stewarding investors’ capital, what better way to do that but as kind of “The Resident Expert” or “The Resident Brand” in a unique and special place.

HB: Do you consider Bank of Hawai‘i a community bank?

PH: I do. There are going to be plenty of people saying, “You’ve got $25 billion [in assets], $1 billion of revenue. How could you possibly be a community bank?” Fair enough if we screen by size.

But if we were screened by intent, our intention is to be the best bank in this community. And to be the most valuable bank in the eyes of our customers in this community, I can’t think of a different way to describe a community bank than that. From an intentional standpoint, I think we’re absolutely a community bank. That’s how we think about ourselves.

“HIGH-QUALITY, VALUE-ADD FINANCIAL INSTITUTION”

HB: Let’s pivot to Bank of Hawai‘i’s culture. What is the culture here?

PH: We think of how we get things done in a couple of ways. One, we have to get right an understanding, a feel and an essence for this community like no other financial institution.

That’s important because, one, this is a unique marketplace and two, because this is our only marketplace other than Guam. We’ve got to be really good at that.

The other piece of the requirement is we’ve got to operate as a high-quality, value-add financial institution in 2025.

We’re a digital bank, we’re a physical bank, we’re a trust bank, we’re a commercial bank, we’re a consumer bank. There’s a fair amount of complexity to what we do and a lot of technology – and a lot of technological change that comes with that.

We absolutely have to understand this marketplace and be of Hawai‘i. But we also have to know how to run a 21st century financial institution really well. That’s challenging. We have to bring those two worlds together to create the outcome we get. That really is talking about people and talent and passion.

Make no mistake, this is a competitive place, where excellence means something, but it’s always against the backdrop of how we bring together the right talent and culture that meld these two worlds. They really drive a world class, financial institution with an organization that ultimately really gets what it is to be a Hawaiian company and serve the people of Hawai‘i.

HB: You’ve brought up technology and being equipped for the 21st century? Please walk us through why digitizing our financial institutions are so crucial.

PH: It’s essential for a bank because increasingly the way people utilize [and] store their wealth or find opportunities to build through borrowing products and lending products and the like, that’s increasingly becoming digital. That’s just the way the world is heading.

To think that we somehow could say, “But in Hawai‘i, here’s how we do things,” it’s just not likely to be met with a lot of success. We have to recognize that Hawai‘i might not be on the cutting edge of technology and development, but we’re not far behind.

People have to feel like Bank of Hawai‘i is a modern financial institution like any place else. The difference between going to Bank of America or Chase or Wells Fargo or Bank of Hawai‘i, from a modern field standpoint, is not very different.

What Bank of Hawai‘i gets right is they understand me, they understand Hawai‘i, they understand what’s important from a cultural standpoint here in the Islands. All of those things being equal, I’m going to give my business to Bank of Hawai‘i.

We must resist the temptation to believe it’s just different here. The Islands are different but in terms of convenience, security and value, we’re no different.

ROLE OF CRYPTOCURRENCIES

HB: What about cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as well as blockchain?

PH: Let’s separate crypto from the blockchain technology that it sits on. Some see crypto as effectively a substitute for U.S. dollars. I think we need to think about crypto or use it with eyes wide open. I get that people want to explore different ways of storing value and transacting. There are hundreds of years of lessons learned and systems that make a lot of sense built into the U.S. financial system, that make a lot of sense as well.

How could crypto exist either as a substitute or in harmony with the U.S. dollar? I think there’s a lot to unpack. There are plenty of incidents of fraud over the years. Plenty of instances of this stuff being used to finance really bad things.

Conversely, as it relates to the U.S. dollar, there’s been a huge amount invested to make sure that the dollar isn’t used to those ends and is durable and safe as possible for the end user. I’m not anti-crypto. I also am not sure it’s going to become a replacement currency for the world. I do get there is a thirst for something different, and people are interested in it. But I think there’s got to be a rigorous approach to how we think about and enter into this stuff.

“AS HAWAI‘I GOES, SO GOES BANK OF HAWAI‘I”

HB: Let’s talk about Bank of Hawai‘i’s influence on the community.

PH: We pride ourselves in having such a concentration of our business in this marketplace that we care an awful lot about what happens in this marketplace. Because as Hawai‘i goes, so goes Bank of Hawai‘i.

One unique opportunity for Bank of Hawai‘i is we touch one out of every two people in [the] state by some product. We bank most of the larger commercial businesses in town. We do business with every county in the state, we do business with the state and state agencies. That gives us the opportunity to build a different and unique understanding of what’s happening here.

HB: How is Hawai‘i’s economy doing from your perspective?

PH: Not as well as it needs to. We really decoupled from the national economy during the pandemic. When you look at the slope [when national and local economic numbers are charted], there is a noticeable negative deviation of performance economically between Hawai‘i and the broader U.S. economy.

The broader national economy has grown well over 10% post-Covid from March 2020 to today. And the state of Hawai‘i is about flat.

I know we’ve largely gotten tourism back. The military is as strong as ever, as is the construction industry. And yet, we’re struggling economically. If you ask me, “Is the economy performing the way it needs to be performing?” I think the answer is no. We’ve got work to do.

HB: How do you expect tariffs and crackdowns on undocumented immigrant labor, which could hurt Hawai‘i’s important construction industry, to impact Bank of Hawai‘i and Hawai‘i?

PH: I think that it’s very difficult to understand, kind of back to what we started with: How quickly and violently all sorts of things are changing.

I honestly don’t know the economic outcome of the tariffs or the depth this immigration policy will take and what its impact will be. What I do know is this abrupt shift in policy and practice is creating uncertainty in the business community and among consumers. You see that in the soft data. That’s not healthy. I think we and the country were already beginning to soften a bit economically.

LOCALLY HEADQUARTERED BANKS

HB: How is Bank of Hawai‘i distinguishing itself from other banks and financial institutions?

PH: Nationally, it’s clear that you’ve got some banks – Citibank, Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo – with tremendous scale in capital, tremendous technological capabilities. I don’t know if that necessarily brands as well out here.

In contrast to our national competitors, we understand what it is to bank this community. We really mean that. Yet we fully accept that from a product, service and capability standpoint, we have to score very close to what anyone in the world can provide.

But in terms of the feeling that you get by banking with us, we know we have to over-perform in terms of delivering banking in a Hawaiian way, in a local way.

HB: So you think you are competing not just with banks here but from everywhere?

PH: Right. You could go online and open an account at Bank of America in about 30 seconds or at other banks.

This is the only market [in America] where there are so many locally headquartered banks. Most places are dominated by large national players. Hawai‘i still has banks that have always serviced Hawai‘i. Hawai‘i has American Savings Bank, Central Pacific Bank, Bank of Hawai‘i, First Hawaiian Bank, Territorial Savings Bank – the five largest Hawai‘i national banks. That’s different. There aren’t a lot of places that have the banking landscape – I won’t say dominated – but managed by hometown local banks.

I think that’s fantastic for the community. What if Hawai‘i’s four biggest banks weren’t around and what was around was Bank of America, Citibank, Chase and Wells Fargo? You get a different outcome. I don’t think you get a better outcome.

DOING BETTER FOR BUSINESSES

HB: Why is it so hard to start a business in Hawai‘i? Are politicians not engaging enough with business owners and entrepreneurs?

PH: Starting a business needs to be easier. Now, politicians are an extension of a community and respond to their voters. If you look at the history of the Islands, we’ve not always had a great relationship with business.

Think about the plantations. That was decades and decades of a less-than-healthy relationship between business and the broader community. There are parts of Bank of Hawai‘i’s history that we’re not terribly proud. We’re not going to look away. We have to recognize the errors of our actions at that moment and make sure that we rethink about how we appear, operate and act to the community-at-large today. I think we’ve come a long way in that regard.

I think it begins with – to your question – there’s not a consensus that business is a good thing in Hawai‘i. I think that’s a problem because we all need to make a living. We all need to earn and pay for the things we need. I think we must work to demonstrate why commerce and business are necessary and important to the Islands. Clearly, we haven’t done as good a job as we need to.

The feel of the Islands is extremely attractive to lots of good talented people, and that is an exportable asset that we ought to promote.

I love the idea of bringing back people who went away and have attained fantastic experience – to come back and share and apply their experience with our community.

I also love the idea of finding people that love the idea of Hawai‘i and the culture of Hawai‘i and bring them here to help expand the pie. We’ve found a lot of talent from all of these kinds of people.

I don’t think we are going to unlock the potential of the Islands without becoming a more business-friendly place, number one, and number two, without unlocking the real asset of the Islands, which is the spirit of the Islands. The real brand asset of Hawai‘i is not sun, sand and surf. No, the real brand asset of Hawai‘i is what it feels like to be part of this community. Sometimes people don’t understand how valuable that is. There’s a specialness to this community that doesn’t exist in other places.

VISION FOR BANK OF HAWAI‘I

A year of corporate profits in Hawai‘i was overshadowed by a massive loss at Hawaiian Electric Industries, parent of the utility at the center of litigation over the deadly Lahaina wildfire that killed 102 people in August 2023.

Once among the state’s most profitable companies, Hawaiian Electric reported a more than $1.42 billion loss in 2024 – driven largely by a $4.04 billion wildfire settlement with thousands of Maui residents and businesses.

Plaintiffs alleged the utility failed to shut off power lines despite high-wind warnings that preceded the fire. The company, which supplies electricity to about 95% of Hawai‘i’s population, agreed to pay nearly half the settlement amount.

The state, Maui County and other defendants, including Kamehameha Schools, West Maui Land Co., Hawaiian Telcom and Spectrum/Charter Communications, also agreed to contribute to the settlement.

Hawaiian Electric’s 2024 loss was greater than the combined total annual profits tallied by 53 companies and organizations in the state during the same period, according to the annual ranking by Hawaii Business Magazine of the most profitable companies in the Islands. The list includes all the local companies whose data is publicly available or was submitted to us.

Hawaiian Electric president and CEO Scott Seu said in the company’s annual report that the Hawai‘i Supreme Court ruling earlier this year to allow settlement funds to be released helped “to move the settlement forward and provide more clarity for our company’s path toward reestablishing financial stability.”

The amount of Hawaiian Electric’s loss was also seven times the size of the company’s prior year profit of nearly $200 million.

To help pay for its portion of the settlement, Hawaiian Electric sold 90% of its stake in American Savings Bank to independent investors for $405 million in cash.

“Importantly, the proceeds from this transaction support our efforts to rebuild our financial strength while creating flexibility for how we finance Maui wildfire-related obligations and key utility initiatives, such as wildfire risk reduction,” Seu told shareholders.

“We are deeply committed to advancing our wildfire mitigation efforts, and since launching an expanded wildfire safety strategy in the wake of the Maui wildfires, Hawaiian Electric has rapidly advanced efforts to reduce the risk of wildfires ignited by its equipment.”

That’s why we launched our weekly email Personal Finance Report and held the Money Matters conference on Nov. 9, with 17 sessions covering a vast range of personal finance topics. Over the next few months, we will be publishing condensed versions of some sessions.

The opening session at Money Matters offered an out-of-the-box approach to personal finance planning that I found helpful for goal setting, risk assessment, alignment and decision-making. I talked on stage with Hawaiian Airlines Chief Administrative Officer Shannon Okinaka, who has held financial leadership roles at the airline for two decades. The theme: how HA’s planning and processes provide guidance and best practices for you and your family’s personal finances.

The starting point for the airline – and your household – is goal setting. Okinaka recalled that many years ago, HA’s strategy “was this list of 150 items. And that’s not really a strategy, it’s just a list of things we wanted to do.”

Guided by Four Pillars

Instead, she said, the airline created four pillars – broad aspirations that guided their specific goals and planning. Four seems a reasonable number of “pillars” for your personal finances too.

Forty years ago, the financial pillars my wife and I set were frugality and saving for our first home. Frugality has been a constant (both of us are journalists, so frugality is more a requirement rather than a choice), but after we bought our first and then our current home, we added three pillars: paying for and maintaining that home, investing in our two children’s education and saving for retirement.

Our pillars remained constant, but short and medium-term goals shifted with time and circumstances.

Okinaka said Hawaiian Airlines went through the same process. Ten-year goals were broken into shorter goals and milestones to ensure success. “Some of the hardest parts of that goal-setting process was alignment among the departments, because you had finance saying, ‘We have to be prosperous and stable,’ and operations saying, ‘No, it’s most important to run a good airline, because that’s what will make us prosperous and stable,’ ” and every other team offering perspectives, she said. “But we had to walk out of the room aligned because we knew there were going to come times when we had to prioritize and say no or not now to something.”

Not an Easy Process

Reaching alignment on goals involved some of the most stressful and recurring “discussions” (actually arguments) of my marriage. Maybe in your family too because financial discussions are often emotional.

A big focus of the Okinaka-Petranik conversation was risk assessment – at the airline and in our personal finances. “My job was a lot of things but primarily two things: risk assessment and process,” she said. A big part of risk assessment is figuring “what’s the risk of making a wrong decision? A former boss said, ‘Is this a bet-the-company decision? Like, if we make a wrong decision, the whole company goes down? “Or is this a decision where, if we get it wrong, it hurts a little, but we’ll move on?”

Adopting that mindset allowed her to stop being terrified of small risks. Assessing your own level of risk tolerance is crucial. For a long time I had 100% of my retirement funds in equities, knowing I had a long time horizon and that, over time, equities have provided a better return than many other investments.

I had to take frequent deep breaths during the Great Recession and Covid pandemic, but I mitigated my risk by investing heavily in index funds rather than picking stocks and sectors. It paid off but you know the saying: Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Hawaii Business Magazine won’t set goals for you, but we will do our best to help you reach the goals you set.

After more than a decade working for different companies, my son is starting his own business for the first time. My daughter has worked for the same company since college graduation and is able to save money and invest despite living in high-cost San Francisco. My wife retired last year but has worked part time on several projects since then. And I am still working but planning for retirement and part-time work in a few years.

None of us are in what I think are the most difficult decades of the typical personal finance journey, when seemingly everything financial hits you at once: paying down a home mortgage while raising children while saving for their education while saving for your retirement while (add your needs here).

No matter where you are on that money journey, two of Hawaii Business Magazine’s latest initiatives can help. In September, we launched a free weekly email newsletter called the Hawaii Business Personal Finance Report that aims to provide advice and information from local and national experts.

And on Saturday, Nov. 9, we’re holding the all-day Money Matters Financial Conference at Mid-Pacific Institute. You can choose from five tracks depending on where you are in your personal finance journey: Getting Started, Getting Back on Track, Small Business Owners, Retirement Planning, and Kūpuna. Register at moneymatters.hawaiibusiness.com.

Advice for Your Financial Success

In the opening keynote session, Shannon Okinaka, until recently the longtime CFO at Hawaiian Airlines, and I will have a conversation about the many important personal money management lessons we can all learn from Hawaiian, including how an airline handles incredibly complex operations and the accompanying uncertainty, price volatility, customer demands, black swan events and more. Virtually everything you face in your personal journey, airlines deal with constantly – and their responses and coping strategies can help you build your own strategies.

Each workshop is designed to give you important information and actionable advice. The topics cover a wide range and here are just some of the sessions:

• The Possible Dream: Buying Your First Home in Hawai‘i
• Budgeting to Get Back on Track
• Family, Fraud & Finances, a session aimed at kūpuna but open to anybody
• Financial Management 101 for Small Businesses
• Best Strategies for the 401(k)/ IRA Novice
• Protect Yourself from Sneaky Schemes, Scams and Fraud
• Leveraging Your Assets for Loan Power
• Building Your Credit from Scratch
• Balancing Act: Strategies for Generating Income from Retirement Savings
• YOU Matter! Do You Have a CareReceiving Plan?
• Annuities and Self-Directed IRAs as Part of a Retirement Strategy

Defining Goals and Steps to Take

Our closing keynote speaker is national financial expert Colin Ryan, who’ll talk about “Embracing the Human Side of Money.” His goal is to help you define and achieve your vision of financial success so you can have the life you want.

I’m confident that no matter where your personal finances stand, you’ll learn plenty at the Money Matters Financial Conference. Tickets are $50 for the entire day and include free parking at Mid-Pacific Institute in Mānoa, access to any session you choose and a bento lunch. Register at moneymatters.hawaiibusiness.com.

I’m excited because there’s so much I want to learn from the experts in these sessions. Frankly, there will be a couple of times when I’ll want to be in two sessions at once, so I think my wife and I will be splitting up to cover more ground.

Unless you are a member of the richest 1%, I suggest you save that Saturday for a valuable day of learning. The payoff could be enormous.

Hawaiian has been at the bottom of the Most Profitable Companies list for the past four years, though its fortunes could turn with its pending sale to Alaska Airlines. Matson, which dropped from first to fifth place on the Top 250 list – from $4.3 billion gross revenue in 2022 to $3 billion in 2023 – still remains the most profitable company headquartered in Hawai‘i, according to Hawaii Business Magazine’s research.

In 2023, Matson earned $297.1 million in profit, which was considerably less than the $1 billion reported in 2022. In its 2023 annual report, Matson explains its approach to investing current profits for future growth.

In 2022, Matson signed a $1 billion contract with a Philadelphia shipbuilder for three new “Aloha-class” container ships for its China-Long Beach line. At the end of 2023, the company “had funded 67% of the new Aloha Class build program through nearly $600 million set aside in our tax-advantaged CCF (capital construction fund),” according to Matson’s annual report.

Hawai‘i’s largest shipping company expanded during the pandemic years, adding transpacific shipping lines and services such as trucking and warehousing. Matson’s 2023 report states that the company has “built a highly diversified shipping and logistics platform capable of generating sustainable, long-term growth.”

Hawaiian Airlines is also focused on long-term growth and high-quality service, but has experienced downturns in international travel from Japan, as well as schedule changes and cancellations caused by “ongoing struggles with the reliability and availability” of the engines that power its West Coast fleet, according to its 2023 annual report. The airline reported a nearly $260.5 million loss in 2023, up from the $240 million loss reported in 2022.

In encouraging news, Hawaiian Airlines launched a freighter service for Amazon in 2023, opened service to the Cook Islands and returned to Fukuoka, Japan. More significantly, the company announced in December 2023 that it would merge with Alaska Airlines, giving it access to far more destinations.

“The beloved Hawaiian Airlines brand will live on as a part of the combined company,” states Hawaiian Airlines’ annual report. “Together, we believe we will be able to compete more effectively against the giant airlines … and invest more in sustainability, workforce development, and community.”

At the time of writing, Alaska Airlines was still awaiting approval from the U.S. Department of Justice for its purchase of Hawaiian Airlines.

Nonprofits Are Healthier

The top-ranked nonprofit on this year’s list is Honolulu-based Elemental Impact, formerly known as Elemental Excelerator, which has funded more than 150 “climate companies” in Hawai‘i and around the globe. Funded projects range from generating water in arid regions of Texas and providing electric shuttle buses in New York City’s “transportation deserts” to producing the world’s first low-methane goat cheese, made by Hawai‘i Island’s Blue Ocean Barns.

Elemental’s previous appearance on this list was in 2022 (reporting 2021 figures). That year, it ranked 186 on the Top 250 list with $17.2 million in gross revenue, and 44 on the Most Profitable list with $1.13 million in net income. This year, Elemental rose to 150 on the Top 250 list with $36.2 million in gross revenue, and No. 9 on the Most Profitable Companies list with $15.6 million in net income to invest.

More traditional nonprofits also reported healthier profits in 2023, giving them strong buffers against future funding drops. Catholic Charities reported $12 million in surpluses after a nearly $2.3 million loss in 2022. Easterseals reported nearly $4.7 million in surpluses in 2023, but only $6,000 the previous year.

The Hawaiian Humane Society, Blood Bank of Hawaii, Waikiki Health, Hale Kipa, Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii and Child & Family Service all reported healthier year-end balance sheets in 2023 compared to the previous year. But Parents And Children Together and the Hawai‘i Foodbank – large organizations serving many tens of thousands of residents – reported deficits.

Losses on Maui

On the most recent Top 250 Companies list, many small and medium companies with Maui operations reported revenue drops as a direct result of the Lahaina wildfire. They include VIP Foodservice, the Pacific Whale Foundation, JR Doran/Ceramic Tile Plus, Atlantis Submarines and The Art Source.

But only one of them, Maui Clothing Company, also divulged its profit/loss figures. The network of clothing stores reported a $490,361 loss in 2023, compared with a gain of $887,732 in 2022. The company lost a store on Front Street in Lahaina; 21 of its employees were displaced and five lost their homes.

How We Compile the List

Each spring, Hawaii Business Magazine surveys companies and nonprofits to gather key information, such as gross revenue, profits or losses, executives and new acquisitions. Those organizations that reported their profit/loss figures are included on the Most Profitable Companies list, which is supplemented with publicly available data. To request surveys for future lists, please email cynthiaw@hawaiibusiness.com.

Most Profitable Companies 2024



This complementary list reports on 2022 profits and losses for 65 of those companies. Most of the data is self-reported, but some is pulled from annual reports.

Click here to jump to the 2023 Most Profitable Companies list >>

Shipping Remains Strong

At the top of the list again is Matson, a pandemic-era powerhouse that deftly expanded its capacity as demand for goods from China surged. Matson opened a second China-to-Long Beach, California, line in 2020 and a new service from China to Oakland, California, in 2021.

The expansion paid off. Matson reported $4.34 billion in gross revenue in 2022 and an unprecedented $1.06 billion in net profit – the largest amount ever reported in our Most Profitable Companies list.

But those outsized numbers are expected to fall in 2023. Rising inflation and interest rates cooled spending last year, and retailers cut back on inventory. Matson discontinued its newest line in the third quarter of 2022 as demand lagged on the China routes – a development that Chairman and CEO Matt Cox predicted a year ago when he told Hawaii Business Magazine that supply and demand would return to normal once the “supercycle” had ended.

By the close of 2022, Matson reported an 11.7% decrease in container volume on its China routes, and a 5.8% decrease in Hawai‘i service. Global container shipping rates also fell throughout the year, ending just slightly above pre-pandemic rates.

Despite the declines, Matson maintained its profit margin of about 24% in both 2022 and 2021. Much of the money was returned to investors, but last year more than half was funneled into a capital construction fund to purchase new fuel-efficient ships. Another $100 million payment went into the fund in February 2023, and the company pledged to add anticipated tax refunds to it as well.

“This remarkable generation of cash has allowed us to pre-fund nearly twothirds of our expected $1 billion in capital investments for the next generation of Matson vessels,” writes Cox in the company’s 2022 annual report.

In November 2022, Matson announced that it had commissioned the building of three new vessels. The cargo ships will operate on cleaner-burning liquified natural gas and will feature fuel-efficient hulls, both of which will help Matson meet its environmental goals of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030, and reaching net zero by 2050.

In addition to the new vessels, which are expected to be delivered in 2026 and 2027, Matson plans to equip three of its 20 company-owned vessels to run on liquified natural gas. The LNG installations are expected to be completed in the next two years, according to the annual report, with more conversions possible in the future.

Hawaiian Airline Improves

At the bottom of the list for the third year in a row is Hawai‘i’s other global transportation company, and the anchor of its tourism industry, Hawaiian Airlines.

In good news, Hawaiian Airlines reported gross revenue of $2.64 billion in 2022, up 65% from the year before. The results reflect the resurgence of tourism: 9.2 million visitors arrived in the Islands in 2022 – a 36.5% increase from the year before, according to UHERO data.

But Hawaiian also reported a net loss of $240 million in 2022 as it continued its long financial recovery.

One of the pressures last year included higher fuel prices, which were largely triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent boycott of Russian crude oil. The average cost per gallon for the carrier’s aircraft fuel was $3.42 in 2022, up from $2.02 in 2021 and $1.52 in 2020, according to Hawaiian Airlines’ 2022 annual report. Fuel as a percentage of operating expenses went from 10.8% in 2020 to 28.7% in 2022.

Other pressure came from fierce competition. Southwest Airlines, which entered the Hawai‘i market in 2019, increased its interisland flights in 2022 and began offering $39 tickets, triggering a fare war with Hawaiian. While cheap tickets are great for passengers, Hawaiian took a financial hit in its effort to stay atop the interisland market.

But perhaps the biggest challenge in 2022 was the lack of visitors from Japan, once “a large percentage of our pre-pandemic international revenue,” according to the airline’s most recent annual report. Even as the Japanese government eased travel restrictions in the fall of 2022, visitors were hampered by a terrible exchange rate, which reached 150 yen to 1 U.S. dollar in October 2022; in January 2021, the rate was 103 to 1.

Hawaiian cut back its service to Japan, and kept some lines suspended. As of August 2023, the yen remained weak against the dollar, but Airline Weekly reported that Hawaiian’s bookings from Japan were finally accelerating.

To strengthen its bottom line, Hawaiian Airlines took a number of steps to improve service and diversify. In October 2022, the company announced it had entered an eight-year contract with Amazon to lease 10 Airbus A330-300 freighters and fly cargo for the retail giant. The service is expected to start this year or next.

The airline hired hundreds of new employees last year as it scaled up to pre-pandemic levels. And looking forward, Hawaiian Airlines has partnered with Par Hawaii to develop sustainable aviation fuel, and is working on all-electric “seagliders” for interisland travel with a Massachusetts company.

Local Banking is Healthy

The FDIC said U.S. banks reported a 5.8% decline in profits in 2022, but were still doing better financially than before the pandemic.

National results align with the data that banks and credit unions reported to Hawaii Business Magazine. All 11 financial institutions on the list enjoyed net profits in 2022, with an average gain of over 26%. Overall, profits in the sector declined by 4.7% in 2022 from the prior year, which was smaller than the national 5.8% decline.

Hawai‘i’s top-ranking financial institution is First Hawaiian Bank, which reported nearly $843 million in gross revenue last year and nearly $266 million in net income – a 31.5% profit margin.

In 2021, the bank reported more than $734 million in gross revenue and also about $266 million in net income – a 36.2% profit margin. In its 2022 annual report, First Hawaiian Bank announced that it finished the year with a record $14.1 billion in loans and leases, $21.7 billion in deposits and $24.6 billion in total assets.

Click here to jump to the 2023 Most Profitable Companies list >>

Many Nonprofits Struggle

Near the bottom of this year’s list are some of Hawai‘i’s largest nonprofits that provide critical services to people in need.

Hawai‘i Foodbank, Catholic Charities Hawai‘i, Child & Family Service and Hale Kipa reported losses last year, the result of operating with far less revenue than during the height of the pandemic, when federal funding and charitable contributions were high.

In 2022, Hawai‘i Foodbank reported $17.7 million less gross revenue than in 2021, Catholic Charities Hawai‘i reported $14.8 million less and Child & Family Service reported $6.6 million less.

Most Profitable Companies 2023