Regent

Chuck Y. Gee

As dean of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa School of Travel Industry Management from 1976 until his retirement in 1999, Chuck Yim Gee expanded the curriculum to include a MS graduate program and a research center. The school gained an international reputation among U.S. institutions and the Pacific-Asia region—later designated as the Asia-Pacific regional center of the World Tourism Organization for tourism training and research. He joined the board in 2009.

Gee previously served as interim dean of the UH Manoa College of Business Administration and held appointments on the faculties of the University of Denver, Oregon State University and Technology and Development Institute of the East West Center.

Since 1978, he has been an advisor to China’s tourism industry and academia, holding honorary professorships at Nakai University in Tianjin, Beijing University of International Studies, Shanghai Normal University, Shunde Polytechnic University and others. He has written extensively on hotel and resort development and management, including textbooks considered seminal works in treating the subjects within a global context.

Gee serves as advisor and consultant to various institutions, small business enterprises, international hotels and tourism organizations. He remains active in voluntary travel and non travel-related associations, including the Pacific Asia Travel Association, Academic Advisory Council of the Institute of Certified Travel Agents, Pacific Rim Foundation, Kuakini Health System Board of Trustees, the Kuakini Medical Center board and the Hong Kong-China-Hawai‘i Chamber of Commerce (of which he is a founding director).

Gee was appointed to the 15-member Travel and Tourism Advisory Board of the U.S. Department of Commerce under Presidents Carter, Reagan and Bush. On behalf of the first Bush Administration and USAID, he developed a national tourism plan for Ecuador. In 1995 he was appointed as a Hawai‘i delegate to the first White House Conference on Travel and Tourism under the Clinton Administration.

Gee has received numerous awards, including the Award of Excellence for Tourism Education from the National Tourism Administration of the People’s Republic of China, Pacific Asia Travel Association’s Presidential Award and Grand Award for Individual Educational Accomplishment, Academy of Tourism Organizations’ NOAH Award and Travel Industry Association’s America Hall of Leaders Award. The State of Hawai‘i honored him as State Manager of the Year in 1995 and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1999 named him one of the 100 people who made a difference for the State of Hawai‘i during the 20th Century.

Gee is a US Army veteran of the Korean War era. He holds a BA and BS from the University of Denver and MA from Michigan State University.