Regent

Dennis I. Hirota

Dennis Hirota joined the Board of Regents in 2008. He is the president of Sam Hirota, Inc., a 45-year-old civil engineering and surveying consulting company.

Hirota served in the Air Force as an environmental research engineer at Air Force Weapons Lab at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico, earning the rank of captain. He was also an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico, teaching graduate level civil engineering.

Returning to Hawai‘i in 1971 to join the consulting engineering firm founded by his father, he has been involved in the design of private, commercial, residential and federal projects throughout the Pacific region. He is a licensed civil engineer, land surveyor and land court surveyor.

Hirota is involved in a range of business, professional and public service activities, including service as past national director and president of the American Consulting Engineering Companies of Hawai‘i and corporate representative to Hawai‘i Leeward Planning Conference. He spent five years working with European companies to bring laser scanning and spherical imaging technologies to Hawai‘i. Since 1980 he has served as a director of Central Pacific Bank and the bank’s parent company, Central Pacific Financial.

He has been a trustee at O‘u’s Le Jardin Academy for 25 years, during the period of new campus acquisition, expansion, design and development, and a lecturer in computer applications at UH Manoa’s School of Architecture. He serves as a director of the Ennis Foundation and is a member of the Manoa’ College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council and Department of Civil Engineering/private sector liaison committee.

A graduate of Punahou School, Hirota earned a BS in civil engineering, MS in engineering and PhD in civil and sanitary engineering from the University of Michigan.