Regent

Jan Naoe Sullivan

As chief operating officer of Hawai‘i technology firm Oceanit, Jan Naoe Sullivan has managed early-stage research and development, start-up company formation and capitalization and later-stage financing challenges. She developed a novel, competitive early-stage innovation fund and has helped to initiate and launch multiple spin-out companies.

Sullivan served as the director of the Department of Land Utilization for the City and County of Honolulu and reorganized multiple departments to create the current Department of Planning and Permitting. She oversaw long range planning, zoning, county land use entitlements and building and engineering permit functions for the island of O‘ahu. Previously, in private practice, she represented a broad array of development projects through the planning, environmental and land use processes, including the Turtle Bay Resort Ko O‘lina Resort master plans and Royal Kunia communities.

Sullivan has served on the boards of various nonprofits including Parents and Children Together, Girl Scouts of Hawai‘i and Homeless Aloha. She chaired the Hawai‘i Community Development Authority and served as a member of the Honolulu Charter Commission. She is a founding board member of the Mutual Housing Association of Hawai‘i, a nonprofit that owns and manages low income housing projects, and vice chair of the Hawai‘i Nature Center.

A graduate of the University Laboratory School, she holds a BA in sociology from the University of Colorado and JD from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law.