Family Business Center establishes $1M professorship at Shidler College

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Dolly Omiya, (808) 956-5645
Public Information Officer, College of Business-External Relations Office
Posted: Oct 7, 2014

From left, Unyong Nakata, Ken Gilbert, Vance Roley and Donna Vuchinich.
From left, Unyong Nakata, Ken Gilbert, Vance Roley and Donna Vuchinich.

The Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa has received a $1 million commitment from the Family Business Center of Hawai‘i (FBCH) to establish the Family Business Center of Hawai‘i Distinguished Professorship. It will help expand the College’s ability to recruit and retain faculty of the highest caliber in the area of family business who will serve as the FBCH faculty director, teach courses in family business, and conduct research in family business.

“We are truly grateful to the Family Business Center of Hawai‘i for funding an endowed professorship at the College,” said Shidler Dean Vance Roley. “In today’s competitive environment, this professorship will provide continuous funding to attract world-class educators and researchers in the area of family, thereby strengthening the College’s overall business program.”

“The Family Business Center of Hawai‘i Distinguished Professorship recognizes the need to support Hawai‘i’s family-owned organizations with the academic skills that are necessary to ensure the ability to perpetuate these organizations and equip their future leaders," said Ken Gilbert, chair of the FBCH and president of Business Consulting Resources Inc.  "It positions family-owned businesses at the forefront of our academic community and our business community. It also recognizes and honors the unique attributes of family-owned enterprises that make them different from traditional organizations."

The Family Business Center of Hawai‘i was established in 1995 to meet the unique challenges faced by successful family businesses. A partnership between Hawai‘i’s family business community and the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, it is a virtual program within the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship. It provides opportunities for families to address many of the challenges they face by providing educational seminars and a forum for the exchange of information between families so that they can survive and thrive through the 21st century. Currently, the membership is 54 family businesses strong.  The membership meets every other month for luncheons featuring speakers from local family businesses and nationally recognized experts.

Family businesses contributing to the Family Business Center of Hawai‘i Distinguished Professorship include:

Accuity LLP
Bank of Hawaiʻi
BizGym
Marcus Boland
Business Consulting Resources Inc.
Central Pacific Bank
HCD Corp. dba Hawaiian Carpet One, Hawaiian Ceramic Tiles
Imperial Associates Ltd.
John Butler
Kawika's Painting Inc.
Hawaiʻi National Bank
Kualoa Ranch Hawaiʻi Inc.
Leighton Lam Designs Inc.
Manoa Shopping Center Inc.
Market City Ltd.
Maui Varieties Ltd.
Myron Nakata
Niu Pia Land Company Ltd.
Outrigger Enterprises Inc.
Pacific Pipe Company Inc.
Pioneer Contracting Co. Ltd./Pioneer Ace Hardware
Pural Water Specialty Co. Inc
Resort Management Group LLC
Service Rentals & Supplies Inc.
Title Guaranty Escrow Services Inc.
Tory's Roofing & Waterproofing Inc.
VIP Foodservice
Watumull Brothers Ltd.
Y. Hata & Co. Limited
Yama's Fish Market

“We thank the Family Business Center of Hawai‘i for recognizing that UH Mānoa is the state’s only research university,” said UH Mānoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman. “We have a special responsibility to maintain and strengthen our research, and to encourage faculty and students to do their work. This generous $1 million commitment will not only attract researchers and instructors to the realm of family business, but will encourage and celebrate this strategic aspect of the economy.”

UH Foundation President and CEO Donna Vuchinich added, "Family businesses are the bedrock of all local economies. Here in Hawai‘i, they are vital to growth and sustainability of our communities and cultural vitality. We are most grateful to the Family Business Center of Hawai‘i for their strategic investment in this important area."

(Full caption)
From left, Unyong Nakata, senior director of development, UH Foundation/Shidler; Ken Gilbert, chair of the FBCH and president of Business Consulting Resources Inc.; Shidler Dean Vance Roley; and Donna Vuchinich, president and CEO, UH Foundation.

For more information, visit: http://shidler.hawaii.edu/