University of Hawai'i University Relations Media & Publications Honolulu, HI 96822	(808) 956-8856 Telephone (808) 956-3441 Facsimile ur@hawaii.edu E-Mail
For Immediate Release:	November 19, 1999
Contact: Jim Manke - 956-6106, manke@hawaii.edu

New Endowed Chair Established, Permanent Business Dean Appointed

The University of Hawai`i Board of Regents today approved the establishment of the First Hawaiian Bank Chair of Management and Leadership in the UH Manoa College of Business Administration.

The new endowed chair has been made possible by a $1 million gift from the First Hawaiian Foundation announced earlier this year. The first increment in the amount of $250,000 has already been received, and is sufficient to support an appointment to the Chair.

Later at today's Board meeting, Regents approved the appointment of Professor David S. McClain to be the First Hawaiian Bank Distinguished Professor of Management and Leadership and Dean of the College of Business Administration, effective January 1, 2000.

Commenting on the First Hawaiian Bank commitment to UH and the business school, university president Kenneth P. Mortimer expressed gratitude to Regent Lily Yao for her efforts in bringing the fund to the university.

The appointment of Professor David S. McClain to head the College of Business Administration caps a six-month worldwide search that netted 42 applications. McClain has been at UH Manoa since 1991, and has held the Henry A. Walker, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Business Enterprise and been a professor of financial economics and institutions. He has served as the faculty director of the Japan- and China-focused MBA programs, co-director of the UH/East West Center Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Study Center, and Chair of the APEC Business Management Network.

The new Dean also co-chairs the advisory board for UH Connections, a new group working to bring UH and entrepreneurial communities in Hawai`i together to nurture development of high-tech firms. He has served as principal investigator for UH's $300,000-per-year Center for International Business Education and Research federal grant, and as visiting professor at the Universidad Gabriela Mistral in Chile, at Keio and Meiji Universities in Japan, and twice at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

McClain is a 1974 graduate of the University of Kansas with a degree in economics and mathematics, and received a PhD in economics from MIT.

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