In the past few months, two locally founded companies underwent changes that have altered their relationship to Hawaiʻi by shifting C-suite decision-making toward the continent.
Alexander & Baldwin's acquisition by a joint venture of Blackstone, Divco West and Honolulu-based MW Group was finalized last week. A&B was the last of Hawaiʻi's Big Five companies that once dominated business here.
And although A&B will keep its headquarters and a management team in Honolulu, two of the three partners in the new joint venture are not from Hawaiʻi. Blackstone is a private equity giant based in New York, and Divco West is based in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, Trinity Investments — another real estate company founded in Hawaiʻi — quietly moved its headquarters to Miami, where CEO Sean Hehir has been living.
And Hawaiian Airlines is working through its merger with Alaska Airlines after Alaska Air Group bought the airline for nearly $2 billion. Hawaiian has a local CEO in Diana Birkett Rakow, but its new parent company and its CEO are based in Seattle.
But even as decisions for the islands shift to the continent, other local companies have doubled down on their commitment to Hawaiʻi.
BJ Kobayashi says his private equity firm, BlackSand Capital, was founded with a focus on Hawaiʻi. The company invests in Hawaiʻi real estate — 80% of its investors live here and 80% of the company's profits also stay in Hawaiʻi.
He's not alone. Companies like Avalon Group, MacNaughton and Tradewind Capital are all investing in Hawaiʻi.
Bank of Hawaiʻi CEO Peter Ho says one solution to decisions leaving the islands could lie in diversifying Hawaiʻi's economy.
Ho says that welcoming large companies opening locations here or supporting small companies just starting up can both help the state diversify and grow.
