The search for a permanent CEO is coming to a close as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees is expected to vote Thursday on the three finalists vying to help lead the agency’s mission of bettering the conditions of Native Hawaiians.
The finalists are interim CEO Summer Sylva, who assumed the role last year after Stacy Ferreira was put on paid administrative leave; Todd Apo, a former Honolulu City Council member; and Kaulana Park, a former director of the Department of Hawaiian Homelands.
Native Hawaiian beneficiaries say they want someone who will lead with the semi-autonomous agency with transparency after OHA had been criticized in the past for fiscal mismanagement, ensure that neighbor island communities have their voices brought to the table, and can work collaboratively with the OHA’s nine-member Board of Trustees.
The next CEO will oversee OHA’s programs, investments, trust assets and advocacy efforts, while working closely with the Board of Trustees, beneficiaries, government agencies and community organizations. The annual salary for the CEO will be set by the board on Thursday and included in the contract.
Sylva has a broad range of experience in policy matters. Prior to becoming interim CEO, Sylva was chief of staff on OHA’s Board of Trustees. Sylva, who sits on an advisory panel made up of mostly Native Hawaiians, took issue with Gov. Josh Green in a letter over being excluded from negotiations over military land leases and urged him to do a better job of including the group.
Apo has a strong background in land development and overseeing large financial budgets. He was the CEO of ʻIole, a nonprofit overseeing 2,400 acres in North Kohala on Hawaiʻi Island. While servings on the Honolulu City Council from 2005 to 2010, he was council chair and vice chair, and budget committee chair.
Park has experience in trust administration, banking, land development and construction, and more. He currently works as vice president of Laulima Hawaiʻi, where he helps lead a 500-plus-acre master plan community in Kapolei on Oʻahu.
OHA is looking for its third CEO in the past four years. The search comes at a pivotal time as five seats on the Board of Trustees are up for reelection and its deposed CEO Stacy Ferreira is legally challenging the agency and its nine trustees, alleging that her leave was retaliation and that the board violated sunshine and whistleblower laws.
Mehanaokala Hind, an Oʻahu resident who attended last week’s forum, said the incident with Ferreira was unprecedented.
“I don’t know if in the entire history of OHA we’ve ever had an administrator sue the board,” she told HPR. “I don’t expect that out of any of these candidates. I think that’s an outlier experience from that.”
Hind, who used to work at OHA, said she wants a CEO who is involved in the community and can navigate complex issues. She said her top pick is Sylva because she came to lead OHA at a time when there was turbulence between the board and the deposed CEO.
“I give her credit for being able to have shown that in the worst possible situation that OHA could have been in, she was able to navigate it,” Hind said.
Hawaiʻi Island resident Bo Kahui said all finalists have been active in community spaces. He said his top pick is Park because they’ve worked together at DHHL.
He said the next CEO will need a solid working relationship with the trustees.
“The collaboration between the CEO and the board is central to the success of OHA moving its trust responsibilities forward,” he said. “It’s the CEO’s responsibility to navigate all these issues and allow for true transparency.”
OHA is an agency managed by the Board of Trustees that’s tasked with managing revenues once held by the Hawaiian Kingdom. The nine-member board is responsible for deciding how to manage OHA’s trust, worth about $600 million. That trust supports scholarships, grants, lawsuits and other causes.
Meet the candidates
The main difference between the finalists is that Sylva is an incumbent, while Park and Apo are challengers. But all of them echo familiar themes: accountability and transparency.
She served as executive director of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, where she directed litigation involving Native Hawaiian land issues, water rights, cultural resources and more.
She was also a senior advisor for Native Hawaiian Affairs at the U.S. Department of Interior and a senior FEMA advisor during the Maui Wildfires.
She described her leadership style as collaborative.
“I often look for successorship," she said during the forum. “You need to be constantly training up the next generation of leaders if we want to build lāhui."
While Apo comes from a political background, he also has experience in nonprofit organizations, real estate and resort development.
He held senior leadership roles at Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, Howard Hughes Corporation, The Walt Disney Company and The Resort Group at Ko Olina Resort.
At Howard Hughes Corporation, he was responsible for working on the Ward Village development.
If he’s selected as CEO, Apo said he would want to look at other options for developing Kakaʻako Makai. That area is part of OHA’s plan to develop 29 acres following a parietal settlement of unpaid Public Land Trust revenue in 2012.
OHA has been trying to develop housing units in the Honolulu waterfront area, but proposals to lift zoning restrictions have failed in the Legislature.
“Whether it's land swapping and getting out there where we can actually accomplish the goals and the mission of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs by getting out of that land, but making sure that we retain the value and benefit to our beneficiaries is at least something that needs to be looked at,” he said.
He described his leadership style as a collaborative leader who trusts the team he’s working with.
“I really trust those team members to get the job done,” he said.
Park has experience in Native Hawaiian trust administration, land development and construction, banking and more.
He also worked at OHA where he managed the Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund, established OHA's Evaluation and Research and helped with strategic planning.
He described her leadership style as a “servant leader.”
“It's like a student athlete,” he said. “You have to be a student before you can be an athlete.”
OHA’s trustees will appoint its CEO on Thursday and will set the annual salary.
