Lisa Maruyama named new
HANO president and CEO

Lisa T. Maruyama, former executive director of the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council and most recently vice president for public affairs at Bright Light Marketing, was named president and CEO of the Hawai‘i  Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations at its July 30 board meeting. Maruyama will join the statewide organization in September, said Laura Robertson, HANO board chair and president and CEO of Goodwill Industries Hawai‘i .

“I welcome the chance to get to know all in the HANO ohana and begin to address relevant issues that will strengthen the nonprofit sector,” Maruyama said.

She succeeds John Flanagan, who will retire after almost six years as chief executive of HANO and its predecessor, the Hawai‘i  Community Services Council.  Flanagan, former editor and publisher of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, will remain in Honolulu, where his wife, Mary Fastenau, is president of Starrtech Interactive, part of the Anthology Marketing Group.

“Many of you may know that Lisa has had some direct experience working with HANO – she stepped in on an interim basis and took over the marketing responsibilities at a critical time, just several weeks prior to our HANO conference,” said Robertson.  “She did an outstanding job with the conference and it gave her a passion for HANO. We feel lucky to have such an outstanding candidate and that, with Lisa’s leadership, we will continue to move HANO forward.”

“As a former PAAC member, I’ve known Lisa for many years and I enjoyed the opportunity to work with her on our recent conference,” said Flanagan. “I know she understands HANO’s potential to strengthen the nonprofit sector and I’m confident she will lead the organization to the next level.”

A graduate of the University of Hawai‘i  at Manoa, Maruyama was also a Pacific Century Fellow and Weinberg Fellow. She was public policy director and then executive director at the Mental Health Association in Hawai‘i  and, before that, government affairs coordinator at the Honolulu Board of Realtors. She is president of the Hawai‘i  Society of Corporate Planners, a director on the board of Think Tech Hawai‘i  and a graduate of Pearl City High School.

Maruyama has won recognition as one of Pacific Business News’ “Forty under 40,” and received the Daniel K. Inouye Award for Excellence in Community Mental Health Service from the Hawai‘i  Psychological Association. She, her husband, Derek Minakami, and their two children reside in Nuuanu.

The Hawai‘i  Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations is a statewide and sector-wide association of 280 charitable organizations. HANO unites and strengthens the nonprofit sector as a collective force to improve the quality of life in Hawai‘i .