Hawaii nonprofit people in the news
Omidyars join other billionaires in donation pledge
Hawaii’s Pierre and Pam Omidyar, who earned billions from founding the web auction site eBay, have joined a philanthropists' pact in which 40 of the world’s richest people have pledged to give away at least half of their wealth. Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett created the Giving Pledge in May, recruiting multi-billionaires to commit most of their fortunes to philanthropy, either during their lifetimes or after death.
Billionaires named in the first batch of 40 signatories, made public on Aug. 4, have promised an estimated collective sum of at least $125 billion to charitable causes. They include New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, filmmaker George Lucas, former eBay President Jeff Skoll, financier Eli and Edythe Broad, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, New York financier Ronald O. Perelman; Citigroup founder Sandy and Joan Weill; hedge-funders Julian Robertson Jr. and Jim Simons; private-equity honcho David Rubenstein, venture capitalist John and Anne Doerr, Barron Hilton and David Rockefeller.
The Omidyars have already contributed millions of dollars to support social welfare and environmental enrichment programs across the globe through the Omidyar Network, a charitable trust based in Redwood City, Calif., with projects in sub-Saharan Africa, India and Hawaii.
Last year, eBay Inc. posted $8.7 billion in profits, including revenue from subsidiaries like online money transfer service PayPal and event ticket trading site StubHub. Omidyar no longer participates in the company's day-to-day operations, but he is still eBay’s chairman and owns a large chunk of company stock. This year Forbes Magazine named him the 148th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $5.2 billion.
Omidyar attended Punahou for eighth and ninth grade and his wife grew up in Hawaii Kai and attended Iolani School. They moved from Las Vegas to Kahala in 2006 and since then have donated millions to local nonprofits and socially responsible investment, creating the Hawaii Community Foundation's $50 million Omidyar Ohana Fund, which will provide $6 million in social service grants and $6 million for a sustainable kindergarten-first grade campus at Punahou, and the Ulupono Initiative, which combines strategic for-profit investment with nonprofit grants to promote renewable energy, food production and waste reduction in the islands.
> HCF’s Taketa to receive national ‘Top-50’ honor – President and CEO of the Hawaii Community Foundation Kelvin Taketa, will be named one of the “Power & Influence Top 50” for 2010 in September by The NonProfit Times at its 13th annual event to be held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
“It’s very humbling and a tremendous honor to be included in this prestigious listing of national nonprofit executives and philanthropic organizations,” Taketa said. “More importantly, this is significant recognition of the foundation’s staff and the work they do to make Hawaii a better place for everyone.”
The Hawaii Community Foundation is a statewide nonprofit organization that assists in grantmaking for the benefit of Hawaii. It has assets of $487 million with a large focus on environmental and educational grants and scholarships. Taketa has been the president and CEO of the foundation for the last 12 years. Prior to that he worked at the Nature Conservatory of Hawaii.
> Gregg Yamanaka named CEO of APEC 2011 Hawaii Host Committee – Honolulu businessman Gregg T. Yamanaka has been named CEO of the Hawaii Host Committee of the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which will be held in Hawaii Nov. 12-13, 2011. Yamanaka also is chairman of the Hawaii Workforce Development Council and serves as treasurer of Good Beginnings Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for quality preschool education. Yamanaka will serve as the full-time administrative lead for managing the meetings and will work closely with the community, local leadership and the U.S. Department of State on logistics. To serve as CEO of APEC 2011, Yamanaka has resigned as president of Green Era Corp., an alternative energy company, and LearningBiz LLC, the work force and leadership training company he founded in 2005. Hawaii will host 21 member economies, including senior officials and foreign ministers from Asia-Pacific nations, along with 20,000 other attendees, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s economic leaders meeting in November 2011.
> Ex-bank exec Roy Amemiya named Olelo COO – Olelo Community Media has named Roy Amemiya, Jr. its chief operating officer. The former Central Pacific Bank executive and Olelo board chairman will oversee the Hawaii nonprofit’s overall operations. Amemiya most recently was senior vice president of Central Pacific Bank and the former City Bank from 2001 to 2010. But that position was among 90 mostly senior management jobs that were eliminated in April. He also was the director of budget and fiscal services for the City and County of Honolulu from 1997 to 2000. Before that, he was vice president of Bank of Hawaii from 1977 to 1996. Amemiya has been a member of the Olelo Community Media board of directors since 2008, most recently as its chairman, a role he is relinquishing to accept the COO position.
> Anti-tobacco coalition names community coordinators – The Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii recently hired five community coordinators that will represent the neighbor island communities of Kona, Maui, Molokai, Oahu, and Kauai. The community coordinators are: Doni Reisland (Kona); Eva Valdez (Maui); Heidi Hao (Molokai); Jessica Yamauchi (Oahu); and Valerie Saiki (Kauai). They will build community partnerships to create positive behavior change through systems, policies and advocacy in their respective locations.
