 and HDA, write that down. It's going to be the final exam. I'm Jay Fytale. This is Think Deck. It's the military in Hawaii. We're going to talk about the 2022 Mac and HDA partnership and conference that took place a little while ago. And we have for this discussion, Connie Lau, the recently retired CEO of HEI. And she learned a lot in that period of time. And we're going to share all of that knowledge with you today and welcome, Connie. And we have Jason Chung, who is also a member of the Mac Committee for the Chamber of Commerce. And we're going to talk about this conference. We're going to talk about this partnership. We're going to talk about what it does for the military, for the country, and for Hawaii. Welcome to the show, both of you. Great to be here, Jay. So, Connie, let's start with you. You've been involved in the Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Council since 1922, am I right? 1922? Oh, my God, Jay. Now, in that case, I can say I wasn't even born then. Tell us about how you got involved in it and what you've done for it and with it. Sure, yeah. No, but I have been involved with the Military Affairs Council, the Chamber of the Mac for quite a while. And actually, the guy who got me involved is the current Board Chair of AQI, Admiral Tom Fargo. And he, of course, was the commander of the ACOM Pacific region, now the Indo-Pacific region. And he told me how important the military was to Hawaii. And that AQI is the largest publicly traded company here. Really needed to get involved and understand the significance of what they did here. And so it's just been amazing to me, Jay, to have gotten involved. I, frankly, have learned so much about the significance of the military, which, of course, is the second largest driver of our economy. And during times like COVID, actually becomes the driver of the economy. But I grew up here. And I got to say, even though I grew up here in the military's been here ever since I was a little kid, in fact, behind me is Kanioi Bay. I grew up right across from the Marine Corps base there. I had no idea about the significance of what is done out of here. And also, to Hawaii's advantage, there's a ton of investment that has been coming in from Department of Defense and the federal government into Hawaii because of our very, very strategic location. Oh, you know, when I was a kid, and I was a kid here, Kanioi. Not a young kid, but a kid, nevertheless. Some people think I'm a kid now. Back in 1922, right? Yeah, right. In the good old days. They talked about Hawaii's economy as a three-legged stool. One was agriculture, of course. One was hospitality, of course. And one was the military. Well, agriculture ain't what it was. And so we have two legs left. We have hospitality, which is struggling right now, but still an important part of our economy. And we have the military. And I wonder if you could comment on that, on exactly how the trajectory has been since, say, statehood, in terms of that particular leg of the stool. Has it gone up? Has it gone down? Has it gone sideways? And where is it going? Yeah, so, Jay, maybe I could start a little bit earlier, or not earlier, but later than that because it is quite clear with the whole pivot to the Pacific and how important this region is. I think there's a lot of people who talk about the Indo-Pacific region as being the most consequential for the United States because, of course, it had some of the largest economies. It's got some of the largest armies in the area. And it's got our largest adversaries. And we know who those are and how concerned everyone is about it, including the general public, when you start talking about issues like potential cyber warfare. And so that's the reason why I talked about all the incoming investment into Hawaii to help ensure national security. But also, that really benefits Hawaii because we automatically benefit by getting a much more secure location here in the Pacific. We're here to talk about the partnership conference. And it's interesting that this is the first year that it is not only the MAC partnership conference, but also the Hawaii Defense Alliance or HDA partnership conference. And the reason for that is that as more and more investment is coming in here, it's bringing very high, it's bringing jobs that require a high amount of expertise and also, thankfully, pay very good compensation. And so what the MAC has done under a grant from D-Bed is to look at really building out the job pipeline here in Hawaii to ensure that some of these great jobs that are coming in don't just go to people that are brought in from the mainland or wherever because we don't have the skill sets here in Hawaii. We're trying to work really closely with the universities and with the businesses, the folks that are already involved in the defense economy here to help small businesses build up their skills so that they can compete for those federal contracts, build out the school system, starting from when kids are just in secondary school, right through college and graduate school, so that they can earn the degrees, the certifications, that will position them well for these jobs. But something Jason's really, really involved in is that creation of the partnership and it's going community-wide. Like I say, it's academia, it's a private sector, and of course, most definitely it's military. Very important that we, the community, understand what the jobs are in the military. And when I say jobs, I don't limit that to individual employment. I include the contract jobs, the work we can do. We are companies can do it. And my impression over the years has been that there was a time when we really didn't read the manuals. So we didn't feel that we could compete with mainland companies that wanted to come in. And then I guess it was around the 90s when local businesses started to read the manuals. Yeah, we can do this, we can get the qualifications, we can meet the contract specifications, we can be involved. And so it's been an upward trajectory ever since those companies did that. But Jason, let me go to you. How did you get involved in this? Did you have a military career behind you? What did you do for what service? Hey, Jay, thanks. While I was in the Army, I was born and raised here, like Connie and grew up here, but then I joined the Army about 36 years ago. At whose count? Army. It was about 1923, I think, when I was in the Army, and I was an intelligence officer in the Army. I spent a lot of time of my career in the special operations community. But when I retired, my last duty station was here in Hawaii. And when I retired, I already had a job lined up with a tech company. In fact, that's my primary employment. But I was approached by two individuals, Jennifer Sabas, one who I think you know, and also my classmate from college, now retired Major General Suzy Bar-Islam, West. Oh, you mean East-West Center Suzy? That's who you mean, yes. We love her. We absolutely, not as much as Connie, but we love her. Oh, I love Suzy too. We all love Suzy, right? So then they approached me about, you know, belonging to the Mac and joining the Mac. And I knew a little about the Mac, but then I just researched a little bit and I thought, what a perfect fit, right? Two things that have been a big part of my life that I care a lot about, right? The military and obviously Hawaii. And so I started working also with the Mac and got exposed to people like Connie too, as well, right? Which was just amazing. And so that's how I got initially involved in the Mac. Help us understand, sorry, Connie. Sorry, can I break in just for a moment because I remember when Jason, he was really like the perfect person for us because coming out of the intelligence community, he really understood that whole universe and the military universe. And, you know, going back to our small businesses and getting the contract and working with DOD, it's not necessarily easy. Boy, you know, there are so many rules and regulations and particularly now with concern about cyber, you've got to have all kinds of standards to keep your, the information safe. And so it was really good to have somebody like Jason who understood that. And that's frankly a lot of what the Mac can do for the small businesses that are here, the academic institutions that are here, is we can kind of be that bridge between the two worlds so that we can actually take much better advantage of what is being offered. Yeah, part of that is training and familiarization. And that's the DBED grant, isn't it? To try to outreach to local companies and give them comfort, give them training, give them familiarity, it's all there. So Jason, I could ask this to either of you, but I'll ask you, who exactly is the Mac? What kind of an organization is it? And do you enjoy spending time there? And how much fun exactly do you have? Well, yeah, it's kind of fun. I mean, you know, two of your favorite people, right? Connie Lau and Susie Varys-Lem are members of the Mac. And so being associated with professionals like that is just extremely rewarding, from a professional standpoint as well as a personal standpoint. But to get to your question about who is the Mac, right? So with the Mac, if you look at it, it's a cross-section of a lot of key stakeholders here in Hawaii, you have business leaders, right? So like Connie, other companies that are out there that are representative. And then you have your traditional businesses that you would associate with the Department of Defense like your Booze Islands, your Lockheed Martins, your Huntington Eagles, et cetera. You have academia, right? Academic institutions, you're a part of it. You have folks from the Coaldale and Staffdale that are members of it because they see the significant importance and this consequential relationship between Hawaii and the military. You have the military and then you have community stakeholders, folks from the community who realize the important role that the military plays here in Hawaii and how important it is to kind of stay linked with what the military is doing. So in a nutshell, that's basically the Mac, right? It's a group of really key stakeholders that come together to advocate for the military here in Hawaii but also be kind of that element that links the military back to the community and gets it ingrained within the community and within a multicultural and partnership perspective as well. I take it from the Mac is... Let's not forget state government. Sorry, let's not forget state government too because Senate president and speaker, they all are very involved and it takes the village. And of course, General Hara, who's head of the Hawaii Department of Defense and also our National Guard here is very, very active in the Mac. So it really spans the gamut. How many people? How many members? Roughly, roughly. Roughly, it's about 80 folks. That's impressive. Yeah, so now let me compare that with the HDA, the Hawaii Defense Alliance. I'm making a guess here. I'm guessing that the Hawaii Defense Alliance is more like the military players. Am I right? Actually, Che, it's very similar to the Mac when you look at it. I mean, as Connie lined out, like what the Hawaii Defense Alliance is doing but why, what the Mac also does, it's almost a more formal arrangement of many of the initiatives that the Mac was pushing, which was how do we integrate business with federal government in terms of all the different opportunities out there? So Hawaii Defense Alliance, is the grant between D-Bed as well as with the Department of Defense to go, hey, if in fact the military Department of Defense is their second economic driver, you really need to create a defense alliance that specifically looks at how to grow more opportunities for local businesses in Hawaii. So one correction to a point that you made earlier, Che, about you said in the 90s, people start to read the Mac and says, hey, we think we can do this. It's not just the mainland companies. It's actually, the military recognized that back when they stood up Pearl Harbor back in the 1900s. You know, when they stood up Pearl Harbor, they started to realize, hey, we're having a difficult time getting these critical trades really to support the shipyard, right? Well, there's ship repair folks, pipe fitters, et cetera. They realized that the only way forward was to build that cave built here from which was born the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard internship program, which is very famous here. And so they recognized that that was actually part of, it helps really your readiness of the force when you have a very strong local industrial base. And that's why when you look at the federal government, federal government has a 20% set aside for small businesses, specifically trying to target local businesses within that area because they know it plays a significant role. That's good policy. Readiness, correct, right? Because if you have the community there, you know, especially when you look at in Hawaii, you know, when Hawaii, because of the cost of living in some other things, if you're able to actually recruit people who are from Hawaii and want to live in Hawaii and know the expense and the other things associated with living in Hawaii, you're really able to kind of stabilize and have a much more stable workforce than if you're constantly trying to hire and bring folks from the West Coast or from the East Coast. You know, and as Connie mentioned, there's a number of jobs now that yes, Pearl Harbor is still the largest industrial employer here in Hawaii, but there's a really good data points, that point that there's this new emerging industry that's primarily in this technical field. So that includes things like cyber, it includes things like intelligence, right, my former life, data science, which is really huge and just information technology at large. In fact, we're calling it really the second Pearl Harbor in terms of the amount of jobs and opportunities that there are. And the services here and the organizations as well as the contracting companies are trying to figure out, how do we attract this high level skill labor here in Hawaii to fill all these jobs, you know, that are emerging now within these different, within this... Oh, that warms my heart. We've been trying to do that for so long. This is a very noble cause and good for everyone involved, especially the state. So Connie, how much of this was discussed at the conference between the partnership of MAC and the Hawaii Defense Alliance in the first week of January? They had a big conference. Is what Jason is talking about, was that discussed? And if not, what else was discussed? So it totally was discussed and was probably half of a conference, Jay. So as I mentioned, normally, it's just the MAC partnership conference. This is the first year that we had MAC and HDA because we really wanted to highlight the fact that there are these great jobs and there's a lot of work that's been going on to link our community to those jobs and build pathways. So that was, in fact, almost the entire second day that went on. On day one, we had our keynote speakers. And of course, our kickoff speaker was Admiral Aquilino, the commander for Indo Pekong, who has his office up at Camp Smith. And then from our own Hawaii National Guard and Hawaii Department of Defense, we had General Kanahara. And as you know, it was great to hear Kenny talk about how active forces were during COVID because we saw them at the airports helping out with security, we saw them at the vaccination clinics, you name it. In addition to their regular jobs where some of them were deployed overseas, they also went to the capital in DC to help provide security there. So they were our two kickoff speakers and then we did have some speakers on Red Hill because as we all know, that's a huge issue. It's been very hot, yeah. Yeah, very, very hot. And really important in those kinds of discussions to make sure that everybody really has a handle on what the facts are and what areas still need to be investigated so that we can determine what real facts are. And then the folks that need to make the decisions can make good sound decisions. And we talked about the other big issues like training leases. So yeah, you name it. All the things that are important to the military presence here. Well, it's intertwined with everything in the state. You know, my recollection is that Pearl Harbor which was the first military facility here was established in the year 1850 originally. So it's a long cultural tie between the military and the civilian communities. So I wanted to get to one other thing. And that is, we live in geopolitical transitional times as you mentioned earlier. And Asia is more important now than it was. And we heard about the pivot during the Obama administration but then we got sidetracked maybe into Middle East a little. And now we're back to look at Asia, it's really important especially because of the rise of China and the change in circumstances around China. But how does that, the geopolitical, what do you wanna call it, transition? The geopolitical changes. How does that affect all of this? Because there was talk a few years ago about moving a substantial part of the military force from Hawaii to Guam. I don't know if that happened or it could happen. If there are changes in the way the military is deployed around the Pacific, then there would be changes in the way that touches Hawaii, right? Well, so why don't I start and then I'll let Jason take over. And I think probably the number one thing, Jay, is as I mentioned, this has clearly become the most consequential region in the world for the United States. And because of that, that's the reason why the investment is being in. The movement that you were thinking about was really from Okinawa. The Marines were gonna move out of Okinawa to Guam and Hawaii. And that has been happening albeit at a slower pace than what people had originally thought. And that's primarily because the infrastructure needs to be built out in places like Guam and Hawaii in order to have those troop movements to those locations. But that is underway and it is still the plan to have them come in. One of the other major, major shifts is, everybody talks about asymmetric risk. And probably the biggest asymmetric risk is the change in warfare from the kinetic or physical war to cyber warfare. So much easier to penetrate software systems and missile systems than it is to actually take over that weapon physically and so that's why so much focus has gone into much more of these technical jobs. We should mention that our universities here have been doing a very good job in positioning to help develop these careers. In particular, University of Hawaii has several of its campuses that have been named schools of excellence by the NSA. And also hopefully they have an application in from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to become named centers of excellence in the intelligence field as well. So yeah, everything that happens around the world and particularly in this region, J puts more of the focus on Hawaii and more of the investment directing towards Hawaii since we are one of the most forward deployed physical locations that are still US territory. When you add Indo to Pekong, which happened a few years ago, how does that change the mission, the role of the military in Hawaii? Because it seems to me this more geography involved or issues more geopolitical activity. How does that change things? You know, so I said I was gonna let Jason have some of your words. Okay, well, let's go to Jason. I can see that Jason was winding up to answer that. I know. No, I mean, that's a great question, Jay. I mean, it's because it's the recognition of how significant India is to the region, right? Especially as you start to look at the trends that Connie had mentioned in terms of economies of scales of militaries, economic flow of goods that go throughout the area and the region. And quite honestly, the expansion of China as it moves out into other areas with their One Belt, One Road initiative. And it's really becomes, you know, how they start to really compete. It's not just asymmetric what Connie talked about. It's what's been termed as, you know, great power competition. It's using other instruments of national power. It's diplomacy, it's information, misinformation, disinformation. It's economies at scale, right? So when you look how China is investing in the 5G network within Indonesia, under the guise of, hey, let us help you with COVID because we can help you kind of do the contact tracing. But now it's their 5G network in there when they put up a rail network within Malaysia or they invest in fisheries within Oceania. And it's really a debt entrapment kind of tactic that China often uses. The other key component of that is technology, right? So technology is good and technology has also equaled the playing field. Because one thing that is really critical when you talk about geography, Jay, is that, you know, our military now, the United States military is really no longer Ford positioned, right? If you look a number of years back, we were Ford position in key areas. We had a lot of folks in Korea in the East because we saw that as a potential significant threat a lot in Europe. But when you actually look at the forces that are there now, they're not that significant, right? And so we are a force projection force that has to go to an area. Now the implication of that is that quite honestly, many of our competitors and potential adversaries have a geographical advantage in terms of positioning, right there already positioned in critical areas in these different regions of the world, right? So imagine playing basketball and someone basically gives you the key to the center court and you have your geographically positioned, we have to now try to outmaneuver them to maintain our advantage. But what technology has done, it has leveled that playing field. So when you look at China and Russia primarily and what they've done in technological advances. So as we're talking about data science, we're talking about cyber, you know, China is very or leaning in terms of artificial intelligence and machine learning and developing very sophisticated algorithms that are being able to leverage, you know, very large swaths data. And I think anyone that you talk to now, whether it's in the business community or in the military, will tell you that the new goal, the new oil, right, is data. It's being able to manage and effectively leverage a data to your advantage, to have a decision advantage. So that is our challenge. And it goes back to Connie's point of why the focus is so relevant here on Island now with the military in terms of how do we counter those things? And that's why you're seeing this big push now in terms of modernization, innovation, and disruptive technologies. And how do we leverage that here in Hawaii to more effectively compete, right, in the most consequential region in the world today and in the future? And that requires a whole bunch of stuff. It requires, you know, how do we move that workforce that is still kind of in not in a legacy world, but how do we modernize that workforce to be able to support those different types of jobs as well as the, you know, the infrastructure to support our new techniques and our new systems that the military wants to bring on to try and counter and mitigate, right? What China and Russia have been able to develop over here in the last 10 years or so? Oh, fabulous. You know, Connie, we love having techie guys on the show. This is think tech Hawaii. And when people talk like Jason, whoa, this is center of the channel for us, you know? Yeah, now you know why we were just so delighted when Jason joined the Mac. But, you know, I was gonna add, Jay, and everybody, and you mentioned it earlier, have been trying so hard to diversify this economy, diversify this economy. I mean, frankly, when you hear the kinds of jobs that Jason's talking about, my gosh, this is the best opportunity that Hawaii has to diversify our economy. Because in this case, it's not a matter of creating the jobs. The jobs exist. We just gotta figure out how we can fill them. Yeah, yeah, it's true. I remember a recruiter from the military came out here because they were having trouble. This is 10 years ago. They were having trouble finding people who were interested in qualifying. Hopefully we can meet that demand. Hopefully we can provide everybody. But let me ask you this, Connie. I mean, it seems like such a ripe pomegranate, I used that term, that people on the mainland, you know, young people, people who have just graduated with computer science and cyber and what have you, would find out about this and would come here and would look for those jobs. This seems, this is what happened under Act 221 back 20 years ago, when it became clear that there was investment to support development of tech companies, people would come from far away for those jobs. Wouldn't that happen? Isn't that happening? Won't that happen here? Yes, absolutely, Jay. And that's the reason for this HDA effort, this Hawaii Defense Alliance, to build that out and get the word out there. But, you know, it's not just getting the word out there. I mean, we have to build the infrastructure. We have to build the programs. We have to build the pathway so that when the people come, they can actually realize it and they can actually get into those jobs. Yeah, great, all good, all good. So we're pretty much out of time, but I wanna ask you guys for takeaways. That is what you would leave with our audience for them to remember the show by and to carry with them as they think about the subject going forward. I mean, there's a lot of people do not know about the MAC or the HDA. They do not know what the military does. They may be carrying around negative feelings about it. Who knows? But we have to show them the way and we have to teach them about it. We have to have more shows like this. That's why the military in Hawaii is here on TinkTek, you know? So I'd like you to, Jason, you go first. I'd like you to, you know, give your message to the viewing audience. Tell them what you would like to leave with them about this discussion. Thanks, Jay. I think it's what Connie said. We have a tremendous opportunity that's big right now with all the available opportunity that's out there, the terrific partnership that we have throughout the MAC, the HDA with the state. We really need to take advantage of it right now. We're just at the cusp of having the dialogue and discussions with all the key stakeholders, right? We're building those different programs that are gonna kind of lead sector partnerships, workforce development, educational pathways that support all these technical jobs that are coming up because of what we talked about. But we've got to seize the moment and we got to keep talking and engaging and collaborating. Thanks. Connie, you are, you know, been watching the business community in Hawaii being a part of it for so many years. You probably have a lot of thoughts about the future of our economy, you know? Dan in no way wanted this to happen. I'm sure he would be happy hearing this discussion. Hi, Dan. And I'm interested, so interested in how you see this unfolding going forward. How you see this second or third leg of the stool functioning, the trajectory of the military business connection under the MAC and under the HDA going forward. What's it gonna do for us? What's it gonna do for our economy? I think we've already described how it's getting off to a really solid start with all the right players at the table. And that's what it takes. You know, it's the old takes a village. And so I think we have the right players at the table. We have the interest from everyone. And, you know, I hate to say this, but a lot of times they say it's all about self-interest. And as you can hear from this whole discussion today, everybody has a self-interest in making this happen. Clearly the military wants it to happen because they need the functionality of intelligence and data science and all of the operations that are here. And they need people for that. So they've got an interest in it. Hawaii, our legislatures, our governor, state government, they have an interest in it because we want to diversify our economy and particularly we wanna diversify it with much higher paying skilled jobs. And by the way, you don't have to have even a college degree to have some of these jobs. Part of the HDA is creating a certification program. And sometimes particularly when you're dealing with computers, those certifications mean more than just degrees. And of course, you know, the private sector here, not only here, but also nationally, you've got the big defense contractors that are helping participate because they have an interest because if they're going to win some of the contracts here in Hawaii, they've got to have the workforce as well. And as Jason said, it's much better if you've got a local workforce that tends to be more stable. And we all know that Hawaii people can compete with the best from anywhere in the world. You just have to be given the opportunity to do that. So that's what I would say, Jai, I definitely see it coming. And I think we've got all the right players at the table to make it happen. Well, thank you, Connie. Thank you for many things. Thank you for being on this MAC committee in your retirement end quote. And thank you for coming on a show. And thank you for your supportive think tech over the years. It's been wonderful from the time we first opened our doors, you were there. And here we are again. I remember everything so well. And thank you, Jason. It makes me want to go back in the service or at least join the MAC anyway. Thanks for coming on and sharing. It's been a great discussion with you guys. Thanks, Aloha. Thanks, Jason.