 Aloha, welcome to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We are a weekly show that broadcasts every Thursday at 2 o'clock in the downtown studios of Think Tech Hawaii and Pioneer Plaza. We highlight successful individuals and businesses in Hawaii and explain how they made things work and what they're up to. There are a lot of challenges in Hawaii, but there are successful individuals who have figured out how to get around those challenges and make things work. Today we're going to be talking to Un Yong Nakara, who is a senior director of development at the University of Hawaii, Shidler College, and she also holds a chair-elect position over the Chamber of Commerce Young Professional Program. So we're going to be talking about both pieces, but the real exciting piece of this is how much she's accomplished in a short period of time and how well she's doing out there at Shidler. Welcome. Glad to have you on the show. Thank you, Reg. I'm so happy to be here. Can you, I'll just spend a few minutes and explain a little bit about, you know, your background, where you're from, and how did you end up doing what you're doing today? Sure. So I'm actually a military brat, and I was born in South Korea, and my stepfather, who adopted me, was in the Air Force. And so the first time I lived in Hawaii, we lived in Hickam Air Force Base. I remember I lived on 17th Street, 17B. And then my mom got homesick, and so we requested to live in Korea. So we spent quite a number of years on an Air Force base in Korea. And after that, I came back to Hawaii my sophomore year, and I've been here ever since sophomore year in high school, which, as you can imagine, it's a little tough to break into the Hawaii community as a sophomore, because everyone's been growing up since a small kind days, right? And so I talked a little different. I dressed a little different. And which high school was that? I went to the oldest high school in Oahu, President William McKinley High School. Oh, McKinley. Right, right. Right downtown. Good. So I've been here ever since, since the summer of Iniki, hurricane. That's a date to remember? It was. So I'll never forget the year that I came, the summer of 1992. But since then I've been here, and I'm very, very proud, and I'm privileged to call Hawaii my home. Very good. Yeah. After McKinley, you went to college, I assume? I did. So I went to the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and would you believe it? I actually majored in microbiology. Really? So science is my first love, and I think nerds rule the world. Okay. All right. Well, I don't want to argue with that. Otherwise, my computers may all fail me tonight, so go ahead. So I loved bacteria and viruses and immunology and genetics and all those things, but when you have a Bachelor of Science in microbiology, there's not much you can do in Honolulu. So while I was working at a research project, I actually went back for my MBA, and at that time it was called College of Business at UH Manoa. I remember those days. Right. And I graduated from their long-standing part-time evening MBA program. And after that, I would say my life and my career really changed course. And I had a eye for marketing, and I was really privileged to be hired by someone named Lonnie Starkey at the UH Foundation, who recently just left the Foundation's Stardisone Consulting firm. And he really took me under his wing, and I found this wonderful world of philanthropy. And how long ago was that? It was over 10 years ago. Wow. Yeah. Have you been with the UH for quite a while? I have been. Very good. Yeah. And so you've been there the whole 10 years, kind of just evolving into the senior director position you have now? I have. So I started in the Office of Estate and Gift Planning, and shortly thereafter I got a phone call, literally a phone call, from Dean Vance Rowley, and at the time I was serving on the Charlotte College of Business Alumni Association board. And that's how we knew each other. And he offered me a position at Shidler as their Associate Director of Development. And to be really cliche about it, the rest is history. I get so much joy and so much fulfillment from serving my alma mater and really just paying it forward. So I was enabled by a scholarship myself when I was at UH Manoa, when I was studying microbiology, by the Herbert H. Lee Scholarship. So now to be on the other side and raising funds for students and faculty and programs and buildings, it really, really, it fills my cup. It's very rewarding to know that you're working in an area that's actually allowing people in the state to obtain this higher level of education. I mean, how many, you must have put a lot of students through the University of Hawaii over the last 10 years. I was a small part of that. So me and many, many wonderful people that I work with, yes, yes. It really feels great. I love being able to go home and seeing my husband and seeing my daughter. And when I look at my daughter, I can know that I did something good that day. I did a plus one that day. Good, good. It's nice to have that passion and that pride and what you're doing. Now, Shidler's got some pretty interesting programs too that we were talking a little bit about earlier that, you know, and, you know, I'm a UH alumni and my wife is, and my three sons are, so we all have this connection there. But there's a lot going on over there that, you know, it's been for a while and very successful that you kind of educated me on. So, you know, like Vietnam, for example, you know, 15 years. I didn't realize it was that long, but they've got a good program over Vietnam. We do, we do. So we have so much good that's happening. And I know that we're both big proponents of showcasing the good, right? In the state and the world. So when Dean Vance Rowley arrived in January 2005, the college was good. And that's why he came, he said, because it was great potential. So we had six faculty endowments and now we have 38. Wow, huge. Right. And this helps us recruit and retain world class faculty, which has exponential benefits for students, right? Absolutely. I don't know what the stats were at the time, but today we give away on average a million dollars every school year in scholarships, which I'm very, very passionate about. Just for Shidler? Just for Shidler. That's amazing. So what does this do? It helps students graduate on time without debt, but also frees up their time. See, that's so unfair because I think when I was going to Shidler, they were only giving away a couple hundred dollars a year. Oh, you can come back. And as you mentioned, one of our star programs, we have a robust executive education program. And part of that, we have an EMBA and a distance EMBA and a health care track EMBA, which you're on the advisory board for. I am. Thank you so much. But one of those is the Vietnam Executive MBA, which we celebrated 15 years of just this past summer in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh. And a few years ago, maybe five years ago, the Financial Times stated that the companies led by our VEMBA alumni account for 25% of the country's GDP. See, that is so impressive. And that's something that we really, and we don't, I haven't heard enough about that here in Hawaii. I mean, that's a success story all by itself. It is, it is. It's a one, you know, and even a few years ago, Senator John Kerry mentioned our Vietnam Executive MBA program as something concrete that is a positive towards U.S.-Vietnam relations. That was a real big moment for us. Yeah, and I know, you know, at the time, I think Secretary Kerry, he's a Vietnam veteran. I'm a Vietnam veteran. I'm a member of a Vietnam veterans group. And, you know, we have conversations about, you know, some of the legacy that we left behind. I think it's good that we are doing something positive to try to fix the wrong that we did in Vietnam. Right. And this is good. And the wrong I'm talking about is that we left them hanging there and it creates some problems. So we're back. We're helping. We're helping rebuild the economy. We're doing some very positive things. We need to continue doing that. And we need to let the rest of the world know. We do. And this is a great start, right? It is. That's right. Please touch 10,000 or 20,000 people from this. So this is exciting. And for those that don't quite understand what that Executive MBA program is, it's basically we send professors over there, right? We do. You're absolutely right. So the reason why we are the most successful and highly branded and recognized program in Vietnam is because we are teaching our curriculum in English with our professors. And so it's a very intense program. It's not like the regular EMBA or the distance EMBA here where it's 22 months and it really fits your work schedule. This is, let's say, 13 weeks and you're cramming in one course. And imagine financial economics with Jack Seiderhout in 13 weeks. But it's like boot camp. They just absolutely love it. So someone that we both love, Dr. Dave Bess, and so he's one of our star faculty that are asked to go over to teach in the VEMBA program. And it's a real privilege because we want to send our best faculty. And they go over, they spend a couple of weeks. They really bond with the students and the students go through an entire course in that short amount of time. And that is what makes our program special amongst other things. That's a great program that we need to really encourage and continue to do. As a matter of fact, we should probably get some federal dollars to help do that because that's a good message. It's coming from the United States. Let's do it. Not just Hawaii. Let's do it. So let's talk to our congressional delegation. Let's do it. Yeah. And then, of course, we have the Executive MBA program in health care that's relatively new. It's just, I guess we've only had it for a couple of years now. Yes. And that's going well from what I understand. Yes. Just a lot of neat programs over there. There are. You know, something that we're in our fifth year of, but I would say most people don't know is that for, since 1949, the College of Business, the shy of the College of Business now, has been admitting students at the junior level. So they come to UH Manoa. They finish their freshman year, their sophomore year. They finish their course and they apply to be admitted into the shy of the College of Business. That's the traditional model. It is. It is, right? Your two wonderful sons who are very successful followed that model. But what we realized was that we were passive in that process. So to compete with other universities around the world, we had to be more active. And that required us to admit students at the freshman level. Very high achieving, high SAT scores, high GPAs, straight from high school into shyder. So we're actually in our fifth academic year. It's going very, very well from public and private high schools. A lot from California. Really? Really. So we have a tuition agreement with California where they only pay 150 percent of tuition. The resident level. Well, that's better than a regular average tuition. It totally is. It totally is. So these freshmen, they get, most of them get $1,000 scholarship. And they get mentoring, career services. They get to go on study abroad because we also send the most number of students on study abroad on scholarship. And by the time they're at the junior level, they're just ready to take on the world. And so it's going really well. Well, and they're also comfortable in the environment. They're probably a little bit more focused. They know exactly what they want to do and they're more focused in moving in that direction. Absolutely. Laser focused. Absolutely. That's great. I know that for most students, at least historically, it just takes a while or a year or two to get into the campus environment, to explore all the different options and to be able to decide exactly what it is that you want to major in. But for those that already have a pretty good idea of what they want to do, this is a great way to get a running start into it. It is. We're at a special counselor just for them as well because they do need that extra attention. We have to remember that they are 18 and 19 years old. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's very good. You know, we also have something else in common that we haven't talked about and we will be doing a little bit more of that, you know, after we come back from the break. But basically, it's a Chamber of Commerce connection. Yes. And, you know, you've done so well out at the university and you're also doing equally well with the young professional program at the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii. And so we want to speak a little bit about that. But we're going to go on break here shortly. And we're going to be back in about 60 seconds. Nick, are we good for going on break? Hello. I'm Marianne Sasaki. Welcome to Think Tech Hawaii, where some of the most interesting conversations in Honolulu go on. I have a show on Wednesdays from one to two called Life in the Law, where we discuss legal issues, politics, governmental topics, and a whole host of issues. I hope you'll join me. Aloha. My name is Richard Emory, and I host Kondo Insider. We talk about issues facing the Kondo Association throughout Hawaii and talk about solutions. When you think about it, about one-third of our population lives in some form of common interest real estate. We broadcast every Thursday at 3 p.m. Please tune in. Tune in. Thank you. Aloha. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from Hibachi Talk, and all of us here at Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha Kako. I'm Marcia Joyner, and I'm inviting you to navigate the journey. We are discussing the end-of-life options, and we would really love to have you every Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. Right here. Aloha, and welcome back to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. Today we're talking with the University of Hawaii and the Chamber of Commerce. One of the more successful individuals involved in both sides is Ongyong Nakara, who has gotten a senior role over at the Scheider School of Business in the fund-raising and development area, and then also is the chair-elect for the Chamber of Commerce Young Professional Program, and she's going to be taking over probably in about less than a year or so, I guess. Maybe six months. But before we get over to the Chamber and Young Professional Program, there was a couple final comments we wanted to make about the University of Hawaii Scheider School of Business, and that is? There was. There was. I couldn't ever speak about the Scheider College of Business without actually mentioning Mr. Scheider. Of course. And what else, what could I say about Mr. Scheider, such a unique individual, so generous, actually very down-to-earth, very funny, has the best colorful socks, and very committed, very loyal. So when Dean Vance really arrived in January 2005, from there Mr. Scheider's first gift went public in 2006, and that was $25 million, and we launched many things. One of them, go ahead. For $25 million, he can wear whatever color socks he wants to. So we were so grateful to name the college in his honor, launch a full-time MBA program, seed many faculty endowments, amongst many other things, and since then he's been quietly giving several million more for the building. And then in October 2014, as I hope most everyone in the community knows, we announced the visionary gift, which was Mr. Scheider's commitment to give another $69 million to bring his total giving to $100 million. I don't think the University of Hawaii has had anybody as generous as that. No. So he's actually the most generous, by fact, person in the entire state of Hawaii. So after him is Mr. Amityar. Oh, yes. And of course, that's not why he gave. He's all about difference, impact, and leveraging, right? He always says, you can't change where you went to school, but you can change the school where you went, right? Yeah, that's true. And that might not be an exact quote, but that's the spirit of his quote. And one of the things that Mr. Scheider seeded was our Pacification Center for Entrepreneurship. And you know, something's changing in the community. Small business, entrepreneurship, tech, innovation. It's happening. It's really happening. Besides hospitality and government, there is something meaty there. It can happen. So we successfully just closed a $3 million campaign. And with many, many people, business leaders, community leaders, and donors and friends in the community, and what did the $3 million do? One, we have a new center. It's amazing. It's called Space for Scheider Pace. Although Susan Yamada, the executive director, says, no, it's for Susan Pace. Sounds like Susan. And we love her. So and we increased our programs from 15 to 25. And it's securing the long run future of the Entrepreneurship Center. Well, you know, and some of the students, and I spoke out at this group, and they're very motivated. They're intense. They're serious about what they're doing. It's an exciting group of people to speak with. They're passionate. Definitely. Definitely. Very good. It's a great program. And it's so nice to have benefactors, the university, that's able to make that all happen. That's right. That's super. You know, can we talk a little bit about the chamber? I'd love to. You know, the chamber, you know, I'm involved in the chamber. I was on a formal, formerly I was on a board and treasurer of the organization. And I'm now the chair of the small visit out to more committee. And when I was with HMA, I helped sponsor and provide some capital to start the YP program. You did. Thank you. As a matter of fact, Jacob was one. Jacob, no. He was. He was one of our assets that we contributed to the program. Oh, great asset. Great asset. He's a good guy. He is a great asset. And so he took the lead on that. We funded some of that. We got that going. And it has flourished. It has done very well. And you've been a big part of that. Well, I've been a small part of that. So I joined the YP program. This is my fifth year. And I joined because my very good friend, Jennifer He, who you also know, who's at the Salvation Army, she was there from the very get go, I believe, with Kyle Okamura and several others. So she asked me to come on and chair a program called exec connect. And she's very smart. And I found it very fulfilling and quite easy for me. It was a way for me to leverage the privilege I have at the Charlotte College of Business and the interactions I have with community and business leaders and ask them to give one hour of their time, three executives a month, and have talk stories style informal lunch with the YPs. And this is a free, this is the only free benefit to the YP members. And for over four years, I've done my best and I've exhausted my entire roll of decks. I actually really recently just asked the vice chair Kyle Shelly at American Savings Bank to take over. But I've been very fulfilled and I've made great friends because the YP program, I truly believe is the premier YP, a young professionals program for anyone in Oahu. It is. And I've had the opportunity to participate in a couple of those and it's another one of those dynamic groups of people that are very career focused and, you know, they want to be successful. But they ask some really good questions. I hope so. Yes. I hope so. They do indeed. And so it's, you know, when you go to one of these, you got to be prepared, you know, because sometimes they know just as much about the business as you do. Oh, that's great. That's great. So to your point, what I find really fulfilling, it's not just what the YPs get from this hour. I find it's very common that the executives after the lunch feel very inspired about the next gen. And that's going to be, that's going to be good too, right? They're going to go back to First Hawaiian Bank or Deloitte and they're going to be energized about what's bubbling up behind them. Right. You know, it's sometimes, again, you hear these stories about, you know, these different generational issues and all that and true, not true, exaggerated or whatever. Sometimes you go over to the program at the University of Hawaii or you go over to the Exec Connect program and you get to see those individuals that are really committed and focused and it tends, it will change your perspective. Right. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah. And so now as you move in, you're transitioning into another role now. You're going to be the chair-elect, right? You are the chair-elect. I am. I am. So I'm privileged to be the chair-elect and right now the chair is Stan Lau of Hawaii Tech Support, another great YP and his chair position will sunset June 30th and I believe that's when I will become chair and I'm just very excited. I am looking forward to how best I can serve the YP program and also the chamber in my new role and when Sherry and I briefly discussed this a few months ago, when actually I had to interview for the position, she asked me what my plans were and I told her it was twofold because I believe in doing a few things well, then a lot of things not so well, right? So I told her my goals were, my hopes were twofold. One for our internal was governance and it doesn't mean reports and structure and hierarchy, but it means evolving the bylaws a little bit more, creating a vice chair position, creating succession, creating support, creating some structure so that it promotes the organization into perpetuity. Right. It's sustainability. Exactly. Exactly. And I've learned that over time through serving on different boards how important governance is. Frankly, I think governance was quite boring, but now I see that it's very important. So now you're actually involved in the process, sometimes learning a new concept, you're kind of, you know, it's all conceptual, but now it's really, you know, and it makes a difference. So the other goal was external. So the external goal for the YP program, and we actually just had a strategic planning session and we discussed this, we don't know yet who, which organization to partner with, but we feel that now with our robust membership being above 260, it was 140 almost a year and a half ago, it's now time to see which other organizations we can partner with. But we felt it was, we all agreed it was the right time, but we want to be sure as to the Y. Exactly. I was just going to ask that. Okay. It's great to partner with somebody. Right. But what are you going to get out of it? Exactly. What do we provide? But also whichever organization we ask to partner with us, what do we want from them? Because it has to be, this is what we talked about earlier, Hawaii style, Aloha style, right? It's got to be a win-win. It's not just tick, tick, tick, or give, give, give, but win-win. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's got to give and take. And so, and you're going through that process now of trying to identify the different partners that you might be talking to. Right. Well, we just had our strategic plan. Yep. The plan led that. And one of the outputs of that was we at least all agreed it was the right time. And so we're going to do a little research and auditing of what potential partners could be, and then figuring out the Y and then approaching them. That sounds like exciting times. It is. It sounds like this is going to be kind of thought out, figured out, and then maybe launch just in time for you to take over as chair. That's the plan. I'm a planner. Good luck with that. I know I've been through the cycle a few times where I would either inherit the chair position or maybe move into the chair position. And sometimes my predecessor would spend the entire budget and I wouldn't have anything left to do what was supposed to be done. Oh no. Oh no. Stan won't do that. Tell Stan to be careful. He's physically prudent. All right. Good. And actually we, you know, I wish you could be a fly on the wall at these steering committee meetings. We actually have quite a robust and a good conversation about budget and about marketing and about relationships. And we kind of, we consider all factors. And because we want to be, we want to be a positive program within the chamber. We want to be a revenue generating program. And we're finally there. And this makes us really, really happy because all we want to do is support share in the chamber. Of course. Now we're down to our last 30 seconds here. So we're going to just kind of wrap up. You know, but there's a lot of programs that the chamber offers through the YP program. And you have a website that people can find out more information on. Yes. Okay. And that would be, do you know what that name is? Oh my gosh. COCYPHauai.org. Okay. So remember that. And then also we've got a big event coming up here in early January. Don't we? Chamber week? No. That's July. Close to the family. Oh yes. Okay. So please allow me to wish my daughter a happy seventh birthday on January 2nd. Happy birthday, Mia. You're the best. And mommy and daddy and Nana Papa just love you. All right, Mia. Very good. Very good. Thank you for being on the show today. Appreciate it very much. Great stories about both the chamber and the University of Hawaii. So it's exciting times for you and for those organizations. This is Reg Baker, host of business in Hawaii. We air every Thursday at 2 o'clock from 2 to 2.30. We highlight individuals and businesses that are successful in Hawaii and share some of the secrets on how they do that. So until next week, aloha.