Name: Ernest Tottori
Age: 61
Position: President, chief operating officer, HPC Foods Ltd.
First job: Yardboy
Favorite pastime: Family activities

Tottori established a 10-acre experimental taro farm in Haleiwa in the 1980s. Today, he's working with community and business leaders to determine the feasibility of opening a processing plant in the area.

"It's still a big dream," said Tottori, who recently was named 1996 small business person of the year for Honolulu by the U.S. Small Business Administration. "We want to relocate some of the taro processing up there."

Tottori's father founded Honolulu Poi Co. in 1946 and the name was changed to HPC Foods Ltd. in 1990. A plant at Kamuela on the Big Island was opened in the 1970s.

HPC has grown into a large producer of poi and fresh sprouts under the Taro Brand label, it also produces fresh cut vegetables and oriental pickled vegetables.