Car rental exec
to head HVCB
Tony Vericella is chosen
By Russ Lynch
to get isle tourism engine up
and running again
Star-BulletinLocal car rental executive Tony Vericella today was named president and chief executive officer of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, after an on-again, off-again search that has lasted more than five months. The HVCB board of directors, meeting behind closed doors at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, picked Vericella, the vice president and general manager of Budget Rent A Car for the Hawaii region. Sources said Vericella was one of two finalists to replace Paul J. Casey, who left in March after less than two years in the post.
Vericella's salary was not immediately disclosed, but the HVCB, the state-contracted tourism marketing agency, has been offering candidates annual pay in the range of $170,000 to $225,000.
Vericella, 44, came to Hawaii in 1983 and was appointed vice president for sales and market planning at Hawaiian Airlines. Before that, the Pennsylvania-born Vericella had seven years in the airline business and his last post before joining Hawaiian was as the Los Angeles-based director of passenger pricing at Continental Airlines.
He left Hawaiian in 1988 to become a vice president of American Express Travel Related Services, running its Hawaii travel operations. Vericella joined Budget in May 1992.
Sources said that local executive Tom Ocasek, 58, was the other candidate in contention. Ocasek, an ex-Marine from Chicago, joined Pomare Ltd. in 1971 and in 1991 became president of the tourist-related clothing business, which includes the Hilo Hattie's aloha wear manufacturing and marketing operations.
He left that job in 1994.
Both Ocasek and Vericella have served as chairman of the HVCB's board.
Vericella also was acting president before the board appointed Casey to the top post.
For years through the 1960s and 1970s, double-digit percentage increases in tourism were common and the Hawaii Visitors Bureau, as it was then called, had long-term presidents.
Former Spencecliff Corp. restaurant executive Jack Simpson had the job for 10 years.
Stanley Hong, formerly with Theo. H. Davies & Co., had the job for nine years.
He was replaced by a team of two -- HVB Asian marketing executive Tom Sakata and Tom Kiely, an independent tourism marketing consultant.
That deal fell through when Kiely quit.
After an extensive search, Casey, a former Continental Airlines executive, was appointed in June 1995.
Casey trimmed the HVB staff and streamlined its operations so it could put most of its money into marketing.
However, he left the job in March to become president and chief executive of Hawaiian Airlines Inc.
The HVCB has since operated under volunteer acting presidents.
The first of them was Roy Tokujo, HVCB board chairman and head of entertainment marketing business Cove Enterprises Inc..
He was replaced by Don Takaki, chief executive of Island Movers Inc.
Another wide search was undertaken, using a mainland executive search firm, for an executive who could run the bureau as it tries to reenergize the state's No. 1 industry, which has been flat through most of the 1990s.
The search came up with Bob Moore, executive vice president of sales and marketing at the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Moore was offered the job for $225,000 a year.
However, the night before the July 8 HVCB board meeting that was expected to confirm his appointment, Moore pulled out of the running.
He said later that he didn't want the job unless he had more autonomy in hiring and firing than was being offered.
The search resumed, starting with a review of several candidates who had earlier been in the running.
The new HVCB chief also will have the added responsibility of making a success of the state's new $350 million convention center, for which the HVCB has the long-term marketing responsibility.
