Newsmaker
Monday, November 30, 1998
Name: Puongpun Sananikone
Age: 53
Education: UH; University of Colorado
Occupation: President, Pacific Management Resources Inc.
Puongpun Sananikone considers himself a "hybrid being" that sprouted at the East-West Center, then bloomed all over the world. A true multicultural being
Sananikone, an economist, has worked on every continent. He speaks six languages and feels as comfortable in Syria as he does in Nepal. In fact, the Vietnamese-American Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii chose him, a Laotian-American, as chairman.
This "new being" took root in 1964-68 when Sananikone studied at the University of Hawaii under a scholarship from the East-West Center, where he lived in a completely international community.
"The center was unique in the 1960s," Sananikone said. "By bringing people together to live, study, research and train, it created a whole new type of human being because of the cross-cultural experience. It opened new doors for me and gave me a lifetime of friends and professional contacts."
Sananikone feels a strong commitment to the center and has devoted years of volunteer work, as well as serving as a chairman of the East-West Center Alumni executive board. For his commitment, he received the 1998 Outstanding Service Award from the alumni's Hawaii Chapter.
The center now claims prominent alumni around the world in government and business. Almost 20 hold key positions at the Asian Development Bank.
"The East-West Center was the perfect preparation for all the things I've done internationally," he said.
And he's done many things in his colorful and broad life.
Sananikone was in the third group of Laotian students to get scholarships from the East-West Center. He met his Vietnamese wife there. They returned to what was then the Kingdom of Laos. He later completed his master's degree in Colorado and returned to his home country to lead the royal government's economic and social planning department.
In 1975, Laos, like its neighbors, fell to communism. Sananikone took a job at the Asian Development Bank in Manila. He then moved to New Jersey for eight years, where he worked his way up to chief economist at Louis Berger International, a leading international engineering consulting company.
He later returned to Hawaii and eventually started Pacific Management Resources Inc., an international consulting company that mainly works on projects in developing countries.
In recent years, the firm's focus has been on the Asia-Pacific region. Projects include coastal resource management in the Philippines, power plants in China, export processing zones in Vietnam, and financial management training in Laos.
His two grown children work on the mainland. In his spare time, Sananikone does "weekend farming" with his wife on seven acres of leased land in Waimanalo.
Sananikone is concerned about the changes at the East-West Center. Along with budget cuts in recent years by the federal government, the focus has also turned to more research than interaction and understanding among people.
"If it's just research, then it's no different from places in the mainland," he said, recalling the impact the center had on him. "I was not the same Laotian. I became a really whole new type of human being altogether because of my cross-cultural experiences."
Susan Kreifels, Star-Bulletin
