Kamehameha
CEO resignsHamilton McCubbin became
head of the trust in 2000, after
the former trustees were ousted
Hamilton McCubbin, the first chief executive officer in the 119-year history of the Kamehameha Schools, has stepped down.
The $6 billion trust announced today that McCubbin has submitted his resignation, which took effect immediately.
The trust also said that its Chief Legal Officer Colleen Wong will serve as acting chief executive officer until a replacement is found.
McCubbin, a 1959 graduate of the Kamehameha Schools, could not be reached for immediate comment but was scheduled to speak at a news conference later today.
Kamehameha Schools trustee Constance Lau met with employees today to inform them of McCubbin's resignation, according to several people who attended the meeting. Lau did not discuss the reasons for McCubbin's departure but said he offered his letter of resignation to the board on Friday.
McCubbin, a world renowned expert on early childhood education, earned about $350,000 a year. He has served as the Kamehameha Schools' chief executive officer since January 2000.
His appointment was hailed as a major milestone in the three-year controversy surrounding the estate and its former trustees Henry Peters, Richard "Dickie" Wong, Lokelani Lindsey, Oswald Stender and Gerard Jervis.
During his tenure, McCubbin oversaw the trust's ambitious expansion of its educational reach as it opened new satellite campuses on the neighbor islands, reinstituted several early childhood education programs and looked to partner with the state Department of Education to establish charter schools in areas heavily populated by native Hawaiians.
McCubbin also was in the middle of the Maui campus controversy last year in which the schools admitted its first non-Hawaiian student in more than 40 years.
Prior to joining the estate, McCubbin served as dean of the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
McCubbin's resignation is the latest in a string of recent departures at the Kamehameha Schools. In January, the schools first chief education officer, Dudley "Skip" Hare stepped down. That move came a month after Chief Financial Officer Eric Yeaman left to become Hawaiian Electric Industry Inc.'s chief financial officer.
