Ernst & Young
honors isles’
top entrepreneurs

Star-Bulletin staff

Isle executives in 11 business categories have been honored as 1999 Hawaii Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year.

The winners will be eligible for national awards and for national Entrepreneur of the Year to be announced in Palm Springs, Calif., on Nov. 13.

Five hundred Hawaii business, civic and community leaders attended the third annual local event honoring winners last night at the Hilton Hawaiian Village coral ballroom. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin co-sponsored the event. Here are the winners:

Retail -- Kent Untermann and Lori Untermann, The Art Source Inc., doing business as Pictures Plus, Kapolei.
Retail Food and Beverage -- Eddie Flores and Johnson Kam, L&L Franchise Inc., Honolulu
Technology -- Shakil Ahmed, PDC Systems, Honolulu
Real Estate/Construction -- Troy Adams, Studio Becker Kitchens, Honolulu
Wholesale -- Violeta Arnobit, Ace Medical Inc., Honolulu
Services -- Lynne Kaneshiro, Island Title Corp., Honolulu
Young Entrepreneur -- Jonathan Lee, Chun Ha Inc., Honolulu
General Business -- Sidney Quintal, SUN Industries Inc., Honolulu
Emerging -- James Hawkins, Directions Inc., Honolulu
Health care -- Thomas Driskill, Hawaii Health Systems Corp., Honolulu
Sustaining -- Robin Campaniano, AIG Hawaii Insurance Co., Honolulu

Judges for the Hawaii competition were: Chatt Wright, president, Hawaii Pacific University; Diane Plotts, general partner, Mid East & China Trading Co.; Paula Sussex, president, Sandal Tree Ltd.; Martin Schiller, president, Schiller Group; Virendra Nath, president, HDEP International; and Mitchell D'Olier, president and chief executive officer, Victoria Ward Ltd.

The national Entrepreneur of the Year program was founded in 1986 by the accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young LLP.

Besides the Star-Bulletin, other Hawaii sponsors include The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, Retail Merchants of Hawaii, Scherzer & Co., the Honolulu Advertiser, Hawaii Newspaper Agency, Hawaii Business magazine, KITV-4, and NFIB Hawaii.