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Molokai Ranch
boss departs

Scott Whiting takes
over the CEO post of
James Mozley

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By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

James W. Mozley, who headed Molokai Ranch's development into a tourist attraction and the company's reconstruction of Maunaloa Town, has left the company to take a real estate development job in South Carolina.

In a letter sent to business and personal contacts last week, Mozley said he would be leaving his position as president and chief executive officer. Both posts went to Scott Whiting, who has been vice president and in-house counsel for four years.

Mozley's departure, after nearly nine years with the company and the past six years as its top officer, comes amid pending arrangements to bring in an outside partner to continue development of the company's 56,000 acres on Molokai.

Molokai Ranch's sole owner, Singapore-based Brierley Investments Inc., said in October it was in negotiations to sell the Molokai Ranch Lodge that it opened at Maunaloa in 1999 and 6,000 acres to an outside investor.

Brierley and ranch officials in Hawaii have not said what form a final agreement might take.

Whiting said today that negotiations continue.

"We're working with the potential investor group to create an agreement that will meet both their objectives as well of those of Brierley Investments," he said. "Chief among those objectives is to nurture and maintain the adventure tourism product for which Molokai Ranch has become known."

Mozley, whose last day with the ranch company was Thursday, said he is joining Crescent Resources Inc., a subsidiary of Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Energy Corp., to help with its development of second-home and resort communities.

In 1988, Mozley came to Hawaii for a post at Amfac/JMB Hawaii, after real estate planning experience on the mainland. He was a vice president and manager of the company's Maui properties when he left to join Molokai Ranch in 1992 as executive director and director of planning.

He was named Molokai Ranch president and CEO in 1994. In a process that has brought criticism from some Molokai residents and gratitude from others, Mozley has since overseen the development of tourist camps and trails, outdoor adventures, the 22-room lodge, the island's first movie theater and new homes and shops at Maunaloa.

Mozley said he will remain a director of Molokai Ranch and expects to make regular visits to Hawaii.