Taking Notice

NEW JOBS

>> Mark Simon has been named director of marketing at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea. He will be responsible for oversight of group and travel industry sales, catering, conference services and public relations departments at the hotel. Simon, who has more than 25 years of travel industry experience, was most recently employed as director of marketing at the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo.

>> Francine Moniz, Jennifer Knops and Scott W. Brand have been named branch managers for City Bank. Moniz, formerly an operations manager for American Savings Bank, will manage City Bank's Makiki Branch. Knops, who comes to City Bank from a financial institution in North Carolina, will head the Kailua branch. Brand, a 16-year veteran of the banking industry, will manage the bank's Kihei, Maui, branch.

>> Lynn Kanemoto and Kaja Lillelien have been named workforce service representatives at Altres Global Business Services. They will serve as consultants to companies that outsource their human resource responsibilities to Altres. Kanemoto joined Altres in 1996 as a personnel specialist. Lillelien joins Altres from Cigna Inc. in Hartford, CT.

>> Lydee Ritchie and Myrna Ah Hee have been named island managers for the Maui celebration of the Aloha Festivals. The community-service positions include responsibility for overseeing and coordinating all planned celebrations on the island. Ritchie is a tenant and public relations manager at Piilani Village Shopping Center. Ah Hee is an independently licensed real estate broker.

PROMOTIONS

>> HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union has promoted Kelii Peltier to branch manager at the Kaimuki Branch and Lisa Watanabe branch manager at the Aiea Branch. Derek Kokubun was promoted to branch manager at the Ala Moana Branch and Bryan Agbayani branch manager at the Waipahu Branch. Leilani Sumajit was promoted to assistant branch manager at the Waipahu Branch and Dane Shimabuku dealer finance manager at the Waipahu Branch. Vera Kim-Todd was promoted to operations supervisor at the Waipahu Branch and Rochele Popaca to financial services representative at the Aiea Branch. In addition, operations officers Edna Halemano and Paula Moscoto are transferring to the Aiea and Ala Moana Branches, respectively. Operations supervisor Rhonda Bargayo transfers to the Main Branch of the credit union.

>> Philbert Seguerre has been named general manager at Papa John's Hawaii's Costco Center (Salt Lake) location. He has been with Papa John's since 1999.

Recognition

>> Christopher A. Neal, a Maui Memorial Medical Center neuroradiologist, was recently awarded the Stanford University Medical Center's Visiting Clinical Faculty Teaching Award for 2000-01. Neal received the award in San Francisco during ceremonies held for the radiology department's graduating doctors. The resident of Wailea has been a clinical professor of diagnostic and interventional neuroradiology at Stanford University School of Medicine for the past six years, and was promoted to assistant professor last August.

>> Robin Campaniano was awarded the Corporate Leadership Award at the 2001 Filipinas Magazine Achievement Awards June 7 in San Francisco. Campaniano, president and chief executive officer of AIG Hawaii, was one of 11 individuals recognized as a successful Filipino-American who has made a difference in the community. 

[WINNERS & LOSERS]

[WINNERS]

>> Federated Department Stores Inc., which this past week finally picked off the Liberty House plum with its purchase of the kamaaina department store chain. The purchase, for an undisclosed amount, will extend the Macy's brand far offshore for the first time, all the way to Guam. While Federated says it will only close one small specialty shop, we're suspicious there may be more consolidation down the road, given Federated's attention to the bottom line.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who made in excess of $100 million selling his stake in Alcoa Inc., the aluminum company he used to run before tightening his belt to become a public servant. His public position forced O'Neill to sell his Alcoa stock, some of which he obtained for as little as 12.5 cents a share. Alcoa closed at $39.10 Friday.

Hotel companies which have diversified into timeshares; Tourists are snapping up the week-here, week-there guaranteed stays nearly as fast as they can be built. Projects on Kauai have sold out years ahead of schedule and the latest at Hilton Hawaiian Village is selling rapidly.

[LOSERS]

Hawaii hotels, which saw occupancy fall nearly 6 percent in May, compared with a year ago. The softening of the mainland economy seems to be having more of an impact on island tourism; falling tourism indicators earlier this year were not as steep. However, it's not time to start planting a garden out back -- occupancy is still equal to 1999.

>> Walt Disney Co., which is seeing its summer hit "Pearl Harbor" miss the mark by a wide margin. When the movie opened more than a month ago, Disney Chairman Michael Eisner predicted it would be a sure thing for the biggest nonanimated film ever, topping $662 million worldwide sales. Well, not quite. Critics universally panned the movie and so far it has earned about $237 million. The three-hour running time also discouraged repeat viewers -- of course, so did the plot.

Retail giant Wal-Mart, which this past week got hit with its first class-action suit, from women who claim discrimination in hiring and promotion. Thus far, the suit has only six women signed on, but is being aggressively pushed, including in Hawaii, where Wal-Mart has five stores.