[Taking Notice]

NEW JOBs

>> Johnny K. So has been named vice president and general manager at the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel and Spa. He will oversee all daily operations at the resort. So joins the Grand Wailea after serving as vice president and general manager at the resort's sister property, La Quinta Resort and Club/PGA West in Palm Springs, Calif.

>> Tom Brower has been named director of development at Sisters Offering Support. He joins the organization after serving as director of development and community relations at Ronald McDonald House Charities of Hawaii.

>> George Wong has been named management executive at Hawaiiana Management Company Ltd. He joins the company after serving as a property manager at Certified Management. Wong has more than 27 years of real estate sales, rentals and property management.

>> Eric "Rick" Elkind has joined Castle and Cooke Hawaii Inc. as corporate attorney. He will assist with in-house legal work for all of its subsidiaries in Hawaii. He previously worked as an associate attorney at Goodsill Anderson Quinn and Stifel.

>> Graham Builders Inc. has hired Richard Braunthal and Paul Tauchas in its design department. Braunthal has also been named to the design team of Graham Builders Maui Inc. Braunthal and Tauchas have more than 15 and 20 years of architectural design experience, respectively.

>> PRWorks has named Grant Kawaguchi as an account coordinator at the company. He was an intern at PRWorks before joining the company.

PROMOTIONS

>> Vince Mitchell has been named president and CEO of Six D Inc. and Six D Studios. Kelly O'Connor was promoted to vice president and COO. Mitchell founded the company and has created Web sites for clients including Hawaii Public Television, the University of Hawaii and the Aloha Tower Marketplace. His 15 years of information technology experience started in the U.S. Air Force, where he managed, operated and programmed the mainframe computer system of the Pacific Command Control & Intelligence Support Squadron. O'Connor has 17 years of strategic marketing, business development and sales management experience.

>> Nick Tinebra has been named chief executive officer at Honolulu Publishing Co. He had been chief financial officer since 1992. In addition, Jim Myers and Winona Higashi have been promoted at the company. Myers will serve as president. He joined HPC in 1979. Higashi, a 13-year employee of the company, was named vice president and Drive Guide group publisher. David Pellegrin remains as company chairman.

>> Thor Toma, Lori Miyashiro and Lance Ichimura have been promoted at Servco Pacific Inc. Toma, a 11-year employee at the company, was named vice president and director of service at Servco Automotive. Ichimura was named vice president and director of marketing at Servco Automotive. He has been at the company for more than 10 years. Miyashiro, who joined Servco in 1989, will serve as vice president of Hawaii sales operations for Servco Appliance and Electronics Distribution.

>> Hawaii Pacific University has promoted Ralph Gallogly to registrar and veterans administration coordinator for satellite programs. He joined HPU in 1993 after leaving the U.S. Air Force.

>> The Hawaii Convention Center has named Gail Nakayama as catering sales manager. She will promote products and services offered by the center's food and beverage department to help attract Hawaii-based events. Nakayama previously served as an event manager at the center. She joined the Hawaii Convention Center staff in 1999.

ON THE BOARD

>> Dr. Henry Wong has been re-elected to a one year term as chairperson of the Lanakila Rehabilitation Center's board. The following individuals were also re-elected to one year terms: Ronald Deisseroth, vice-chairperson; David Devenot, secretary; and James Wong, treasurer. And Phyllis Shea, Devenot, Sam Tanimoto and Lynn Zane were re-elected to three year terms as members of the board.

>> Junior Achievement of Hawaii has named the following individuals to the organization's board of directors: Kathy Fujihara-Chong, Bank of Hawaii; Lincoln Koike, American Express Financial Advisors; David McClain, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Kerry Jean Muranaka, KPMG; Kit Nagelmann, Better Brands; Steven Teruya, Finance Factors Ltd.; Rick von Gnechten, Hawaiian Electric Industries; and Rick Woodford, Island Restaurant Concepts.

RECOGNITION

>> Paul Lemcke has won the overall Gold Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration in Hawaii as its Lending Officer of the Year. He has won the award annually since its inception in 1999. Lemcke is a vice president and business banking officer at City Bank.

>> Brian Nakashima and Wesley Yamamoto, employees at Prudential Securities Inc., have received the certified investment management analyst designation from the Investment Management Consultants Association of Denver, Colo. The CIMA designation specifies that the two have demonstrated competence in asset collection, money manager evaluation, risk analysis and performance measurement. Nakashima, a vice president and resident manager; and Yamamoto, associate vice president for investments, are among 1,700 individuals in the U.S. and Canada who have the designation.

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Amway explores new territory in China

GUANGZHOU, China >> There's nothing particularly remarkable about Amway's newest store, which opened six weeks ago in the lobby of a cookie-cutter apartment block in this southern Chinese city. Except that it exists at all.

A few customers prowl the aisles, scooping up tubes of toothpaste and jars of protein powder. Above them, a flat-screen television offers perky testimonials about Amway's products. Fu Mingxia, the Chinese women's diving champion and an Amway spokeswoman, beams from posters on the walls.

Amway, the direct marketer based in Ada, Mich., does not have stores in the United States, or anywhere, in fact, other than China. Everywhere else, it relies on a vast army of independent distributors, who buy Amway's products and sell them door to door.

Why the difference? In 1998, Amway agreed to open dozens of stores here as part of a deal with Beijing that allowed it to keep doing business in China after the government had banned direct sales companies.

Mazda's U.S. inventory to shrink 17% by March

Tokyo >> Mazda Motor Corp. said it will cut its U.S. inventory by almost 17 percent by the end of its business year as demand in the biggest auto market slows.

Mazda, 33 percent owned by Ford Motor Co., will reduce the number of days it can supply U.S. sales with existing inventory to 50 from as much as 60 days now, Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks said last week after the company's first-half earnings.

The company said it would post a &YEN1.3 billion ($10.8 million) group net income in the year ending on March 31, up from a record loss last year.

Industrial output declining in Mexico

Mexico City >> For evidence of Mexico's falling production, consider Maquila T. The garment maker has cut 65 percent of its staff this year -- or 1,900 workers -- because of a decline in U.S. orders. Those cutbacks have led the company's contractors to fire more than half their employees, said Gustavo Tome, Maquila T's director.

The firings by Maquila T, which makes jeans, shorts, skirts and other clothing, are indicative of the struggles Mexican manufacturers face as exports decline to the U.S., Mexico's largest trading partner. Industrial output in Mexico fell 5.4 percent in September from the same month last year.

Embraer profit rises 34% on currency gains

Sao Paulo >> Brazil's Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA, the fourth largest commercial aircraft maker, said third-quarter profit rose 34 percent on foreign exchange gains from sales in U.S. dollars.

Net income rose to 252.5 million reais ($94.6 million), or 41 centavos per share from 188.2 million reais, or 35 centavos, a year earlier. Profit was in line with analysts' estimates.

Embraer benefited from a 13 percent decline in the value of the real during the quarter, which boosted the value of dollar-denominated sales. The number of aircraft delivered in the third quarter fell to 41 from 44 a year earlier.