Taking Notice

NEW JOBS

>> Larry O'Brien has been named chief executive officer of the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children and Kapiolani Medical Center at Pali Momi. He is also chairman of Kapiolani Medical Specialists. O'Brien was most recently with Memorial Health, a 530-bed teaching hospital and regional healthcare delivery system in Savannah, Ga.

>> PM Realty Group has named Paula Orr general manager of Amfac Center. She has 25 years of experience in managing commercial, retail and industrial properties, most recently as manager for the Town Center of Mililani complex. Also at PM Realty, Curt Nakamura has been promoted to assistant property manager of Amfac Center. He has 11 years of property management and leasing experience, most recently as the center's principal broker and assistant building manager. And Rory Reiley has been named chief engineer at the center. Has has more than 25 years of engineering maintenance experience, most recently at Davies Pacific Center.

>> Kathy Perkins has been hired as vice president and manager of membership development at the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii. She spent more than 20 years at Bank of Hawaii, most recently as senior vice president and division manager of the client services division.

>> Bradley K. Lee has joined Straub Clinic and Hospital as a primary care specialist. He is board certified in family medicine. In addition, David Tom has joined the Psychiatry and Psychology Department at the hospital.

>> American Savings Bank has named Anne Bonilla as operations manager at the bank's Richards Street Branch. She will oversee all daily operations at the bank as well as business development in the surrounding area. Bonilla served as operations supervisor at Bank of America before joining American Savings.

>> Greg Omotoy and Marc Lincoln have joined Morton's of Chicago at the steakhouse's new Hawaii restaurant in Ala Moana Shopping Center. Omotoy, who was named general manager and maitre d', will be responsible for all management functions of the new restaurant. He joined Morton's as a server in 1991. Lincoln will serve as executive chef. He will be responsible for day-to-day operations and staffing. Lincoln was executive chef at the Honolulu Club before joining Morton's.

>> Ken Kato has been named vice president and branch manager of First Hawaiian Bank's Oleai branch on Saipan. Also at that location, Patricia C. Borja was named service manager and Victoria B. Concepcion personal banking officer. Francisco S. Ada was hired as service manager in the Gualo Rai branch. On Guam, Akihiko Tanaka was named vice president and business banking officer at the Maite branch. At the same branch, Mary Cepeda was hired as assistant vice president and service manager, Atsuko Yoshida as assistant vice president and personal banking officer and Cecelia Cruz Malimban as personal banking officer. At First Hawaiian's Dededo branch on Guam, Julie S. Baynum was named service manager.

>> Stella Luecke has been named marketing assistant at Kahala Nui. She will assist the marketing director and senior living counselors in serving residents at the life care retirement community. Luecke joins Kahala Nui after serving as an incentive compensation administrator at Pacific Century Financial Corp.

PROMOTIONS

>> Larry Zimmerman has been promoted to dean of professional studies at Hawaii Pacific University. He has served as the division's acting dean since 2000. Zimmerman oversees the four master's degree programs that fall under the professional studies division: Organizational change, global leadership, human resource management and information systems. He joined HPU in 1995 as an instructor of management and was named assistant professor of management two years later.

>> David Morimoto has been promoted to vice president and manager of the treasury division at Central Pacific Bank. He will oversee both the treasury as well as wire and trade finance departments. Others promoted at the bank were: Craig Hashimoto, to vice president of human resources; Jon Taira, to assistant vice president and manager of financial technologies; Joyce Okamoto, to assistant vice president and manager of customer service for centralized branch operations; and Fumiko Batungbacal, to financial service officer of the Waikiki Branch.

>> Ogilvy & Mather Hawaii has promoted Gary J.K. Hiram to the position of production manager. Hiram joined Ogilvy as print production manager in 1996. In addition Cynthia Derosier has been promoted to creative supervisor. She had held the position of senior art director since 1996.

RECOGNITION

>> Ken Schoolland has been presented with the Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education by The Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation. Schoolland, an associate professor of economics at Hawaii Pacific University, was honored for his innovative efforts to help young people better understand America's private enterprise system. He will travel to Pennsylvania next year to attend an awards ceremony. The honor includes a $7,500 grant.

>> The League of American Bicyclists, a national membership organization, has designated Island Triathlon & Bike a SmartShops award winner in recognition the work by its staff and owner Frank Smith to create a more bicycle-friendly Honolulu. Island Triathlon & Bike has adopted a neighborhood bike path, cleaning and maintaining it several times a year. Smith has been the Hawaii Bicycle League's representative to the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization's Citizens Advisory Committee for many years. He is also actively involved with the Honolulu Mayor Office's Vision Teams and Oahu neighborhood boards on behalf of cycling and pedestrian issues.

>> Joseph B. Rothstein, a financial advisor with the Honolulu office of American Express Financial Advisors Inc., has been awarded the certified financial planner designation by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.

ON THE BOARD

>> Michael W. Gibson has been elected president of the Hawaii State Bar Association. Other officers are Douglas A. Crosier, vice president and president-elect; Jeffery H.K. Sia, treasurer; and Linnel T. Nishioka, secretary. The bar has elected the following new directors with terms expiring in 2003: John P. Gillmor, Hugh R. Jones, Faye M. Koyanagi, Christiane L. Nakea, Trudy Burns Stone, Elizabeth A. Strance, Suzanne T. Terada and Andrew S. Winer. Continuing directors with terms expiring in 2002 are: Steven J.T. Chow, Paul K. Hamano, David M. Jorgensen, Ronette M. Kawakami, Carol Mon Lee, Carol K. Muranaka and Wayne D. Parsons.

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Fed veteran Kelley sets Dec. 31 as final day

WASHINGTON >> Edward Kelley said his last day on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors will be Dec. 31.

Kelley, the only current board member who has served on the Fed longer than Alan Greenspan, submitted a resignation letter to President George W. Bush. Kelley had said June 4 he planned to resign.

Kelley didn't participate in Tuesday's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, which cut the target rate for overnight loans between banks to 1.75 percent, a 40-year low.

Susan Bies and Mark Olson were sworn in Friday as Fed governors, filling vacancies that had been open since 1999.

Ex-Enron financial chief Fastow hires lawyer Boies

NEW YORK >> Former Enron Corp. executive Andrew Fastow hired David Boies, the lawyer who represented Al Gore in last year's Florida presidential vote recount, as the government expanded its investigation of the energy trader's collapse.

Fastow was ousted as Enron's chief financial officer in October as the Securities and Exchange Commission began looking into partnerships he ran that amassed debts forcing the company to restate earnings over the past four years.

Boies also was the U.S. Justice Department's choice to argue its antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. in federal court in 1998 and 1999.

Boies, managing partner of Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, represented the buyers and sellers of art works who won a $512 million civil settlement against auction houses Sotheby's Holdings Inc. and Christie's International Plc over price-fixing charges.

In 1999, he won a record $1.17 billion settlement against six drugmakers accused of conspiring to fix prices in the $20 billion vitamin market.

Taubman steps down from real estate company

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. >> Former Sotheby's chairman A. Alfred Taubman stepped down as chairman of the real estate company he founded. Taubman was convicted in a price-fixing scheme at the auction house.

Taubman's son, Robert Taubman, president and chief executive officer, will take over as chairman of Taubman Centers Inc. The real estate investment trust owns, develops, acquires and operates urban and suburban shopping centers.

A federal jury found Alfred Taubman guilty of conspiring with former Christie's chairman Anthony Tennant in a scam that stole as much as $400 million in commissions.

Parsons asks Turner to stay at AOL Time Warner

NEW YORK >> Richard Parsons, the man recently named to replace AOL Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Gerald Levin, has asked estranged Vice Chairman Ted Turner to stay on after his contract expires.

The outspoken Turner, whose contract with AOL Time Warner expires at the end of the year, has publicly expressed regrets about the aftermath of his sale of Turner Broadcasting to Time Warner in 1996 and has voiced hard feelings toward his old colleague and friend Levin.

China retail sales up 10.1% in November

Beijing >> China's retail sales rose in November after civil servants received pay increases, a sign government spending is lifting domestic demand as slowing exports damp growth in Asia's best-performing economy.

Sales rose 10.1 percent from a year earlier to 342.2 billion yuan ($41.3 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said. That compared with a 10.5 percent gain in October and beat economists' expectations of a 9.7 percent increase.

The government is counting on domestic spending to fuel economic growth as exports fall. It's spending 150 billion yuan this year on public-works projects, wage increases and other measures to lift demand, including an average 15 percent pay increase for civil servants in October.

Qantas to resume New York flights in February

Sydney >> Qantas Airways Ltd., Australia's largest carrier, said it will resume flights to New York, via Los Angeles, starting on Feb. 27 as demand for international travel is picking up.

The Sydney-based carrier will fly the route three times a week, and will also add three new weekly services to Hong Kong from March 31, Qantas said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.

Qantas suspended some international services after demand for travel slumped following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. The carrier said it now sees signs of a recovery.

Foreign life insurers jump into China market

SHANGHAI, China >> Foreign life insurers are rushing into China as the country opens up its fast-growing market following entry into the World Trade Organization last week.

Nippon Life Insurance Co. said it has received approval to set up a joint venture in China, the first of Japan's massive life insurance companies allowed to do so.

New York-based MetLife Inc.'s also has won permission to operate a joint venture.

Beijing limits all newcomers to 50-50 joint ventures with Chinese partners.

Only a tiny fraction of the country's 1.3 billion people have life insurance.

More than a dozen foreign life insurers have received permission to operate in China since Beijing started easing restrictions about three years ago. Only one foreign life insurer -- New York-based American International Group -- has been allowed wholly owned subsidiaries in China, reflecting its early push into China in the 1980s.

India eyes exports as rubber makers plan cut

NEW DELHI >> The decision by world's top rubber producers, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, to cut output and exports will boost Indian exports and drag down imports, trade officials said.

The three leading producers signed a joint declaration in Bali last week to each cut output by 4 percent and exports by 10 percent starting January 2002 in a bid to shore up ailing prices.

GM cuts Thai staff as overseas demand falls

Bangkok >> General Motors Corp. said it cut 16 percent of the workforce at its Thai plant and asked other employees to take compulsory leave as the largest carmaker almost halves production because of falling overseas demand.

General Motors fired 230 temporary employees on Dec. 6, leaving about 1,200 staff. The automaker also asked 73 permanent staff to take leave until early 2003, during which time they'll receive half their current salary and keep all welfare benefits.

The Detroit-based automaker has received few orders for the Zafiras minivan made in Thailand as demand falls in Europe, the plant's largest export market. Economic growth in the 12 countries that share the euro currency expanded 0.1 percent in the third quarter, matching a 2 1/2-year low.

Japan pork imports from U.S. rise on mad-cow fears

Tokyo >> Japan imported 26 percent more pork from the U.S. in the first 10 months of 2001 as consumers spurned beef because of concern it may carry mad-cow disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

U.S. pork shipments to the second-biggest economy rose 26 percent to 218,083 metric tons in the January-October period. The value of U.S. shipments rose 20 percent to $992 million, as Japanese pork prices rose, the USDA said.