HAWAII
Budding high-tech geniuses wanted
Scholarships are available for technology-minded youth who participate in HiTech Quest 2002.HiTech Quest was created to identify young people in Hawaii with information technology ideas and skills and give them the opportunity to showcase their abilities to an audience of high-tech professionals.
Entries to the competitive technology fair are being sought in the categories of networking, application development and multimedia/Internet. The deadline to participate is Nov. 15.
CTA, Oceanic Time Warner Cable of Hawaii, Bank of Hawaii, Sprint Hawaii, Hawaii Business magazine and Microsoft sponsor the event, which is open to Hawaii students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
The projects will be shown Dec. 4-5 in conjunction with the 2002 Hawaii ITEC event at the Hawaii Convention Center. Winners in each category will receive scholarships of $1000, $500 or $250 for use in continuing their technology education.
For more information and registration visit www.hitechquest.com.
MAINLAND
Starwood cuts outlook as luxury hotels suffer
SAN FRANCISCO >> Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., which owns Sheraton hotels, today slashed its outlook and vowed to cut costs, saying it had tried to keep room rates too high and suffered in New York and other big markets hardest hit by slow travel.Shares of the company, which also owns the Westin and W hotel brands, closed down 92 cents, or almost 4 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange to $23.00 after Starwood posted a rise in third quarter profit but offered sobering guidance for the fourth quarter and 2003.
White Plains, N.Y.-based Starwood, which manages 15 hotels in Hawaii, had been too aggressive and was thus forced to cut in half its fourth quarter target for available room revenue growth, a key measure of industry health, Bear Stearns analyst Jason Ader said in a note.
Other lodging firms had already said that business travel is weak and room revenue will grow slightly if at all next year, as Starwood conceded Thursday, Ader added.
Starwood reported a third-quarter profit of $52 million, or 26 cents per share, compared with a profit of $30 million, or 14 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.
Excluding one-time items, Starwood reported a profit of $54 million, or 26 cents a share, in line with the Wall Street consensus, according to Thomson First Call.
AOL says it will restate earnings for two years
NEW YORK >> AOL Time Warner reported a small third-quarter profit yesterday, despite continued softness in its America Online division, but said it would restate its financial results for a two-year period because of its review into accounting practices at the online unit.For the three months ending Sept. 30, the media conglomerate earned $57 million, or 1 cent per share, compared with a loss $997 million, or 22 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. Revenues for the third quarter totaled $9.98 billion, compared to $9.07 billion during the comparable 2001 quarter.
California court lets stand $290M verdict
SAN FRANCISCO >> The California Supreme Court let stand yesterday a $290 million verdict against the Ford Motor Co. over a deadly 1993 rollover accident involving a Ford Bronco.The justices decided without comment not to review an appeal from the automaker, which in court papers called the verdict the nation's largest personal injury award ever affirmed by an appeals court.
The case involved a rollover accident of a 1978 Ford Bronco in which three members of the Romo family were killed and two others injured.
BACK TO TOP |
[Hawaii Inc.]
NEW JOBS
>> Coffee Partners Hawaii, a licensee of Starbucks Coffee International, has named Estee Beard general manager of the Kona Coast Shopping Center Starbucks Coffee store. She performs all aspects of operation including staffing and cash management, inventory control, customer satisfaction and upholding the company's standards for product quality and presentation. Prior to joining Coffee Partners Hawaii, she held a number of coffee-related management positions, including a position as Seattle Coffee Co. customer service manager.>> Hiroko Marcinkowski has been named sales and marketing director of finance and controller for Marriot's Ko Olina Beach Club. She will be responsible for managing the resort's accounting and finance activities.
She was most recently vice president and controller at Square USA Inc., a subsidiary of Japan's Square Co. Ltd., a video game and computer graphics company.
ON THE BOARD
>> Bob Dove has been appointed to the American Society of Workers Comp Professional Inc. board of directors.He has been president and chief executive officer of the Hawaii Employers' Mutual Insurance Co. since 1997. AMCOMP was established in 1997 due to the lack of a professional society that recognized or certified the field of worker's compensation.
>> First Hawaiian Bank Senior Vice President Robert Harrison has been named chairman of the board for Aloha Harvest. Other officers are Watanabe Ing Kawashima & Komeiji attorney Kevin Oda, vice president; Outrigger Enterprises Vice President Barbara Campbell, vice president; Carlsmith Ball attorney Terry Thomason, secretary; and Clinical Laboratories of Hawaii Chief Financial Officer Francis Imada, treasurer. Aloha Harvest is a nonprofit organization that delivers food from local hotels, restaurants and distributors to social service agencies that serve the hungry.
>> The National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii Board of Directors has elected Terrence George, chief program officer for Consuelo Foundation, as president for fiscal year 2003. Other officers are: Vice President Mike Masuda, senior vice president and manager of Central Pacific Bank's trust and investment division; Treasurer Blake Anzai, assistant vice president and branch manager of American Savings Bank; and Secretary Leland Chang, consultant.