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[Hawaii Inc.]

Promotions

>> AT&T Wireless has promoted Paul Kainoa to customer care manager and Maria Quillopo to indirect district manager for Hawaii. Kainoa has been with AT&T Wireless in Hawaii since 1992. He will manage the local customer care center and its 78 employees. He also will oversee the new international wireless care department, which provides 24-hour assistance to customers traveling abroad. Kainoa was most recently a retail manager for the Mililani Tech Park and WalMart stores. Quillopo has been with AT&T Wireless since 1994, most recently as retail manager of the Kapolei store.

Recognition

>> Kathleen Sugai has been named Credit Union Volunteer of the Year by the Hawaii Credit Union League. She is chairwoman of the Queen's Federal Credit Union in Honolulu. Ariel Chun, president of the University of Hawaii Federal Credit Union, has been named Credit Union Professional of the Year. And Lois Akiona, Maui County Employees Federal Credit Union, has been named Credit Union Employee of the Year. The Hawaii Credit Union League is the trade association for 100 credit unions in Hawaii and Guam.

>> Eugene Aweau has been recognized as the state Department of Human Services, Vocational Rehabilitation and Services for the Blind Outstanding Rehabilitant of the Year. With the help of the department's employment arm, Projects With Industry, he was able secure a job at Waikele's KFC as a crew worker in March 2002.

>> American Express financial advisor Eric Fujimoto has earned membership in the company's Circle of Success program and an invitation to the Inner Circle Conference. He is one of the company's top producers.

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PepsiCo earnings boosted by munchers

NEW YORK >> Fortified by growth in both its snacks and beverage businesses, PepsiCo Inc. posted a 15 percent rise yesterday in its second quarter earnings, matching Wall Street expectations.

The Purchase, N.Y.-based company also said its latest results benefited from comparison to results a year ago that included higher costs related to its acquisition of Quaker Oats.

Mirant tumbles after Merrill downgrade

ATLANTA >> A Merrill Lynch downgrade sent shares of Mirant Corp. tumbling nearly 16 percent yesterday on fears that the energy supplier will not meet its debt restructuring deadline and be forced into bankruptcy.

Merrill Lynch reduced its rating of Mirant from neutral to sell. It said in a research note that the probability that the company would achieve an out-of-court debt restructuring by Monday's midnight deadline is less than 50 percent.

Buffett lunch fetches $250,100

Lunch for eight with billionaire investor Warren Buffett, head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and the world's second-richest man, fetched a top bid of $250,100 in a charity auction on EBay Inc.'s Web site, Bloomberg News reported.

The bid from EBay user "schtinyt" came in the final hour of the auction, topping 139 other offers in the past five days. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Glide Foundation, a nonprofit group in San Francisco.

Rolf Bell, Glide's director of development said he was unable to immediately identify "schtinyt."

The winner will get a lunch for eight people in New York City between May 5 and 14 next year. An earlier sit-down can be arranged in Omaha, Neb., where Berkshire is based. The Glide Foundation provides programs to about 30,000 homeless and needy people in the San Francisco area.

Ford names insider as CFO

DETROIT >> Ford Motor Co. yesterday promoted controller Don Leclair to chief financial officer, succeeding Allan Gilmour, who came out of retirement a little more than a year ago to help the automaker's ongoing turnaround bid.

Leclair's elevation, not totally unexpected, means a Ford insider will continue to oversee the cost-cutting that Gilmour began when chairman Bill Ford Jr. lured him out of retirement in May 2002.

Leclair, 51, will report to Gilmour, who remains vice chairman. Ford's board also elected 43-year-old Jim Gouin (pronounced Gway) as a company vice president and controller, succeeding Leclair. Gouin has been controller for North America since November 2001.

The appointments are effective Aug. 1.

Former Rite Aid exec pleads guilty

HARRISBURG, Pa. >> Another former Rite Aid Corp. executive pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, a charge related to the government's investigation of an accounting-fraud scandal at the drugstore chain.

Philip Markovitz, 62, Rite Aid's former senior vice president of store development, admitted lying to FBI agents and a grand jury about when he received a lucrative severance letter from Martin L. Grass, Rite Aid's former chairman and chief executive.

In other news ...

>> Cerberus Capital Management, an investment company that specializes in buying distressed assets, is considering making a bid for the manufactured homes maker Clayton Homes, which had agreed to be acquired by Berkshire Hathaway for $1.7 billion.

>> Silicon Valley companies say they are feeling increased pressure to alter their pay practices in light of Microsoft's decision to change the way it pays its 50,000 employees.

>> As part of its investigation of HealthSouth, a congressional committee released a second e-mail message by UBS Warburg analyst Howard G. Capek, who criticized the company just months after giving its stock the highest possible rating.

>> Shares of Yell Group, the publisher of the British Yellow Pages, raised $1.86 billion in the company's public debut in London, which usually lags behind U.S. markets as a place for raising capital.