Verizon’s Haruki
retires at 50The executive became
the youngest president in
Verizon's corporate history
Warren H. Haruki, 12-year president of Verizon Hawaii, announced yesterday he will retire at the end of the month at age 50.
Verizon, the state's largest local telephone company and part of the biggest U.S. local-telephone business, said it plans to name a successor soon.
Haruki joined Verizon's predecessor GTE Hawaiian Tel in 1977 as a rate coordinator, fresh from getting a master's in business administration at the University of Hawaii.
He later served as vice president of revenue requirements, external affairs and sales and service, and became Verizon's youngest president in December 1991 at age 39.
"He feels that he accomplished what he wanted to professionally. At 50, he is young enough to pursue new challenges," said Verizon spokeswoman Ann Nishida. Haruki will take time off and evaluate his career options, the company said. "He's certainly going to do something. I wouldn't be surprised," Nishida said.
Haruki declined a request for an interview yesterday. Born and raised on Kauai, he is the nephew of retired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric "Ric" Shinseki.
Verizon Hawaii had a 31.9 percent drop in operating income last year, to $83 million from $121.8 million in 2001. Revenues dipped to $531 million from $546.9 million.
Haruki is chairman of the Blood Bank of Hawaii board of trustees, and is on the board of First Hawaiian Bank. He's past chairman of the University of Hawaii Foundation board of trustees and of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii.
Parent company Verizon Communications Inc., based in New York, was formed in the 2000 merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE.
Verizon remains one of the state's largest employers, with 2,100 employees, down 30 percent from early 1996, largely from attrition through retirement. It has 1.5 million residential and business access lines statewide.
