10 TO WATCH IN 2004:
Dee Jay Mailer
COURTESY PHOTO
Estate’s CEO no
stranger to upheaval
When Dee Jay Mailer was appointed chief executive officer of Kaiser Permanente Hawaii in 1995, the nation's health care industry was experiencing unprecedented turbulence. Cost pressures, mergers and acquisitions and legislative changes were transforming the way managed care organizations delivered services.
The Star-Bulletin is spotlighting 10 people who may have a big impact on Hawaii this year.
But through it all, Mailer brought a "healing hand" to the Kaiser organization, recalled Chris Pablo, Kaiser's director of public relations. "She came at a time when there was a lot of changes and upheaval in the health care industry and Kaiser," Pablo said. "Dee Jay brought a lot of calm and peace to the organization."
Mailer's crisis management skills will be put to test again as CEO of the Kamehameha Schools, a post she will assume on Jan. 19. The 1970 Kamehameha Schools graduate's predecessor at the $6 billion trust, Hamilton McCubbin, abruptly resigned from his $350,000-a-year position in May in the wake of an internal investigation into an alleged improper relationship with a female employee.
Mailer also inherits a lawsuit by an non-Hawaiian student who is challenging the estate's century-old policy that limits admission to native Hawaiian children.
"I think the trustees who selected her were mindful of the needs of the Kamehameha Schools," said Patrick Yim, a trustee of Liliuokalani Trust and former state judge.
Mailer previously served as chief operating officer of The Global Fund, a multibillion-dollar Swiss trust set up to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Before that that, Mailer, whose two daughters attended Kamehameha Schools, served as chief administrative officer of Health Net Inc., a California-based health plan serving 2.3 million members.
"I don't think there's a Hawaiian or a Hawaiian at heart who doesn't offer a silent prayer that she will be successful at the school," Yim said.
