Lingle rings Wall Street
bell to promote island
economy
Gov. Linda Lingle and representatives from three of Hawaii's publicly traded companies rang the closing bell yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange as part of an East Coast trip to promote Hawaii's improving business environment.
Lingle, who was in the midst of an eight-day East Coast swing, was joined by officials from Bank of Hawaii Corp., Central Pacific Financial Corp. and Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., all of whose companies trade on the NYSE. ML Macadamia Orchards LP, the fourth NYSE-listed Hawaii company, was invited but was unable to send a representative.
"It was an opportunity to promote Hawaii business and to show that our state economy is back on track and strengthening," Lingle spokesman Russell Pang said. "The governor took the opportunity to talk about strong economic indicators and shared the latest unemployment figures and job growth figures that came out (Thursday)."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Specialist Lisa Colantuoni, foreground center, talked about the market yesterday with Gov. Linda Lingle and Micah Kane, chairman of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, right. Lingle visited Wall Street with a delegation to promote the state.
Those figures showed that Hawaii's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in January was 3.9 percent, well below the national jobless rate of 5.6 percent. The state's employed labor force also reached an all-time high of 603,200 last month, up 3 percent from a year earlier.
Bank of Hawaii was represented by Allan Landon, president and chief financial officer; and Cindy Wyrick, senior vice president of investor relations. Central Pacific was represented by Clint Arnoldus, chairman, president and chief executive officer. Hawaiian Electric was represented by Bob Clarke, chairman, president and CEO; and Eric Yeaman, financial vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer.
Lingle and Hawaii company representatives met with John Thain, the new CEO of the NYSE, as well as people from three bond ratings houses, Fitch Ratings, Moody's Investors Service, and Standard & Poor's.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gov. Linda Lingle, center in front of the flag, rang the closing bell yesterday for the New York Stock Exchange, accompanied by local government and business leaders.
