Aedward Los Banos picked to lead Hawaii Community Development Authority

The state agency regulating development in Kakaako soon will have a new executive director from within the organization after eight months of interim leadership.

Board members of the Hawaii Community Development Authority on Wednesday unanimously selected Aedward Los Banos, the agency’s administrative services officer, to lead HCDA.

Los Banos will assume his new role Aug. 6.

HCDA’s last executive director, Jesse Souki, resigned Nov. 30 after one year on the job, which paid $130,000. Garett Kamemoto, the agency’s public information officer, has been serving as interim executive director since then. Kamemoto will return to his prior position when Los Banos takes over.

Los Banos has been with HCDA four years and is a former chief operating officer at the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs. He also was vice president of administration at Catholic Charities Hawaii. Los Banos led HCDA as an interim executive director for 11 months mainly in 2016 after Anthony Ching, who led the agency from 2007 to 2015, retired after under­going open-heart surgery.

HCDA’s board was able to consider results from a professional executive search in 2016 that led to Souki’s hiring. That effort involved a $31,250 contract with executive search firm Bishop &Co. that produced 192 applicants, of which six were interviewed by the board.