Hawaiian shareholder gives back

Zac Hirzel, Hawaiian Airlines’ largest shareholder with an 8.3 percent stake of the company, is using his director’s fees to sponsor 32 of Southern Methodist University’s top business students on a trip to Hawaii.

Hirzel, the 37-year-old founder and president of Dallas-based Hirzel Capital Management LLC, is in town this week, along with his wife, Hollee, for Thursday’s annual shareholders meeting. Hirzel also is on the board of the Alternative Asset Management Center, which represents top business students at SMU. Both he and Hollee are SMU alumni.

"SMU has been good to me, and Hawaiian has been good to me and is helping host the students," said Hirzel, who received $148,301 in director’s fees in 2014, according to a regulatory filing by Hawaiian.

The group of some of the best undergraduate students at the university are finishing their junior year in SMU’s Cox School of Business. Hirzel is on the advisory board designed to lead the program and mentor the students, who have spent the year analyzing Hawaiian Airlines’ valuation, business and opportunities.

"They are coming to explore the Hawaiian Airlines operations, (visit the) USS Arizona and enjoy a well-earned trip for a few days before starting internships in investment banking," Hirzel said Wednesday. "It is the trip of a lifetime for the students that they will remember for the rest of their lives."

Hirzel, who joined Hawaiian’s board of directors in February 2014, owned 4,533,573 shares as of March 31, according to a regulatory filing. At Wednesday’s closing price of $24.44, those shares were worth $110.8 million.

His stake in the company has more than quadrupled since he began purchasing the shares at an average price of $6, or roughly $27.2 million, in 2013.