In case anyone is wondering: The new CEO of Kamehameha Schools does take occasional "ribbing" about being a graduate of Punahou School. (He met his wife, Kimi, while they were attending UCLA, but their three kids are part of Team Buffanblu, too.)

But the fact that he’s not of Native Hawaiian ancestry while heading an educational trust that serves this population? Livingston "Jack" Wong said he doesn’t get heat for that. He invests a lot of "passion" in the work, so doesn’t see that as a "singular issue." Besides, he’s proven his cred over 17 years as an attorney for the organization he now heads — endowment value estimated at $9.06 billion — working with the trust’s land management and development arm.

That absorbs just about all his energy, said Wong, who just turned 50.

"I’m 100 percent here, or with my family," he said. "I know, that sounds kind of dull."

The next years will see primarily a continuation of the schools’ development goals — Kakaako and Haleiwa redevelopments, as well as a new solar farm venture in Central Oahu, are the current headlines. Then there was also this week’s move to sell the fee on its Executive Centre property, to the surprise of some who’ve seen previous requests to purchase declined.

Wong said his legal work put him in the position to see a lot of what was happening during the "John Doe" legal challenge to the schools’ Hawaiian-preference admission policy. And any decision about development has to take educational goals of the trust into account, which has helped keep him centered on the primary focus. But yes, there has been catch-up work to do.

Wong goes by "Jack" in part to distinguish him from his father, noted in Hawaii as a transplant surgeon. The younger Wong (the fourth of five children) found his calling more in the business world and the satisfaction in problem-solving that the legal profession afforded.

But both parents were physicians, so there was a bit of pressure to resist.

"I guess that’s the rebel in me," he said.

QUESTION: Why did Kamehameha Schools decide to sell the fee on the Executive Centre now? Did something change?

ANSWER: I think it’s a combination of a couple things. I think we’ve had our lease-fee sales program in place, at least the multifamily, since at least 1990. Part of the continuation of that is we see residential lease-fee product like this as part of that program.

But also … I think if you look at the Executive Centre, our sense is that it’s got its current use, and that use is going to be in place, with the leases in place for at least 50 years. … Really, we have no other plans in that surrounding area for redevelopment, short- or long-term … We actually don’t have other land holdings that are contiguous or nearby there, so it does kind of stands on its own. 

Q: Was this decision long in the making?

A: We’ve talked about it, and it took a while for it to develop. And I think partly our working together with the owners there also gave us the opportunity to say, “Now’s the time to do it,” as they were getting themselves ready, as well.

Q: What skills and orientation did your background in real estate and business law and property give you for this job?

A: A lot of my start here was with the real estate side. But in 2003, I began working with the organization on our John Doe case (challenging the schools’ Hawaiian-preference admissions policy). And it really gave me a broader understanding, a broader look at our organization, not just from a properties side, but from our mission side, our education side, defense of our preference. 

And so I think I bring that perspective, the ability to see the whole organization, because I’ve had that experience with the organization. … 

One of the good things about being a lawyer is you get to see broader parts of the organization. And really, I think what I can help understand and help us see to is how we can translate not only our endowment pieces but also our educational pieces to where we started from with our will (of the school founder, Bernice Pauahi Bishop). Because a lot of our job is defending the will, what are the purposes of Princess Pauahi’s will, how do we approach things in the legacy?

So I think my ability to help see that is helpful.

Q: How do you think Kamehameha Schools’ vision for its part of Kakaako redevelopment is turning out?

A: We had a master plan for Kakaako that we started with. … We established the plan, and I think we continued to follow the plan. … We have to follow the market at some level, but we also want to make sure we stay with our plan. So our plan had a very clear vision for how to use our lands to build neighborhood, how we create a neighborhood that has retail, has affordable housing, that has other pieces to it. So I think that part of the vision is playing out the way we had hoped for and we had laid out.

We always need to be flexible when we look at things. We don’t develop each project ourselves; we work with a lot of different developers. And we’ve got to be flexible, to see how developers are also seeing the market.

Q: A lot of the critique about Kakaako generally is that it’s going to become the home of the wealthy, these very fancy high-rises going up. Where are you striking the balance?

A: Whenever we make a decision with our lands, we always look at it through different lenses to make sure it’s not just economic. We always are making sure we understand economics; educational impacts, because we’re an educational organization; cultural impact on Native Hawaiians; also understanding its impact on the community and the environment.

So we always have five different principles we look to, in terms of making sure we optimize the use of a piece of property. It’s not all economic, but how do we balance those factors? Kakaako’s no different. … And it’s much harder. 

Q: Beyond conventional development, Kamehameha now has a solar farm project in the works. Is that a one-off, or is solar something Kamehameha could do more of?

A: We’re always open to new ideas, but part of our initiative is — and maybe this is part of the balancing I was talking about — we look at sustainability for our state. Sometimes we talk about agriculture and food sustainability; sometimes it’s energy; sometimes it’s other types of stewardship. We see that as an important part of our responsibilities. …

We always have to look at these things in balance, with the economics as well. … If there are opportunities to do more, we’ll do more, but it’s got to fit within that framework, too.

Q: What about your Haleiwa redevelopment work? What’s the mission there? There’s potential, but pushback, too.

A: I think it goes back to a little bit about the balancing, but a little of it goes to where we’re heading with a lot of our strategic planning. One of the things we’re heading is, in our education work and in the work we do in our communities, we’re trying to understand community by community, and not have one centralized solution. …

As we look at it region by region — and this is one of those regions — part of our planning is … to kind of step back a little bit and look at the whole landscape, starting with the first lens for us of education. What’s happening with education for Native Hawaiians in this community? How do we work to build it?

We have to work with our communities to figure out what are the right solutions here. I’m hoping we’ve done that with these projects that we have, but we know we could do more. …

Q: In the years since the “Broken Trust” controversies about the organization and management of the trust, do you think Kamehameha Schools has put that all in the past and is achieving the mission successfully?

A: Part of that depends on how we define our vision for the future and our mission. One of the big things for our organization, we know that we’ve been focusing at some length on extending our reach. …

If there’s a shift for our organization, it’s how do we build on that, and make real impacts in education? … If we’re going to measure those impacts by educational measures, one of the things we’ve been doing with our strategic plan is looking at, as an example, different parts of educational success for Native Hawaiian learners. We talk about kindergarten readiness, literacy in third grade. 

But ultimately one of the things we’re talking about is: Are we finding that Native Hawaiian learners, as part of our mission, are not only graduating high school but finding success beyond high school, postsecondary work, whether that’s college, apprenticeship programs, other programs?

And if that’s our measure, then really understanding that measure, and really understanding “Is our work making an impact there?” Not just are we reaching kids, but are we really making a difference? I think that that’s where I know we have work to do. And that’s our challenge. …

Q: Are you done with campus building, or is that going to expand as well?

A: I don’t know that we can ever say, “Absolutely, we’re done with that.” I do know that our focus is on making sure all Native Hawaiian learners are educated. We have to have strategies that reach beyond our campuses. …

One of the difficult things is, we can only do so much by ourselves. And so if we try to just keep building more campuses, we know we hit on our campuses and preschools, maybe 7,000 learners. But it’s 152,000 Native Hawaiians. …

Q: Was there a lot of catch-up work to get up to speed with the education side of things here?

A: I’ve been trying really hard to keep up with stuff in my time here, but I also know I have a lot to learn. So I’ve been trying to pick up as much as I can.

We have staff who have been helping; we have great teams. Yes, the learning curve, even for doing it for 17 years, which is an amazing thing, you can do something for a long time but there’s always still a lot to learn about this organization.