Castle & Cooke Hawaii executive Carleton Ching has been selected by Gov. David Ige to be the new chairman of the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

The job carries the dual role of director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Ching is Castle and Cooke’s vice president for community and government relations. He has been instrumental in the development of the land company’s controversial Koa Ridge project between Waipahu and Mililani. The project received rezoning approval to build 3,500 homes from the Honolulu City Council in late 2013 despite concerns raised about traffic and the loss of agricultural lands.

Also named as first deputy DLNR director was Kekoa Kaluhiwa, who heads Kuano’o Communications.

Both nominations must be confirmed by the state Senate.

William Aila, land board chairman and DLNR director under former Gov. Neil Abercrombie, left the post at the end of 2014 after he was named by Ige to be deputy director of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

Carty Chang, a longtime DLNR staff member, has been serving as acting land board chairman in the interim.