Paul Yonamine, the son of one of Hawaii’s greatest athletes, said having a famous father opened doors for him.
But it was his extensive background as a global business executive and his technology expertise that landed him the job as chairman and CEO of Central Pacific Bank’s holding company and executive chairman of the bank.
The state’s fourth-largest bank announced Wednesday that Yonamine, who joined the board of directors of Central Pacific Financial Corp. and the bank in June 2017, will begin his new positions on Monday. He will be the holding company’s third CEO in three years.
Yonamine, 61, will assume one of the CEO titles currently held by Catherine Ngo, who took over the positions of president and CEO of the bank and holding company from John Dean on July 1, 2015. Ngo, 57, will continue to serve as president and CEO of the bank as well as president of the parent company and will remain on both boards.
| PAUL YONAMINE
>> New titles: Chairman and CEO of Central Pacific Financial Corp, executive chairman of Central Pacific Bank
>> Age: 61
>> Current positions: Board member of Central Pacific Financial and Central Pacific Bank, executive chairman of GCA Corp. in Japan
|
Dean, 71, the current chairman of the holding company and the bank, will remain a director of both boards.
“Three months ago, I learned of Paul’s interest in coming back to Hawaii,” Ngo said. “Paul has been on our board of directors for 14 months now, and just having worked with Paul over the time and knowing his background, I was determined to find a way to attract him to the organization and become more engaged in our organization. With his background and stature, having been the CEO of five prior companies, I knew to attract him it would have to be at the highest executive level.”
Yonamine currently serves as the executive chairman of GCA Corp., the largest independent mergers and acquisitions advisory investment bank in Japan listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. GCA specializes in technology based, cross border merger and acquisititons advisory services with 18 offices across America, Asia and Europe. Beginning Monday, Yonamine will be non-executive chairman of GCA Corp.
He served as president and country general manager of IBM Japan Ltd. until March 2017. His Hawaii ties include previously working as managing partner of KPMG-Hawaii and senior adviser to the mayor for the City and County of Honolulu, along with spending three months a year in Hawaii during his youth.
“Paul’s initial areas of focus, playing to the background and expertise and skills that he has, will be on business development, thinking of new opportunities for our bank, and then also the digital front,” Ngo said. “There’s such disruption in the industry today with digital technology, and with Paul’s background, particularly at IBM Japan and working with a number of large banks in Japan, he’s going to be able to really accelerate the pace of our executing on a digital strategy.”
Yonamine said he is confident that he and Ngo can work together in their respective CEO roles.
“Catherine and I are going to take a very deliberate approach to make it into a working partnership,” Yonamine said. “Clearly she has more banking experience. Business development, sales execution, areas in technology, that’s an area I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in the last 40 years. So we’re hoping to complement one another and create some synergies there. We’ve spoken many times that at the end of the day, I am the CEO of the holding company. So in terms of ownership and accountability, I represent the CEO.”
Yonamine was born and raised in Tokyo but his father, Wally Yonamine, was born on Maui and his mother, Jane (Iwashita) Yonamine, was born on the Big Island. The elder Yonamine became the first Asian-American to play in the National Football League, for the San Francisco 49ers in 1947. He later played professional baseball in Japan, starring as a player for the Yomiuri Giants and Chunichi Dragons, as well as coaching or managing five teams.
“There was a lot of pressure on me to play ball, and when I finally gave it up my sophomore year in college, it was a big deal for me … I went through a period where it was really difficult, especially in Japan, because everyone knew who my father was, especially the last name. So I’d go to batting cages and use a different name. But years later as I matured and I appreciated my father’s effort in making a living and his wisdom in managing so many different teams, there were a lot of lessons for me.
“When I started working in Japan, everybody would meet with me at least once because they wanted to meet the son of Wally Yonamine. If they didn’t meet me a second time, that meant I didn’t impress them. But it always opened doors for me and it was a real gift.”
