Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO John De Fries does not intend to seek renewal of his contract — meaning that HTA now must begin searching for its 11th top leader since the agency was created 25 years ago.
The announcement of De Fries’ departure, which is slated for Sept. 15 at the end of his three-year contract, came after a more than two-hour executive session during a special meeting of the HTA board, which met Thursday to discuss De Fries’ status.
Before the end of the this year’s state legislative session, the board had evaluated De Fries favorably in executive session during an HTA board meeting on March 30, and had offered to extend his contract for one year with an incremental raise over his current base salary, which had been downgraded to $250,000 during HTA’s 2021 reorganization.
This latest meeting came after the board and De Fries himself faced increasing pressure from some of the state’s top lawmakers, including Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, who has spoken about the need for change in the HTA board and its leadership.
HTA Chairperson George Kam said that the board supported De Fries’ decision, and that the length of the executive session was not because of strife.
“Never let pilau influence what’s pono. The length of (today’s executive session) was because we were having our discussion and we said, ‘What does John want?’,” Kam said. “Because that’s a big deal — you are at the tipping point of all the amazing things that you gave and now you want to hand it over.”
De Fries said he tendered his decision to leave HTA at a special board meeting on May 9, but the news was withheld so that it did not interfere with the procurement for HTA’s top three contracts to manage the brands and market Hawaii to the United States and Canada, and to offer support services for destination stewardship.
De Fries said he felt it was the right time to leave because he is confident that HTA in the last 60 days has put together a staff that is “well-prepared to take HTA on the next segment of the voyage.”
“We’ve got a veteran like (HTA Chief Administrative Officer) Daniel Naho’opi’i who will become the interim CEO on Sept. 15, the day that I leave, but transition will start now,” De Fries said.
De Fries said the decision also reflected his recognition that HTA is moving into a new phase.
“Twenty-five years ago (HTA) was created to distance the politics from the industry. Twenty-five years later we now have to create a system that is intimately interwoven with elected officials, the Legislature,” he said. “In my opinion that will produce a different HTA and it now becomes the work of a mixed generation of leaders.”
HTA’s governance committee will meet before an executive search for De Fries’ permanent replacement begins.
HTA board member Ben Rafter said, “John led HTA through a difficult time while setting the foundation for HTA’s next leader.We’ll begin working on the transition immediately.”
It’s been a wild ride since De Fries was selected from a field of 324 candidates to begin his tenure as HTA’s first Native Hawaiian president and CEO on Sept. 16, 2020, amid pandemic- related tourism cuts and a budget collapse.
When De Fries started there wasn’t overtourism, there was virtually no tourism. Much of De Fries’ early days at HTA were spent assisting the state in safely reopening tourism. Feedback during his first state legislative session at the helm of HTA resulted in a destination-management reorganization called Malama Kuu Home, which means caring for our beloved home, with a goal of more effectively meeting the goals outlined in HTA’s 2020-2025 Strategic Plan.
Despite the reorganization, the 2021 Legislature still took away the dedicated transient accommodations tax funding that HTA had been given when it was created. HTA’s normal $79 million annual TAT distribution was replaced with $60 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. HTA’s procurement exemption also was eliminated.
During this year’s legislative session, HTA became caught up in a crisis of confidence that threatened its very existence. That situation was referenced by Green during an online interview last month on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program. During the interview, Green said he was finalizing a list of new board members to put on HTA, and opined that change also was needed at the top level of HTA.
When asked about his own opinion of De Fries, Green said, “I have confidence that he has the right intent and he believes in the right things for Hawaii.”
But he said that he worried that “John does not have the ability right now to get the Legislature to fully fund what he would like to do. Again, he is an extremely good human being and has done a lot of good for Hawaii, but sometimes people have to change out of certain positions and move on to other careers that they can add more value to the state. I have a feeling that John will probably move on, and I think that is what they are discussing right now at the HTA board level.”
To put Green’s comments in context, HTA nearly got repealed by the Legislature last session.
If House Bill 1375, introduced by Rep. Sean Quinlan (D, Waialua-Kahuku- Waiahole) along with other House members, had not been deferred it could have repealed the HTA in favor of establishing an Office of Tourism and Destination Management within the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
While HTA was saved by the deferral, it left HTA without funding as its operational budget was left out of the final version of a state budget bill.
Lawmakers, however, did open the door in the final days of approval for the state budget bill, House Bill 300, for HTA to petition up to $60 million from a $200 million appropriation to the state Budget and Finance Department. HTA Vice President of Finance Isaac Choy told the board on Thursday that HTA has received verbal approval to receive $71 million broken down into $60 million for HTA operations and contracts and $11 million for the Hawai‘i Convention Center.
Green had indicated earlier that he planned to fund three multiyear procurement awards recently made by HTA. The awards valued at more than $67.8 million collectively are to manage the brands and market Hawaii to the United States and Canada, and to offer support services for destination stewardship.
The hope is that the scope of work in these new contracts will allow HTA to continue transitioning to an increasingly destination management-oriented model. In 2020 the HTA board adopted a strategic plan with four pillars that included natural resources, Hawaiian culture, the community and brand marketing. The agency then worked with communities to create Destination Management Action Plans aimed at moving toward a regenerative tourism model.
However, some lawmakers, especially those who represent constituents who live in tourism hot spots, desire even greater change.The preamble to HB 1375 also indicated that lawmakers took issue with HTA’s solicitation for its top U.S. tourism contract, which had to go out to a third procurement before it stuck. After the first two awards were rescinded, HTA lost some face in the community and among lawmakers.
Mike White, HTA board vice chairperson, said “Some people respond significantly to legislative pressure and others respond to a lesser degree. Having been at the Legislature, I know that pressure comes and pressure goes. And at the end of session, clearer heads prevailed and we got the support that we needed.”
White added, “When it came right down to it, the people who were in charge made sure that they preserved HTA and provided enough funding for us to continue. At the same time, the message was very clear that we would do things to move forward in a way that is more reflective of the needs of the community and tourism management.We are ready to do that.”
De Fries has not been the only HTA president and CEO to run afoul of some state lawmakers or to leave after a relatively short tenure.
Kam said, “There are a lot of fair-weather people navigating from the shore about how the Kaiwi Channel should be crossed and that’s the case of the CEO of HTA. John knew what he was signing up for. It’s not for the faint of heart.”
De Fries replaced Chris Tatum, who exited his contract early and retired on Aug. 31, 2021, to “spend more time with family.” Tatum followed interim HTA CEO and president Marc Togashi.
Togashi, who is HTA’s former vice president of finance, temporarily served after the HTA board voted to fire its president and CEO George Szigeti without cause. That decision followed another extremely contentious state legislative session.
Szigeti drew the ire of state lawmakers when he started holding an unusually high number of executive sessions, and initially refused to share detailed budget sheets with them. The run-up in visitor arrivals, which topped 10 million in 2019, also prompted community pushback from those who were concerned about overtourism. In 2018, the Senate’s dissatisfaction with HTA resulted in HTA getting a $13 million legislative budget cut.
Szigeti followed Ron Williams, a former HTA board chairperson, who served on an interim basis after former HTA President and CEO Mike McCartney left HTA to serve on Gov. David Ige’s executive team.
McCartney replaced Lloyd Unebasami, who took the reins temporarily, after Rex Johnson resigned under pressure. First, a state auditor flagged Johnson’s email account for pornography, causing the HTA board to dock his pay and cut his four-year contract to one year. But criticism of the HTA intensified after it become public a few months later that Johnson also had forwarded emails from his state laptop that contained racist and sexist content.
Prior to Johnson, former bank executive Rick Humphreys held HTA’s top job from Nov. 5, 2001, to March 28, 2002. He took the reins after HTA’s first top leader, Robert Fishman, was called up for military service in the wake of 9/11.
ROSTER OF HTA’S TOP LEADERS
Name Start Date End Date
John De Fries 9/16/2020 9/15/2023
Chris Tatum 12/24/2018 8/31/2020
Marc Togashi Interim
George Szigeti 5/28/2015 10/31/2018
Ron Williams Interim
Mike McCartney 4/6/2009 11/21/2014
Lloyd Unebasami Interim
Rex Johnson 9/3/2002 10/8/2008
Rick Humphreys 11/5/2001 3/28/2002
Robert Fishman* 1999 2001
*DBEDT did not provide Fishman’s actual employment dates
Source: Hawaii Tourism Authority; Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism
