Perhaps nowhere in the United States are nonprofit organizations as numerous and vital to civil society as the Aloha State. Far from mainland shores, it’s in our DNA to take care of ourselves. That means successful managers, both in profit and nonprofit spaces, must be adept as leaders and social entrepreneurs.
That’s where Roy Panzarella, director of Chaminade University’s Hogan Program, fits in. Thinking out of the box is second nature to Panzarella, whose military career has ranged from attack helicopter pilot to soldier/diplomat with NATO in Poland. Following his Army service, he worked as a senior executive at Lockheed Martin and Alaka‘ina, a Native Hawaiian organization.
I had a chance to speak with Panzarella recently about the role of the Hogan program in Hawaii.
Question: What’s the genesis of the Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program?
Answer: The Hogan family, founders of Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, created the program 21 years ago. Its mission differs from what you might expect to find at a conventional “B” school. Our motto is “doing business things that make social sense and social things that make business sense.” For example, we sponsor a nonprofit business plan competition, and in past years assisted homeless individuals in writing resumes to prepare them for job interviews.
Q: Describe your journey to become the director.
A: After “rewiring” from the Army and moving to Hawaii, I served the Chaminade community for six years on both the board of regents and the Hogan Program. As entrepreneurs, my wife and I co-founded the Strategic Wellness Group on the belief that there is an art and a science to living well over 20 years ago.
Q: Is the Hogan Program only for business school students?
A: Any Chaminade student can join, whether you’re in nursing, criminal justice, psychology or business school. That’s the point. In a sense we’re all in “in business” and need to be entrepreneurial — on or off the job. One of our current students, Jacob Fernandez, is in the nursing program and with his brother has co-founded Brossentia, where they create quality handmade, all-natural soap for men.
Q: Can you offer some examples of what Hogan grads created locally?
A: Haelee Tallett, a jewelry designer, is a 2016 Hogan graduate and owner of Ocean Creations. At age 26 she’s already opened her second jewelry store at Ala Moana Mall, and has 13 employees. Anthony Shipp, a Chaminade M.B.A., is president and CEO of M Dyer Global Moving and Logistics, a 50-year old firm with nearly 100 employees. He has applied common-sense management lessons acquired as a Marine Corps security officer in Iraq and honed them at the Hogan Program. Rechung Fujihira, CEO and partner of Jelly Works, pioneered the concept of co-working in Hawaii and created Box Jelly and Entrepreneur’s Sandbox. All have given back to the community, which is an intrinsic part of the Hogan ethos.
Q: How has the Hogan program changed since you took the helm almost three years ago?
A: When I arrived, both Gary Hogan and Dr. Lynn Babington, Chaminade president, issued a challenge to grow the program. Since then we have tripled the number of inductees and created an entrepreneurial minor for business students. And last October at the fall kickoff, we launched the Suzie Martin and Vaughn Vasconcellos Leadership Institute inside the Hogan program. Since then we added an entrepreneurial study mission to South Korea and recently conducted a successful entrepreneurial crisis leadership workshop on the battleship USS Missouri using the lessons learned from the Pearl Harbor attack. We have also endeavored to build deeper relationships and partnerships to create a base for regional and international growth.
Q: What can we expect from future graduates of the Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program?
A: Naturally, we should expect our graduates will have the tools and knowledge to start a business from ideation through production and harvesting. Future grads will have had much more experiential learning and ethical grounding. And as a result of being exposed to design thinking and networking with community entrepreneurs who survived and flourished during COVID-19, our graduates will be creative leaders of character, better prepared for unanticipated crises such as a health pandemic or economic recession.
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Rob Kay, a Honolulu-based writer, covers technology and sustainability for Tech View and is the creator of fijiguide.com. He can be reached at Robertfredkay@gmail.com.
