December 12, 2003
Contributed by CEO Message
Her name is Dee Jay Mailer, and many of you may know her, or know of her. She is a 1970 graduate of Kamehameha Schools. Her daughter Renee graduated from Kamehameha in 1996 and her daughter Brandy is a member of the class of '98. From 1995 to 1999, Ms. Mailer headed Kaiser Permanente Hawaii. What struck us all about Dee Jay is her background in healing, and her strong commitment to the values - caring, shared responsibility -- that are fundamental to Kamehameha Schools. We all know what a tumultuous time this has been for Kamehameha - from the change in leadership that brought all of us Trustees together, to the recent lawsuits challenging our admissions policy. Dee Jay is a "healer." She has an extensive background in health care and incredible experience leading complex institutions. She won't be starting until January 19, because she is in Geneva, Switzerland wrapping up her current duties as Chief Operating Officer of the Global Fund, which raises money to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. But we wanted to announce her appointment now, because she will be contacting many of our executives over the next month as she prepares for her new job as CEO of Kamehameha. Last May, we asked our 'ohana to let us know what they considered to be the characteristics of good leadership and we invited everyone to nominate candidates. You provided fantastic input. The initial search turned up 200 potential candidates and we gave ourselves time to be very careful and select right person for the job. Dee Jay embodies many of the qualities you identified. She has successfully led a complex organization through a great change. Under her leadership, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii won national recognition as one of the best Health Maintenance Organizations in the country. She has financial acumen and strong business skills. As an alumna and former parent she knows the Kamehameha community. And she has strong moral character. Those who know her say she is uncompromising in her values. And her background in health care demonstrates and deep commitment to improving well-being, which is part of our mission. We are committed to the CEO-based management system and our Strategic Plan. Dee Jay will be using her considerable skills to continue to implement the strategic plan that was developed with input from thousands of members of our community. She understands how to work successfully with evolving organizations and we are confident that she is the right person to lead Kamehameha Schools as it continues to extend its reach to as many Hawaiians as possible. We also want to extend a huge mahalo to Acting CEO Colleen Wong, who now returns to her job as VP of Legal Affairs. Colleen did not want to be considered for the CEO position, but she agreed to our request to run Kamehameha while we conducted our search and she has done a magnificent job during a very tough seven months that included two legal challenges to our preference policy. Mahalo Colleen - and mahalo to our executive team and all of our employees. Our staff makes Kamehameha Schools strong and we are confident they will work well with Dee Jay to make Kamehameha Schools the best it can be. Constance H. Lau Chair, Board of Trustees
Kamehameha Schools’ policy is to give preference to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry to the extent permitted by law.
