Hawai‘i has so much potential in this new globally connected world. We are already viewed as the ideal testing ground for innovative, globally significant technologies such as telemedicine, smart cities, driverless vehicles and aquaculture. . .
Local entrepreneur Tina Fitch with the governor.
Hawai‘i is home to many talented individuals breaking new ground every day. The Big Island’s Tina Fitch turned her start-up Switchfly into a global software platform used by almost every major travel and hospitality company. Now, she’s returned home and started a second company, HobNob.
DLIR’s “Three Amigos” were praised for streamlining workers’ comp.
In our own state government, employees are helping us improve our services to the public every day. For example, thanks to a team of young millennials known as “The Three Amigos” – Jodie Nakamura, Ryan Mercado and Liam Tobin – the wait time for workers’ comp hearings has been cut in half. This 2017 Team of the Year from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations launched a project to digitize mountains of paperwork from some 20,000 claims a year. And there are many more dedicated workers just like them across the state. They’re just a sampling of our homegrown talent. We just need to do more to create the supportive environment around them that will launch and sustain their careers here in the islands.