BUSINESS BRIEFS
Bankoh names vice chairman
Advertiser Staff and Wire Services
Bank of Hawaii has named Peter Ho as vice chairman and chief banking officer.
He has held the title of vice chairman of the Investment Services Group. Ho becomes a member of the board of directors and will add the Commercial Banking Group to his responsibilities.
The group currently reports to vice chairman Alton Kuioka, who will continue as a vice chairman and member of the board while reducing his overall responsibilities. The bank said he will focus his attention on client relationships.
David Thomas, vice chairman of the Retail Banking Group, will become vice chairman and chief operating officer. He will have additional responsibility for the bank's Operations and Technology Divisions.
Vice chairman Neal Hocklander, who oversees Operations and Technology, intends to leave the bank in June as planned.
HAWAIIAN AIR IN WEB PROMOTION
Hawaiian Airlines is offering a free desktop application that promotes the Islands and sends out alerts on bargain fares.
The program for Windows PCs features streaming Hawaiian music from radio station KINE, surf and weather reports.
The application can be downloaded from the home page of HawaiianAirlines.com, or www.HawaiianAirlines.com/HawaiiAnytime.
CHINA'S ECONOMY MAY SURPASS U.K.
China's economy may be 17 percent larger and growing even faster than previous estimates, according to a new government report, and may surpass the U.K this year.
A yearlong census revealed millions of companies previously unaccounted for, with combined output valued at about $284 billion in 2004, the National Bureau of Statistics said in Beijing. Most of those companies are in service industries, which have been growing faster than manufacturing.
UTILITIES PLAN $11B MERGER
In the latest big merger in the utility industry, FPL Group and Constellation Energy said they will unite in an $11 billion stock deal that will create one of the largest U.S. energy powerhouses.
This year, the utilities industry has seen 169 mergers valued at $66 billion.
