Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 4, 1 April 1991 — OHA names new loan fund director [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA names new loan fund director

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has announced the promotion of Ken Sato to manager of OHA's Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund (NHRLF), and the hiring of Jerry Opiopio as an NHRLF loan officer. The loan fund is a five-year, $3 million demonstration project designed to provide low interest loans to Hawaiians who want to start, expand or improve their own businesses, but who are unable to qualify for loans at conventional lending institutions. The program, whieh is funded by the Administration for Native Americans and administered by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is in its last year of funding by the federal government. However, additional financial sources are being sought to enable NHRLF to eonhnue on a longterm basis. Sato has been with the project as a loan officer since its ineephon. He is a graduate of McKinley High School in Honolulu and earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degrees from the University of Hawai'i. A Vietnam veteran, Sato served five years active duty in the Navy and holds the rank of Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. His business experience includes three years as commercial loan officer at Bank of Hawai'i, four

years as vice president of THC Financial Corporation and a year as president of Lineoln Financial Corporation. Sato founded and managed Cash Register Pacific, ine., a firm whieh markets and services electronic cash registers. Opiopio in his capacity as an NHRLF loan officer, will assist in the processing, evaluation and monitoring of both new and current loans. He is a Punahou graduate and earned a B.S. degree in business and finance from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Opiopio has a decade of experience in banking and served as loan officer, assistant branch manager and as assistant cashier at Bank of Hawai'i. Most recently he was a financial advisor for the Small Business ' Center of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawai'i. To date, the Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan i fund has approved loans totalling $2,220,200. 1 Approximately $1 million remains to be expended between now and November, 1992. Sato said that NHRLF continues to receive far more applications for loans than there are resources available. He noted that loans have been awarded to applicants on all islands except for Lana'i and the program is now seeking viable applications from that island. For more information about the Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund eall OHA at 5863777.

Ken Sato