Articles
President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, Jim Tollefson, said that involvement in the community can bring greater returns in the future.

"Get involved because your returns are going to be much greater than your level of involvement," says Tollefson.

Organizations such as the Aloha United Way, Blood Bank of Hawaii and Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau were all established by the Chamber.

The Chamber successfully lobbied against the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) in July 2005 which would have shut down the Pearl Harbor Naval shipyard.

"Our military committee sprung into action and helped lead a group of people and organizations including our Congressional Delegation, the Governor's office, the Mayor's office, the Navy, the Shipyard, and the Unions," Mr. Tollefson said.    

"We all came together and worked together and the end result was that the shipyard was not placed on the closure list, consequently taking out of jeopardy approximately 6,000 jobs with an economic impact to the state of over a billion dollars a year."

Jim Tollefson has been in the position since 2002 after being a member of the board for seven years while working for the Bank of Hawaii.

For more information see COCHawaii.org


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