Terrence George

CEO and President, Hawai'i Community Foundation

When you move from the prairies of Minnesota at age three to the urban sophistication of Tokyo in 1961, it’s hard to move back. This is what happened to Terry, who has spent most of his life in archipelagoes: the world’s largest (Indonesia), the second largest (the Philippines), and the absolute finest (Hawai’i). Vibrant democracies also seem to be a theme for him, with much work to deploy private philanthropic dollars to improve social justice and good governance in the world’s first democracy (the United States), one of its most raucous (the Philippines), and its largest (India). Along the way, he has studied and forgotten eight languages, made thousands of grants to hundreds of nonprofit organizations and universities in 14 countries, and eaten a lot of good street food.

Terry is a 1976 graduate of Punahou School. He received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, his master’s degree in law and diplomacy from Tufts University, and his executive MBA from the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawai’i.

From 1989 to 1998, Terry served in the Ford Foundation’s field offices in Manila and New Delhi as program officer for rights and social justice, local governance, and regional security and cooperation. Terry moved back to Hawai’i in 1998 to marry his wife, Julie, a first-grade teacher at Kamehameha Schools, and to raise their two children, Gracie and Geoffrey. From 1998 to mid-2003, Terry was chief program officer for the Consuelo Foundation in Hawai’i.

Effective August 1, 2025, Terry is chief executive officer and president and of the Hawai’i Community Foundation.

Terry lives in Kaimuki in a three-generation household. He is the CEO and President of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation. He serves on the boards of the Hawaii Business Roundtable, Hawaii P20 Council, HMSA, and Hanahau’oli School. Terry also serves on the Summer Internship Selection Committee for the Hawaii Carpenters Apprenticeship and Training Fund. He is the past chair of the board of the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii and the past president of the Rotary Club of Honolulu. Terry enjoys spending his spare time reading, cooking, and hiking.

Wendy Hensel

President, University of Hawai'i System

Wendy F. Hensel, a champion of equity and innovation in higher education, assumed the role of University of Hawaiʻi President on January 1, 2025. Hensel joins UH after serving as Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost at The City University of New York (CUNY), where she led strategic initiatives to improve student success, expand high-quality virtual degree programs, and enhance workforce development by aligning academic programs with emerging job market needs. Under her leadership, CUNY implemented a systemwide transfer plan to improve time-to-graduation rates and reduce student debt. She also spearheaded the adoption of data analytics and artificial intelligence to modernize curricula, enhance efficiency, and improve student outcomes.

Before joining CUNY, Hensel spent more than two decades at Georgia State University (GSU), where she guided the institution through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring uninterrupted instruction for its 53,000 students. Her leadership contributed to GSU’s national recognition for innovation and excellence in undergraduate teaching, and its commitment to broadening diversity, inclusive excellence, and belonging on campus.

As a legal scholar specializing in disability law, policy, and ethics, Hensel has published widely and presented extensively. A passionate advocate for people with disabilities, she serves on the board of directors for Integrate, an organization promoting inclusive employment for professionals with autism. Before her academic career, Hensel practiced law at Alston & Bird LLP in Atlanta and served as a judicial clerk for Judge Orinda Evans of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia. Inducted as a Fellow of the American Bar Association in 2019, she maintains her professional licensure.

Hensel holds a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in American public affairs from Michigan State University, where she was a Harry S. Truman Scholar and interned at the U.S. Supreme Court. She earned her law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School.

David Lassner *

President Emeritus, University of Hawai'i

David Lassner served for more than 10 years as the 15th president of the University of Hawai‘i (UH), where he led the 10-campus UH system, the state’s sole provider of public postsecondary education, and Hawai‘i’s flagship research university, UH Mānoa.

Lassner has an ongoing focus on helping more Hawai‘i residents, particularly those who have historically been left behind, earn college degrees and credentials with a focus on critical areas of workforce shortage such as in education, health care, technology, energy, and the skilled trades. He is committed to strengthening the state’s economy by leveraging UH research and innovation to create and fill more high-quality jobs locally. Lassner is advancing UH’s commitment to become a model Indigenous-centered university that cares for Hawai‘i, Native Hawaiians and all of Hawai‘i’s people as it weaves together modern science and education with the traditional Indigenous wisdom, values and practices that made the Hawaiian islands a model of self-contained sustainability before Western contact.

Under Lassner’s leadership, metrics of student success showed steady improvement across the UH System and enrollment has remained strong. A restructuring of the relationship with UH has led to record philanthropic investment. A focus on research that matters to and is grounded in Hawai‘i has led to record extramural funding. And strong management practices have ensured financial stability through recessions and a pandemic.

Lassner began working at UH in entry-level roles in information technology (IT) in 1977, eventually becoming UH’s first chief information officer and then its first vice president for IT. He was appointed interim president in September 2013, and the “interim” was removed in June 2014. Lassner is also a member of the university’s cooperating graduate faculty and has taught both online and in-person at UH Mānoa in computer science, communications, business, and education.

Lassner is a current commissioner and former chair of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), as well as a member of the Board of Governors of the East-West Center. He serves on the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advisory Committee on Cyberinfrastructure and on the boards of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research (PICHTR), the Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB), the ‘Iole Stewardship Center, and the Blood Bank of Hawai‘i. He also serves on the boards of the Mountain West and Big West intercollegiate athletic conferences.

In prior positions, Lassner played an active leadership role in a variety of local, national, and international information and communications technology organizations, and has been recognized numerous times for his service and leadership. He chaired Hawai‘i’s Broadband Task Force and served on the boards of Hawai‘i’s High Technology Development Corporation and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) affiliate. Lassner chaired the boards of the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) and EDUCAUSE and was a founding steering committee member and past chair of WCET – WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies.

An active principal investigator for more than 25 years, Lassner led Hawai’i’s major statewide project funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce that interconnected all public schools, libraries, and campuses on six islands with fiber optics, and he has had NSF support for more than 25 years focused on research and education networking and cyberinfrastructure in Hawai‘i and the Pacific. He is principal investigator for the Maui High Performance Computing Center and for the Pacific Disaster Center, two major long-term U.S. Department of Defense programs based on Maui. In all, Lassner has served as principal investigator for more than $560 million of extramural funding.

Lassner earned a bachelor’s degree in economics summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa followed by a master’s degree in computer science while supported by a university fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He earned his doctorate degree in communication and information sciences at the University of Hawai‘i.

Lisa Kitagawa

Representative, Hawai'i State Legislature

Donna Mercado Kim

Senator, Hawai'i State Legislature

Andrew Takuya Garrett

Representative, Hawai'i State Legislature