Our Team

 

Officers & Board

Steve Sue

Steve Sue

CHAIRPERSON & Board Member

Steve is studio head of ID8 Studios, producer of the documentary, “Shaka, A Story of Aloha,” and “Chief Lemon Head” at Project Lemon Tree and Lemonade Alley. Steve is an owner of SaaS Ventures, a software and website development firm and the author of SumoSum, a financial forecasting app. Prior to ID8, he was conceptualist, story guy and branding/art director in entertainment, real estate, foodservice, retail and casino resort development. For more, see stevesue.com

Christian Whitney

Christian Whitney

SECRETARY & Board Member

Christian serves as the Director of Business Development and Pole Infrastructure Enterprise at the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO). As Director, she leads a team in exploring new products and services to complement HECO’s existing portfolio of customer-driven initiatives. She worked for other utility companies and in public policy previously in Oklahoma and Iowa.

Tiffany Seigfried

Tiffany Seigfried

Treasurer & Board Member

Tiffany is Vice President & Budget and Planning Manager for First Hawaiian Bank. She leads her team in budgeting and forecasting for the corporate level of the Bank, and she also has begun assisting small businesses and organizations with creating a financial plan for their future.  Tiffany’s history has been in financial reporting and forecasting and has worked in the banking and airline industries throughout her career.

Ryan Ozawa

Ryan Ozawa

CIO & Board Member

Ryan is a native Hawaiian entrepreneur, community organizer and journalist who joined the ID8 team as an associate producer of “Shaka, A Story of Aloha.” He has co-founded startups and nonprofits focused on agricultural technology, public health, and civic engagement, and consults with Hawaii organizations on community building, public relations, and marketing. 

Jill Kuramoto

Jill Kuramoto

Board Member

Jill is a communications professional who combines her expertise in journalism, public relations and video production in multiple roles.  She is currently the Story and Content Manager at KHON2 News and an associate producer of “Shaka, A Story of Aloha.” With a passion for community service, Jill is a member of the distinguished Selection Committee for the Living Treasures of Hawaii.

Sean LaVau

Sean LaVau

Board Member

Sean is a commercial real estate broker, private money lender and owner/operator of Buns Hawai’i, a food service enterprise.

Friends of ID8

Alice Inoue

Alice Inoue

Member

Alice is the founder and Chief Happiness Officer of Happiness University. She is an expert life guide, and author of six nationally award-winning books on life wisdom, self-growth and happiness. She has two columns, one in MidWeek titled “A Mindful Moment,” and and an award-winning column in the Sunday Star-Advertiser called “Go Ask Alice” that offers pertinent life guidance.

Amber Lethem

Amber Lethem

Member

Amber is a professional sales trainer with Accelerate Performance Sales Consulting. She provides sales training sessions for Google sales teams by creating customized sales trainings content and delivering effective, inspiring sessions that help sales teams in tech industries improve and increase results.

Aaron Okamoto

Aaron Okamoto

Member

Aaron is the General Manager of American Carpet One. In his downtime, he contributes to non-profits like Bizgenics and is instrumental in reeling in prizes and donations for Lemonade Alley.

Christina Kelley

Christina Kelley

Member

Christina is the Marketing Coordinator at Hawaiʻi Energy and has marketing experience in a variety of industries from television to education to nonprofit. She is passionate about data-driven campaigns and analyzing results to determine strategic opportunities.

Cleo Brown

Cleo Brown

Member

As Head of Café Operations and Community Affairs for ING Direct in the USA, Cleo made community outreach a pillar in its success. Before leaving her mark on America’s most successful online bank, Cleo acquired deep experience in multi-national financial service groups, in executive posts at Custom House, Thomas Cook, and Deak International.

Creighton Liu

Creighton Liu

Member

Creighton is the Director of Strategic Planning for Hawaii Electric Industries. He has a track record of supporting the community and providing strategic advice to enable organizations such as Bizgenics Foundation to better serve the community.

Dennis Burns

Dennis Burns

Member

Dennis is one of the founding fathers of Lemonade Alley, covering and promoting the story through video storytelling. Dennis is the operational partner of Bizgenics’ ID8 Studios. He is a seasoned veteran of both TV and film production as the founder and owner of Pacific Focus, a video production firm, and 1013 Integrated Branding, a creative agency.

Elena Farden

Elena Farden

Member

Elena is the Executive Director at the Native Hawaiian Education Counsel. NHEC’s mission is to Coordinate, Assess, and Report & Make Recommendations’ on the effectiveness of existing education programs for Native Hawaiians, the state of present Native Hawaiian education efforts, and improvements that may be made to existing programs, policies and procedures to improve the educational attainment of Native Hawaiians.

Ellise Fujii

Ellise Fujii

Member

Ellise Fujii is the Director of Development and Marketing at the Boy Scouts of America, Aloha Council which serves nearly 11,000 Scouts on Oahu, Kauai, and Hawai’i Island, as well as American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Prior to joining the Aloha Council, she provided development, marketing, and public relations consulting services to for-profit clients in hospitality, restaurant, real estate, and retail as well as to non-profit organizations serving Hawaii and the Asia-Pacific region.

Harvey Rackmil

Harvey Rackmil

Member

Harvey is responsible for financial reporting and analysis for HonBlue Inc. and its divisions including Electric Pencil, Jet Graphics, Zoombis and Brue. Harvey is an active philanthropist with a long track record of supporting many of Hawaii’s community organizations.

Ian Bigelow

Ian Bigelow

Member

Ian is Senior VP of Business Development & Operations at Locations Hawaii Real Estate. Ian is responsible for identifying and creating strategic business development opportunities and acquisitions, in addition to overseeing the operations of our subsidiary business lines, including Property Management and other key business initiatives.

Kaveh Abhari

Kaveh Abhari

Member

Dr. Abhari is committed to digital transformation and data-driven applications for social innovation, open entrepreneurship, and alternative education. He founded STEMD2 R&D Group to support STEM education in underserved communities and led federally-funded research projects in professional development, connectivist learning, and mathematics education. Dr. Abhari is an Assistant Professor of MIS at Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University. He has a Ph.D. in Communication & Information Sciences with interdisciplinary backgrounds in Business and Engineering.

Louise K.Y. Ing

Louise K.Y. Ing

Member

Louise is a Partner at Dentons, practicing litigation/dispute resolution in business, employment, real estate, intellectual property, construction, receivership, creditors’ rights, matters. She was one of the founding partners of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing, which combined with Dentons in 2018. She is a past president of Hawai’i State Bar Association and Hawaii State Bar Foundation. She serves on boards including Child & Family Service, Kristi Yamaguchi’s Always Dream Foundation, UH Foundation, Island Holdings, Bizgenics Foundation.

Mark Loughridge

Mark Loughridge

Member

Mark is the Director of the CASE Center for Entrepreneurship at Punahou School. He was also a co-founder of Foundation 9 Entertainment (F9E), which grew to be the largest independent game developer in the world. During his 11+ years in growing this business, Mr. Loughridge oversaw the creative direction of the company, spearheaded new product development, and provided leadership on strategic planning. Mr. Loughridge sold his stake in 2006 and now invests in a variety of projects, with a particular interest in educational innovations and technologies that foster creativity.

Robin Campaniano

Robin Campaniano

Member

Robin served as President and CEO of the AIG Hawaii Insurance Company Family of Companies. He was Insurance Commissioner for the State of Hawaii, District Director and Counsel for the SBA’s Honolulu Office, and practiced law in the private and public sectors. Robin also engages with Hawaii based non-profit organizations in the areas of strategic planning, marketing, organizational structure. He also mentors, counsels and coaches within the organizations with which he is engaged, as well as with individuals throughout the state.

Administration

Riz Rahman

Riz Rahman

Chief Technology Officer

Riz is a serial entrepreneur, product designer and software development manager with 20 years of international-standard software production experience. With a major in computer science and a minor in AI, he first coded and sold his first commercial software when he was in high school. Riz leads our international software development team, and has architected, engineered and delivered numerous successful products. His interests lie in building scalable, fault-tolerant, high-traffic, intelligent platforms. When he is not doing anything tech, he loves to read and travel.

Minette Lew-McCabe

Minette Lew-McCabe

Program Producer

Minette brings experience in program & business development, marketing and fundraising. Formerly a fundraiser for Kupu, Minette helps ID8 programs on a part time basis with a full time position in regional funding for Red Cross.  

Kimee Balmilero

Kimee Balmilero

Program Director

Kimee produces Hawaii Comedy Festival, an ID8 annual event and is the director of ImprovHI, a Honolulu-based sketch comedy group. She’s also a Hawaii born actor best known for her regular role as Medical Examiner Dr. Noelani Cunha on CBS’ “Hawaii Five-0” and “Magnum P.I.” Other professional credits include: The 3X Emmy Nominated musical children’s series “Hi-5,” the Original Broadway Cast of “Mamma Mia,” and the 2nd National Touring Company of “Miss Saigon.” 

John LeBlanc

John LeBlanc

Internet Tech Mentor

John is a veteran web technologist who has built huge sites right from the start of the Internet. He also sports a deep background in music, television and video production. He’s currently focused on helping businesses and individuals establish secure, sustainable and easily-to-manage online presence integrated with existing day-to-day business operations using modular web publishing tools, e-commerce, social media, open source software, slick APIs, localization, scalable cloud hosting and compassionate tech support.