News
September 30 - Dr Failautusi Avegalio delivers keynote speech at regional minority event
July 14 - Dr. Failautusi Avegalio named Regional Minority Business Advocate of the Year
April 22 - Senator English honored for efforts to link people of the Pacific
April - Hawaii State Senator Mike Gabbard: Recipient of the University of Hawaii Stars of Oceania Award
January 29 - Pacific Business Center Program coordinates prestigious business fellowships
PBCP and Pipeline Micro worked closely throughout the completion of the business plan in preparation for a pitch to venture capitalists. On January 12, 2009 Pipeline Micro announced that it had secured $7 million in funding based on the presentation of the business plan. The funding will be used to further expand engineering capability and market development. Investors include Kolohala Ventures of Hawaii, as well as other investors from the mainland, Singapore and Japan.
Pipeline Micro was recently honored by the Hawaii Venture Capital Association as the Winner of the Hawaii Venture Capital Deal of the Year for 2008.
ABOUT PIPELINE MICRO:
Hawaii-based Pipeline Micro is the developer of the world’s smallest and most efficient liquid cooling systems for consumer and home electronics products, including video graphics cards, computers, and various appliances. Liquid cooling systems developed by the company use a patented thermal system design that dramatically improves heat transfer, stabilizes temperature, and enables products to run faster, perform longer, and use less energy.
For more information, contact Pipeline Micro, Inc. at 1240 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 240, Honolulu, Hawaii 96814; call +1-808-539-3820, email info@pipelinemicro.com, or visit www.pipelinemicro.com.
Posted: January 29, 2009
For the 5th consecutive year, the Pacific Business Center Program (PBCP) at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa coordinated the Island Fellows Program in conjunction with the Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs (OIA). The Island Fellows Program provides MBA candidates the chance to work on private sector development initiatives for the U.S.-affiliated Insular Areas.
Each year MBA candidates from top-ranked business schools around the country are selected to carry out the private sector development initiatives of the OIA. Island Fellows visit insular areas including American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau.
This year, students were tasked with two significant projects. Each Island Fellow introduced the new, web-based networking system, Island Business Link, to their designated insular area. Island Business Link provides an electronic system for islanders to develop business opportunities around the world and stimulate private-sector economic development. (Island Business Link can be found at http://www.islandbusinesslink.com.) In addition, Island Fellows marketed the DOI’s fifth “Conference on Business Opportunities in the Islands” set to take place April 6-8, 2009 in Honolulu, Hawai‘i.
The Pacific Business Center Program (PBCP) worked closely with the Department of the Interior to provide administrative support and technical assistance for the program. In addition, PBCP coordinated all travel plans and arranged events for the Island Fellows during their stopover to Hawai‘i. In June 2008, the Island Fellows were treated to three days in Hawai‘i, which included lectures at the School of Travel Industry Management at the University of Hawai‘i and a unique cultural event to expose students to the Pacific Island cultures.
Eight extraordinary MBA candidates were selected this year, including the University of Hawai‘i’s Shidler College of Business MBA Candidate, Zubin Menon. The University of Hawai‘i has garnered one of the coveted Island Fellow positions each year of the program. Seven other Fellows were chosen from Wharton School of Business in the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Business School, Columbia School of Business, Kellogg School of Management in Northwestern University, and McDonough School of Business in Georgetown University.
Four previous awards were in recognition for PBCP’s work in: assisting in the organization of a development partnership with international private and public sector partners for Hawai‘i based candlenut oil manufacturer, Oils of Aloha (2005); preparing 70 business plans of which 36 were approved and received a total of $1.8 million with and for Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ revolving loan fund clients (2004); providing technical assistance to the Development Bank of American Samoa, the key catalytic financial institution for local development in the territory, for a variety of business management strategies (2003); and providing post nuclear resettlement planning assistance to the Rongelap Atoll Local Government in the Marshall Islands (2002).
The recognition as a national finalist for “Excellence in Technology Commercialization” was received for PBCP’s work with Manoa Transgenics on the Manoa BioSciences, Inc. (MBI) Business Plan. Renata Matcheva, Business Development Specialist at PBCP, headed the team made up of PBCP’s Graduate Research Assistants, Pearl Ueranant and Doris Miocinovic, to complete the business plan. The plan focused on an innovative gene insertion technology to develop transgenic mice and proprietary gene delivery plasmids that could one day prove its efficiency for gene therapy. MBI’s propriety product, Genie™ Transgenic Mice, will be used by the research and pharmaceutical industries to study the effects of new drug treatments - a $1B market for transgenic animals. In five years of operations the company aims to license its Genie™ technology as the first safe and reliable gene insertion method to be used in gene therapy in humans.
The Manoa BioSciences, Inc. Business Plan was also presented at the University of Hawai‘i Business Plan competition in 2007 where it earned a first place finish. As a result of PBCP’s work on the plan, MBI was awarded $32,500 to help defray some of the start-up costs for the business development and gave the push needed to seek $5.0 million in seed money to get the new venture off the ground.
As a result of the study and implementation of the fiber optic cable connection, significant employment opportunities have been created for Samoans from Independent Samoa and other South Pacific neighbors who will be working from projected satellite work stations connected to American Samoa, the hub for all future satellite operations. Local job creation is expected to be 1,500 positions, not including supervisory, managerial and executive level positions.
The project was completed under the supervision of Papalii Dr. Failautusi Avegalio, Director of PBCP. The outstanding ASGLPS Research Study team was composed of University of Hawaii Professors Dr. Bob Doktor – Shidler College of Business, Dr. Luciano Minerbi – School of Urban and Regional Planning, and Assistant Professor Luafataalii Dr. Sailiemanu Lilomaiava-Doktor of the University of Hawaii - West Oahu campus-Pacific Island Studies Program. Project Graduate Student Assistant team was composed of: Michael E. Valdez - UH Shidler College of Business Administration PhD student, Nicole Saito - UH Shidler College of Business Administration undergraduate student, Tuamasaga Mataaga Unutoa – UH Medical School MD graduate student, Salilo Julia Foifua – UH MSW graduate student, Taualai Fonoti – Stanford University/Oxford University England Graduate Student, and PBCP Business Development Specialist, Renata Matcheva.
