Joseph G. Pickard – 2003 to Present

Mr. Pickard is Community Planning & Engineering's third consecutive President of Native Hawaiian ancestry. He is a 1978 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering. In 1985, he left the Coast Guard to accept an Exxon and National Science Foundation Fellowship at Columbia University, where he earned a joint degree from the Engineering and Business Schools in Operations Management & Management Services. Before returning to Hawaii in 1989, he worked in investment banking on the mainland and in Asia.

Over the span of his career Mr. Pickard has managed projects as complex and innovative as the award winning marina and lagoons at Ko Olina Resort and as challenging as the build-out of "smart office space" for international securities trading at Exchange Square in Hong Kong. His most recent challenge has been assisting the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in achieving Governor Lingle's goal of producing 6,000 residential units for Native Hawaiians over a five year period - a near impossible feat considering the Department has awarded only 7,200 leases over the past 83 years.

In addition to his success as a small businessman, Mr. Pickard has actively served a number of community-based organizations. Born and raised in Kahuku, he has served on the Board of Directors of Kahuku Hospital, the North Shore's comprehensive primary health care provider and Ke Ola Mamo, the Native Hawaiian health care organization devoted to improving health care for needy Hawaiians. He is a former chair of the Kaneohe Business Group and was an appointed member of the Kaneohe Bay Regional Council. Appointed by the Secretary of the Navy, he also served on the Ocean Research Advisory Panel, advising the National Oceanographic Research Leadership Council on policies relating to ocean research.