Members of the board of di-rectors at Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative have chosen H.A. “Dutch” Achenbach as the new president and chief executive officer. Achenbach, who arrived on Kaua‘i last month to act as the interim chief executive officer initially
Members of the board of di-rectors at Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative have chosen H.A. “Dutch” Achenbach as the new president and chief executive officer.
Achenbach, who arrived on Kaua‘i last month to act as the interim chief executive officer initially only until a permanent successor to Alton Miyamoto was hired, had a change of heart during that time and ac-cepted the permanent position officially Wednesday during the regular monthly meeting of the board.
Achenbach had done some work with Kauai Electric before the investor-owned utility was purchased by the member-owned KIUC, and he and his wife both find Kaua‘i one of the most beautiful places in the world, he said.
“We have so much confidence in Dutch, and we are honored to have him join our co-op fam-ily permanently,” said Gregg Gardiner, chairman of the KIUC board. “The board of directors began a worldwide search im-mediately upon the announce-ment of retirement of our past CEO (Miyamoto),” Gardiner said.
“In that comprehensive search we received 125 qualified resumes and held comprehen-sive interviews with some of the top CEOs in the country.”
There were four finalists, and “in the end Dutch was selected unanimously as our next presi-dent and CEO. He’s an inspira-tional leader, with extensive ex-perience, and the right man for our membership,” Gardiner said.
Achenbach and his wife Dora fell in love with Kaua‘i on their first visit several years ago, and were delighted to return to help KIUC officials until the co-op board could find a permanent chief executive officer.
Shortly after arriving, Achen-bach decided to place his name
