The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative board of directors selected Randall Hee the new president and chief executive officer of the utility. Hee, who stepped up as KIUC’s acting CEO in November, accepted the permanent position officially late last week. “The
The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative board of directors selected Randall Hee the new president and chief executive officer of the utility.
Hee, who stepped up as KIUC’s acting CEO in November, accepted the permanent position officially late last week.
“The board is pleased to announce that Mr. Hee has accepted the position permanently. We narrowed the selection down to just a few, and ultimately Hee was the right choice for KIUC,” announced Dennis Esaki, chairman of the board of directors, in a press release. “We are convinced when you add up all of his experience, you find a CEO who is comfortable with the position and with the co-op. We will hold Randy accountable while giving him the support he needs to move forward and we ask for your support as well.”
After a nationwide search, the KIUC board unanimously voted to offer the position to Hee.
“Selecting the CEO was the most difficult task our board has faced due to the high caliber of candidates applying. It all came down to who we can trust to bring stability to our co-op; someone who the employees, the board and the rest of our membership could trust from day one,” said Esaki, in the release.
“We need to get out of our holding pattern and look to the future; boosting efficiency, addressing our aging infrastructure, the cost of energy and communicating with our employees and our membership,” said Hee, according to the release.
The former McBryde Sugar mechanical engineer got his start working with the plantation’s Wainiha hydroelectric plant and the sugar mill’s biomass generators. After completing time with KIUC predecessors, Kaua‘i Electric and Kaua‘i Power Partners working as the operations superintendent at the Port Allen generation facility and helping establish the KPP facility, Hee was elected to the KIUC board in 2003.
When the board finalized the purchase of KPP, he stepped down and completed his master’s in business administration at the University of Hawai‘i.
In February 2005 he became manager of safety at KIUC and quickly moved into the position of chief of operations.
