aio: Small Name, Big Promise
The Promise of What We Can Be
aio Hawaii has always been considered a place where employees can grow.
Marylea Conrad worked at multiple magazines under PacificBasin Communications as an associate editor, associate fashion editor and stylist from 2006 to 2009. She now runs her own jewelry company, called [ki•ele], and says her experience at the publications, such as networking and learning how to style for photo shoots, has helped to get her where she is today.
“I’m still working with people who are in PR that I worked with and met through aio,” she says. “So, just all of that experience really helped propel me to where I am today, and it’s something I’ll continue to use.”
David Tumilowicz, director of account management at Kaiser Permanente, said he picked up leadership skills when he worked at Hawaii Business magazine, as a senior account executive and publisher from 2005 to 2013, and as publisher at Hawaii magazine. Those skills taught him how to trust and give support to his colleagues.
“When I was at aio and at PacificBasin and at Hawaii Business,” he says, “the best use of my time was to try to create an environment where everyone could express their human potential. And that’s exactly the same thing that I try to do here at Kaiser, which is to really identify the unique skill sets and contributions that everyone on the team can bring and create the space for them to express themselves through their work.”
Randal Ikeda worked as the CFO for PacificBasin Communications from 2000 to 2004 and then as GM of ESPN 1420, both aio companies. He’s now the executive director of the Nu‘uanu YMCA and says his time at aio Hawaii helped him decide that he should work at a nonprofit. While at aio Hawaii, he helped to develop programs that focused on giving back to the broader world and helping the employees grow, both professionally and personally.
“That whole mindset made it easy for me to say, ‘Oh, you know what? I should really be doing this full time – taking my business ability and giving back to the community,’ ” he says.
