ADVOCATE FOR MINORITIES

MARIA A.F. ETRATA
PRESIDENT & CEO, PREFERRED HOME AND COMMUNITY BASED SERVICES, INC.

Sponsor: Nedy Pia Directo and Rocky Anguay, First Hawaiian Bank

Photo by David Croxford.

When Nedy Pia Directo looks at Maria Etrata, she sees a traditional Filipino woman who people can look up to and admire.

“By traditional, I mean that Filipino women are known to have strong family ties and a strong business sense,” says Directo, VP and business banking officer at First Hawaiian Bank. “All of that is evident the minute you meet Maria. She’s surrounded by her loving children, treats her employees like family and is involved in just about every board in the Filipino community. She knows how to get things done.”

Etrata has turned Preferred Home and Community Based Services into a multimillion-dollar-a-year company that provides daycare services to developmentally and physically disabled adults and their caregivers at a building in Waipahu.

As her success has grown, so has Etrata’s philanthropy and community impact. She and her husband operate the Renato and Maria A.F. Etrata Foundation, a nonprofit that underwrites endowments to the Filipino Community Center and many Filipino-American organizations in Hawaii and the Philippines.

Maria has also served as president of the Filipino Chamber of Commerce. Together, the power couple has won several awards for their public service and philanthropy, and as advocates for caregivers.