UH Hilo College of Business and Economics hosts 3rd annual Business Night

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“Networking events like these help to slowly dissipate the invisible wall between classroom lectures and the real business world,” says finance major Hayate Moro.

Group seated at dining tables watching an overhead slide deck with Business Night title page.
Faculty, students, alumni, and business partners gather at UH Hilo’s 2026 CoBE Business Night. (Photo: University Relations/UH Hilo)
Two students with name tags pose with venue in the background.
From left, Seniors Hayate Moro and Pomaikaʻi Evans-Bautista, who were enrolled in a strategy capstone course (MGT 490) spent the spring semester planning and executing Business Night and served as emcees for the evening. (Photo: University Relations/UH Hilo)

The business college at University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo held its 3rd annual Business Night earlier this month where students and community business leaders networked and learned from one another.

The College of Business and Economics‘ May 8 event was led by seniors in their strategy capstone course where they managed vendors, negotiated budgets, and then ran the show. Todd Inouye, associate professor of management and director of the college emphasizes that the skills applied — resiliency and stakeholder communication — are not simulated, they are lived.

Student organizer Hayate Moro, a finance major, saw the impact firsthand.

“Networking events like these help to slowly dissipate the invisible wall between classroom lectures and the real business world,” Moro shares. “Sometimes a single conversation can open the door to a lifelong mentor or a career-changing internship.”

The event also highlighted top-tier academic achievement through the Beta Gamma Sigma inductions, recognizing the top 10% of business students.

Award winners

Herbert Segawa Scholarship

  • Caleb Busque
  • Jayzlyn Kekaualua-Yagin
  • Kennedy Moniz
  • Noah Nakaoka
  • Lauren Otsubo

Hilo Rotary Club Foundation Scholarship

  • Jayzlyn Kekaualua-Yagin

James & Grace Arakaki Endowed Excellence Scholarship

  • Jakob Santiago

James P.D. Thropp Scholarship

  • Jimua Abon
  • Hemity Abwi
  • Beula Alfonso
  • Josilynn Alfonso
  • Antonio Clay
  • Nalu Compehos
  • Marie Cordonnier
  • Michael De Coito, III
  • Blaisen Filoteo-Mendes
  • Iori Furuhata
  • Andrew Hanawa
  • Tavina Harris
  • Haylee Jarvis
  • Clorine Joujen
  • Jaeyeon Kim
  • Ariana Kobayashi
  • Hayden Konanui-Tucker
  • David Krnavek
  • Waylane Lazarus
  • Morien Mary Leer
  • Jamielyn Margheim
  • Jared Mobley-Hall
  • Elijah Morales
  • Dakota Nakamoto
  • Moosa Nonomiya
  • Noah Otani
  • Kyzer Paglinawan
  • Heliʻa Peleiholani-Blankenfeld
  • Kali Peterson
  • Waiʻolukea Publico
  • Kaike Ramos
  • Rachael Rush
  • Brooke Samura
  • Jaenie Sniffen
  • Xaiden Sotelo-Cadirao
  • Anna Takahashi
  • Josephine Nicole Villagomez
  • Bethlyanne William
  • Jaden Williams
  • Kai Yoshida

Masami & Mae M. Aito Endowed Excellence Scholarship

  • Kennedy Moniz

Richard Taniguchi Endowed Scholarship

  • Lauren Otsubo

Taketa, Iwata, Hara & Associates, LLC Endowed Excellence Scholarship

  • Noah Nakaoka

Beta Gamma Sigma Honorees

  • Johan Bjorken
  • Owen Fragas-Van Blarcom
  • Noelani Gomes
  • Emily Hipp
  • Jacelyn Lau
  • Hayate Moro
  • Kennedy M. Moniz
  • Noah Nakaoka
  • Lauren Otsubo
  • Lili Regeczy-Nagy
  • Sean Serville
  • Braeden M. Segawa
  • Lexie Tilton
  • Brandon Wada
  • Raymond Workman-Carpenter

Inaugural Marcia Sakai Excellence in Service Award: Benjamin Zenk

Award winner stands with two admin while holding certificate.
From left, Marcia Sakai, Benjamin Zenk, and Todd Inouye as Instructor Zenk is presented with the inaugural Marcia Sakai Excellence in Service Award. (Photo: University Relations/UH Hilo)

Also at the event, the inaugural Marcia Sakai Excellence in Service Award was presented to Benjamin Zenk, instructor of business and management.

Zenk teaches critical thinking, business ethics, environmental ethics, and introductory business using a broad array of cross-cultural and interdisciplinary materials in his business and management courses, stemming from his studies of world philosophy, logic, and ethics, as well as both German and Sanskrit language and literature. He also collaborates with the university’s department of philosophy where he has taught introductory courses to philosophy, ethics, reasoning, symbolic logic, histories of Indian and Buddhist philosophy, and comparative philosophy. (See short video by Instructor Zenk, “Engaging Jain Ideas: Interdisciplinary Business Ethics Education.”)

Over more than three decades, the award’s namesake Marcia Sakai, a professor of tourism and economics named dean of the new business college in 2005, helped build the program into a leading business school.

“We hold a distinction that places us in the top six percent of business schools globally,” notes Director Inouye (title of head administrator of the college is now director, a newly defined role established in 2023 carrying the responsibilities of a faculty member, department chair, and a dean who works closely with other college leadership).

That college standing, which Sakai spearheaded over 20 years ago, reflects accreditation by AACSB International, the highest credential a business school can hold. Following her tenure as dean of the college, Sakai then served as UH Hilo vice chancellor for administrative affairs from 2011 and as interim chancellor from 2017 to 2019.

See also media releases at Kūkala Nūhou and UH System News.

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