Retired Hawaii County economic development specialist appointed to state Agribusiness Development Corporation board

A retired Hawaii County economic development specialist has been appointed to the state Agribusiness Development Corporation board of directors, Gov. Neil Abercrombie announced Thursday. She will assume the seat representing Hawaii County.

Margarita Hopkins retired as an economic development specialist at the County of Hawaii’s Department of Research and Development and was responsible for preparing and updating the county’s agricultural development plan. Through her position, she established a county-based agriculture program in cooperation with Big Island Resource Conservation and Development Council and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, according to the governor. Hopkins previously served as Hawaii County’s director of research and development and was a lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Hilo College of Business and Economics.

She is currently a member of the Big Island Resource Conservation and Development Council and Hawaii Forest Stewardship Advisory Committee.

The Agribusiness Development Corporation was established in 1994 to facilitate and provide direction for the transition of Hawaii’s agriculture industry from a dominance of sugar and pineapple to one composed of a diversity of different crops. The mission of the corporation is to acquire, and manage in partnership with farmers, ranchers, and aquaculture groups, selected high-value lands, water systems, and infrastructure for commercial agricultural use and to direct research into areas that will lead to the development of new crops, markets, and lower production costs.

Abercrombie on Thursday also announced the nominations of Denise Antolini to the Commission on Water Resource Management. In addition to Hopkins, Denise Albano, Lloyd Haraguchi and Yukio Kitagawa were appointed to the Agribusiiness Development Corporation’s board of directors. All are interim appointments subject to state Senate approval.

Antolini was appointed to an at-large seat on the seven-member CWRM. Haraguchi and Kitagawa were nominated to fill at-large seats on the 11-member ADC Board of Directors, while Alabano was appointed to the City and County of Honolulu seat.

Antolini has served as a faculty member at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii at Manoa since 1996 and is currently associate dean for academic affairs. She has served as the principal investigator on several Department of Land and Natural Resources projects and law fellowships. A resident of Pupukea, Oahu, she has long been active in several North Shore community organizations and efforts, including to establish the mauka and makai conservation easements preserving more than 1,000 acres of land owned by Turtle Bay Resort.

Albano is the president of Feed the Hunger Foundation, a nonprofit that she co-founded to eliminate poverty and hunger internationally and in Hawaii by using microfinance as a platform for food security and economic development. Albano previously served as campaign manager for The Nature Conservancy Hawaii and executive director for Youth UpRising in Oakland and YMCA’s Richmond District in San Francisco.

Haraguchi has more than 25 years of land use planning, zoning, development and leasing experience in both the public and private sectors. He has managed projects from the point of land negotiation and acquisition, to gathering community input, planning, permitting and development. He is the former executive director of the Public Land Development Corporation and served as senior asset manager for Hawaii Land Management, James Campbell Company LLC from 2003 to 2012.

A veteran of the U.S. Army, Kitagawa is currently a member on the Hawaii Agriculture Resource Center Board of Directors and the City and County of Honolulu Agriculture Development Task Force. Kitagawa was the Board of Agriculture chairperson from 1988 to 1994 and assistant director of cooperative extension service at UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources from 1981 to 1988. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents.