Peter Ho, former Bank of Hawaii chief executive, appointed to Hawaiian Electric and HEI boards

Peter Ho, who retired this year as chairman and chief executive officer of Bank of Hawaii, has been appointed to the boards of directors of Hawaiian Electric and its parent company, Hawaiian Electric Industries, the utility announced Friday.

On the HEI board, Ho will serve on the Audit and Risk Committee.

Ho, a Honolulu resident, is founder and managing partner of Ilikai Advisors LLC, a Hawaiʻi-based investment and management advisory firm. He served as Bank of Hawaii’s chairman and CEO from 2010 until his retirement earlier this year and had served on its board since 2005, according to the news release. He began his banking career in 1987 with Manufacturers Hanover in New York City.

Hawaiian Electric described Bank of Hawaii as the state’s largest depository institution, with $24 billion in assets and a market capitalization of $2.7 billion.

Ho is vice chair of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation Board of Governors and chaired it from 2019 to 2025. He also serves on the board of trustees of Punahou School and the board of councilors of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

Ho was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for two consecutive terms from 2013 to 2018. In 2020, the state House of Representatives appointed him vice chair of the Select Committee on COVID-19 Economic and Financial Preparedness.

Ho received the US Navy Memorial Foundation’s Naval Heritage Award in 2016. According to the release, he is only the second Hawaiʻi resident to receive it, following the late US Sen. Daniel K. Inouye in 2006. The Aloha Council of the Boy Scouts of America recognized Ho as Hawaiʻi’s distinguished citizen in 2012.

Ho holds a Bachelor of Science degree and an MBA from USC and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.

Tim Johns, president and chief executive officer of Zephyr Insurance Co. and chairman of the Hawaiian Electric and HEI boards, said in the announcement that Ho’s community connections and financial expertise “add an important perspective to our boards.”

“Working with a Hawaiʻi-based, Hawaiʻi-managed company that touches nearly every home and business is a unique privilege and I appreciate the opportunity to join others who share the vision of how everyone benefits from having a strong local electric utility,” Ho said.