Byron Goo
Name Byron Goo
Social Media @teachesthawaii
Age 57
Town/Moku Palolo Valley
Island Oʻahu
Leadership Category Business Development
Nominated by Stacey Suzui
Share with us a little about yourself and what you do.
As a Teamaker, my purpose is to showcase the culture and flavors of Hawai'i through the beverage.
Why is the work that you do important to you? The community? There is personal satisfaction in making something that brings healing, joy and aloha to others. Our products make lives better. There's also satisfaction in pioneering work that lays the foundation for the next generation.
Prior to COVID, we served Hawaii's hospitality industry as it's leading local tea purveyor. We revolutionized tea products and services and I'm proud of the fact that Hawaii-grown products are now on the menues of hotels, restaurants and resorts in Hawaii and Japan.
COVID forced us to expand our online operations and the internet is now helping us connect with people all over the world. Malama Aina is a big part of our messaging and we've inspired others to think more sustainably. Maika'i, well-being, is also front of mind now and we're teaching people about la'au, plant-based nutrition as medicine.
Part of my mission is to create a local tea industry that complements the state's famous coffee industry. To do so requires new people, capital and skills. As president of the Hawaii Food Manufacturers Association, I helped secure Federal funds to create the HI-STEP grant program to help local companies export (market expansion) and State funds to create the Manufacturing Assistance Program (infrastructure and technical expansion). We are fortunate these programs have been sustained for 5+ years. I also secured USDA funding used to double tea production in the state and train 32 farmers about how to grow crops that can be used for tea making.
Lastly, it's important as a lahui and community, to equip ourselves with new skills, technology and insight, to remain viable and relevant in the modern world without losing ourselves in it. A strategic partnership of our company, now in it's tenth year, is to be a work site in Kamehameha School's Kapili Oihana internship program which directly trains the next generation of oiwi leaders.
Share with us the qualities of leadership you admire and how you express those in your life.
Ha'aha'a - Lift others up before myself
Malama - Leave a place better than how I found it
Aloha - Be a servant before being a king
Imi'ike - Be a lifelong learner
Pono - Live with moral integrity
Ho'omaika'i - Live with an attitude of gratitude
Who has inspired you to do the work that you are doing?
I'm blessed by many role models and mentors on this journey. They've showed me how to do things but one story may shed light on why we do what we do. I grew up knowing we were Hawaiian but my surrounding were Asian American. None of us had a Hawaiian name. I spent five years tracing our Hawaiian genealogy which goes back at least 5 generations to Kohala on the Big Island. Kohala served the lahui as the training center for ali'i. A notable student was Kamehameha I. The heart of teaching these young Hawaiians was not about how to be a chief or chiefess and for people to serve you. The teaching focused on how to use your position and authority to be servant, to serve the people. My daugther's Hawaiian name is Kealokohala. The name pays tribute to where our family comes from. The kauna reminds us to have a servant's heart in order to be an effective leader.
What is one word that describes something you are excited about for the lāhui? Hope
What is one word that describes a pressing issue that is facing our lāhui? Olakino