Catching up with Make-A-Wish Hawaii

 Selfie with Siana Austin Hunt, CEO of Make-A-Wish Hawaii

I made an early morning visit to Make-A-Wish Hawaii this morning in Honolulu. Make A Wish Hawaii and their CEO Siana Austin Hunt are the genesis behind Paubox.

Siana originally identified a need for branded, encrypted storage for their chapter. As Make-A-Wish Hawaii grants the most wishes all of 62 chapter nationwide, you can imagine the amount of confidential data flying around. In fact, last year they granted 1,200 wishes. That's an average of over 3 wishes per day! Long story short, we were able to build it for their chapter and it was off to the races from there.

Siana Austin Hunt - Six Years as CEO today

  Morning coffee with Siana Austin Hunt

Today marked Siana's sixth anniversary as CEO of Make-A-Wish Hawaii. I got to know her a few weeks into her new gig, as they got in touch with me for badly needed IT support.

Here are my takeaways from our coffee this morning:

• Their chapter is heavy on video content.
• She thinks Inbound DLP (Data Loss Prevention) could be useful.
• Ryan Tsuji and RKT Media are doing great work for their chapter.
• Siana stacked a strong Young Leaders Board.
• They have a stellar lineup for this Saturday's annual gala (including a special surprise).
• I think Founders Pledge would a great connection for their chapter.
• You can find ohia lehua in Pearl City (did not know that!)

I'm grateful Siana made time to catch up on a Monday leading up to their biggest event of the year. A winner of the PBN Businesswoman of the Year for nonprofits in 2013, Siana ended our coffee meeting by humbly saying, "I just grew it [Make-A-Wish Hawaii] to where it's supposed to be all this time."

Visiting Blue Rock Partners

  Anthony Hunt, Principal at Blue Rock Partners

After my meeting with Siana, I stopped by her husband Anthony Hunt's desk. Anthony is a big Giants fan while I'm a steadfast A's fan. He'll be in SF this fall for work so we made plans to catch an A's game at the Coliseum. Anthony is co-founder and Principal at Blue Rock Partners. They are also early Paubox customers :)

Make-A-Wish Hawaii Annual Gala this weekend

  A preview of the silent auction items up for bid this weekend

As I was getting ready to leave, I heard someone shout out my name from across the room. Turns out it was James Donnelly, waterman for the Make-A-Wish Hawaii chapter. Their annual gala is going down this Saturday at the Four Seasons Resort Oahu at Ko Olina so I got him to take a pic with some of their silent auction gear with my high school classmate Sherry Park.

About Make A Wish Hawaii

  Kari Bogner and Preet Nijjar getting ready for their annual gala this Saturday

Every year, there are about 100 keiki in Hawaii that are newly-diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition. It is their vision to grant the wish of every eligible child. Learn about the power of a wish come true and why medical professionals are prescribing it as good medicine.