Page 5 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - Feb 17, 2021

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tion of senior vice president at public relations agency Ben- net Group, where she learned, among other things, the value of strategic planning. Later, she served as chief commu- nications officer at Honolu- lu Board of Water Supply, where she made it a point to embrace the intricacies of the entire municipal operation.
when he took over as presi- dent,” says Shin, who joined Hawaiian Telcom in 2013 as its director of corporate com- munication. “I learned so much about leadership and the importance of employee engagement from him, and I literally would not be here without him.”
lands had its share of diffi- culties. For one thing, none of them spoke English. For another, the family had very little money and would come to rely upon government as- sistance to make ends meet.
“Obviously, education was the top priority for her,” says Shin, adding that she inher- ited her creative and prob- lem-solving traits from her mother.
nications. Despite their busy schedules and highly visible jobs, the couple — who has two daughters, Maya and Kayla — manages to find the happy balance between their professional and private lives, according to Shin.
tedly still coming to terms with is being an empty nester. Her daughters are students at Boston-based colleges, and whenever they’ re on the East Coast, she can’t help but “miss them terribly.” But she’s grateful that today’s “wonderful communication tools” allow her to better cope with the separation.
“If you don’t understand the business, you can’t be a valuable contributor,” she explains. “That’s where I re- ally started digging into kind of the workings of the orga- nization beyond the surface level. That’s when I realized what I really loved: problem solving, and working togeth- er with people while trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B.”
In accepting to lead rough- ly 1,200 employees, Shin ac- knowledges that her respon- sibility “is big and huge.” But to her credit, she hasn’t shrunk from her obligations, and is particularly proud of how Hawaiian Telcom has navigated its way through the trials of COVID.
Shin recalls the family lived in a small apartment “across the street from Ka‘iulani Elementary School and above a TV repair shop” for some time before they were able to find residency at Mayor Wright Homes.
Hawaiian Telcom’s top ex- ecutive pauses for a moment before continuing: “Some- times we talk about the Amer- ican dream and immigration. Our story is the example of what can happen with access to education.”
“Dan is so amazingly supportive. Even when the kids were little, we both had really demanding careers,” she shares. “But I always felt it was an even split. You al- ways hear people complain- ing, ‘Oh, my husband doesn’t help with the kids and the house things,’ but I definitely feel like we’re partners.”
“It’s great to be able to talk to our daughters daily, even if it’s just for short touch points like saying ‘good morning’ or ‘good night,’” she says.
“I’m really the product of all of the social services that you hear about,” she says. “We had food stamps; we received welfare payments.”
Shin’s story has one more aspect that deserves brief mention, and it involves three other members of her family.
Yes, even Hawaiian Tel- com’s leader needs speed each day to bridge the dig- ital divide.
FEBRUARY 17, 2021 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK 5
If anything, Shin discov- ered that she doesn’t have to be a superwoman to run Hawaiian Telcom. To her, an effective leader doesn’t worry about being the most knowledgeable person in the room, nor does she re- ject assistance when others are perfectly willing to help shoulder the load.
Trusting her team is one of the many lessons she’s learned from a host of men- tors, including the person whom she replaced at Hawai- ian Telcom, John Komeiji.
wai‘i. Her father, only 33 at the time, had suddenly and unexpectedly died in his sleep, and as a result, her mother wanted a new start elsewhere for Shin and older brother Jae.
“He hired me and encour- aged me to expand my role beyond corporate communi- cations into marketing, then promoted me to chief of staff
“My mom’s sister was living in Hawai‘i at the time, and her husband had a De- partment of Defense job,” Shin recalls. “They spon- sored us, and that’s how we ended up here.”
“We’ve prioritized caring for our employees, but have balanced that out with mak- ing sure we’ve been able to serve our community,” she says. “At the beginning of the pandemic, no one knew how this virus was spread. It was a tough balance, but I feel like we prioritized the right thing. We chose to have open and transparent commu- nication with our employees, and whether things were bad or good, we made sure they always knew what was hap- pening.”
Despite the financial chal- lenges, Shin’s mother, Chung Hee Spell, was determined to have her children receive a quality education.
In 1997, she married Dan Meisenzahl, the former KITV news anchor and Hawai‘i De- partment of Transportation spokesman who now works as director of University of Hawai‘i’s Office of Commu-
One thing Shin is admit-
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“I’m a big believer in sur- rounding myself with people smarter than me,” Shin ex- plains. “You can’t do every- thing yourself. When you get into a position of leadership, as much as I want to do every- thing, there are only 24 hours in a day. At some point, you have to trust in your people.”
hen Shin was 5, her family emigrated from Korea to Ha-
The transition to the is-