Board of Directors
Robin Stueber
Chairman
Robin Stueber has been with the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii since its founding in 2001, serving as its chairman since 2017, succeeding Dick Rowland. She is an executive coach affiliated with the Humanitarian Coaching Network and a partner at the Present Mind Institute of Hawaii. She has worked in banking, investments and insurance, and had a business of her own helping small companies with web marketing and e-commerce operations. A graduate of Roosevelt High and the University of Oregon, she has served as a director for many community organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii and the Pilot Club of Downtown Honolulu. Currently she is on the board of governors of the Pacific Club. She is married and has one son and three step-children. During her spare time, she listens to music and audiobooks, plays pickle ball and tends to her home garden.
Keliʻi Akina, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Keliʻi Akina, Ph.D., is a recognized scholar, public policy spokesperson and community leader in Hawaii. He holds advanced degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Hawaii, is an expert in East-West philosophy and ethics, and has taught at universities in China and the United States, including Hawaii Pacific University. In 2016 and again in 2020, he was elected to statewide public office as trustee-at-large for the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Eddy “Ed” Kemp
Treasurer
For more than 30 years, Ed Kemp was president and CEO of E.N. Kemp & Associates, a firm providing business and financial consulting services. Prior to founding E.N. Kemp & Associates, Kemp was chief financial and administrative officer for the Estate of James Campbell. Before that he was a tax department manager of KPMG, Hawaii’s largest public accounting firm. Kemp moved to Hawaii in 1965 after graduating from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. A resident of Kaneohe since 1967, he has been active in various community and business organizations over the years. He has been married for more than 60 years to the same woman, with whom he has three children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Mark Monoscalco
Secretary
Mark Monoscalco is an independent consultant to small businesses, specializing in computer systems design, software selection, installation, and training. He also is a past vice president, secretary and treasurer of Monarch Asphalt Co., an asphalt paving and material supply contractor in the Chicago area. Monoscalco earned a master‘s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago and has a bachelor of science degree, specializing in civil engineering, from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He and his wife Mirella have been residents of Honolulu since 1989.
Robert W. “Bill” Hastings II
Bill Hastings II is an attorney with the firm of Hastings, Laun and Houser LLLC, located in Kamuela, Hawaii. His practice focuses on estate planning and related matters. Originally from Wyoming, he graduated from the University of Wyoming with a bachelor’s degree in political science and math, then spent six years on active duty in the U.S. Navy. He moved to Honolulu in 1977 after graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, then in 1983 moved to Hawaii Island. Hastings is a former Hawaii state chairman of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a board member of the Queen’s North Hawaii Community Hospital and a co-trustee of the Anna Ranch Charitable Trust.
Jonathan Durrett
Jonathan S. Durrett is a senior partner of Durrett, Ma & Lang, LLLP, and a lifetime Island resident. His practice concentrates in real estate transactions, environmental counseling, land use entitlements and exempt organizations. He represents a variety of developers and landowners, as well as financial institutions with interests in Hawaii. He also acts as general counsel to Brigham Young University’s Hawaii campus situated on Oahu’s North Shore. Durrett sits on national committees of the American Bar Association’s Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section and has served as a court appointed arbitrator since 1987. He is also the Hawaii chapter chair of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society.
Fred Noa
Fred Noa is a principal and co-founder of Blue Rock Partners, One Source Hawaii Pacific and Terra Massa Capital. Blue Rock Partners, launched in 2012, is a real estate development firm; One Source Hawaii Pacific, started in 2020, is a project design firm for top restaurants throughout Hawaii; Terra Massa Capital, started in early 2021, sources and provides capital to invest and develop commercial real estate. Born and raised in Hawaii, Noa is a graduate of Punahou School and has a degree in business administration from California Polytechnic State University. He has served on the boards of the Kapiolani Health Foundation, First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu and Hawaiian Island Ministries. He also is a former president of the Outrigger Canoe Club.
Richard Rowland, (1930-2020)
Founder and chairman emeritus
Richard O. Rowland was a graduate of Texas A&M University (B.S.) and Columbia University (M.A.) who came to Hawaii in 1971 as a key officer on the PACOM staff. Retiring as a colonel in 1975, he was a financial representative with Northwestern Mutual for 26 years before co-founding the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. Rowland was a life member of the Million Dollar Round Table, former president of the Hawaii Society of Certified Life Underwriters, a former director of Small Business Hawaii and the 1997 “SBH Small Business Person of the Year.” Twice he was a candidate for the U.S. Senate and once for the Honolulu City Council. In 2017 he moved to Russellville, Alabama, to be closer to family. He died on Nov. 28, 2020, at age 90.
