First Insurance Company of Hawai‘i (FICOH), the oldest and largest insurance company headquartered in Hawai‘i, has donated $500,000 to fund a second faculty endowment at the UH Mānoa Shidler College of Business.  The First Insurance Company of Hawaii Distinguished Professorship in Insurance will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the college for a total endowment value of $1 million. This is FICOH’s second distinguished professorship at the college.

“We are extremely grateful for First Insurance Company’s generosity and commitment to our students, college, and community,” says Vance Roley, dean of the Shidler College of Business. “The FICOH Distinguished Professorship in Insurance will have lasting impact in the quality of our teaching, research, and community engagement at the college. Offering a professorship will also help us attract and retain internationally renowned candidates who have expertise and leadership in this area.”

“The fast pace of change and specialized nature of the insurance field calls for professionals who are curious, creative and analytical. Shidler students possess these qualities,” says Jeff Shonka, president and CEO of FICOH. “We want to keep our industry moving forward with their ideas and innovation. A second professorship helps us to accomplish this by providing more students with opportunities to learn about risk management and its role in our society.”

This professorship is one in a series of gifts that FICOH has made in its long history of support and involvement at the college to the college. In 2007, the company established their first $1 million faculty endowment named the First Insurance Company Distinguished Professorship in Risk Management.

FICOH established an endowed scholarship of $100,000 in 2012 and donated $130,000 to the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship in 2016. Most recently, the college unveiled the corporate interview rooms as part of a capital campaign made possible by a $150,000 gift from FICOH. In addition, FICOH has served as the title sponsor of Business Night since 2006 and continues to provide internships, career placement, and mentorship opportunities for Shidler students.

If you would like to support the Shidler College of Business, please contact Unyong Nakata, executive director of development, at unyong.nakata@uhfoundation.org or (808) 286-0702.