Michael White, general manager of Ka‘anapali Beach Hotel and The Plantation Inn on Maui, is retiring after 37 years at the property, which was dubbed “Hawaii’s Most Hawaiian Hotel” by the Waiaha Foundation during his tenure.

But White does not plan to leave Hawaii’s hospitality industry, where his career has spanned the past five decades. His term on the Hawaii Tourism Authority Board, where he serves as vice chair, doesn’t end until the summer of 2026.

White’s retirement, slated for July 25, comes as Outrigger Hospitality Group completes its acquisition of the Ka‘anapali Beach Hotel. The resort, which will be rebranded as the Outrigger Ka‘anapali Beach Resort, will be the company’s first full-service resort on Maui in recent times. The transaction also includes the purchase of The Plantation Inn, an 18-room bed-and-breakfast that is near Lahaina’s historic Front Street.

White said he was asked by Outrigger to consider staying; however, he elected to retire as had been his plan prior to the sale.

White said he’s happy that the new buyer is Outrigger, as “they share many of the same values.”

White has deep roots in Hawaii, which he can trace back to 1844. He is the son of the late Robert E. White Jr., a fourth-generation kamaaina from Honolulu who was an Amfac Sugar Co. vice president, and also was involved in the development of Ka‘anapali. His late mother was Karen “Tookie” White, who was a juvenile probation officer and a Family Court administrator.

White has ties to many historical Hawaii families including the Browns, Van Holts, Knudsens, Sinclairs, Gays and Robinsons. His great- great-great-grandmother was Elizabeth M. Sinclair, who bought Niihau in 1864 from King Kamehameha V. Niihau is now known as “the Forbidden Island” because its owners, the Robinsons, are committed to protecting the island and its Native inhabitants from the outside world.

“Having been brought up here and having a family sense of kuleana has really played a large part of what I’ve done in the visitor industry,” he said. “I’ve always felt very strongly that if you are going to be a part of the visitor industry, that you should have a kuleana to do something to protect and preserve the Hawaiian culture in an appropriate and accurate way.”

Though many of White’s best-known relatives hail from Kauai, he grew up in Honolulu and graduated from Punahou School and the University of Hawaii’s School of Travel Industry Management.

White said he worked his way through college at the Halekulani. His start in hotel management came in 1971 when he was a manager trainee at the Hawaiian Regent, which is now the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort &Spa. He moved into progressively higher management positions at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel and the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel before moving in 1985 to the Ka‘anapali Beach Hotel as a 36-year-old general manager.

He said while he was at the Mauna Kea, he attended a mainland conference of room directors from top hotels and determined that while some corporate hotels had structural advantages because of their size, Hawaii had the advantage of aloha and knowing how to take care of its guests.

“People in Hawaii don’t have to feel the slightest like we are second fiddle to anyone in the hospitality business,” he said.

“When I got to the Ka‘anapali Beach Hotel, it was very low-key compared to all of the hotels where I had worked previously. We didn’t have room service, glitzy design or fancy buildings. But I realized that even though we didn’t have a fancy place, we could make it a special place by focusing on the Hawaiian culture and building up a sense of values in our employees.”

White said he was inspired by the cultural work of Kenneth Brown, Winona Rubin and Gard Kealoha, and decided to work with George Kanahele to develop a culturally based employee training program called Po‘okela, which means excellence in Hawaiian.

“Each of these mentors essentially said, ‘If we don’t do something to help preserve and protect the culture, we will lose the essence of what makes it a wonderful place to live and visit,’” he said.

White said employees and guests learned about Hawaiian geography, religion, mythology, economics, technology and the Native Hawaiian diet. They also learned about all the other cultures that make Hawaii so diverse.

Yuki Lei Sugimura, who served with White on the Maui County Council, said he recruited her family in the 1990s to help the hotel celebrate and explain the traditions of the Japanese holiday Hinamatsuri, or Girls Day. She said her family brought doll displays as well as kimonos so that guests, employees and community members could don traditional Japanese clothing and take pictures.

“Although they are known as the most Hawaiian hotel, he reaches out to many cultures,” Sugimura said. “He provided the opportunity for the community and guests to see that there are many colors in the poi bowl.”

Malihini Keahi-Heath, the Ka‘anapali Beach Hotel’s historian/guest services specialist, said employees also were encouraged to support the local community, which they did vigorously, often alongside White.

“He helped my dad feed over 8,000 people over a three-day weekend,” she said, adding that over the years White, who did a stint as a Hawaii state representative, also supported hotel employees in their work with Hawaiian immersion schools, Lahaina restoration and cleanups from local cemeteries to Kahoolawe.

She said guests at the resort were treated like family, and so they felt like family and often helped. Keahi- Heath said the hotel has a high level of repeat travelers, many of whom have come for employee milestones like weddings and funerals.

Keahi-Heath said longtime guests are easily recognizable because to mark 9/11, the hotel in 2001 started a ceremony that recognized returning guests by giving them a white kukui nut to place on a kukui nut lei. She said each lei has 40 spots, and some guests are on their third lei.

Almaleta Jane Short of Reno, Nev., said she and her husband, Jim, have been coming to Ka‘anapali Beach Hotel since the late 1970s.

“Each time we return, the employees say, ‘Welcome home,’” Short said. “They are like family. Sometimes we come two or three times a year.”

Arlene Hayashida, another frequent visitor with her husband, Kenneth, believes the training program has contributed to the resort’s ohana style.

“The aloha was evident from the people who cleaned the rooms to the people who parked the cars,” said Hayashida, who lives in California. “Their Hawaiian program is the best across the islands. We’ve been back so many times that we have accumulated 46 kukui nut beads just since 9/11.”

The training program and the Ka‘anapali Beach Hotel’s values also have resonated with employees, the community and the broader travel industry, garnering numerous state and national awards for its focus on Hawaiian culture, community service and sustainability. It won the No. 1 Best Hotel in Hawaii in Conde Nast Traveler’s 2018 Reader’s Choice Awards and has been recognized on National Geographic Traveler’s “Culture List,” among other awards.

Blaine Miyasato, Hawaiian Airlines’ managing director for state and local government affairs, said he is excited to be working on the HTA board with White, whose cultural program inspired Hawaiian’s own Po‘okela Project, which led to its Mea Ho‘okipa Service program.

“He was regenerative tourism before regenerative tourism,” Miyasato said. “His brand was authentic, it was real, it was from the heart and it started from the top. He was all in. He leaves an incredible legacy, and I’m thrilled to be working with him on the HTA board, where we are evolving.”

Former HTA board Chair George Kam said White’s work with Kanahele at the Ka‘anapali Beach Hotel has provided the template for so many Hawaii companies to live aloha — old-fashioned values that are perhaps even more important today.

“When I look at how I trained at Local Motion and Quiksilver, it was really the essence of what Mike exuded. Ka‘anapali Beach Hotel is special. It embodies the best values of the aloha spirit,” Kam said. “The last time I was there, I must have teared up at least half a dozen times. There’s magic there.”