Don Horner, who has devoted more than half his life to First Hawaiian Bank and helped turn the company into the state’s largest financial institution, will retire as chief executive officer at the end of the year.
Bob Harrison, 51, president and chief operating officer of First Hawaiian, will become the new CEO. Horner informed the bank’s board of the changes Monday.

Horner, 60, said he will continue his many roles outside the bank, including chairman of the state Board of Education and member of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, the board overseeing plans for the city’s new rail line.

Horner said in an interview with the Star-Advertiser that it’s time to turn over the bank to the next generation.

“The goal of a CEO is to leave the organization better than he found it,” Horner said. “I think I can say that, and I’m confident Bob will do the same thing.”

Harrison, who has been at First Hawaiian for 15 years, was on a CEO track the last several years after starting out as a business banking officer at the main branch.

“What I saw in Bob is what I see in all the management team: a shared sense of core values. And, yes, he has the skills,” Horner said. “He has a very impressive résumé as far as being smart, a math major from UCLA and an M.B.A. from Cornell. He’s married to a local lady, who in her own right is a remarkable lady. She was Nurse of the Year in Hawaii (in 1994). And he’s a great family person.”

Horner said that Harrison is “certainly invested in Hawaii.”

Harrison said he appreciates the vote of confidence from Horner and plans to keep the bank on the same course as his predecessor.

“The bank has done very well, and we’ve got a great team in place,” Harrison said. “We’re going to keep doing what we do, which is working with our customers and our communities. Really, there’s no reason to change.”

Harrison said he is focused on executing the bank’s plan — in place since the start of this year — to expand deposits and loans.

“That’s worked very well (with deposits up 11.6 percent for the first six months from the year-earlier period). Loan growth (up 2.2 percent through six months) has been a little harder to come by,” Harrison said. “Right now, as everyone knows, the economy is in a trough, and we’ve got to work through that. But we’re ready. We have lots of liquidity. We’re lending the same way we always have, but we haven’t seen the demand as much as we have in the past.”

Horner said he has been preparing Harrison for the CEO job much like Walter Dods, First Hawaiian’s CEO from 1989 to 2004, prepared Horner.

“If anybody knows me, I tend to be an analytical person, and so I’ve been planning my retirement for probably 20 years,” Horner said. “I set this date about five years ago.”

Horner, who is finishing his seventh year as CEO, has been in senior management for more than 25 years and at the bank for 33 years.

“I guess you’d say in some ways I grew up in the bank, and it’s time, I believe, to turn over the reins to the next generation, which we’ve been preparing for the last several years.”

“I assigned him (Harrison) a variety of different jobs to prepare him for the CEO job,” Horner said.

HARRISON SPENT seven years as senior vice president and manager of the Kapiolani Banking Center, which has more than $1 billion in assets, and four years as chief credit and risk officer for the bank. He also ran the bank’s wealth management division for three years, which includes the bank’s investments and trust business. Additionally, he supervised the bank’s automobile dealers’ business and card services.

As part of the management transition, Ray Ono, vice chairman and chief banking officer, will take on the added responsibility of chief operating officer. Horner will remain as chairman of the bank.

Horner, who describes himself as “a country boy that loves the water,” lives now in East Oahu but is building a retirement home on the North Shore.

He said he doesn’t feel like he’s leaving money on the table by walking away from a lucrative-paying job.

“Money has never been a motivator for me,” said Horner, who declined to disclose his salary. “I can honestly say I have enough. I don’t see myself walking away from a large salary, because most of my salary I invest. I’ve never gotten into the trap of what people typically want is just a little bit more than what they have. That is a treadmill I’ve chosen not to ride.”

HORNER SAID he is ready to write the next chapter of his life.

“I’ve had a really privileged, long career with the bank,” he said. “I’ve accomplished what I wanted to accomplish, and now it’s time for me to move in a different capacity of the bank as a member of the board. The board provides oversight and strategic direction. It’s the kupuna for any corporation, and I look forward to serving in a more advisory role than a dayto-day operating role.”

Horner said the extra freedom will avail him of other opportunities, but he vowed that he will continue to both serve and invest in the community.

He serves as board member or adviser to more than 20 nonprofit organizations. Horner said he will remain active in community service, become more involved with his church and follow his passion for teaching. Horner has taught finance and investment courses at the University of Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific University, Chaminade University and the American Institute of Banking as well as Bible studies.

“I’ve already been asked to teach at the University of Washington’s Pacific Coast Banking School, where I was chairman of the board,” Horner said. “I intend to do that a little bit during the summer. I’ll probably go back to school. One of my goals was to go back and get a Ph.D.”

He might also begin investing in local companies.

“As a banker, I had a rule throughout my banking career to not be an investor because I never wanted to compete with my customers or have any kind of conflicts or be involved personally,” Horner said. “I didn’t sit on forprofit boards. So I have an opportunity now to perhaps looks at areas of my interest. I’m going to do some reflection on it.”

Among those interests, he said, are agriculture and real estate.
“I have a lot of bucket list ideas,” Horner said. “We’ll see which ones come to fruition.”