2025 Honorees:
The Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce (NHCC) proudly announces the honorees of the 48th Annual ʻŌʻō Awards Gala, set to take place on Oct. 17, 2025, at the Sheraton Waikīkī.
This prestigious event honors Native Hawaiian leaders who exemplify excellence in business and community service, embodying the values and traditions of their ancestors.
Established in 1977, the ʻŌʻō Awards recognize Native Hawaiian business leaders who demonstrate courage, resilience, and dedication to their craft and the people of Hawaiʻi. The award symbolizes NHCC’s commitment to acknowledging leaders who advocate for Hawaiians in business, ensuring that Hawaiian culture and values remain integral pillars that are passed on to future generations.
This year’s honorees have made significant contributions to the Native Hawaiian community in different areas.
Aunty Tammy
Tammy Smith is a respected community leader and advocate of ‘ai pono (healthy eating) who has dedicated her life to feeding our people. She is a second-generation owner of the Hale Kealoha restaurant and catering business in Kailua which served Hawaiʻi for some 35 years. Her work included providing healthy lunches for 300 Hawaiian-focused charter school students each day. When COVID-19 struck, Tammy was working as the dietary manager for The King Lunalilo Trust and Home, overseeing their meal delivery program. A pandemic hero, she expanded her efforts to kūpuna stuck at home, working tirelessly to ensure that they had healthy food, rallying the community to kōkua and partnering with Alu Like Hawai'i Meals on Wheels, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Alexander and Baldwin to pack and deliver some 1,000 meals per week.
Robert N.E. Piper, ESQ., MBA,
A proud member of the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce since 1990, Robert Piper is the Executive Director and CEO of the Honolulu Community Action Program, Inc. (“HCAP”), a Hawaii private, non-profit community action agency with an overall budget of approximately $24.0 million and 304 employees.
Prior to joining HCAP, Robert was the Deputy Director of the Department of Budget and Finance, State of Hawaii, and was also the Chief of Staff of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor. Before joining the State Administration in 2002, Robert was a business attorney specializing in commercial transactions and civil litigation and was also a business banker before that.
Robert has long been active as a community volunteer and leader, serving on the governing boards of HCAP, the National Community Action Foundation, the Region IX Western States Community Action Association, the Hawaii Community Action Programs Directors Association, the Pacific Housing Assistance Corporation, the Oahu Workforce Investment Board, PHOCUSED (Protecting Hawaii’s Ohana, Children, Under-served, Elderly, and Disabled), the Hawaii Community Development Authority, the High Technology Development Corporation, the Hawaii State Bar Association’s Committee on Delivery of Legal Services to the Public, the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, and ʻŌlelo Community Media.
Robert was an East-West Center/Kamehameha Schools Fellow at the East-West Center and was recognized by the Hawaii Business Magazine’s Twenty for the Next Twenty honors program in 2011 as one of 20 people whose talents, past accomplishments, and potential set them apart as emerging leaders of Hawaii over the next two decades.
Robert was chosen as a 2011–2012 Fellow of The Weinberg Fellows Program, a select management enhancement program of The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation for chief executives of non-profit organizations.
Robert is continually honored by Hawaii Business Magazine’s inclusion of him in its annual Black Book listing of Hawaii’s top business executives and community leaders.
Raynard C. Soon
Ray Soon is retired from public and private service and spends most of his time managing family affairs and serving as a hub for his writer wife Cheryl, and his three children — Reni, Becky and Kekoa — who are all very active in unique parts of the Hawaiian community.
Ray’s professional life was distinctly split in 1990. Like many Native Hawaiians of his generation, Ray did not find his Hawaiian roots till later in life. Pre-1990, he dutifully pursued a professional degree, a Master’s of City Planning, then spent his early professional life working as a public planner and starting and growing three successful research companies with emphases on real estate and city development and on politics.
Life changed in 1990 when he was enticed home from Boston to work at the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. During the next twelve years, the last four of which were spent as the Chairman of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, Ray led the development of over 3,000 homesteads; restructured construction/financing processes; instituted innovative programs, new to the department (e.g. NAHASDA, homestead empowerment; LIHTC rent-to-own projects; Kupuna housing; pre-school development); directed the management of 203,000 acres, 32 Native Hawaiian communities, and six satellite offices across the State.
Having found his Hawaiian roots, Ray went on to be a founding member and Chairman of the Board for the first five years of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, serve on the Native Hawaiian Water Rights Task Force, serve on the QLCC Children Center Advisory Board, serve on the Board of Ho’okako’o Charter Schools, serve as a Vice President at Kamehameha Schools and serve for nine years as the only Native American representative on the President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (as a Clinton appointment), where he sat with seven US Cabinet members and a variety of preservation experts advising the President and the Congress on historic preservation matters.
In his final professional position before retirement, Ray was the Chief of Staff to the Honolulu Mayor. Among his many tasks, Ray was charged by the Mayor with populating the many Boards and Commissions of the County. Enjoying that task immensely, he took every opportunity to place as many Native Hawaiians as possible in positions of service.
Finally following retirement, Ray also served as a member of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and as a Board member of the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii. Today, he has come full circle and spends consulting time with a company he formed 40 years ago, Solutions Pacific, which today is owned and run by his daughter Becky.
Ray Soon is a graduate of the University of Hawaii, Mānoa (BFA ’71, City and Regional Planning) and Harvard University (Masters of City Planning ’76).