FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 6, 2006         

MEDIA CONTACT:
Kehaulani Filimoe'atu 808.760.5100
Michelle Kauhane 808.587.7886

KAUHANE NAMED INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF
HOMEOWNERSHIP EDUCATION ORGANIZATION

HONOLULU, HI - On December 21, 2005 Hawaiian Community Assets, Inc. (HCA), a five-year old nonprofit mortgage broker and homeownership education organization, named Michelle Kauhane as Interim Executive Director.  Michelle Kauhane replaces Jim Wagele, who served as Executive Director since June 2000.

“Michelle brings strong management and leadership skills, and a demonstrated dedication to our mission, and the Board looks forward to the years ahead,” said Board President Kehaulani Filimoe'atu. “Jim has done an excellent job growing our organization into a success.  From the beginning, Jim has been committed to the Board’s vision of growing leadership internally to run Hawaiian Community Assets.  Michelle’s promotion is proof that his plans have worked!”

Kauhane joined HCA as a loan officer trainee in May 2003 at Hawai'i Community Lending (HCL), the mortgage broker arm of HCA in Honolulu.  In 2004, Kauhane was promoted as the Assistant Manager for Hawai'i Community Lending and then promoted as Associate Director of HCA in mid-2005.  Prior to joining HCA, Kauhane held a number of management positions in the tourism industry.  She is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools and Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, where she earned a degree in Public Relations.

Wagele will now be focusing on organizational and financial planning to take HCA into the future.  “Jim will remain a critical part of our management team as we move forward,” said Filimoe`atu.

Hawaiian Community Assets, an independent 501-c-3 nonprofit, is the state’s only nonprofit mortgage broker and statewide provider of homeownership education, with offices in Wailuku, Maui, and Honolulu, Oahu.  HCA’s mission is to increase the capacity of low-income communities and individuals in Hawai`i to achieve economic self-sufficiency, with particular focus on Native Hawaiians.

Since HCA began offering classes in late 2001, more than 1,200 families have completed its home buyer workshops.  Since July 2002, Hawai'i Community Lending (HCL), has originated 270 construction and mortgage loans, totaling $48 million.

HCA is a provider of homeownership services to Hawaiian Home Land beneficiaries through the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Home Ownership Assistance Program, administered by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.  HCA is also affiliated with two of the nation’s largest rural community development organizations as a partner Community Development Corporation in the Washington D.C. based Rural LISC Network and as a homeownership counseling affiliate of Sacramento-based Rural Community Assistance Corporation.  For more information, please contact Kehaulani Filimoe'atu or Michelle Kauhane, via telephone toll free at 1.866.400.1116, e-mail at info@hawaiiancommunity.net or visit our new website at www.hawaiiancommunity.net.