Located on O‘ahu’s North Shore, the Polynesian Cultural Center has found its new leader in Jarod Hester, who previously served as chief operating officer and chief financial officer. Hester succeeded P. Alfred Grace, who retired on May 1, after more than a decade as president and CEO.
“I truly and deeply love the Polynesian Cultural Center,” said Grace, 65, a native of New Zealand. “I have no doubt Jarod will do a fine job.”
Hester, also from New Zealand, told Aloha State Daily that Grace has been a key mentor in his career, which, at PCC, started in 2013.
“My mentors have mainly been the people I work alongside,” he said. “Alfred Grace has been a great mentor for me in terms of his passion and the legacy of this place. I thoroughly enjoyed working closely with him and am excited for his next chapter.”
Another mentor is PCC board chairman Frasier Bullock. “He provides good guidance and allows executive management to manage. I love that philosophy. I hope with the team I’m now responsible for leading that I can give them room to breathe and do well in their respective roles. … I believe in the principle of servant leadership. And I consider it a privilege to be working here.”
The Polynesian Cultural Center is a nonprofit owned by The Church of Latter-Day Saints. It is one of Hawaiʻi’s most visited attractions, with all its revenues benefiting student-employees and operations of Brigham Young University-Hawaiʻi. Spanning 42 acres, the property showcases “the people, culture, arts and crafts of Polynesia,” including six island villages — Hawaiʻi, Samoa, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Fiji, Tahiti, and Tonga. Guests can enjoy hands-on activities and shows, shopping, dining and an evening lūʻau called “HĀ: Breath of Life.”
“We love that people (locals) come and rediscover this place,” Hester said. “We know living here is expensive, coming here is expensive but we try to make it reasonable for locals as much as we can.”
He shared more about the transition, goals ahead and more.
What initially brought you to Hawaiʻi and what has kept you here?
From New Zealand, [my family and I] moved here 12 years ago in fall of 2013. In Aukland, I worked in administration looking after the LDS church school system throughout the South Pacific (Samoa, Fiji, Kiribati and Tonga) before coming here as a financial controller, then CFO in 2017, adding COO duties in 2019.
The food was shockingly different for our family. But the culture didn’t feel too different. Everyone dreams of living in Hawaiʻi, and we thought it would be a great adventure. What kept us here is the lifestyle, living on the North Shore out of the city. Being able to walk to work every day. More travel opportunities. It is the perfect climate for night walks, pickleball and fishing.
What trends in tourism has the center seen in the last decade?
Visitor count has decreased since pre-Covid and part of that is entirely by design. The other part of that is macro market conditions. [In 2020,] we took a look at a model where we could operate five days a week (instead of six) with 20-30% less tourists coming through. Now there was a huge bounce back in tourism in 2022-2023 and a lot of pressure to open the sixth day again and make more money. But we’d rather make a better tourist experience. … Another example: Prior to Covid, we would seat 500 people in that venue [for the lūʻau]. We won’t allow more than 330 in there now. Our total attendance numbers are right now closer to 500,000 and 600,000 annually. [PCC saw more than 795,000 visitors in 2023, down from over 1 million in 2022, according to Pacific Business News. The center's revenue was nearly $58 million per its form 990 tax filings from 2011 to 2024 via ProPublica.]
What accomplishment(s) as COO/CFO are you most proud of?
Since I joined PCC in 2013, I’m proud to have helped it transition from where it was with legacy systems and ways of governance. I think that’s transformed over the years into new systems, different processes and new governance that has enables PCC to operate more efficiently, as well as improve upon the guest experience.
The most satisfying sort of transformation was being involved with executive leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s hard to call Covid an accomplishment, but it’s how we responded. We went from being open six days a week to five days, which transformed the quality of our labor force. It caused us to relook at our whole mission, vision and purpose for being and how we look after our employees.
Tell me more about your staff makeup and how PCC has approached recruitment?
Adjustments to minimum wage, for example, have put pressures on our model more than the tourism scenarios. We have about 150 full-time employees and roughly 1,000 part-time employees. We’re affiliated with BYU-Hawaiʻi, a lot of our employees are students there and a big part for our reason of being is to provide employment through the educational experience. And we hope that continues.
My replacement as CFO has been announced: Tauariki Kalama, who has served as PCC’s financial controller for 10 years. We’re now searching for a financial controller.
What is your top priority in your first 90 days? What about more long-term goals?
I think I’m pleasantly surprised at how much I’m enjoying this role. I am much less “in the books” and far more about the people. … I’m very energized and engaged, looking forward to helping PCC move into the next generation.
Short term, I’m focused on continuing to find the 1% improvements we can control (i.e. guest experience), while striving to make sure everyone who comes here feels the aloha spirit, the spirit of the Polynesian people. We’re all part of one big family. There’s more that unites us than divides us. I think the world needs that message more than ever.
Over the course of 18-24 months, we’ve got quite a change coming to the Hawaiian village experience. We want to make it the anchor village of the center. They are kanaka, people of the land, and so looking at how do we better share the story of the Hawaiian people through culture, language, voyaging and their connection with the other Polynesian Islands. We’ll be investing in and expanding its footprint in PCC. … As for construction, routine roof repairs and other maintenance will be taking place throughout the property.
How does PCC integrate with the surrounding community?
We just hosted the Samoan fire knife dance competition, which has kept me busy.
With more than 100 homes impacted in Lāʻie after severe flooding in March, PCC opened its grounds for food and supplies distribution. The community rallied together but there are still a lot of people affected.
For me, I’m happy to support the community, while remaining focused on PCC’s core mission and objectives.
For more information, visit Polynesia.com.
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Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.
