Finalists for Hawaii's 1999 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards Announced; Winners to Be Selected at Awards Banquet on June 10.

HONOLULU--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 21, 1999--

Edd New of Ernst & Young LLP Friday announced that the finalists for Hawaii's 1999 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) awards have been selected.

Award recipients will be announced on June 10 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom.

The finalists are:

     Retail
--   Young Lee, Local Discount, Aiea, Hawaii
--   Kent Untermann & Lori Untermann, Art Source dba Pictures Plus,
     Kapolei, Hawaii
--   Paul Kang, PHCK, Honolulu

     Retail Food & Beverage
--   Barry Silverman & Edmund Wary, Silverware Inc., Honolulu
--   Gregory Blotsky & Martha Harding, Cisco's Cantina, Kailua, Hawaii
--   Eddie Flores & Kwock Yum Kam, L & L Franchise Inc., Honolulu

     Technology
--   Shakil Ahmed, PDC Systems, Honolulu
--   Mark Wong, Commercial Data Systems, Honolulu
--   Clifton Royston, LavaNet, Honolulu

     Real Estate
--   Randal Hiraki, Commercial Plumbing, Honolulu
--   Troy Adams, Studio Becker, Honolulu
--   Laura Sherill & Les Sherill, South Pacific Steel Corp., Kapolei,
     Hawaii

     Wholesale
--   Violeta Arnobit, Ace Medical, Honolulu
--   Melanie Wong, Premium Inc., Honolulu
--   Sally Donellon & Milton Ebesu, Custom Co., Honolulu

     Services
--   Raymond Battaglia, Star Video Services, Honolulu
--   Robert Pennington, Jani-King Hawaii, Honolulu
--   Lynne Kaneshiro, Island Title Corp., Honolulu

     Young Entrepreneur
--   Jonathan Lee, Chun Ha, Honolulu
--   Yates Honma, Wholesale Unlimited Express, Honolulu

     General Business
--   Victor Lim, LWD Inc. dba McDonalds, Honolulu
--   Sidney Quintal, SUN Industries, Honolulu
--   Gerald Lam, BioGenesis, Kailua, Hawaii

     Emerging
--   Alan Nagao, HPK Marketing, Honolulu
--   Charles King, King Auto Center, Lihue, Hawaii
--   James Hawkins, Directions Inc., Honolulu

     Health Care
--   Thomas Driskill, Hawaii Health Systems Corp., Honolulu

     Sustaining
--   Michael Fujimoto, HPM, Keaau, Hawaii
--   Robin Campaniano, AIG Hawaii, Honolulu
--   Aaron Placourakis, Tri-Star Restaurants, Honolulu

Award recipients selected from these finalists will be eligible for 12 national Entrepreneur Of The Year category awards, as well as the National Entrepreneur Of The Year. All National Entrepreneur Of The Year finalists and award winners will be announced at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year International Conference, in Palm Springs, Calif., on Nov. 13, 1999.

Hawaii finalists were selected by an independent panel of judges, including:

--   Chatt Wright, president, Hawaii Pacific University
--   Diane Plotts, general partner, Mid East & China Trading Co.
--   Paula Sussex, president, Sandal Tree Ltd.
--   Martin Schiller, president, Schiller Group
--   Virendra Nath, president, HDEP International
--   Mitchell D'Olier, president and chief executive officer, Victoria
     Ward Ltd.

Last year's Hawaii winners included: The Schiller Group, RJFO Corp. dba Cinnamon Girl, Surf Line Hawaii, Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo, Island Demo, Hardware Hawaii, CyberCom Inc., Pomare Ltd., Ba-Le Sandwich, and Ymmuy Management Co.

Reservations to the awards banquet on June 10 may be placed by calling Freida Higashi of Ernst & Young at 808/535-6955. The banquet ticket price is $100 per person. Information can also be found on the Ernst & Young Web site at www.ey.com/eoy.

Founded and produced by Ernst & Young and nationally co-sponsored by USA Today, CNNfn and CNN, the Nasdaq-Amex Market Group and the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the awards are sponsored locally by Business Wire, The Chamber of Commerce, Hawaii Newspaper Agency, Hawaii Business, Island Television KITV4, NFIB Hawaii, Retail Merchants of Hawaii, and Scherzer & Co.

Ernst & Young (www.ey.com) provides assurance and advisory business services, tax services and consulting for domestic and global clients. The firm has 30,000 people in 87 U.S. cities. Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Services is dedicated solely to meeting the business needs of owner-managed businesses worldwide.

Recipients of the Entrepreneur Of The Year award become lifetime members of the Entrepreneur Of The Year Hall of Fame.

The Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership has become a trusted resource for accelerating entrepreneurship in America, promoting opportunities for entrepreneurs, educators and youth nationwide. The Center is at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the largest foundation supporting entrepreneurship in the United States.

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Note to Editors: Media are invited to attend the awards banquet, and may take advantage of interview and photo opportunities. Call Freida Higashi at 808/535-6955 as soon as possible so that a free reservation will be held for a representative from your organization. Media credentials must be presented.

Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) is a registered service mark of Ernst & Young LLP.