Background of the Maui SBDC and Center Director David Fisher

The Maui office of the Hawaii Small Business Development Center Network opened in September 1990 on the Maui Community College campus with a formal dedication, with guest of honor Senator Inouye, later in the spring of 1991. In March of 1992, the Maui Center moved to its current offices at the Maui Research and Technology Center in Kihei.

Launched by current director, David Fisher, the Maui Center was an early promoter of the Internet, offering classes as early as January 1991 and providing a free dial-up e-mail and news group service (HuiNet) to over 100 users in April 1992. In March of 1994, the Maui SBDC launched one of the first web sites on Maui to communicate with and showcase clients. This beat out any other SBDC in the country by over a year. In the fall of 1994, the Maui SBDC was one of a half dozen listings under the subject "small business" at the Yahoo and Apple web sites. Through most of 1994 through 1996, the Maui SBDC ran regular "Getting Wired" workshops and helped start companies like Maui Global Communications (Maui.Net). A survey in 1996 showed Maui as having over 1,500 businesses with web sites and Honolulu, with ten times the population, with only 600 businesses on the web. Maui Global Communication used this information to create an Oahu operation (Pacific Global Communictions) resulting in its being ranked as one of the top growth companies in Hawaii.

Other highlights over the last 16 years include:

• Helping over 3,000 entrepreneurs through counseling and workshops resulting in over $100 million in activity including companies and individuals like those publicized in the SBDC Annual Reports, or otherwise consenting to be recognized as Success Stories:
  
  • Maui Global Communications (Fern and Roger Stout)
  • Origin-The Language Agency (Chelsea Hill)
  • The Hawaii Taro Company (Robert Mitnick)
  • Hawaii Kai Salt (Nancy Gove)
  • The Home School Learnng Network (Patricia Carnabucci)
  • Obachan's Crack Seed (Faith Mori)
  • Leilani's Papaya Seed Dressing (Doreen Ching)
  • MicroFabTech (Steve Hill)
  • Maui Glass/Plastic Recycling (Tom Reed)
  • Groove-2-Music (Ron Netoyer)
  • InVision Maui Video Productions (Carl Rozycki)
  • Pacific Biodiesel, Inc.(Bob and Kelly King)
  • Media Systems, Inc.(Rick Nava)
  • Five of the Pacific Business News "Top 50 Hawaii Growth Companies" in 2006 were current or past Maui SBDC clients.
  
  
• Collaborating with others on Maui or in Hawaii in creating and/or developing projects like
  • The Maui Technology Entrepreneurs Group (1991-94)
  • The Beacon - Business and the Environment Conferences ('91, '92, '93)
  • Art Tech Maui ('94, '95, '96)
  • Hawaii Community Loan Fund ('95)
  • Maui Economic Opportunity Micro Loan Fund ('95)
  • Bringing the Hawaii Business Research Library into the Hawaii SBDC Network ('95)
  • Serving on the Governor's Community Based Economic Development Advisory Board ('96-'03)
  • The Targeted Industry Growth Report website (TIGRNet.Org) '97-'03
  • Serving as an examiner and helping the SBDC receive the Hawaii State Award for Excellence ('98)
  • Receiving the SBA Minority Business Advocate Award for Maui County ('98)
  • Launching MauiEnterpriseForum.Net in '00 originally to serve streaming and archived video of business plan presentations. Repurposed in '03 after losing video server.
  • Helping to launch the Maui Tech Ohana with the Maui Economic Development Board ('02)
  • Teaching entrepreneurship to high school students as part of the Kauffman Foundation's Entreprep Program ('02,'03)
  • Successfully nominating former State Tax Director Ray Kamikawa for the SBA's State of Hawaii Financial Advocate Award ('02) and venture capitalist Jeff Au ('05)
  • David Fisher was also successfully nominated for the SBA's State of Hawaii Financial Services Champion in 2006 by Kevin Yoshida of Central Pacific Bank
  • Launched CoolProjectsMaui.com - a website, blog and podcast with Scott Waters and Keola Donaghy as part of MauiCast.Net ('05)

  David Fisher (Maui Center Director) has over 25 years of business consulting experience including 18 years on Maui. He was the U.S. Small Business Administration's Financial Services Champion for the State of Hawaii in 2006, SBA Minority Business Advocate for 1999 and helped the Hawaii SBDC earn the Hawaii State Award for Excellence in 1999 based on the Malcolm Baldrige Award criteria. He has worked with over 3,000 entrepreneurs and helped them achieve over $100 million in economic impact in Hawaii.

  One of the first tenants at the Maui Research and Technology Center, Fisher taught the first Maui classes on using the Internet for business in 1990. The Maui SBDC was the first in the country to have a website by a year. He has been evolving a practice that includes helping companies interested in innovation and technology to develop businesses that have a positive impact in Hawaii and the world.

  Fisher has an MBA from New York University with a concentration in Management and Corporate Strategy; and a BA from Yale University majoring in American Studies with a focus on music. His parents were with the U.S. Foreign Service. He grew up in Italy, Ethiopia, Barbados, Thailand, Malta, and England as well as in the Washington, D.C. area and before Maui, in New York City.

  Fisher has maintained his interest in music and has a home recording studio. He is married to Jan Ryan who has had a career as a lawyer, and is currently a math teacher and church organist. They both have a son who is also active in the performing arts, a graduate of Baldwin High School, and Maui Community College, and as student at the University of Hawaii, is spending his junior year studying Japanese in Kobe, Japan.

  For a formal resume as of 2001 click here.

  For information on music projects click here.

  Updated Januayr 2008