LIHUE — Ike Cockett is the seventh Executive Director of the Waioli Corporation and Nuhou Corporation, effective Sept. 1, 2024.
The Board of Trustees of the Waioli Corp. and Nuhou Corp. announced the selection on Friday following the search of a 5-member Search Committee. The Committee retained Honolulu executive search firm Inkinen and Associates to conduct an extensive search and comprehensive interview process before selecting Cockett from a pool of applicants from throughout Hawaii and the mainland.
Cockett has most recently been the General Manager of the Hilton Garden Inn Kauai in Wailua, and has held numerous management positions in the visitor industry on Kauai, Maui, and Oahu over the past 35 years, including the most recent Chair of the Visitor Industry Charity Walk.
A press release from Waioli Corporation said Cockett has an extensive history of leadership roles that have included management of teams of employees, budgeting, forecasting, and monitoring of financial performance, development of capital asset planning and renovation project management.
“On behalf of the staff and board of directors for Waioli Corp. and Nuhou Corp., we are excited to welcome Ike as our new leader,” said Sam Pratt, president of Waioli Corp. “We have full faith and confidence in his leadership style and commitment to our mission.”
Cockett, a graduate of Kamehameha Schools – Kapalama, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Hawaii. As time allows, Cockett loves to travel with his family and experience food from around the world while learning from a variety of cultures. He especially enjoys taking the family’s Belgian Malinois “Hina” for early morning walks on the beach.
The Waioli Corporation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization, and the Nuhou Corporation is a 509(a)(3) nonprofit supporting organization that were founded by Miss Mabel Wilcox in 1975.
Their mission is “Our kuleana is to preserve Grove Farm and Waioli Mission House museums, and other important properties, buildings, and collections; and to share authentic educational experiences through stories about the people, collections, and diverse properties that bring life to Kauai’s rich history and culture; to oversee the management of historic sites on Kauai, serving island residents and visitors through tours of the Grove Farm Homestead Museum, Waioli Mission House, and Mahamoku — three historic house museums each of which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It also preserves a 1943 locomotive roundhouse that houses the museum’s collection of original operating Kauai sugar plantation steam locomotives, and in another location, an interactive learning park where visitors and school children participate in routine locomotive ‘fire ups’ and educational tours.”
