Ms. Lau was named president and chief executive officer of Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) in May 2006. She also serves as chairman of Hawaiian Electric Company and chairman of American Savings Bank. Born and raised in Honolulu, Ms. Lau joined the HEI companies in 1984, serving first as assistant corporate counsel and treasurer of Hawaiian Electric Company, then as treasurer of HEI. In 1999, she became a director and senior executive vice president and chief operating officer of American Savings Bank, rising to president and chief executive officer in June 2001. She also served as an HEI director from 2001 through 2004, and has been serving as an HEI director since May 2006.
Ms. Lau is a director and Audit Committee chair and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Member of Matson, Inc. (NYSE: MATX), the major shipping carrier to Hawaii. Ms. Lau is a nationally recognized leader in the fields of critical infrastructure, resilience and physical and cyber security, banking and energy. Since 2012, Ms. Lau has chaired the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC), which advised President Barack Obama through the Department of Homeland Security on the security of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors and their information systems, including both the energy and financial services sectors. In energy, Ms. Lau was named 2011 Woman of the Year by the Women's Council on Energy and the Environment in Washington, D.C., and serves on the boards of the Electric Power Research Institute, the Edison Electric Institute, and the Associated Electrical & Gas Insurance Services. In banking, Ms. Lau is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Twelfth District Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council, and was one of U.S. Banker's 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking for 2004, 2005, and 2006 when she headed American Savings Bank.
In Hawaii, Ms. Lau was named Pacific Business News (PBN)'s 2004 Hawaii Business Leader of the Year, and in 2013, she was named one of PBN's 10 to Watch for her leadership in clean energy and transportation. Ms. Lau also serves on the boards of the Hawaii Business Roundtable, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Punahou School, and the Consuelo Foundation, which helps women, children and families in Hawaii and the Philippines. She served as a trustee for Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate from 1999 to 2007.
Ms. Lau graduated from Yale College with a B.S. in administrative sciences. She earned a juris doctor from the University of California Hastings College of the Law and a master's in business administration from Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is married to Russell Lau, vice chairman of Finance Enterprises, Ltd., and has three children.
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