Shelee Kimura

About this Speaker

Shelee Kimura is the president and chief executive officer of Hawaiian Electric, which serves 95% of Hawai‘i’s population on the islands of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, Maui, Lāna‘i and Moloka‘i and is committed to serving communities with safe, affordable, reliable clean energy. 

Shelee was appointed to her current role in January 2022 and previously served as senior vice president of Customer Service & Public Affairs and senior vice president of  Business Development & Strategic Planning. She provided leadership for the company’s customer care initiatives through the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn, making equity and access a top priority while improving customer satisfaction and stakeholder engagement.  She led the development of Hawaiian Electric’s 2015- 2020 Strategic Transformation Plan and co-led the Transformation Office responsible for execution. She strengthened and grew the Hawai‘i market for affordable, clean energy resources and launched the electric transportation division, which will play a critical role to help decarbonize Hawai‘i’s economy. 

Before joining Hawaiian Electric, Shelee led Investor  Relations and Strategic Planning at HEI, the parent company of Hawaiian Electric and one of the largest publicly traded companies in Hawai‘i. She previously worked as HEI’s director of corporate finance and investments and prior to that was a consulting manager at Arthur Andersen and its successor firm in Honolulu, KMH LLP. 

Shelee has received several honors including the American Lung Association Outstanding Mother Award in 2022, Girl Scouts of Hawai‘i Women of Distinction in 2020, Hawaii Business’ 20 for the Next 20 in 2018, and the U.S.          Department of Energy’s Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Business award in 2016. Next month, Shelee will be inducted into the Hall of Honor for the Shidler College of Business. 

Shelee received her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she was a UH Board of Regents Presidential Scholar. She is also an executive education graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Shelee is an Omidyar Fellow, serves on the board of Na Kama Kai, and is an Ambassador for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) Women’s Initiative. Shelee and her husband are proud parents of three teenage children.