Ann Botticelli, a longtime journalist who heads community relations and communications for Hawaii’s large private school for native islanders, is expected to step down at the end of the month to lead communications for Hawaiian Airlines.
Botticelli |
Botticelli guided PR for Kamehameha Schools through a high-profile court battle that challenged its controversial policy of admitting only native Hawaiians. A lawsuit brought by a non-Hawaiian student, which was headed to the U.S. Supreme Court after being dismissed, was settled by a payment from the school in 2008 for $7M.
The school has a $9B endowment.
Botticelli will join the 82-year-old Hawaiian Air as senior VP for corporate communications and public affairs on Oct. 3, based in Honolulu.
She takes over for Al Hoffman, who is retiring and is a former colleague at the Hawaii PR firm Communications Pacific. Hoffman was named VP at Hawaiian Air in 2008 and is a former VP for Hill & Knowlton Hawaii.
Botticelli was a reporter for KITV-4, KHON-TV and the Honolulu Advertiser in a two-decade journalism career before moving to PR. She was VP at Communications Pacific, where she worked under then-president Hoffman, and later VP of comms. for the non-profit Child and Family Service.
Hawaiian Airlines is the top carrier from the mainland U.S. to Hawaii, and also serves Asia, Australia, American Samoa and Tahiti.