Regent

Howard H. Karr

Retired Hawaiʻi bank executive Howard H. Karr joined the Board of Regents in 2008.

Karr concluded his 29-year with First Hawaiian Bank as executive vice president and chief financial officer of BancWest Corp. and vice chairman of the Administration and Finance Group (which includes the controller’s, legal and information technology divisions) of First Hawaiian Bank. He oversaw the acquisition of Hawaiʻi Thrift and Loan, First Interstate Bank of Hawaiʻi and Pioneer Federal Savings and Loan; the merger with Bank of the West; and the acquisition of BancWest by BNP Paribas, a $2.5 billion transaction.

He previously served as an accountant and audit manager with Coopers and Lybrand and spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve with the 100th Battalion 442nd Regiment Reserve.

Involved with numerous community, not-for-profit and professional organizations over the past two decades, Karr serves on boards or committees for Aloha United Way, the Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship Foundation, Hawaiʻi Medical Service Association, Japan-America Society of Hawaiʻi, Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific, Special Olympics of Hawaiʻi and Waialae Country Club. A member University of Hawaiʻi Foundation Board of Trustees, he has served three terms as chair and sits on the Centennial Campaign Cabinet with his wife Audrey.

Born in Honolulu, Karr graduated from Roosevelt High School and earned a BBA from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with a major in accounting and minor in economics. He is a UH Distinguished Alumni Award recipient and was inducted into Mānoa’s Shidler School of Business Alumni Hall of Honor. Other honors include the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette from the Government of Japan and Boy Scouts of America Silver Beaver Award.