After more than 20 years, award-winning Pacific regional leader, organizer and advocate Failautusi Avegalio (affectionately known as “Dr. Tusi”) has retired as director of the University of �鶹��ý Pacific Business Center Program (PBCP). To mark the occasion, a traditional kava ceremony and gift-giving presentation was held at College Hill in January.

Under Avegalio, the PBCP became one of the most distinguished programs in the nation under the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. The PBCP received eight national first place awards and four national finalist awards from the in areas such as innovation, place, economic development research, technology commercialization, partnership development, local capacity building and collaboration.

“We thank Dr. Tusi for his decades of dedicated service, leadership and inspiration,” said �鶹��ýPresident David Lassner. “He is an outstanding advocate of economic development who weaves together Indigenous wisdom and practice, the values of aloha, healing and ʻohana, and modern science, knowledge and technology. Under his direction, the PBCP has flourished and become a renowned catalyst for regional innovation, capacity building and resilience throughout the Pacific.”

“Good leaders lead. Great leaders heal,”
—Failautusi Avegalio

As director, Avegalio also received numerous regional, national and local awards for advocacy, collaboration and leadership. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency honored him as the San Francisco Regional Minority Business Advocate of the Year. He was also recognized as one of the top six facilitators in the state by Sam Kaner, a national and international expert on collaborative decision-making, as part of the Collaborative Leaders Network supported by the Omidyar family. Avegalio also received the 2017 Community Resilience Leadership Award from the .

“I was raised with the aspirations to be useful, honorable, compassionate, and to be bold when called upon. I was also guided to turn into the wind to protect, preserve and to heal with aloha our moana (ocean), the environment and humanity—guided by the five tofas (wisdoms) passed down from our ancestors. In all that one does, one must engage with humility, embrace with respect, sustain with aloha, and heal with forgiveness. The fifth wisdom is: Good leaders lead. Great leaders heal,” Avegalio said.

International organizer on critical Pacific issues

Avegalio has been the primary organizer of innovative events, such as the Global Breadfruit Summit, inaugurated in American Samoa in 2012, with support from the Ulupono Initiative, to promote traditional means of regenerative agriculture for food security, health and resilience. He also developed and organized the Stars of Oceania program and event, which recognizes contributions to the Pacific. Both events have continued to date, with the most recent held at the �鶹��ý Convention Center in 2022.

“Dr. Tusi’s unique gift of being able to connect individuals, organizations and the community was the key element that has enabled the Pacific Business Center Program to be so successful in assisting many small businesses in underrepresented and underserved communities to thrive, while maintaining their cultural identity,” said Vassilis L. Syrmos, �鶹��ývice president for research and innovation. “We are extremely grateful for his many contributions to the university and we look forward to building upon his legacy through our continuing support of Indigenous knowledge, innovation and economic development.”

Avegalio holds the chiefly title of Papalii as a senior heir to the Sa Malietoa Talavou warrior king line of Samoa. His genealogy is linked to the paramount aliʻi (royal) lines of Polynesia and Fiji in Melanesia. Avegalio’s Polynesian genealogy extends from Samoa to Tonga, Raro-Tonga, the Tuamotus, Marquesas, �鶹��ý, Aotearoa and Rapa Nui. In Micronesia his ties extend to Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Palau, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. He is also a former president of American Samoa Community College.

He is a permanent resident of the coastal community of Hauʻula on Oʻahu, and serves on the Koʻolauloa Neighborhood Board. He also continues to provide organizational planning assistance to the Olohana Foundation and �鶹��ý Pacific University’s Pacific Islands Leadership Institute, and to a national organization of Indigenous peoples called Rising Voices.

Avegalio said, “It also takes wisdom to know when it’s time to retire; to live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air, to laugh often and much, enjoy the affection of children, and to know that nature laughs in the flowers. I have reached that shore and, as of January 2023, my anchor is embedded in the sand.”

Read more about the Pacific Business Center Program.

The University of �鶹��ý Pacific Business Center Program (PBCP) won national recognition for two of its Multi-Purpose Business Incubator project partners at the University Economic Development Association’s (UEDA) 2022 Summit. The awards were presented in October in San Antonio, Texas.

The PBCP project titled, “Together We Can Go Far: Pacific Farmer Organisations as Drivers of Economic Development” in partnership with the Pacific Farmer Organisations took first in the Place category.

Pacific Farmer Organisations Executive Director Kyle Stice, with the encouragement of PBCP Director Tusi Avegalio, received the national award on behalf of UH and of Oceania.

“Farmer organizations are leading some incredible initiatives in the Pacific that are resulting in real impacts and economic development in the agriculture sector,” Stice said. “It’s a remarkable achievement to be selected from amongst university programs around the United States. It’s not so much about acknowledging our organization, as it is about validating the model of farmer organizations as drivers of economic development. Academia and development partners are recognizing the role of farmer organizations in addressing the big issues of food security and climate change adaptation.”

Garnering the runner up award in the Talent category was the PBCP project partner Boom! Inc. submission titled, “Developing a Digital Economy in Yap.” Boom! Inc. is a telecommunications company in the Federated States of Micronesia, and is headed by technology entrepreneur Lubuw Falanruw, who is Indigenous Yapese. Having to depart prior to the UEDA announcements at the national conference, Falanruw was presented the UEDA certificate of excellence award by UH President David Lassner a week later at the PBCP co-sponsored Stars of Oceania and Breadfruit Summit at the �鶹��ý Convention Center.

“Promoting the University of �鶹��ý, State of �鶹��ý, U.S. Island Territories, Oceania, global islands and geo-insular communities with holistic solutions that weave traditional wisdom with modern science and technology is best done through competitive awards of recognition at the highest levels,” Avegalio said. “It brings these areas disparaged by the uninformed as ‘insular crumbs’ into the national conversation when salient among national peers in a competitive format. Both Pacific-centric national awards do just that by weaving the best of both worlds with a compelling influence for change to raise the common good with balance, harmony and ability.”

PBCP has placed five finalists consecutively from 2019 to 2022 with two named national winners, making it one of the most award-winning U.S. Department of Commerce university center programs in the nation.

A University of �鶹��ý Pacific Business Center Program (PBCP) project with health security and disaster management consulting company HITmethods, is a finalist for a in the category of innovation. HITmethods is one of five private-sector partners organized under PBCP’s Multi-Purpose Business Incubator.

The PBCP works with private businesses, government agencies and community development organizations to enhance economic diversification and develop new opportunities for businesses in the Pacific region. HITmethods is focused on healthcare capacity building, disaster preparedness and response, global health informatics and technology, and business transformation. With PBCP assistance, HITmethods was able to navigate cultural and protocol issues and enter the Pacific Islands such as Samoa to provide health promotion and screening.

“The HITmethods project is under the Multi-Purpose Business Incubator, which was created to establish a symbiotic-regenerative economic development model that is restorative and regenerative, versus the debilitating extractive and degenerative economic model pervasive in the region. It builds on the weave of traditional wisdom, ancient regenerative practices and the fundamental principle of aloha ʻāina (love of the land), with modern science and technology.” said PBCP Director Failautusi Avegalio.

UEDA is an association of the nation’s leading universities, research institutions, organizations and government agencies with economic development entrepreneurial programs that generate and produce leading edge technologies, methods and practices through imagination, creativity, risk taking and innovation. Final selection for the annual award will be made at the national UEDA conference in Savannah, Georgia, on September 21.

The 2021 UEDA nomination is the fourth national nomination for the Multi-Purpose Business Incubator project within recent years. These projects are university/private enterprise partnerships specifically organized to address universal economic, environmental and health challenges in the Pacific.

The 2014 Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative, initially funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Insular Affairs, led the honors as the MPBI’s first national winner. In 2019, the Thermal Conversion of Organic Materials/Hauʻula Community Resilience model was a national winner; The 2020 Coastal Water Factory project was a national runner-up.

PBCP is a university center program of the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration. The MPBI project was created to provide a model for regenerative economic development that is sustainable for islands and insular communities. An additional feature of the MPBI includes a focus on Pacific Islander veterans and public safety officers of both the U.S. and Pacific nations of Oceania as key resources.

A new initiative aimed to bolster �鶹��ý’s economy and all regional island tourist destinations, by growing local breadfruit and developing waste conversion industries, has been launched by the University of �鶹��ý Pacific Business Center Program (PBCP).

The encompasses two of the PBCP’s award-winning projects: The Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative and the Hauʻula Resilience Model Village, featuring the Thermal Conversion of Organic Material (TCOM) waste management technology. Both are part of the center’s Multi-Purpose Business Incubator project, a partnership between PBCP and private industry to create synergies for problem solving or as catalytic tools for economic development to address state, regional and global challenges.

“We are choosing to turn into the wind towards the teeth of the impending economic disaster with PBCP’s novel solutions, rather than jockeying at the funding trough where I understand a feeding frenzy of competition is taking place,” said PBCP Director Failautusi Avegalio.

Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative

The Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative is leading the way towards new opportunities to support �鶹��ý as a global leader in the processing and manufacturing of breadfruit products and byproducts. According to Avegalio, breadfruit is a leader among plant protein-based sources, and is also gluten-free with projections for that market estimated to reach $43.65 billion by 2027. The plant’s leaves and flower heads are also a source for squalene, an organic compound with medical and cosmetic uses that has previously been obtained from shark liver. Avegalio said one possible use may be for the insect pest control market, which is projected to hit $17.6 billion by 2023.

Oceania has the highest density of breadfruit trees in the world with more than two million standing trees that can produce 1.4 billion pounds of breadfruit annually. The minimum annual harvest per mature tree is 700 pounds. PBCP, in collaboration with the , with 80,000 farmer members, is working to establish an Oceania-to-Honolulu supply link for dried breadfruit to �鶹��ý.

Thermal Conversion of Organic Material (TCOM)

The TCOM technology is designed to reduce and convert organic waste into value added products, including activated carbon. Landfills for trash and waste inundation are a constant threat in �鶹��ý, in particular, and islands, globally. A single TCOM unit can convert 1 ton of waste into 650 pounds of solid carbon per hour. Avegalio said solid carbon as a soil amendment is two-times more potent than the leading commercial fertilizer. This is a compelling factor in successful agriculture development. Heat generated by the TCOM system will support an attachment dehydrator deployed to the region’s farmers for drying breadfruit and ancillary agricultural products for shipping to �鶹��ý as the manufacturing center for national and global markets. TCOM parts are currently being manufactured, with the first shipments, assemblies and deployments targeted for August 2020, in �鶹��ý.

The (UEDA) has named a University of �鶹��ý project as a national finalist in the innovation category. Tusi Avegalio, director of the UH Pacific Business Center Program (PBCP), was informed recently that the center’s Hauʻula Resilience Model Village submission had made the cut. National winners will be announced on October 1 at the UEDA national meeting in Reno, Nevada.

The Hauʻula Resilience Model Village will feature a waste conversion technology designed into a retrofitted freight container for mobility and easy deployment by land, air and sea. The thermal energy conversion of organic materials (TCOM) system utilizes a unique process to produce commercial carbon, soil amendments for agriculture and food production, fuel and atmospherically harvested water and should earn carbon credits. It is designed for island and remote rural communities and can be integrated in current economic development strategies, especially in the event of a disaster.

The Hauʻula coastal community and several other locations along the North Shore of Oʻahu, including the Polynesian Cultural Center, are being considered as demonstration pilot and training locations for the mobile TCOM System. The system, developed and patented by inventor Michael Lurvey, is designed for ease of use and maintenance by children as young as seven and adults 60 or older in villages and communities with limited access to technology. In addition to tons of green waste that can persist for months and years particularly from post disaster accumulation, TCOM processes and converts carbon-based waste (tires, plastics, sewage, biomass, etc.) into commercially viable by-products with no negative or harmful emissions.

“In today’s economic development environment, it is critically important for higher education institutions to be more engaged in their regional economies as partners with both government and business entities to lessen the impacts of economic disruptions and develop more resilience,” said Tim Hindes, UEDA executive director. “These finalists are the very top programs from across North America, generating impactful and sustainable results in the regions in which they are engaged.”

Pilot TCOM demonstrations are also planned for the 2019 Fourth Annual Global Breadfruit Summit hosted by the Polynesian Cultural Center, October 14–17. Initial TCOM demonstration sites are being planned for 2020 in Apia, Samoa and St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

The PBCP’s Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative won UEDA’s top award for research and analysis in 2014.

A priority of the University of �鶹��ý’s (PCBP) is expanding awareness of the economic and health benefits of breadfruit. The center’s Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative, to advance the processing, refinement and export of ʻulu (breadfruit), in 2014.

PCBP Director says he was thrilled when a chef from the Virgin Islands recently presented him with a new breadfruit product, a vodka named Mutiny. According to Avegalio, demand for the nascent liquor along the U.S. eastern seaboard is up to 70,000 bottles. He says new dehydration technology in American Samoa is also consistently producing quality breadfruit flour, which is gluten-free and has a low glycemic index.

“Commercialization of ʻulu on an industrial scale for export has not occurred anywhere in the world yet,” said Avegalio. “With collaborative opportunities to build upon between the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa, which will expand to the greater Caribbean and Pacific, regional to global industries are only a matter of time and investment.”

Read the .

• Related UH News story: Pacific Global Breadfruit Summit honors UH ʻulu pioneer, August 15, 2016
• UH Pacific Business Center’s breadfruit project wins national economic development award, October 28, 2014

World-renowned experts in indigenous language and knowledge will convene at the ‘s Andrews Amphitheater for an evening of Hawaiian language, knowledge, mele and hula on February 23.

In honor of Mahina ʻŌ������� �鶹��ý, Hawaiian Language Month, A Hoʻolauleʻa of Knowledges will bring together Sir Tīmoti Kāretu, a preeminent scholar of language and cultural revitalization for his native Māori, with a panel of remarkable Pacific Island experts.

According to Puakea Nogelmeier, a professor of Hawaiian language at UH ����ԴDz�’�� , “‘s Hoʻolauleʻa of Knowledges promises to be a unique event, where thoughtful reflection is invested into great entertainment. Rare indeed to hear Sir Tīmoti Kāretu in person, it is rarer to have local scholars be able to express how his thoughts are embodied here in �鶹��ý.”

The expert panel, which convenes after Sir Tīmoti’s keynote address, includes Papaliʻi Tusi Avegalio, director of the UH ����ԴDz� Pacific Business Center Program; Kaliko Baker, assistant professor with the Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language; Kalehua Krug, educational specialist with the state Department of Education; and Kalei Nuʻuhiwa, Papakū Makawalu researcher with the Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation.

Following the panel discussion, award-winning musicians Robert Cazimero and hālau hula Na Kamalei, UH West Oʻahu‘s Aaron Salā, Snowbird Bento and Kūpaoa will present new mele and classic favorites.

The event, from 4 to 8 p.m., is free and open to the public, and tickets can be downloaded . Food vendors will be available.

For more information, see the .

—By Cindy Knapman

Experts and practitioners will share development breakthroughs and practical applications in energy, food security, health and disaster preparedness using the humble breadfruit (ʻulu in Hawaiian) at the inaugural August 27–31, 2016 at the Polynesian Cultural Center. The theme of the Breadfruit Summit is Honoring and Sharing. The mission focus is weaving traditional wisdom and cultural knowledge with modern science and technology, and the summit’s core values are engaging with humility, embracing with respect and sustaining with aloha.

The Breadfruit Summit brings together leading traditional, community, scientific and technology experts to connect the vast human, health and environmental benefits of potentially one of the most important crops of the 21st century. Experts will be from the Caribbean, South Pacific,�鶹��ý, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Saipan, United States, Asia and Canada among others.

Among the honorees at the summit will be Diane Ragone, who serves as affiliate graduate faculty in the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa’s and was the college’s 2015 outstanding alumna. Ragone also serves as breadfruit institute director for the on Kauaʻi and as titular leader of of the Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative.

In 2014, The Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative, a project of UH’s (PBCP), won a from the University Economic Development Association for its research and analysis of breadfruit.

• Related UH News: , October 28, 2014

According to PBCP Director Failautusi Avegalio, breadfruit is gluten-free, and the U.S. market demand for gluten-free products is projected to hit $15.5 billion this year. A compelling benefit of breadfruit is that it also has a low glycemic index and can be a major food product in the fight against obesity and diabetes rampant in Pacific Islander populations. Additionally, major byproducts of breadfruit include breadfruit sap that is 100-percent organic latex, and the breadfruit flower, which contains several powerful chemical compounds that repel insects. The tree’s wood is resistant to marine worms and termites. The breadfruit tree also has a high salinity tolerance, enabling it to survive inundation from rising tides better than other traditional Pacific crops.

More importantly, Avegalio says PBCP envisions �鶹��ý as a major processing, refinement and export hub to the U.S. market for sustainable and gluten-free food products made from breadfruit flour. The Marianas Islands could serve a similar function for the Asian market.

More information about .

—By Kelli Trifonovitch

A project to promote and expand breadfruit use in the Pacific has won a top award from the (UEDA). The Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative, a project of UH’s Pacific Business Center Program (PBCP), won UEDA’s award for research and analysis in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Accepting the UEDA was PBCP’s Senior Business Development Manager C. L. Cheshire and Director Failautusi Avegalio.

Avegalio attributes the Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative’s success to the groundbreaking research and analysis led by the and its Director Diane Ragone. That research affirmed the many uses of the breadfruit tree and fruit, or ʻulu, in Hawaiian.

According to Avegalio, breadfruit is gluten-free and the U.S. market demand for gluten-free products is projected to hit $15.5 billion in 2016. Major byproducts of breadfruit include the breadfruit sap that is 100 percent organic latex, and the breadfruit flower, which contains several powerful chemical compounds more potent than those used in the leading synthetic insect repellent on the market. The tree’s wood is resistant to marine worms and termites. The breadfruit tree also has a high salinity tolerance, enabling it to survive inundation from rising tides where traditional food crops such as taro, banana, tapioca and yams cannot.

“There is no better combination for natural food security in the world than breadfruit, together with the coconut tree for water,” said Avegalio.

The Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative includes a world class team of experts said Avegalio. “From that core group, we’ve developed an amazing and enthusiastic network of collaborators.”

PBCP envisions �鶹��ý as the major processing, refinement and export hub to the U.S. market for sustainable and gluten-free food products, such as flour made from breadfruit. The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands would serve a similar function for the Asian market.

A regional approach is imperative if the developing industry is to achieve fruition within the projected three-year time frame, according to Avegalio. He noted that global food distributor C. H. Robinson moves at least 300 tons of regular flour a week. “No one island group can supply that demand,” he said. “Only a collaborative regional approach can expect to do so.”

Launching 2015 breadfruit summit

Support from the of �鶹��ý helped to launch the Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative’s inaugural Breadfruit Summit in 2012. There will be a Melanesian breadfruit summit in early 2015 and a Pacific Regional Breadfruit Conference is being planned for October 2015 in �鶹��ý.

Read the for the full story.

—By Kelli Trifonovitch