From the September 5, 2003 print edition
Forty Under Forty
Bankoh award winner has sense of what's important
Bank of Hawaii Community Leader of the Year
Terrence Sing
Christine Camp Friedman's community involvement is
a reflection of one of her favorite maxims -- English
poet John Donne's"No man is an island."
The 36-year-old principal of real estate development
firm Avalon Development Co. LLC spends much of her time
giving back
to the community as chairwoman-elect for the board of
the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, chairwoman of the
Hawaii
chapter of the Urban Land Institute and national chairwoman
of the ULI Urban Mix-Use Development Council. She is
also a
Hawaii Korean Chamber of Commerce board member.
Friedman is the 2003 Bank of Hawaii Community Leader
of the Year, chosen by Forty Under 40 judges for her
outstanding
civic contributions of time and leadership.
"We also live on an island," Friedman says
of Donne's famous poem. "It's easy to remember and
always something that's
humbling. You realize you are not the only thing that's
important."
Being an entrepreneur has made her more aware, she said.
"As I was doing more and more businesses, I realized
I couldn't just do it in a vacuum," she said. "I
have to improve our
community to make my livelihood better."
So she got involved.
"I spend significant time in lobbying on workers'
compensation and health-care insurance costs for employers,
finding out why
it's such a problem and how to reduce the cost for business
owners," Friedman said.
She also mentors college students through internships.
"Businesses can't survive unless they have quality
employees, so I take on interns to teach them what they
need to prepare," she
said.
Friedman got her first taste of the real estate business
while in college working toward a degree in business
and finance at
Hawaii Pacific University, where her drive to succeed
was ever present.
"It was a small real estate development company," Friedman
recalled. "I got my feet wet and went on to bigger
things."
Bigger things included being the first female operating
vice president at A&B Properties Inc. and a five-year
stint at Castle &
Cooke Homes Hawaii Inc. where she helped develop 950
single- and multifamily projects within three master-planned
communities.
Playing in the big leagues gave Friedman the confidence
to strike out on her own. She started Avalon Development
in 1999
with one person. Today, the company has 10 employees.
"Christine's age belies a record of business and
professional achievement rarely equaled by those twice
her age," said former
Honolulu City Councilman Mufi Hannemann, in a letter
to the Forty Under 40 selection committee. "As the
managing director
of Avalon Development, she has been a force in the real
estate industry, helping to oversee the conversion of
hundreds of
apartments to condominiums, the repositioning of a quarter-million
square feet of retail space and the investment of $100
million for partners and clients."
Reach Terrence Sing at 955-8001 or tsing@bizjournals.com
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - September 8, 2003
http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2003/09/08/focus2.html
© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.
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