Event Speakers
Kevin Chanthasiriphan
Co-Founder, immi
Kevin Chanthasiriphan is a co-founder of immi focused on product development, manufacturing, and logistics. Prior to immi, he was a Lead Product Manager at Facebook on the Social Video team where he launched Interactive Video Products and Video Creator Tools to millions of users. Before Facebook, he held consumer product leadership roles at Amino and Kabam. Kevin grew up eating noodles at his grandmother’s noodle hawker stand in Thailand and helped his father manage an Asian supermarket in the U.S.
Carina Chaz
Founder, DedCool
Carina Chaz is the founder of DedCool. DedCool was founded with generations of beauty expertise and an early passion for fragrance. Carina, the daughter of a beauty formulator, grew up playing and experimenting in the lab. She loved the craft of creating scents but was less charmed by the fragrance industry, which hasn’t changed in decades. It was only natural that she founded DedCool. DedCool is on a mission to reshape how traditional fragrance has been defined and how it can be experienced. Everyone should have a signature scent that can extend beyond a glass bottle. DedCool intermingles fragrance across mediums into otherwise ordinary products (from laundry detergent to car fresheners) so that scent can be enjoyed in every aspect of daily life.
Bobby Co
Amazon Stores Seller Growth, Amazon
Bobby leads a team responsible for supporting seller growth on Amazon Stores including companies from Hawaii. Prior to Amazon, Bobby’s background includes working with Hospitality companies and Tourism boards at Expedia Group, Microsoft and leadership roles in CPG and Consumer Electronics brands. He volunteers his time supporting transitioning Veterans with Amazon Military, and work with economic development organizations globally with an emphasis on retail readiness, e-commerce and marketing.
Brittney Cunningham
Founder, Rodeo Agency
Brittney is the founder and partner of the Rodeo Agency, a Digital Transformation Agency with a relentless commitment to driving revenue, results that matter and meaningful digital innovation. As a seasoned leader she has two decades of experience working for top tech companies including Meta and Shopify spanning global commerce, digital strategy, marketing, advertising, and transformative initiatives across various industries including web and app development, AR/VR, AI, and education.
Crystal Goode
Mike Holcombe
Co-Founder, Caitlyn Minimalist Jewelry
Caitlyn Kim & Mike Holcombe, founders of Caitlyn Minimalist Jewelry, craft minimalist and sentimental jewelry at affordable prices. With a focus on modern elegance, Caitlyn Minimalist offers accessible luxury that resonates with personal style and sentiment. The brand originally got started on ETSY in 2014 and quickly became the #1 storefront on the entire platform for all categories. More recently, Caitlyn and Mike have transitioned Caitlyn Minimalist into utilizing Shopify to have more control over the brand and can focus on long term growth. Family values are at their core and they understands what it takes to bootstrap and scale a business from your living room to the distribution center.
Kate Kim
Co-Founder, Caitlyn Minimalist Jewelry
Caitlyn Kim & Mike Holcombe, founders of Caitlyn Minimalist Jewelry, craft minimalist and sentimental jewelry at affordable prices. With a focus on modern elegance, Caitlyn Minimalist offers accessible luxury that resonates with personal style and sentiment. The brand originally got started on ETSY in 2014 and quickly became the #1 storefront on the entire platform for all categories. More recently, Caitlyn and Mike have transitioned Caitlyn Minimalist into utilizing Shopify to have more control over the brand and can focus on long term growth. Family values are at their core and they understands what it takes to bootstrap and scale a business from your living room to the distribution center.
Hon. Patricia M. Loui
Chair/CEO of Omnitrak Group
Pat Loui is an international business & development executive known for strategic leadership in both public and private sectors. She currently serves as Chair/CEO of Omnitrak Group, and as Treasurer of the $100-million Asia Foundation, a development nonprofit.
Recognized for international trade and branding expertise as well as deep cultural understanding of Asia, Loui was appointed by President Obama to serve on the full time Board of the Export Import Bank of the U.S. in D.C. She led advocacy of US exports in Asia Pacific, where it set new records; signed a new U.S.-China Strategic Framework Agreement to extend sovereign guarantees to environmental products, and opened EXIM in Burma, the first US finance agency to enter after suspension of sanctions. She also served as Marketing Chair of APEC’s 2011 Leaders Meeting in Hawai‘i.
Since returning to Omnitrak, Loui acquired one of the largest U.S. databases on travel behavior, which is used by more than 12 states. Previously Chief Marketing Officer at Bank of Hawai‘i, Loui has consulted on branding with Disney, General Motors, DFS, Kao, and Unilever in the Asia Pacific. She established scholarship programs for students at East West Center, the University of Hawai‘i Shidler Business School, and Kaimuki High. She graduated from Northwestern University and UH while on EWC grant.
Robert Metcalf
COO, May Lindstrom Skin
Inspired by his wife’s nourishing skincare formulations and the lives he saw them change, Robert pivoted from a career in aerospace engineering and renewable energy to build their family business, May Lindstrom Skin. As a 12-year-old bootstrapped and client-funded organization, we obsess with keeping the promise of our brand, and proving to our clients that “they are worthy of extraordinary care” at every touch point with our company. Robert combines his love of people and elegant systems to scale their in-house manufacturing, fulfillment, client service, and marketing teams to continually improve our client experience and increasingly nourish everyone the business touches.
Ellen Ng
Founder, Inoa.ai
Ellen is the founder of Inoa, a consulting firm focused on e-commerce implementation. Prior, while at HTDC, a state agency under DBEDT, she guided more than 100 local companies in the strategic adoption of e-commerce and digital marketing. Her corporate experience includes public sector and private companies in the tech and retail industries. Born and raised in Singapore, Ellen’s international career brought her to Silicon Valley, Seoul and New Delhi, working for LG and Samsung. In 2021, she was selected by PBN as a 40 Under 40 Honoree for her work in economic development.
Ted Saihara
Founder and Principal, Hibiscus Interactive
Ted is the founder and principal of Hibiscus, a Hawaii-based e-commerce and digital marketing firm who has helped local companies expand into the Japan market. An award-winning, multi-disciplinary designer, programmer and digital strategist, he is passionate about creating effective marketing and advertising solutions through digital media. He has worked with clients from various industries and from around the world to deliver unique and creative marketing solutions. Ted was born in Japan, raised in New York and has been supporting businesses for nearly two decades.
Chris Schmicker
Brand Marketing Director, Shopify
Chris Schmicker serves as Brand Marketing Director at Shopify, the global commerce platform that millions of entrepreneurs use to build their businesses, including well-known brands like Mattel, Supreme, Black & Decker, Allbirds, Glossier, Fashion Nova, Brooklinen and more. With $5.6B in annual revenue, Shopify powers more than 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S.
Based in New York City, Chris leads a range of marketing teams in the U.S. and Canada that help bring Shopify’s mission to life across events, retail spaces, video, loyalty programs and more.
Chris previously served as VP, Global Marketing at Xerox where he modernized the marketing strategy and operations of a multi-billion technology business and led a 60-person department that spanned brand and social, demand gen, e-commerce, events, content and marketing ops. Before that, he spent a decade in marketing leadership roles at media brands shaping global conversations on business, the economy and culture like The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Forbes and Hearst Magazines.
Chris was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi among a large and tight-knit family of entrepreneurs. He graduated from Yale University and is active in both AAPI and LGBTQ+ professional groups.
Kelleigh Stewart
Co-Founder, Big Island Coffee Roasters
A passionate advocate for the power of ecommerce to connect people to storied products they’ll love, Kelleigh Stewart led the online growth strategy for her awarded coffee company, Big Island Coffee Roasters. Since 2020, she has grown revenue 970%, built a 7-figure subscription vertical, and maintained margins by leveraging analytics and creative strategies to optimize for supply chain changes and agriculture pricing swings. Kelleigh loves that e-commerce allows companies to quickly address customer pain points and education gaps while creating surprise and delightful moments. She is a recipient of Women Who Mean Business Award and CPG Entrepreneur of the Year.
Amber Thibaut
Founder, Coco Moon Hawaii
Amber Thibaut, founder of Coco Moon Hawaii, artfully blends her Maui roots, Native Hawaiian heritage, and Stanford University education to fuel her entrepreneurial spirit. Inspired by a genuine need she saw in the market, Amber launched Coco Moon shortly after starting her family. As a mother of two, she recognized a gap for baby products that not only embodied the spirit of Hawaiiʻ but also resonated with a lifestyle rooted in warmth and cultural values. Beyond this, Coco Moon is deeply committed to giving back to the community, with every purchase supporting organizations like Kapiʻolani Medical Center and the Maui Strong Fund. Follow Amber’s journey and explore the world of Coco Moon Hawaiʻi on Instagram: @coco_moon_hawaii. 🌺
Paolo Vidali
Founder, Hidden Gears
Paolo is the founder of Hidden Gears, an e-commerce and digital marketing agency serving clients in Hawaii and across the United States. He is a seasoned digital strategist and solutions architect, with deep experience designing and building solutions for modern e-commerce businesses that require high levels of integration and flexibility. He leverages over 17 years of expertise as a web developer and digital marketer to help omni-channel and DTC brands grow with sustainable and scalable solutions on Shopify.
