{"id":96663,"date":"2019-05-17T08:45:46","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T18:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=96663"},"modified":"2019-05-17T08:46:31","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T18:46:31","slug":"hibeam-honors-billy-richardson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/05\/17\/hibeam-honors-billy-richardson\/","title":{"rendered":"New business plan award honors venture capitalist Billy Richardson"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>
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From left, HiBEAM<\/abbr> Executive Director Bee Leng Chua, PACE<\/abbr> Executive Director Peter Rowan and HiBEAM<\/abbr> board member Piia Aarma.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Winners of a business plan competition organized by the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at M\u0101noa\u2019s Shidler College of Business<\/a> will benefit from a $25,000 donation from local incubator HiBEAM<\/abbr> (Hawaiʻi<\/span> Business and Entrepreneur Acceleration Mentors) honoring the accomplishments and entrepreneurial spirit of the late Billy Richardson<\/strong>. The award was presented at this year\u2019s 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Business Plan Competition on April 25 to the third-place winners, Okara Kitchen.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m grateful for HiBEAM<\/abbr>\u2019s gift in honor of Billy\u2019s contributions to the college. He was an inspiration to many of our students and faculty,” said Vance Roley<\/strong>, dean of the Shidler College of Business. “He was deeply committed to mentoring and educating our entrepreneurial students, and in doing so greatly impacted not only the PACE<\/abbr> (Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship) programs but the entire entrepreneurial community in Hawaiʻi<\/span>.”<\/p>\n

Richardson passed away in 2017 at the age of 62. He founded and built a series of venture funds that invested in 17 Hawaiʻi<\/span> companies, two of which went public on the NASDAQ<\/abbr> exchange. In recent years, he was deeply involved in educating, mentoring and supporting young leaders in Hawaiʻi<\/span>\u2019s community.<\/p>\n