This story was originally posted on Jan. 7 on UH News. 

Susan Yamada, chair of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship(PACE) Board of Directors and Shidler College of Business alumna, has been named the 2025 Women Who Mean Business Career Achievement honoree by Pacific Business News (PBN).

PBN cited Yamada’s work to diversify Hawaiʻi’s economy through new businesses and higher education. She will be honored alongside the Women Who Mean Business honorees at an event on March 13 at The Royal Hawaiian.

As director of UH Ventures, Yamada championed a groundbreaking effort to create the Walter Dods, Jr. RISE Center—a student entrepreneurship and innovation facility with housing for 374 students that opened in August 2023. From 2008 to 2017, Yamada was the executive director of PACE, during which she quadrupled the number of programs, fundraised and opened a coworking space at the Shidler College of Business.

“Special thanks to Dean Vance Roley and the PACE team for allowing me the opportunity to pursue my passion and to serve the students at UH,” Yamada said. “I have been so fortunate to have the support of many in the business community who see the value of an entrepreneurial mindset in our future workforce.”

Prior to assuming her positions at PACE and UH, Yamada spent 17 years working, transforming and investing in startup companies in the high tech, health care and travel industries. Since moving back to Hawaiʻi from California in 2001, Yamada has dedicated her life to building a robust startup ecosystem in Hawaiʻi and providing young talent the opportunities to build, develop and thrive as entrepreneurs. In 2024, Yamada received the Startup Paradise Champion award at the Hawaiʻi Entrepreneur Awards.