Aloha! My name is Julie Nakayama, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Kyo-ya Management Company. I earned my CPA license in 1998 and started my career in the hospitality industry as an Assistant Controller for Kyo-ya Co., Ltd. After four years, I was lucky enough to be promoted to Senior Director of Finance for Starwood Hotels and Resorts. I joined Kyo-ya Management in 2014.

I truly love my job and career. It’s knowing that what we do at the hotels matter – especially when you do things the right way, for the right reasons, at the right time. With the Kyo-ya Ohana, it’s about being respectful and striving to be true to the Kyo-ya values, which are to take care of your employees and be good stewards of the land.

Outside of my professional endeavors, my goals are to be known for my passion for mentorship and advocacy, actively supporting initiatives aimed at empowering women in the hotel industry and in leadership roles. I recently launched Ke Alo Mahina, a women leadership group for the Kyo-ya properties. We focus on growing confident and resilient female leaders while fostering mentorship with influential leaders within our industry. We are driven to develop of talent.

Even with 25 years in the hospitality industry, I value continuous learning and improvement for myself and those around me. I strive to build strong and trusting relationships with all the people around me – up, down, left and right. That means starting every communication not with my qualifications but our goals. I want everyone to know that we succeed and fail together. I try to put myself in others’ shoes. And try to look at things from their point of view and always seek to understand. I think it’s that pursuit of the why – why they feel that way…and the how – how we can make things better.

I’m thankful to be working at a company that supports women in leadership. It’s a privilege to be able to continue to build on what Mr. Osano believed in: the legacy of the our people, and our hotels. Leadership is the stewardship of the lives entrusted to you. The higher you go in a company, it’s about finding joy in others’ successes. which in turn makes you and the company successful. When success breeds success, you’re able to build loyalty together. It’s also about being authentic. You want to be that leader who people aspire to be…realizing that everything you do, communicates values, goals and aspirations.

In addition to accounting and technical knowledge and skills, these are several “soft skills” that I believe is invaluable to my team and our company.
· Hire someone smarter than you.
· Inspire loyalty and trust.
· Technology knowledge is very important for today’s accounting and finance professionals and should be an ongoing part of their professional development.
· Ethics and integrity – we are the practitioners of the business health in the company and even the community.
· Positive attitude – negative attitudes squash progress and eventually you will no longer be invited to be a part of any team.
· Team player skills – Being able to analyze your own weaknesses and shortcomings, being confident enough to integrate yourself in the team to offer your strengths. At the same time, minimize your weaknesses and lean on team members to offset them.
· Accountability – When you realize you’ve made a mistake take immediate steps to correct it.
· Time management skills – being able to set the priorities yourself.
· Know enough to always be a step ahead and anticipate what your boss expects . . . be able to provide it.
· Most importantly, try to understand a point of view that is different from your own. Few things are 100% one way or another. Examine the demands you make on others.
· In other words, nothing is impossible to the person who doesn’t have to do it.