Cynthia Yamasaki has more than three decades of business experience, working in a variety of leadership roles in the corporate and nonprofit sectors, and as a small business owner. Her multi-faceted background, extensive training, and local values provide her with an unparalleled perspective on life, leadership, entrepreneurship, and business success.

Cynthia’s previous experience includes working as the director of the Patsy T. Mink Center for Business and Leadership at the YWCA of Oahu; the outreach, marketing, and loan specialist at the U.S. Small Business Administration; the vice president of workforce development at First Hawaiian Bank; the vice president of human resources at Title Guaranty of Hawaii; the vice president of human resources at GE Capital of Hawaii; a training administrator and revenue management group manager at Sprint; and a business loan officer at Bank of Hawaii. She was an adjunct instructor at Argosy University, teaching business courses in human resources, leadership, and business strategy.

Cynthia was a Better Business Bureau Hawaii Torch Awards for Ethics Nominee in 2017 and was named the Women in Business Champion by the U.S. Small Business Administration in 2014. She holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor’s degree in business administration specializing in finance from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is certified as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Peer Counselor, and is an accredited Color Accounting workshop leader.

Cynthia enjoys nature walks with her dog, gardening with her mom, and she volunteers as an instructor for the St. Francis Healthcare education program for caregivers.

Cynthia has already made significant contributions to the success of Hawai'i SBDC clients.

The Hawaiʻi Small Business Development Center (HISBDC) recently launched a completely new website where people can register for no-cost business advisory services, whether they want to start a new business or have an existig business. The site also features the success stories of previous clients, location-specific pages for East Hawaiʻi (Hilo) West Hawaʻii (Kailua-Kona), Maui, Oʻahu and Kauaʻi. The Resources section has information on disaster recovery, economic research and other links. Additional pages include the Business Events Calendar, the Business Research Library and Cybersecurity for small businesses.

As a resource partner of the US SBA, the HISBDC has been providing no cost individual business advisory services, such as help with access to capital, financial and marketing management and assistance with business startups for more than 30 years.