Kapalaea Consultants, Principal - Anders Lyons

Learning has been a theme for me from the early days of my work life - learning and the desire to do a job right. These qualities have served me well from my time as a 15 year old stock boy at Woolworth’s Maui, throughout my career in director and interim director positions, and today as an independent consultant. The things I know how to do I strive to do very well and for those things I don’t know how to do I have been driven to learn. As a result I have a broad range of experience and a real desire to do good work for you.

Anders Lyons, Principal

A degree in Sociology from the University of Puget Sound gave me insight into the dynamics of groups of people and helped me to establish myself as a leader. During my early career working for small business owners and later in my conservation career, I loved thinking about how to challenge and empower employees and how to lay the groundwork for truly successful teams and projects. As a soft money employee with the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii (RCUH) I learned a lot about the dynamics of government, a foundation which still serves me well. From RCUH my career took me to The Nature Conservancy as their Natural Resource Manager for the Maui program, a field-based leadership position. Within half a year a promotion placed me in the Maui Director position and later the Director of the newly established Palmyra Atoll Program. Since leaving The Conservancy I have served as Interim Director at the Maui Nui Botanical Gardens, and first as Associate Director and then as Interim Executive Director for the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust.

Each of these experiences has required leading effective teams while maintaining the fiscal oversight necessary to stay solvent and comply with County, State, and Federal Law. Beyond the fundamentals of supervision and fiscal oversight, my career has allowed me to build programs strategically and to get disparate groups all working toward common goals. Additionally there has been the ability to interface with many, many civil service and elected government officials from a broad range of government entities – including those of a number of Pacific island nations. I have also been responsible for overseeing non-profit fundraising programs and for personally conducting major gifts donor cultivation (for gifts over $100,000).

A few years ago I embarked on my most challenging life experience yet - raising two daughters in our Maui community. I’m happy to note that I still love to learn and am doing my best to do this job right!

Why start a consultancy? After raising millions of dollars from private and government sources, successfully supervising a wide range of projects over the years, and managing budgets both big and small I have developed a skill set that can be widely applicable to many organizations in Hawaii. I know from my own projects how valuable it can be to bring in an experienced partner to catalyze change and provide that extra capacity necessary to help an organization thrive. This coupled with my desire to create new learning opportunities while contributing positively to communities throughout Hawaii led me to form Kapalaea Consultants LLC.