Nearly four months after the unexpected death of the Agribusiness Development Corporation’s James “Jimmy” Nakatani, the agency has announced its new executive director.
The ADC in a news release today announced Wendy Gady as its new leader, who will begin her new role Monday.
Gady’s agriculture experience includes managing farm operations, grant writing, passing national audits, leasing agriculture land to new operators on Oahu, and developing farm business plans for individual operators, the ADC said.
She has also run farmers markets, worked in water management, food safety and marketing, and has experience in improving land and water access and expanding value-added products.
“I’m humbled and honored at the opportunity to lead the statewide organization,” Gady said in a statement in the ADC news release. “Our food supply from the continental United States was severely disrupted during the recent pandemic and showed our state why we need to push harder for food independence and sustainability here. ADC will be a pivotal part of our state’s effort.”
Gady was raised in Iowa in an agriculture-based family. She married into a fourth-generation Oahu family “whose roots started in rice production in Kahalu‘u and grew to include running the Tom Grocery Store in Wahiawā while working in the pineapple plantations,” the ADC said.
Nakatani, Gady’s predecessor, died April 21. The 74-year-old, during his career, also led the state Department of Agriculture and the Hawaii Farm Bureau. In 1978 he became the third-generation operator of his family’s Oahu watercress farm.
Shortly after Nakatani’s death, Mark Takemoto, ADC’s senior executive assistant, was selected to be acting executive director.
The ADC’s Board of Directors then initiated a search for a new executive director and on Aug. 8 said it had selected the applicant it wanted to lead the agency.
The embattled ADC in 2021, via an audit by the state Office of the Auditor, was found to have done little to nothing in terms of transitioning Hawaii lands used to grow primarily sugar and pineapple to more diversified crops — the reason it was created in 1994.
The audit found that the ADC’s board of directors and staff were unclear of its purpose and had no plan to fulfill it.
Following last year’s legislative session, the ADC split from under the DOA and was attached to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism in an attempt to help with the human resources and accounting issues within the agency.
ADC Board of Directors chairperson Warren Watanabe welcomed Gady in the news release.
“We are delighted to welcome Wendy as our new executive director,” Watanabe said in a statement. “Her exceptional leadership skills, strategic insights, and focus on broad engagement across the agriculture sector make her the ideal choice to lead ADC. We have great confidence in her ability to bring a wide variety of stakeholders together to discuss concepts and ideas for building our local, sustainable food supply.”
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