Bank of Hawaii : Announces New Executive Vice Presidents Matthew Ahart and Kevin Choi and Senior Vice President Briony Pentecost

Matthew Ahart recently joined Bank of Hawaii as executive vice president and director of risk initiatives leading the bank's Risk Initiatives Division. For the past year, Ahart has served as an independent advisor to the executive team on interest rate hedging, financial projections, liquidity risk management, capital management, and corporate governance. In his new role, he is responsible for managing control enhancements to improve the bank's risk environment; systems implementations to address regulatory, compliance, audit and other self-identified issues; process optimization; and driving forward continuous improvement.

Ahart has 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, working both in-house and as a consultant. As a consultant, he developed market risk and asset/liability management models, led due diligence for financial services mergers, developed business strategy and operational improvement programs, and oversaw regulatory impact assessments. At Union Bank, Ahart led compliance efforts with the Dodd-Frank Act, built out an operational risk management program, and oversaw operational improvement efforts including offshoring, vendor optimization, and operational excellence.

Ahart has worked with multiple consulting firms, including Oliver Wyman in New York, and clients have included Citigroup, Regions Bank, Merrill Lynch, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, R.J. O'Brien & Associates, and OCBC Bank. He earned his A.B. degree in Physics from Princeton University and his Juris Doctor degree from UCLA School of Law.

Kevin Choi recently joined Bank of Hawaii as executive vice president and executive director of financial risk management. Within the risk organization, Choi takes on leadership of the bank's Financial Risk Management Division where he oversees the bank's market risk, liquidity and capital adequacies, and investment and derivatives portfolio management, as well as Model Risk Management (MRM).

With over 20 years of experience in the financial industry, Choi brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to Bank of Hawaii. Prior to his formal appointment, he served as a risk consultant to the company, offering invaluable insights and robust review and challenges for its Treasury Division, encompassing market, liquidity, and capital risks. Before joining the bank, Choi held head of financial risk management and head of balance sheet management roles, responsible for market risk and liquidity and capital management activities at large financial institutions including Huntington Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, SVB, MUFG Union Bank, and Bank of America, where he gained comprehensive experience spanning both the first and second lines of defense.

Choi earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Irvine and his Master of Business Administration in Finance and Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University.

Briony Pentecost recently joined Bank of Hawaii as senior vice president and senior program manager of model validation in the bank's Model Risk Management (MRM) Division. She is responsible for leading the bank's model validation practice and helping to strengthen its overall MRM framework.

With over 10 years of experience in the financial industry, Pentecost brings extensive MRM knowledge to Bank of Hawaii. Prior to joining the bank, she spent seven years as the model risk manager at Banner Bank in Seattle, where she designed and implemented the bank's model risk management framework. She also worked as a Quantitative Analyst with Promontory Financial Group in Washington D.C., assisting financial institutions with regulatory compliance, particularly with respect to model validation.

Pentecost earned her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, is a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School, and is a certified FRM.