Keoni Lee (he/him) is the CEO of Hawaiʻi Investment Ready (HIR), a 501(c)3 nonprofit impact investing intermediary working at the nexus of business, purpose, and culture to restore regenerative abundance to Hawaiʻi’s economy. Since its founding in 2013, HIR’s advocacy and practice at the forefront of impact investing in Hawaiʻi has grown to include field-building, investment, research, and systems-level interventions—innovating and experimenting to shift the way money moves toward transformative change. Its programs and services for capacity building and impact capital deployment support purpose-driven enterprises (for-profit and nonprofit) and funders in Hawaiʻi to strengthen and scale their impact. HIR’s three flagship programs are its Impact Business Accelerator, Impact Fund, and Leveraging Hawai‘i Capital workshop series.
Before joining HIR in 2019, Keoni co-founded ʻŌiwi TV—Hawaiʻi’s first and only Native Hawaiian language and cultural television station and production company that leverages the power of media to reshape the narratives of the modern Hawaiian experience. He also co-founded Waiwai Collective, a contemporary Hawaiian gathering space growing a community and movement grounded in collective values and shared responsibilities to mobilize systemic change in Hawaiʻi.
Keoni has a Master in Business Administration from the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Oregon State University. He is active in community work and initiatives around decolonizing education, food systems, and the economy, including the Omidyar Fellows program, the First Nations Futures Program, the Just Economy Institute, and the ‘Āina Aloha Economic Futures initiative. He was awarded the 2021 Investor of the Year by the Hawaiʻi Venture Capital Association and named to the Hawaiʻi Business Magazine 20 for the Next 20 Class of 2022. Keoni is a member of Toniic, the global action community for impact investing, and serves on numerous nonprofit boards, including the Rural Community Assistance Corporation, Funder Hui, MAʻO Organic Farms (Waiʻanae Community Development Corporation), Sustʻāinable Molokai, Education Incubator, and Hālau Kū Māna Public Charter School.