Kengo Ueno

I was born in Berkeley, California then moved to and lived in Japan between the ages of 4 and 6 where once again, we moved.  This time to Honolulu, Hawaii where I've lived since 1978.

In 1988, while still in high school, I worked at the Honolulu International Airport for Aloha 7, a Japanese tour company as a group coordinator.  While there, I learned to apply numerous management strategies to various Japanese tour groups arriving and departing from the Honolulu International Airport.

I worked there even while I went to college until 1992 where I then got some sales experience at Focus 2000 Inc. as a sales associate / video technician.  My responsibilities there were to coordinate with the tour guides and coordinators to record and produce tour videos for Japanese clientele while at the same time, provide excellent customer service to boost video sales revenue.  While there, I was fortunate to set the standards for sales goal quotas and develop problem solving techniques to close on every tour group.

I worked there until 1997 while I occasionally went to Japan from 1995 to export Hawaii products through an export business that my partner and I incorporated.  While there in Japan, I met an inventor who had a unique product that he wanted to introduce to the world.  In 1997, he gave my business partner and I the U.S. marketing rights where we had the responsibility to develop and implement marketing and advertising concepts for sales to our territory.  At that time, we were also responsible for the marketing materials and tradeshow events in North America.  During this process, we were able to develop strong international sales relationships with local and domestic companies and conduct contract negotiations to increase commissions, sales and exclusive sales territories.  In 2001, due to financial difficulties with our sponsor in Japan to produce the product, my partner and I dissoved our company.

Towards the end of our sales and marketing venture for our Japanese associates, I started working nights as a server at Waikiki's Restaurant Suntory in 2000.  A couple of important lessons learned while there were to manage numerous patrons while performing various tasks in a high stress environment and to communicate a teamwork philosophy between management and others.

In the summer of 2002, while working nights at the Waikiki restaurant, I got curious about investing in real estate in Hawaii and wanted to learn more.  I decided to get my real estate license and dove right into sales to learn more and in May of 2003, I joined Locations LLC whom were known to have a thorough training course.  I was blessed to help my first two buyers acquire their first homes during my training course and was hooked ever since.  I also started investing in Hawaii Real Estate starting with a 1-bedroom condo in Waikiki.

I took all the things that I've learned from my past businesses and experiences and have applied them to my daily real estate business.  I really enjoy the feeling of helping friends and families invest in their future through real estate and also make new memories in a place that they can call home.  I'm really proud to be a part of that. I finally feel that I've found something that I really enjoy and have a deep passion for.