The trust’s president and CEO draws on his expertise in environmental law and love of the land to oversee acquisitions and preservation.
‘Olu Campbell says he has always felt connected to the ‘āina and Hawai‘i’s people, and now feels a responsibility to give back to them.
He says he essentially grew up outside, doing everything from volunteering with his father at the He‘eia Fishpond to playing at the beach to climbing mountains.
“I’ve spent most of my life doing things that are very much connected to our land and our place here in Hawai‘i,” says Campbell. And in doing so, he developed values that eventually led to his role as president and CEO of Hawai‘i Land Trust.
While getting his undergraduate degree at UH Mānoa, he focused on biology, environmental sciences and Hawaiian language, then pursued an environmental law degree.
“I felt like I could be a better advocate for the things I care about, including our place, through a knowledge of the law,” says Campbell. “I was immediately shocked by how little I knew about the world.”
Today, he oversees all acquisitions and projects by the nonprofit land trust, such as 2023’s procurement of 642 acres on the Kohala Coast known as Māhukona, historically a training ground for traditional Hawaiian navigators.
He says the reciprocal relationship between land and its people is crucial to maintaining a thriving community. “I feel we have a really big responsibility to try to reestablish or protect those relationships between people and place,” says Campbell.
He also takes his responsibility to effectively lead the team at the trust very seriously. “It’s to conduct the orchestra, to understand all the different moving pieces, the strengths that different people bring to our work, to organize and to empower people who have certain strengths to use them to the best of their abilities so we can collectively be more successful,” he says.
Campbell’s dedication to land preservation is a formidable characteristic, says Neil Hannahs, a board member of the trust.
“I have been struck by his focused leadership,” says Hannahs. “ ‘Olu is mission driven, strategic, inclusive, energetic and accountable. The results speak to his effectiveness.”
Even with Campbell’s many accomplishments, he says family always comes first, and building a family of his own is his greatest achievement.
“Having a wonderful wife and two wonderful kids, and an extended family – my parents and my siblings – we just are so close. I don’t think anything else in my life will ever top that.”
