Smeal Grad Tsui to Receive Penn State's Highest Alumni Honor

Smeal College of Business alumnus John K. Tsui has been selected by the Penn State Board of Trustees to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award, the University's highest award for an individual.

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (February 1, 2011) – Smeal College of Business alumnus John K. Tsui has been selected by the Penn State Board of Trustees to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award, the University's highest award for an individual.

Penn State's Distinguished Alumni Award salutes the achievements of outstanding alumni whose "personal lives, professional achievements, and community service exemplify the objectives of their alma mater."

Tsui is chairman of Towne Development of Hawaii, a subsidiary of Zilber, Ltd., a nationwide real estate development and investment firm based in Milwaukee. He also serves on the board of the Zilber Foundation as well as on the boards of a number of family trusts.

After graduating from Smeal in 1960, Tsui began his career in the banking industry in Philadelphia and New York, serving in key executive roles with Philadelphia International Bank and the Bank of New York. He moved to Hawaii in 1984, where he continued his career at the Bank of Hawaii and BancWest Corp. He retired in 2002 as vice chairman and chief credit officer of BancWest and president and chief operating officer of its subsidiary, First Hawaiian Bank. He continues to serve as a director of First Hawaiian Bank.

Tsui has been active in his community, serving as the first statewide chairman of Aloha United Way. In 1989, he was named chairman of Kapi'olani Hospital, which became the largest health care organization in Hawaii, now known as Hawaii Pacific Health. He is also chairman of the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation, Hawaii's third-largest charitable foundation.

At Penn State, Tsui is a member of For the Future:The Campaign for Penn State Students' executive committee. He and his wife, Frances, established the John K. Tsui Scholarship Fund in 2000 and established the John K. Tsui Honors Scholarship in 2007. Both funds assist talented students who contribute to the diversity of the Penn State community.

Tsui is a life member of the Penn State Alumni Association, and, in 2008, was named a Penn State Alumni Fellow, the highest award given by the Penn State Alumni Association.

REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Victoria Fryer in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or mediarelations@smeal.psu.edu.

Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, management and organization, marketing, risk management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.