Mark Yamakawa
President and CEO
Hawaii Dental Service

Mark Yamakawa has been the president and chief executive officer of Hawaii Dental Service (HDS) since November 2014. HDS is the leading provider of dental benefits plans in Hawaii with more than 600,000 members throughout Hawaii, Guam and Saipan, and has the largest network of participating dentists in the state.

Prior to joining HDS, Yamakawa was executive vice president and chief operating officer of The Queen’s Health System, parent company of The Queen’s Medical Center, since 2011. He has been with Queen’s for nearly 30 years and started as a senior management engineer in 1985. He has held other leadership roles, including systems development director; planning and management engineering director; vice president – corporate development; and president of Queen Emma Land Company. Prior to his career at Queen’s, Yamakawa was the production planning supervisor at GTE Hawaiian Telephone Company, an industrial engineer at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, and plant industrial engineer at The Procter & Gamble Company.

Yamakawa is the board chair of the American Heart & Stroke Association – Hawaii Division, and also serves on the boards of UHA (University Health Alliance), Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children, Child & Family Service, and ‘Iolani School. Mark also sits on the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Shidler College of Business Advisory Council.

Yamakawa holds a master’s degree in Finance and Decision Sciences from the University of Hawaii, Manoa, Shilder College of Business, and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California, Berkeley.