ABOUT US
Ed Lee
For over 30 years, Ed has been focusing on increasing and enhancing the skills and capabilities of organizations' employees so they can effectively identify opportunities, engage their teams in continuous improvement, and ultimately help drive money to the bottom line. Ed  holds a BS in Accounting from San Jose State University, and started his career in Silicon Valley as an Accounting Manager with a small manufacturing company. During his 18-year tenure, the company grew from 40 to 300 employees with Ed developing the necessary financial and operational infrastructure to support expansion. He was promoted through the ranks, and as Vice President of Operations & Finance was the primary facilitator for the sale of the business to Illinois Tool Works (ITW). After the sale, Ed took on the role of General Manager at ITW, a fortune 200 company comprised of over 500 business units in 56 countries and $14B in revenue. As GM of this business unit, he improved operating income from 12.9% to 21.8%, traveled to other ITW business units to share and study successes, and evaluated potential business acquisitions.
Ed subsequently moved to a financially strapped international machine manufacturer as their COO & CFO where he spearheaded the transformation of a top-line driven company, developing their core leadership team and changing culture. Within just three years the company was profitable, reducing debt by 70%. Given Ed’s success and commitment to continuous improvement, he founded SCI Strategic Partners, a consulting practice designed to guide teams to strategically improve overall organizational performance. Ed’s unique combination of operational savvy, financial discipline, engaging management style, and passion to develop talent allowed him to be a true change agent for Fortune 500 clients, aligning their employees to accept and embrace change.
Ed relocated to Hawaii in 2015 with his wife who is a local girl. He landed at ‘ike Group, the parent company of DataHouse, TeamPraxis, ‘Ekahi Health, and Central Medical Clinic, as their COO & CFO. Ed left ‘ike Group in search of his  ikigai,  a Japanese concept which identifies the intersection between what a person loves, what a person is good at, what the world needs, and what a person can get paid for. Given his passion for supporting people’s growth, joy in seeing them succeed, and gift for aligning teams, Ed launched In10, an organizational development and search firm whose purpose is to support the success of client companies and candidates in today’s ever-changing business environment.
Lori Kohara
After graduating from Punahou, Lori attended Stanford University where she graduated with a BA in American Studies. She continued to work at her alma mater after graduating, serving as Executive Assistant to the Vice President of Human Resources. Fascinated by the breadth of responsibilities that HR covered, to the ever-changing aspects of technology and employment law, to the ambiguity and unexpectedness of how each workday might unfold, Lori was hooked! The HR field fueled her fire as a lifelong learning; coupled with her desire to help others learn and grow, Lori had found her calling.
She spent the next five years working at Stanford, moving into an HR generalist role in the School of Humanities & Sciences where she supported 34 academic departments with their organizational design and employee lifecycle needs, advising faculty chairs and department managers on everything from hiring to compensation to performance management to termination. Two promotions later, having earned her stripes, the islands called, and Lori returned home where she attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa Shidler College of Business and obtained her Master of Human Resource Management degree. Lori also holds her SPHR and SHRM-SCP certifications.
Since returning to Hawaii, Lori has worked in various industries from banking to defense contracting to healthcare in a variety of roles. She had the opportunity to establish the HR function for a tech start-up that spun off a commercial company, securing $32M in venture capital funding. Lori also served as a Senior HR Consultant at Hawaii Employers Council, providing guidance to over 800 local companies. Most recently, Lori was the Vice President of Human Resources for ‘ike Group, where she centralized the HR, payroll, and facilities functions for a family of nine companies, handling the resulting change management from such a significant operational shift.
In addition to her passion for HR, Lori has a fervor for food. She previously founded a food service company, Food-Centric, that served the community in building a healthier tomorrow, one bite at a time. Food-Centric partnered with ‘Ekahi Health and Straub Medical Center to stand up the Ornish Program, a lifestyle change system clinically-proven to reverse heart disease in its participants. Through her next entrepreneurial venture of In10, Lori hopes to continue supporting others in living a more intentional life, creating their careers and their company’s organizational culture by design.