The Office of Hawaiian Affairs

Ryan H. Lee serves as Endowment Director and acting Chief Investment Officer, overseeing OHA's financial portfolio. He reports to Ka Pouhana (CEO) Stacy Kealohalani Ferreira and the Board of Trustees, which holds ultimate fiduciary authority. The investment function is managed internally rather than outsourced to an external OCIO.

OHA is a semi-autonomous state agency created by the 1978 Hawaiʻi Constitutional Convention. Its existence is codified in the state constitution, making it structurally distinct from a typical family office or private trust. This legal status means its governance — including a publicly elected Board of Trustees — and its spending are subject to state oversight and open-records laws, which influences both transparency and investment horizon.

OHA receives a constitutionally mandated 20 percent pro-rata share of revenues generated from the Public Land Trust, a corpus of former Hawaiian monarchy lands ceded to the United States at annexation and later transferred to the state. Additional revenue flows from OHA's own commercial real estate portfolio, including office and industrial properties in Honolulu, and from state legislative appropriations.

OHA's direct holdings include the Nā Lama Kukui commercial center and 500 North Nimitz Highway in Honolulu's industrial district, the Wahiawā agricultural lands in central Oʻahu, Waimea Valley on the North Shore, and the Wao Kele o Puna rainforest reserve on Hawaiʻi Island. It also holds development parcels in Kakaʻako Makai, which are being advanced for Native Hawaiian housing in partnership with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

OHA maintains both a commercial real estate portfolio and a financial investment portfolio. Public records describe its investment strategy as focusing on buyout-oriented allocations, indicating direct and indirect private-equity exposure beyond tangible real property. The Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund further demonstrates a direct lending capability to businesses and individuals.

OHA serves as a co-trustee of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument alongside state and federal agencies. This is a governance and cultural-preservation role, not an investment position — it does not generate financial returns for the portfolio. It signals OHA's broader institutional mandate to protect resources of cultural and ecological significance to Native Hawaiians, separate from its asset-management function.

They are separate state entities with distinct missions but overlapping beneficiary populations. DHHL administers homestead leases on Hawaiian home lands, while OHA manages a broader trust for Native Hawaiian welfare. They collaborate on specific projects, such as the residential development planned for OHA's Kakaʻako Makai parcels, aligning OHA's land assets with DHHL's housing delivery mandate.