One of Hawaii’s oldest and biggest banks is headed for a leadership change on
April 1 under a succession plan being publicly announced today.
Bank of Hawaii Corp. CEO Peter Ho is set to hand off the chief executive role at the 128-year-old financial institution to company President and Chief Banking Officer James Polk.
Ho, who joined the bank in 1993 and has been CEO and board chair since 2010, is retiring after serving as the third-longest tenured CEO at the company and the longest in 71 years.
The 60-year-old Ho said 16 years is a long time to be the chief executive of a company with public shareholders, and that the time for a change at the top of the company was right because the bank is in great financial shape and has a well-groomed executive ready to step in.
“To serve as CEO at Bank of Hawaii has been the greatest honor of my professional life,” Ho said in a statement. “I’ll depart confident that Bank of Hawaii is in exceptional hands under Jim’s leadership.”
Polk, 59, has been at Bankoh since 1999, and like Ho is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He was unanimously selected by the bank’s 12-member board to succeed Ho as CEO, and will remain company president.
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As part of the leadership change, Polk will join the company’s board of directors while one current independent director, Hawai‘i Pacific Health President Ray Vara Jr., will succeed Ho as Bankoh board chair.
Vara, in a statement on behalf of the bank’s board, expressed deep gratitude to Ho for what Vara described as decades of unwavering leadership and dedication.
“His remarkable career, spanning more than 30 years, has been defined by progressive roles that strengthened the company and a steadfast commitment to community causes that have touched countless lives,” Vara said about Ho.
Vara also welcomed Polk as the bank’s 16th CEO since it was founded in 1897, and said Polk’s experience will be invaluable for continued success at the bank, which at the end of 2025 had assets totaling $24.2 billion, including $21.2 billion in deposits, and reported a 2025 profit of
$206 million, up 37% from $150 million in 2024.
“He brings a strong foundation of continuity and strategic execution, coupled with deep institutional knowledge of the bank as well as the business landscape here in Hawaii,” Vara said about Polk.
Ho, born and raised in Hawaii, began his banking career in 1987 at Manufacturers Hanover, a bank holding company in New York.
In 1993, Ho returned home where he was hired as an assistant vice president in commercial banking at Bankoh. He later ascended through management ranks that included becoming the company’s youngest senior vice president in 1999, overseeing corporate banking.
After holding various vice president positions in other areas of bank operations, Ho became chief banking officer in 2006 and then president in 2008.
In addition to leading growth and modernization of the bank, Ho was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for two consecutive terms from 2013 to 2018, and serves on the boards of numerous Hawaii nonprofits.
In 2024, Ho received
$4.3 million in total compensation at Bankoh, including $885,800 in base salary, a
$1.5 million performance-based award and company stock awards valued at
$1.8 million, according to a report the company filed in March 2025.
Ho plans to serve as a consultant to the bank following his retirement through the end of 2027, and also said he intends to remain engaged with assisting nonprofits, government and businesses locally.
Polk, since joining Bankoh in 1999, has overseen parts of the business including commercial banking, retail lending, deposits, mortgage banking and the bank’s West Pacific region. In 2021, Polk became chief banking officer, and then was named president in 2024. His total compensation in 2024 was about $1.6 million.
“I’m deeply grateful to assume the role of CEO in April, and I’m immensely appreciative of the trust placed in me by Peter and the board,” Polk said in a statement. “I look forward to building upon the strategy that has served this company well for decades, and driving forward a culture of innovation, trust and commitment to the communities who rely upon us.”
