Meet the newest 10 local companies joining mana up's cohort 9!
Press Release
(HONOLULU, March 12, 2019) -- Mana Up recently added two top level executives to its team of advisers: Cynthia Williams, general manager of Gaming Business Expansion at Xbox, Microsoft; and Mike Osorio, president of Organizational Change & Effectiveness for 3Sixty Duty Free, the world-leading inflight duty free retailer. Williams and Osorio are global leaders in their fields and will bring their e-commerce and retail expertise to Mana Up and its accelerator cohort companies.
“Our new advisers bring decades of experience at the highest levels in both e-commerce and luxury retail. Part of our mission is to bring global resources to Hawaii-based companies that will help them expand to international markets, and so we couldn’t be more excited to learn from Cynthia and Mike,” commented Meli James, cofounder of Mana Up.
Williams’ passion is building and scaling global businesses that empower innovators. Williams was on the founding team of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and scaled it from startup to a global business that empowered small business owners and entrepreneurs to offer their products to customers around the world. Almost half of the products customers buy on Amazon are provided by small business owners and entrepreneurs. As vice president of FBA, she set the vision for the worldwide service and led product, technology, data science, business and operations teams to deliver products and services that enabled the growth of the entrepreneurs using FBA and the FBA business inputs and outputs. Williams recently joined Xbox and is part of the team innovating to scale beyond the console to empower the 2 billion gamers in the world to play the games they want, on the devices they want, with the people they want.
“I’ve always been impressed by Hawaii’s local entrepreneurs, and I’m excited to work with Mana Up because of its mission to help those entrepreneurs reach a global audience. I’m also looking forward to giving back to my new community in Hawaii where I recently started living part time,” said Williams.
Osorio is an internationally experienced retail executive with a career in luxury travel retail, department stores and specialty food/gifts including prior roles at DFS Group, Harry & David, Gottschalk’s and Macy’s. He joined 3Sixty (formerly DFASS Group) in May 2018.. In addition, he serves on the boards of three startup companies in Utah, Texas and Hawaii. Osorio brings his experience and insights to Mana Up and its cohort teams, helping to bring about global expansion and strategic growth.
“Hawaii’s entrepreneurs are developing local products with massive potential. Over the last few months, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to help Mana Up’s companies think through growth strategies, retail partnerships and positioning. It’s invigorating to work with Mana Up and its companies given their potential impact and successes,” said Osorio.
About Mana Up
Mana Up is an initiative to build Hawai’i’s next 100 product companies earning $10 million or more in annual revenue. Mana Up has a 12-week accelerator program offered biannually to enable Hawai’i product entrepreneurs to scale their businesses. Mana Up’s title partner is Kamehameha Schools, founding partner DFS Hawaii, exclusive airline partner is Hawaiian Airlines, joined by Voyager partners Ulupono Initiative, American Savings Bank, Castle & Cooke, Dole Plantation, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, Pineapple Tweed PR & Marketing, Hawaii Technology Development Corporation (HTDC) and INNOVATE Hawaii. For more information, please visit manauphawaii.com.