Lisa Daijo

Owner

Lisa opened the Honolulu and Pearl City offices with her business partner Chad Higa in 2007.  Their vision is to help companies in Hawaii find good workers and to help local job seekers find jobs with great companies.  Lisa is a wife and mother of two boys.  In her spare time, you will find her at the soccer field watching her oldest son play.  And one of Lisa's biggest inspirations is her youngest son who was diagnosed with Autism five months after starting their business.  Lisa dedicates her time and efforts to help the Autism community in Hawaii.

Background

Lisa received her bachelor's degree in Marketing from the University of Hawaii.  And has continued her learning through Express and was selected to attend the Express Leadership Academy which is a program designed for an MBA program specific to the staffing industry.

Before starting her career in staffing, she spent 13 years in Advertising with GTE/Verizon/Hawaiian Telecom.  She moved up quickly in the organization and ended her career as the District Sales Manager for Major Accounts.  Capitalizing on her strengths of helping small business owners thrive and succeed in the Hawaii market, she decided to join the Express family.

The Hawaii office has been recognized as one of the Top 25 Women Owned Business and Hawaii Best Workplaces through her leadership and guidance.  Lisa feels so fortunate to work every day with her Dream Team.

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Chad Higa

Owner

Chad opened the Honolulu and Pearl City offices with his business partner Lisa Daijo in 2007.  Chad is a local boy who was born and raised in Maui and spent his time connecting with his community.  Chad is known for his incredible ability to identify and SOLVE problems.  He contributes this to his dedication to the Boys Scouts where he earned the highest honor of an Eagle Scout.  He continues as a Scoutmaster for his boys where he spends his free time giving back to their troop.

Chad’s background is in Marketing, he earned his BBA at the University of Hawaii where he was part of a fraternity called Pi Sigma Epsilon.  Lisa, Les, and Reid were all leaders of this organization.  Chad utilized his connections to get hired at GTE/Verizon/Hawaiian Telcom which was a Fortune 10 company at that time.  Chad rose quickly to leadership and ran the inside sales operation.  Chad has such an incredible sense of how to make a business succeed that he assisted countless businesses.  He took the chance to own his own business where his has continued his path of helping businesses succeed.  Many of his current clients have shared that Chad is truly a wealth of knowledge and is focused on helping our business.  We are thankful to have Chad as the owner of Express Employment Professionals.

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Les Daijo

Owner

Les leads the Hawaii state territories for the IT & Healthcare divisions. He has 15 years of combined IT and IT/Healthcare professional staffing.  His experience ranges from the Hawaii Territory Manager for world-wide storage leaders, EMC Corp(now Dell EMC)  and NetApp, and the systems integrator, World Wide Technology, as well as working closely with the largest healthcare organizations in Hawaii. 

Les began his career with Fortune 50 company GTE (Hawaiian Tel/Verizon),Yellow Pages division, for 12 years as Regional Sales Trainer, District Manager & General Sales Manager, for one of the largest offices in the US.  Les graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, College of Business with a Bachelor's degree in Finance. 

Aside from work, you can find Les year-round at the soccer field enjoying time with his family and his son's soccer club, the Honolulu Bulls, exercising and also serving on the Board of HICTA with IT Professionals in the State of Hawaii.

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