It remains to be seen whether Haraguchi’s cool temperament and experience in community relations for private developers will help defuse mounting anxiety about the corporation. But Maeda Timson, a longtime community advocate on Oahu and vice president of First Hawaiian Bank, said he was an effective leader and ideal choice.

“He’s not showy at all,” said Timson. “That’s just how he is. I think it’s because he comes from the Big Island. They’re very humble people.”

Haraguchi moved to Oahu from Hilo in the 1960s. He is a graduate of the University of Hawaii, Manoa, where he studied business management. He worked for the Hawaii Housing, Finance and Development Corporation for nine years, and spent the last 20 years working for the James Campbell Co., one of the state’s largest landowners. One of his roles there was to sell underutilized agricultural lands.

“I worked myself out of a job,” he joked. Haraguchi left the company in May.

UPDATED Speaking to Civil Beat directly after the five-member board approved his selection, Haraguchi said he wasn't sure when his first day would be. The annual salary for the job is $100,000.

As the corporation’s only employee, he has a lot on his hands. He'll need to draft its rules and complete an inventory of state lands that may be candidates for development. The majority of lands are under the control of DLNR, but other parcels are managed by other agencies including the Department of Transportation and Department of Education.

He said it was too early to say what types of projects might be in store for the corporation, but mentioned a few possibilities, including housing, schools and recreational areas.

One of the projects that Haraguchi was involved in was Campbell’s Village of Kapolei, a 5,000 unit housing development.

“What impressed me most about him was that he really had a sensitivity to Hawaiian culture and values,” said Timson, chair of the Kapolei Neighborhood Board. “That was important because when they were building the City of Kapolei, he had to ease fears. He really softened the big developer image."

The PLDC board has been meeting for the past few months and it's already run up against challenges.

“There are still significant concerns about the agency,” said Robert Harris, executive director of the Sierra Club. “I think that there is a ‘trust us attitude’ about this new body. But the tremendous amount of power it has and the potential it has to allow development in areas [such as] pristine native Hawaiian forests, etc., just causes too much concern.”

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has also expressed concerns. Jon Van Dyke, a UH constitutional law professor who's an expert on ceded lands, said by email that he had been working with OHA on the PLDC. But he said that it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment as discussions were ongoing.

Harris said that one of the main issues that could take on increasing significance is the PLDC’s powers to sell ceded lands. A state law passed two years ago prohibited the sale of ceded lands without a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

Harris, a lawyer, said that passage of the legislation creating the PLDC negated Act 176, the 2009 law that prohibits the state from selling ceded lands. He said he believed that legislators might not have understood the impact of the new law.

“If [legislators] were told what occurred, I think there would be a lot of outrage.”

While the PLDC has the power to sell ceded lands, that doesn’t mean that it will.

Haraguchi said that he was aware of the concerns and hoped that he could help quell them.

“I listen well. I communicate well,” he said. “Decisions might not be popular all of the time with everyone, but I definitely listen to the community.”