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Jerome Johnson: building a platform.

Jerome Johnson BUILDING A PLATFORM

For many African-American businesspeople, Hawaii is a double-edged paradise. Economic opportunities abound, but it can be a tough place to gain a foothold. Jerome Johnson thinks the four-month-old African-American Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii can help

turn things around. "Most African-Americans are outsiders coming in, so automatically they face initial resistance," says 39-year-old Johnson, the group's first president. "In addition, because our numbers are not large in significant areas of business, we don't have frontrunners there to speak for us." Johnson, a business consultant with Grant Thornton who came to Hawaii from Detroit in 1982, believes the new Chamber "will give African-Americans a profile in the community, and a platform to display that we are doing business in Hawaii, and what our contributions are and can be."

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