Name: Helene Shenkus
Age: 47
Position: Vice president of marketing, Roberts Hawaii Inc.
First job: Gift wrapper
Hobbies: Weight training, running, golf

"If you don't go to Ala Moana Center or Aloha Tower, there are plenty of other retailers," she said.

Now she has moved to the tour and transportation arena where there aren't nearly as many companies.

Her challenge as new head of marketing for Roberts Hawaii Inc., she said, is to come up with new ideas that attract customers.

She is in a business that moves people on land and sea and even under the sea. Roberts has 600-plus vehicles, from vans to 500 school buses to catamarans to submarines, and 1,800 employees.

Shenkus came to Hawaii in 1984 as marketing director of Ala Moana Center and moved to the Aloha Tower Marketplace in 1992, where most recently she was corporate communications director.