Alexander & Baldwin CEO Doane to retire

Alexander & Baldwin CEO Doane to retire at year-end; company president to be promoted

• On 6:34 pm EDT, Thursday October 22, 2009

HONOLULU (AP) -- Alexander & Baldwin Inc. said on Thursday that Chairman and CEO W. Allen Doane will retire at year's end, and the current president, Stanley Kuriyama, will be promoted to the top job at the shipping, property and farming company.

Doane, 61, who has served as the Honolulu-based company's CEO for 11 years, will continue to serve as a director on the board. Alexander & Baldwin's current lead independent director, 68-year-old Walter Dods Jr., will become chairman effective Jan. 1.

Kuriyama, 56, will move into the CEO post after being named president last October. As president, he's responsible for Alexander & Baldwin's Matson Navigation Co. and the A&B Land Group, which includes A&B Properties and the company's agricultural and trucking operations. Kuriyama joined the company in 1992.

Doane joined A&B in 1991 as executive vice president and chief operating officer of A&B-Hawaii, then A&B's real estate and food products subsidiary.

The company announced the succession plan after its shares rose 49 cents, or about 1.5 percent, to close at $33.70. In after-hours trading, the stock reversed course, falling 65 cents, or about 1.9 percent, to $33.05.