July 2019 –This year Current Affairs celebrates its 35th anniversary. What an honor it is to lead and be a part of this great company that has touched and impacted so many.
Having grown up in Britain, I worked my way across the world from England to France to Canada. I became enchanted with Hawaii, where I met and married Violet and raised our two darling children. I moved from my island home in England to another island some 7,000 miles away. Looking back, I can see how these patterns of our lives repeat themselves.
My father and grandfather were entrepreneurs so it’s no surprise that I would follow in their footsteps. My grandfather Alan purchased land in the countryside near Windsor Castle close to a royal polo field. From that swath of wide open grasslands, he created opportunity. He opened multiple businesses including a tree nursery and horse stable. He passed that spirit of innovation to his son, my dad. My father opened an antique shop, a tea parlor and later had a sports equipment business with equipment he invented. Through these generations of experiences, our lineage was full of purveyors who were constantly curating the spaces of their lives, reimagining their careers and leveraging their passions to share with others.
It is this spirit of innovation in which I was nurtured. I first fell in love with events as a young man when I welcomed friends to enjoy my homemade beer. That sparked a passion for bringing people together in celebration. When I started Current Affairs in 1984, I never imagined that here we would be 35 years later. We have been blessed to produce celebrations for thousands of Clients across the Hawaiian islands for more than a generation. We have a committed, talented Team and some have been a driving force of the company for more than a decade.
Our roots are humble. We first operated out of our Kaimuki home. It has grown into a family business with Hawaii’s most creative collective of innovators, designers and producers as part of our ohana. Today, we have earned a reputation for exquisite taste, unrivaled creativity, personalized approach, and supreme attention to detail.
My daughter Tiffany now runs the day-to-day operations as President of the company that I founded. It gives me great pride to see her champion growth and evolution so Current Affairs continues to be forefront in our industry.
Happy Anniversary Current Affairs. Cheers!
Philip Richardson | CEO & Founder
P.S. – You can read more in our July 2019 newsletter here.