Bear Necessities
Business exec Tom Ocasek is fighting to save polar bears as climate change warms up the Arctic Circle and imperils their future on earth. For many Oahu residents, snow is something that
By Brandon Bosworth
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For many Oahu residents, snow is something that plagues Mainlanders and occasionally falls on the upper slopes of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. We don’t exactly have an up-close-and-personal relationship with the white stuff.
That can’t be said for Honolulu business executive Tom Ocasek, who, as he puts it, has spent a fair bit of time “freezing my okole off” in the cold, snowy reaches of the Arctic Circle. What would make someone choose to leave the warmth of Polynesia to venture into the icy tundra, risking life and limb (and apparently buttocks)? For Ocasek, the answer is ... polar bears.
Ocasek (pronounced oh-kaysek) has worked in Hawaii for nearly 40 years. Currently the managing director of MW Group Inc. - a commercial real estate developer whose holdings include Pioneer Plaza - he also was instrumental in the success of Hilo Hattie during his time as president of Pomare Ltd. Ocasek also has held executive positions at Duty Free Shoppers, Theo H. Davies and the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. But business is just one aspect of his life. In addition, Ocasek is a respected amateur wildlife photographer. It was his photography that eventually led to his love of polar bears and his efforts to protect them through his work as vice president of Polar Bears International.
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In the late 1980s, Ocasek befriended noted wildlife photographer Thomas Mangelsen. They’ve traveled throughout the world together, photographing nature in locations as diverse as Africa and the Aleutians. Soon a unique opportunity arose. Ocasek remembers Mangelsen calling him one day to see if he would be interested in joining an expedition to the Arctic being put together by a few scientists and professional photographers. He was definitely interested, but there was some doubt whether or not he would be allowed to tag along, since he was neither a scientist nor a professional photographer.
“I got a call from a guy named Dan Guravich, the founder of Polar Bears Alive (today known as Polar Bears International), who interviewed me,” explains Ocasek. “I must have passed, since I got to go.”
This trip to the Arctic was the start of a “long-term relationship with the people of the North ... Inuits and hearty Canadians” as well as the bears themselves. For
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