The Australia Connection

Whether it’s promoting Aussie seafood and wines at Saturday’s Honolulu Wine Festival or organizing a UH football game Down Under, Mark Berwick does it to strengthen the historic ties between Hawaii and Australia

Wednesday - July 26, 2006
By Chad Pata
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Mark Berwick with a sampling of
Aussie seafood, wines and other
wares

The story of a local guy making it from the bottom of River Street to the top of Bishop would be interesting enough. Throw in a fortnight love affair that changes his life and a passion for cricket, and you have the making of a romance novel.

Such is the story of Mark Berwick, a Punahou grad who went to make his fortune in the world only to be wooed back home by some beautiful brown eyes on a sunset sail off Waikiki - a happy coincidence that forever changed the arc of his life.

He had gotten his bachelor’s degree at the University of Colorado in international business and politics, and seemed destined for great things. He spent time in Florence, Italy, and Osaka, Japan, experiencing the world, tasting life.

While in graduate school in San Francisco, he rediscovered his childhood passion for cricket. He had discovered it on a family trip to Europe in 1979, but there was not much cricket to be found in the U.S. before this for Berwick. He was introduced to some traveling clubs from Australia that came through to play matches. It seems that Australia has lots of cricket clubs, and now it had one more American.

Cricket was his love, but business was his trade and he made short work of setting up a consulting firm and establishing Australian residency.

Berwick advised small businesses on how they could make inroads in the American marketplace. For even though Australia is an enormous continent, its population of 20 million is not nearly enough to support its companies. They need to export their goods and services.

Tasting wines with Lyle Fujioka

Life was good, playing his beloved cricket and enjoying the warmth of the Aussie culture. Then came the business trip home to Oahu in ‘96 and the diversion of an evening sail.

Her name was Leana, a Kailua girl invited on the same sail. They talked, enjoyed the vistas and decided to go on a date, then another.

But the business trip was over. His companies needed him Down Under, so he returned, promising to write.

Well, young hearts such as Leana can only take so many letters.

“I went back to Australia and we wrote for three months and I got the old fish-or-cut-bait, so I fished,” says Berwick.

Home in Hawaii, he had the love of a good woman and a series of decent jobs. He sold advertising for the PennySaver and Honolulu Weekly, and he helped partner a direct-mail magazine.

Not what he wanted to be doing, not what he had gotten his MBA for, but it kept the two of them and their baby daughter Holly living indoors. Also, he got to be president of the Honolulu Cricket Club, not the most competitive in the world, but at least he got to knock the ball around a bit.

Most importantly, he was learning the world of business, Hawaiian style.

“Honolulu is a bit odd in that sense,” says Berwick about the business culture in the Islands. “Relationships are very important here. Just because your price point is the best doesn’t mean you are going to earn their business.”

So he learned to network, how to make friends, yet still longing for that taste of international business that he sacrificed for love.

Then came the news.

President Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard had signed a Free Trade Agreement between their two countries to begin Jan. 1, 2005.

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