​HONOLULU – The Hawaii State Board of Education today approved the appointment of Clyde Sonobe as assistant superintendent for the Hawaii State Department of Education's (DOE) Office of Information Technology Services.

​​"Clyde's extensive technical and management experience in the public and private sectors – along with his work in the area of public education – will be invaluable as we continue to integrate, enhance and expand our technology services to support schools and educators," said Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi.

​​As an advisor with the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii since 2011, Sonobe has been an instrumental force behind the state of Hawaii's broadband initiative, which has a major goal of offering one-gigabyte service to all residents by 2018. In his role, he has also advised the​​ DOE and the state Office of Information Management and Technology on broadband and internet connectivity for Hawaii's public schools and DOE offices.

​​From 1995-2010, Sonobe served at the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) as cable TV administrator, where he led the launch of eHawaii.gov, the award-winning state of Hawaii internal portal, and managed a number of initiatives such as interisland fiber connectivity. Prior to DCCA, Sonobe was an executive and systems engineer at IBM Co.

"I would like to thank Superintendent Matayoshi and the Board of Education for this opportunity to return to public service," Sonobe said. "I look forward to accelerating technology upgrades to provide DOE schools with the latest IT tools to empower all public school students to achieve and excel to their full potential."

Sonobe earned a bachelor's degree in business and finance from the University of Southern California and a graduate certificate in telecommunications and information resource management from the University of Hawaii.​