The Hawaii Association of Independent Schools Board of Directors has named Robert Landau the organization’s new executive director, replacing longtime Executive Director Robert Witt, who is retiring.
Landau has worked as an educator, principal, superintendent and director for notable schools across the globe. He most recently was deputy superintendent of the prestigious Singapore American School in Singapore. His career has spanned nearly forty years in Europe, Asia and the United States. He was chosen as HAIS executive director after an extensive search within and outside of Hawaii.
HAIS membership is made up of more than 100 private and independent schools, employing 5,000 educators and serving more than 40,000 students. Big Island members include Christian Liberty Academy, E Makaala School, Haili Christian School, Hawaii Montessori Schools Kona and Waimea campuses, Hawaii Preparatory Academy, Kamehameha Schools Hawaii, Kohala Mission School, Kona Adventist Christian School, Makua Lani Christian Academy, Malamalama Waldorf School, Mauna Loa School, Parker School, St. Joseph School, and Waimea Country School.
Landau’s career in education began in Switzerland as a teacher and principal before becoming head of an international school in Indonesia in 1997. He then moved to California where he was the founding director of the International School of Monterey, the first international charter school in the United States.
He became the director of International School of Prague, Czech Republic, in 1999, a position he held for nine years before becoming the director of the Western Academy of Beijing in 2008.
In 2011 Landau became the education director of the Liger Learning Center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, a school renowned for offering promising, yet disadvantaged, children educational and leadership opportunities they would not otherwise receive.