About Jeanne

Jeanne Skog is the co-founder of SR Partners, bringing more than four decades of experience building a thriving future for Maui’s economy and communities.

Jeanne grew up on a 150-acre pineapple farm in Peahi, part of the fourth generation of a Japanese family who came to work in pineapple plantations. Although her parents honored the Buddhism tradition, Jeanne attended St. Anthony School. Her upbringing in the rural community, surrounded by the rich tapestry of ethnic diversity, nurtured her deep appreciation for close-knit community connections and the breadth of cultural perspectives. 

Jeanne earned her Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from St. Catherine’s University in Minnesota. Her earliest work included positions in the Minnesota State Senate Office and Governor’s Office, before shifting into the interior design industry, where she helped clients to transform visions into reality.

In 1984, Jeanne joined Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB), which had been founded just two years earlier. Throughout the years, she nurtured the organization’s network of partnerships and was elected in 1999 as MEDB’s fourth President and CEO, the first Maui-born person in the position. Over her 33-year span with MEDB, she built the organization’s foundation, charting the course to expand high tech and space industries. Under her leadership, the accelerated economic growth spurred the construction of the Ke Alahele Center, a 35,000-square-foot business and technology incubation center in what was then known as the Maui Research & Technology Park. Jeanne also channeled her lifelong passion for education into championing robust STEM programs, reaching more than 52,000 students and teachers statewide each year.

After more than three decades, Jeanne began a new chapter as an independent consultant. In 2019, she and longtime friend and colleague Teena Rasmussen launched Skog Rasmussen as a way to leverage their cross-sector relationships and advance meaningful change. Since then, the firm has secured more than $2 billion in grant awards for clients and facilitated community engagement that has uplifted hundreds of voices across Hawaii.  

When Jeanne isn’t busy helping community leaders and anchor institutions prosper in Hawaii, she serves on the St. Anthony School board and is still heavily involved in Ka Ipu Kukui Fellow Program, of which she is a founder. In her free time, Jeanne takes Japanese classes with her husband through the Makawao Hongwanji Buddhist Temple.