Bishop Museum's new president faces significant challenges, but people at the museum and in the community say he is up to the task.

Tim Johns, named to the position yesterday, said his first step when he begins work Oct. 1 will be to "listen a lot."

"It's going to be a lot of listening before we formulate a game plan," he said.

Tasks include overseeing the completion of a $21 million renovation to Hawaiian Hall and looking for ways to ensure the museum's continued financial stability.

"It's an extraordinary institution which is often taken for granted," said Allen Allison, vice president for science at the museum. "It really needs the kind of public interest and attention to really move it to its full potential. This is the guy who can do that."

Johns is currently chief operating officer for the Estate of Samuel Mills Damon, a job he has held since 2000. He was chairman of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources from January 1999 to December 2000, and has also been director of land protection with the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii.

With the Damon Estate, he presided over the donation of more than 600 Hawaiian and Pacific artifacts to Bishop Museum in January.

Johns will succeed Michael Chinaka, who has been the museum's interim president since January, following the departure of director William Brown. Brown is credited with steering the museum out of financial trouble in 2001 and setting the facility on a more stable course following years of internal turmoil.

The museum is in the midst of a $21 million renovation of its century-old centerpiece, Hawaiian Hall. The first phase of the project is slated for completion in May 2009. About $13.7 million has been raised so far for the renovation.

One of Johns' other tasks will be to oversee the completion of a visitor center being constructed at the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Captain Cook on the Big Island.

"The forest isn't burning down around us," said Chinaka, who will return to his position as senior vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer for Bishop Museum. "But we're not out of the woods yet and we'll continue to look for funding opportunities."

Allison, who served on the search committee, also said Johns "really understands management and he really understands Hawai'i.

"He seems to be able to converse easily with a wide variety of different groups of people."

Brown was criticized by some Hawaiian groups for his handling of burial objects covered by the federal Native American Graves and Repatriation Act.

The group Hui Malama I Na Kupuna 'O Hawai'i Nei, whose goal is the protection of Native Hawaiian burial sites, in 2000 borrowed 83 cultural objects from the museum and placed them in a Big Island cave from where it is believed they were taken by the explorer David Forbes in 1905.

The incident set off a number of claims of rightful ownership of the items. In his new position, Johns will oversee a process that may take years to determine which groups are the most appropriate claimants.

Edward Halealoha Ayau, executive director of Hui Malama, said he hoped Johns would "retain fairness and objectivity" in deciding the repatriation cases.

Ayau served with Johns on the Northwest Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve advisory council, and said, "I found him to be a very even-handed and very fair person."

Laakea Suganuma, president of Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts, one of groups recognized as having an interest in the cultural items, said of Johns, "I think he's a good fit for the direction the museum's moving in. I'm sure they made a wise decision."