Q. When UH isn't in the bowl, like this past year, does that create a tough challenge for you?

A. It was definitely a challenge. We've gotten our corporate ticket base and our season ticket base up to pretty good numbers, but it's no question a challenge. We had just under 25,000 last year. We were thrilled with that. It was a big increase from the last time Hawai'i wasn't in the game so we're headed into making the game stand on its own. We look at the game as "Made in Hawai'i, Played in Hawai'i." I think last year the University of Hawai'i going to the BCS, it was like a rising tide raises all ships and the excitement of them going to that game fueled us and helped us because a lot of people were really excited about seeing Boise State play.

Q. You head three entities. Are they related?

A. ESPN owns the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl and m2c is the local company that manages the contract to run the bowl. m2c also has a travel site called Value Travel Hawai'i where we do inbound and outbound trips from Hawai'i and hotel packages.

Q. You were born in Hawai'i but educated on the Mainland?

A. My father was the general manger of the Hawai'i Islanders back in 1963 and '64. I was born and two weeks later we were on a plane moving to Vancouver, where my dad took a job as the general manager of the Vancouver Mounties back in the Pacific Coast League. We then went through Seattle and Milwaukee and ended up in Detroit, where my dad worked for the Tigers for about 20 years. I went to college at the University of Michigan. What brought me back is my junior year I met a local girl, Dana, who was introduced by a mutual friend. We found out shortly after we met that we were born in the same hospital, had the same delivering doctor and our parents lived about a quarter-mile away from each other. The story is my friend said, "You've got to meet this guy. He said he's named after a king." My middle name is Kalakaua because we have the same birthday. "King?" she said. "That's just a street in Waikiki." One thing led to another. We were married, lived in Houston for five, six years, and like a lot of local girls she wanted to move home so we moved back in 1993.

Q. Is your middle name really "Kalakaua"?

A. My name is David Alexander Kalakaua Matlin. I was born in Hawai'i and my father knew that I had the same birthday as the Merrie Monarch.

Q. You focused on business when you went to school, but was it always your intention to get into the sports side of business?

A. My dad was in professional baseball for 43 years and when I got out of school I sent letters to every Major League baseball team because I really wanted to work in Major League Baseball. I got an opportunity to go to Houston to work for the Astros as an intern and they ended up hiring me full time. I worked in marketing and facility management there for six years. I ended up moving to Hawai'i and was fortunate enough to work at the University of Hawai'i's athletic department for Jim Donovan and ended up coming to the bowl with him when it started in 2002.

Q. So you've been associated with Jim Donovan for a while.

A. When I moved here in 1993 without a job and without a clue, I met with Jim about a week after I arrived on the island. There was no job at the university, but he had a casual hire position to run the Midnight 'Ohana, which is the basketball event they have at the beginning of each year. I was able to run that and I ended up getting a full-time job at the University of Hawai'i in the ticket office.

Q. What are your responsibilities as executive director?

A. A lot of people say, "What do you do all year when you have one football game?" As executive director, the areas of responsibilities are all the local marketing, the ticket sales, the corporate sponsorship packages, the PR of the event, all of the logistics that it takes to get the team from the Mainland to Hawai'i. There is a lot of coordination with our title sponsor, who's also the host hotel. In addition, we have created a Hawai'i Bowl Foundation, which gives money to local 501(c)(3)s. We've been giving money to charities since Day 1, but the foundation came into existence in 2006. When Jim and I started the bowl we mapped out what our goals were. One was to get the Pac 10 involved in our game, which now we have the Pac 10 as one of our two conference partners for 2008 and 2009. The second one was to give something back to the community. We felt that was the smart thing to do and the right thing to do. So we were really excited when we were able to give 12 charities money at half-time last year.

Q. The Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl has just a handful of full-time staff. Does that present any difficulties?

A. It's definitely a challenge, but where we're fortunate is we have a lot of volunteers also and we have some super supporters. We have a trophy committee, a field operations committee and we have some wonderful people, a lot of people out there who support us in a lot of areas and really extend our staff.

Q. Although it's a game, you have to run the bowl as a business. What's your business philosophy?

A. I think I get it from my father, Lew Matlin. Business is about people and relationships. There are a lot of things that go into running a business, but at the end of the day it's the people around you that make your team successful. I love team sports. Successes with a team are much more enjoyable. When you have downturns with a team, you're there to pick each other up. So my philosophy is it's about the people and we're very blessed at the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl. We have an executive committee of 53 people and great corporate sponsors and people who have just been incredible. It's really been a great journey so far and I look forward to it continuing.