It just so happened that I’d recently read an article about a tiny hotel being built at a fishing village on Mexico’s Pacific coast, recalls Frank. Their plan was to shoot a movie there and thereafter to turn the hotel into a tourist destination. So, I suggested to Ted and the others that perhaps a small hotel was the way to go here. Although I didn’t reveal that my inspiration was something I’d seen in a magazine!

As well as the idea for a hotel, Frank proposed a change of name for the surrounding area. Punta Borrachón – which translates as Drunkard’s Point – might not prove especially enticing to visitors, he advised. Ted and his associates agreed, and the district was reinvented as Punta Cana, named after a palm tree that grows widely in the region.

Frank had his reservations about the project. The prospect of switching his life in the bountiful capital city of Santo Domingo for isolation in the jungle was a daunting one. Simply working for someone else wasn’t all that appealing either. He thus drove a hard bargain with Ted: in addition to earning a salary, he wanted to become a partner.

Ted – who enjoyed legendary status in his native New York City as a mediator in the rancorous labor disputes of the era – reflected on Frank’s terms. I’ll tell you what, the master negotiator finally said to the young man, if you can do what you’re saying you can do, on time and on budget, I’ll pay you stock on top of your salary every month. In five years’ time, you’ll become a full partner like the rest of us.

Despite enormous logistical challenges, work got underway. We didn’t do feasibility studies or anything like that, says Frank. Instead, we just relied on intuition. I really needed a project coordinator, but the project wasn’t yet making enough money to hire an outsider. We were just putting everything back into the business.

I was teaching physics at a university at the time, says Frank’s wife Haydée. While I loved the subject, I wasn’t making much money. Frank told me he needed an executive to oversee an expansion project and so I decided to join him in Grupo Puntacana.

When we returned, we told our father that we had agreed that Frank Elías should be the next leader, recalls Paola. Francesca and I felt that Frank Elías was the likeliest to be able to take the business to the next level. While we both thought that we would be able to maintain it perfectly well, we thought that his vision and natural instincts made him better suited to the challenge.

Despite the switch in generational leadership, Frank and Haydée remain very much on the scene. We are extremely fortunate that we can still seek our parents’ support and guidance, says Frank Elías. In some family enterprise transitions, this isn’t possible because the founders simply aren’t around anymore. Our succession came at a very good time, when my sisters and I had acquired enough business experience but with our parents still able to offer their advice.

Part of the next generation’s ambitions for the business lies in overseas expansion. Given Grupo Puntacana’s forty years’ experience of operating a private airport, Frank, Francesca and Paola see promise in repeating the successful formula elsewhere. With our knowledge and record of efficiency, we’d like to seek airport opportunities in Latin America or other parts of the world, says Frank Elías. 

The vision for the future also involves transforming Punta Cana’s airport into a major international logistics hub. We are strategically located for both the US and Europe, says Frank Elías. We want companies to establish a base to reexport goods from here. We envisage an entire aeronautical ecosystem, with a cargo logistics center and all the technical support that goes with it. Our ambition is thereby to bring new industries into the Dominican Republic. 

While the second generation has only recently assumed the leadership, Grupo Puntacana’s longterm ethos means that thinking about the future is already underway. A third generation of Rainieris are coming of age and are gaining experience outside of the company before they join their parents. We have a deep family commitment to what we’ve built, says Francesca. We want our children to share in this, continue it and grow it.

Preparation is key, says Paola. We’ve told our children that if they want to work for Grupo Puntacana, they first need to have studied all the right things and also to have worked outside of our business for a couple of years. That experience of working for another company builds self-respect for when they join us and become bearers of the Puntacana dream.

My grandparents came to the Dominican Republic at the end of the 19th century, says Frank Rainieri. They were from Italy, but met in Bogotá, Colombia. They established a hotel there, but when revolution broke out, they sold up and moved to Haiti, then a land of opportunity. But on arrival in Port-au-Prince, they didn’t like it. So, they sailed onward to Puerto Plata on the north coast of the neighboring Dominican Republic, by which they were enchanted.

As it happened, the city’s only hotel was up for sale, and they bought it. They ended up with two hotels in Puerto Plata and one in Santiago. My grandmother died not long after I was born, and none of the family wanted to continue the business, so the hotels were sold. But I suppose the tradition was in my blood.

As a child, my father always taught me the importance of being independent, says Haydée. He died when I was only 17, so I had to take on many responsibilities when I was still quite young. My mother and I went to live with my grandmother, uncles and cousins. I wasn’t used to living with so many people, so I had to find ways to be alone so I could study. I never went to the school prom, which I thought was a waste of money when there were so many people living in need. I was working as a physics professor when I met Frank. We married soon afterwards, and here we are almost fifty years later!

My childhood in Punta Cana was a joy, says Paola. I remember that first little hotel that our parents built, especially the fountain that had a turtle living in it, which I considered my pet. It was an idyllic time, with lots of horse riding and being around interesting overseas visitors and local people. Our parents were always working on so many different things and they always involved us children in what they did. Being involved has led to our becoming passionate about what we do, serving our community and our country.

Over the years, my upbringing and life experiences have taught me the value of patiently listening and working as a team toward a common goal, says Frank Elías. Success is something that is achieved collectively. This means compromising and ensuring that the others know they are being heard. I think there are more advantages than disadvantages to being a family business. Family businesses are oriented to the very long term. We take decisions that aren’t just economic but also social and environmental. This builds trust with those who work for and with us, which creates unity around the business.

Whatever you do in life, you need to do it with love, says Francesca. Nothing done with love is wrong, even if it doesn’t turn out well. Education is a driving passion for our family. We have helped create three vital establishments: the Ann & Ted Kheel Polytechnic School, the Caracolí Education Center and the Puntacana International School, which my own children attended. We want all our students to receive an education of the highest international standard.