Frank Rainieri

Frank Rafael Rainieri Marranzini is a Dominican businessman in tourism industry in the Dominican Republic. He is the chairman and founder of Grupo Puntacana. According to Forbes, Rainieri has one of the ten largest fortunes in the Dominican Republic, with a net worth near the billion-dollar mark as of 2014.[5] In 2015, he was designated ambassador of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to the Dominican Republic, a position that his father also held four decades earlier.[6]

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Rainieri and the second or maternal family name is Marranzini.
Frank Rainieri
Born (1945-10-24) 24 October 1945[1]
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
Alma materSaint Joseph's University[2]
Known forFounder and developer of Punta Cana
Board member ofGrupo Puntacana
SpouseHaydée Kuret Pacheco[3]
Children3[3]
Parent(s)Francisco Rainieri, Venecia Marranzini[4]
RelativesFernando Rainieri (brother)
Celso Marranzini (second-cousin)
AwardsOrder of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella, Order of Christopher Columbus
Websitewww.grupopuntacana.com.do

Early life

Rainieri was born into a family with tradition in hospitality.[4] His paternal grandparents, Isidoro Rainieri and Bianca Franceschini,[4] migrated from Bologna,[7] northern Italy, to northern Dominican Republic, and established two hotels, one in Puerto Plata and the other in Santiago; they had more than 10 children.[4] His parents were Francisco Rainieri Franceschini and Venecia Marranzini Lepore (daughter of the Italian immigrants Orazio Michelo Marranzini Inginio and Inmaccolatta Lepore Rodia, who migrated as children with their respective families, all of them natives of Santa Lucia di Serino, in southern Italy).

He went to college in Philadelphia at Saint Joseph's College, now Saint Joseph's University,[2] finalizing them at APEC University, in Santo Domingo.

He married Haydée Modesta Kuret Tejeda, Miss Dominican Republic contestant for Miss World 1971. They procreated 3 children.

Punta Cana
See also: Puntacana Resort and Club and Punta Cana

In 1969, Rainieri and Theodore Kheel[8] acquired a 58-million square meter land on the eastern end of the Dominican Republic, which was covered with jungle and six miles of beach.[2][9][10] Their first project was a 40 guest hotel called the Punta Cana Club, inaugurated two years later.[2] In 1979, they constructed the Puntacana Hotel. The Punta Cana International Airport followed in 1984.[9] In 1997, Rainieri and Kheel partnered with Oscar de la Renta and Julio Iglesias to start work on the Punta Cana Marina and the real estate development of the area.[2]

Grupo Puntacana History
Ranieri with his family
  • 1969: Ted Kheel and group of 40 partners purchase approximately 30 square miles of undeveloped land in the eastern Dominican Republic.
  • 1970: Frank Rainieri (Dominican entrepreneur), Ted Kheel and partners began the development of the tourism project.
  • 1971: Puntacana Resort & Club (PCRC) builds first "resort" of 10 beach cottages and clubhouse, dedication attended by President Balaguer.
  • 1972: PCRC builds first elementary school in Punta Cana.
  • 1977: Club Mediterranee purchases parcel of land from Puntacana Resort & Club.
  • 1980: Club Med opens hotel in Punta Cana.
  • 1984: Inauguration of the Punta Cana International Airport with first flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
  • 1987: PCRC builds new Puntacana Resort & Club using thatch-roof constructions and low-impact sustainable architecture.
  • 1988: Formation of the not-for-profit Puntacana Ecological Foundation (FEPC) with donation of 1,500 acres of land for ecological park and reserve (incorporation follows in 1994).
  • 1992: Puntacana Ecological Foundation launches first sustainable agriculture initiative in Punta Cana (Fruit Tree Garden).
  • 1996: Puntacana Foundation organized the first Concert at the Basilica Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia in the town of Higüey performed by the National Symphony Orchestra and Choir.
  • 1997: Julio Iglesias and Oscar de la Renta join Kheel and Rainieri as PCRC major partners and build first homes in Corales development.
  • 1998: PCRC founds a second not-for-profit organization, Puntacana Foundation (FPC) to develop social and community programs in the region.
  • 2000: FPC founds bilingual, private school Puntacana International School (PCIS).
  • 2001: FEPC and PCRC create Puntacana Center for Sustainability to develop research and education programs that create solutions to the environmental and social challenges facing tourism industry.
  • 2004: Puntacana Foundation founds the public Ann and Ted Kheel Polytechnic School.
  • 2004: Puntacana Ecological Foundation launches Puntacana Partnership for Ecological Sustainable Coastal Areas (PESCA).
  • 2005: Puntacana Foundation makes its first commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative
  • 2005: Puntacana Foundation Launch of co-management of Rural Clinic of Veron.
  • 2005: Puntacana Foundation inaugurates the Puntacana Art Gallery jointly to Fundacion Igneri.
  • 2006: Puntacana Resort & Club becomes founding member of RENAEPA, the National Network for Businesses that Protect the Environment in the Dominican Republic, now known as ECORED.
  • 2006: Grupo Puntacana Foundation held the first medical mission together with Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM)
  • 2007: Grupo Puntacana becomes a member of the United Nations Global Compact.
  • 2007: Puntacana Ecological Foundation launches Zero Waste, integrated solid waste management system for Puntacana Resort & Club.
  • 2008: Puntacana Foundation build and equip a police station to the community of Verón
  • 2008: Puntacana Foundation launches "Carnaval de Punta Cana".
  • 2009: Puntacana Ecological Foundation launches beekeeping and worm-composting projects.
  • 2009: FEPC signs collaborative agreement with The Peregrine Fund to conserve the endangered Ridgway's Hawk.
  • 2009: FEPC and FPC sign a collaborative agreement with Save the Children to develop community programs in the town of Veron.
  • 2010: Puntacana Foundation launches the Marine Archeological Project to locate and rescue archaeologically valuable pieces from the sea for exhibition.
  • 2011: Puntacana Foundation hold the first Visual Surgical Mission together with Instituto de Ciencias Visuales de España (Incivi) among other partners
  • 2012: PCRC and FEPC achieve Presidential Decree naming coastal area of Puntacana Resort & Club and Cap Cana as "Marine Protected Area."
  • 2014: Puntacana Foundation launches the social program Grupo Puntacana Works with the Community.
  • 2014: Puntacana Foundation launches the Our lady of Punta Cana Craft Workshop
  • 2015: Puntacana Foundation launches the housing project Ciudad Caracolí.
  • 2016: Puntacana Ecological Foundation and Puntacana Foundation merge.
  • 2017: Foundation inaugurated the Oscar de la Renta Pediatric Center facilities. The center will provide primary health care to more than 15,000 disadvantaged children from local communities.
  • 2018: Creation of the Center of Marine Innovation.
  • 2019: Launch of terrestrial coral nurseries.
  • 2019: Launch of the Ornamental Fish Nursery Project.
  • 2019: Inauguration of the Centro Educativo Caracolí.

References
  1. López, Myriam (21 December 2003). "Grupo Punta Cana: La historia de un soñador" (in Spanish). Hoy. Archived from the original on 9 April 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2015. Todavía no había cumplido 24 años cuando Frank Rainieri decidió convertir a Punta Cana en un gran destino turístico. Hoy, 35 años después, (...)
  2. Guerra, Edwin (August 2008). "Frank el Conquistador" (in Spanish). Revista Mercado. Archived from the original on 25 November 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  3. Figueroa, Rossana. "PROTAGONISTA - Haydee Kuret de Rainieri" (in Spanish). Bavaro News. Archived from the original on 14 November 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  4. Barletta, María Filomena (21 August 2008). "El centenario de la familia Rainieri" [The centenary of the Ranieri family] (in Spanish). Hoy. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  5. "Los próximos millonarios de República Dominicana" [The upcoming Dominican Republic billionaires]. Forbes (in Spanish). Mexico City. 26 June 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  6. Rivera, Rosanna (18 April 2015). "Frank Rainieri: Embajador de la Soberana y Militar Orden Hospitalaria de San Juan de Jerusalén de Rodas y de Malta en República Dominicana". Ritmo Social: Personas & Personalidades (in Spanish). Santo Domingo: Editora Listín Diario (570): 20. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  7. González Hernández, Julio Amable (21 July 2012). "Apellidos Únicos (7 de 8)" (in Spanish). Instituto Dominicano de Genealogía. Archived from the original on 8 March 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  8. Entrée Magazine. "Tortuga Bay", Holiday, 2009. "The resort was the vision of American labor lawyer Ted Kheel and a spirited, young Dominican named Frank Rainieri."
  9. "Dominican Republic's Most Luxurious Resort",Departures Magazine, Apr 2011. Retrieved on 8 July 2012.
  10. Airways Magazine. "Punta Cana Airport: From Jungle to Caribbean Showpiece", May 2009. "Late in the Sixties, Frank Rainieri and Ted Kheel, along with other investors, bought a large parcel of land, for what was then the bargain price of $200,000 at the eastern end of the Dominican Republic, which occupies the eastern part of the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola, itself part of the Greater Antilles archipelago."
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