PRESS RELEASE - May 1999

WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Once a junior receptionist, today Rioma Cominelli is managing director of resort management company, Optima Management Services, and the marketing head of the burgeoning Club Leisure Group.

She has simultaneously been managing director of six companies and a director of 15; is a member of the Young Presidents Organisation; and is a recognised trail blazer in the leisure industry specialising in holiday clubs, timeshare, resort management and rented holiday accommodation.

The attitude which has propelled this mother of three to the top of her industry, is Cominelli’s persistent determination to succeed and absolute dedication to her work. " I believe in utilising the resources available to me in the most effective manner to achieve my objectives", she says. "If you don’t include failure as an option, it seldom crosses your path and then even when it does, because its foreign, you get up and go on".

Born and educated in Kwazulu Natal, Cominelli started as a secretary with Murray & Roberts after leaving school. One year later, she was appointed marketing coordinator at Consolidated Frame. Joining H Lewis Trafalgar in 1983, she worked her way up the ranks through marketing to the position of managing director of the timeshare division amongst others.

During this time at Trafalgar, she developed eleven timeshare resorts, achieved the industry’s highest sales volumes for three successive years, and established the largest holiday rental programme at that time embracing stock from over 100 resorts throughout the country. Over the years, she has held the post of Chairman of the Timeshare Industry Board of South Africa (TISA) and is one of its founding and longest standing members.

Cominelli sold her interest in the Trafalgar Group last year and formed Optima Management Services which specialises in resort management and the rental of, arguably, the biggest portfolio of holiday accommodation in the country.

She was also instrumental in the acquisition by Club Leisure Group of Star Vacation Club and the timeshare interests of Club Trafalgar. She is now responsible for the marketing and positioning of the Club Leisure Group which also includes the highly successful Flexi-Club.

Rioma Cominelli embodies the spirit of enthusiasm and commitment which has become the trademark of her company in its quest for corporate excellence with a social conscience.