{"id":26167,"date":"2022-09-29T10:54:28","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T08:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.riu.com\/blog\/?p=26167"},"modified":"2022-09-29T10:54:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T08:54:28","slug":"jose-manuel-celdran-personal-assistant-luis-riu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.riu.com\/blog\/en\/jose-manuel-celdran-personal-assistant-luis-riu\/","title":{"rendered":"Luis Riu: \u2018Introducing my closest, most efficient and loyal colleague. Jos\u00e9 Manuel Celdr\u00e1n, my right-hand man\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Luis<\/a>

Luis Riu, CEO of RIU Hotels & Resorts, and his personal assistant, Jos\u00e9 Manuel Celdr\u00e1n.<\/p><\/div>\n

Everyone who works with me, colleagues, suppliers and even my friends and family know him. He\u2019s the one in the know, the one who gets things done, gets in touch, explains and solves problems. Even my mother calls him when she\u2019s got a question! He\u2019s my right-hand man<\/strong>, the one who turns my ideas and projects into reality by calmly and quickly getting information to the right people. The person who juggles it all to allow my more analogical working style to continue to succeed in a digital, immediate world. Jos\u00e9 Manuel Celdr\u00e1n, my personal assistant<\/strong>, is all discretion and efficiency. He is invaluable to me.<\/p>\n

When I was thinking about who could be the subject of a blog post, I suddenly had a eureka moment: Jos\u00e9 Manuel had to be next. Without him, this machine would not be well-oiled. So, today you\u2019re all going to learn a little bit more about him.<\/p>\n

\"Jos\u00e9<\/a>

Jos\u00e9 Manuel Celdr\u00e1n, also known as \u201cFunsi\u201d, personal assistant to Luis Riu, CEO of RIU Hotels & Resorts.<\/p><\/div>\n

Punta Cana: Jos\u00e9 Manuel Celdr\u00e1n’s first destination at RIU<\/h2>\n

First, I\u2019m going to tell you about his nicknames and monikers. Depending on who is talking to him, he might be called Jos\u00e9 Manuel, Celdr\u00e1n or Funsi<\/strong>. The latter was the nickname he received shortly after arriving in Punta Cana<\/u><\/a>. \u2018Dapper, sporting glasses and a book tucked under my arm, that\u2019s how I arrived at the complex\u2019s Admin Department in 1995. So, two colleagues who loved joking around, Estela Sanz and Sonia Humanes, started calling me \u2018funcionario\u2019 [official]. It began amongst themselves, but given the great, joke-heavy atmosphere, everyone started using the nickname. And soon after, it got shortened to Funsi\u2019, Jos\u00e9 Manuel explains.<\/p>\n

Everyone at RIU knows he was in Punta Cana for a few years, five to be exact, and in his own words, they were the best of his career. What no one knows is that Jos\u00e9 Manuel and I didn\u2019t meet there. Celdr\u00e1n came to replace the head of Dominican billing. When he arrived, Riu Taino, Riu Naiboa<\/u><\/a>, and Riu Palace Macao<\/u><\/a>\u00a0were open, and Riu Melao was about to be inaugurated. I had been there since 1990 and had just transferred to Puerto Plata for the opening of Riu Merengue before heading back to the Head Office in Majorca.<\/p>\n

Head of Administration for Punta Cana for RIU Hotels & Resorts<\/h3>\n

\u2018I completed the Spanish Baccalaureate at San Jos\u00e9 Obrero in Palma and, since too few students signed up for the technical drawing course I had selected, I ended up taking the accounting<\/strong>\u00a0course while completing the baccalaureate. I then began the university entry course but didn\u2019t finish it. Since I was a teenager, I had been working in cafes, and during the summers, I lived with my brother in El Arenal working at clubs\u2019, Jos\u00e9 Manuel remembers. \u2018In 1983, I started working in the administration department of a company that owned a number of clubs in Playa de Palma, and I worked there until RIU made me an offer. The offer came from Vicente Ferrer Ros<\/strong>, who recently retired as Corporate Administrative Director of RIU. He called to tell me they were looking for a head of administration in Punta Cana<\/strong>\u2019.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Manuel seized that opportunity. I have always said that we worked hard in Punta Cana, but we also played hard. He can attest to this. \u2018That opportunity arrived at the perfect time. I had a second youth there. When I arrived, I worked on an amazing team with people like Enrique Vargas, Juan Antonio Medina, and Fernando Ferrera; Juan Carlos Garc\u00eda joined shortly thereafter. Though we worked around the clock, we also had a great time<\/strong>. The work environment was great\u2019, Jos\u00e9 Manuel says about those years.<\/p>\n

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