WHO’S WHO

Local Personalities: Rony Fineman

by Dr. Iain Corness

Rony Fineman is a classic example of someone who has ‘made it’ in life, not because of family connections, but because they have been prepared to work hard. He has certainly had some lucky breaks, but he is a man who has never lost sight of the future, and has so many plans for it, that most of us would be left gasping.

Rony was born in Israel in a town called Eilat beside the Red Sea. His father was an Irish doctor and his mother a nurse, but following the break-up of the marriage when Rony was young, he was sent to boarding school for his education. He stuck it out for eight years only, “I was a lousy student and I hated school,” said Rony.

He began work when he was 12 years old, washing dishes in a hotel after school. However, Rony could speak English, courtesy of his Irish father, and ended up as Maitre d’ as he was the only one in the restaurant area who could take the orders. Not a bad start for the 12 year old dishwasher.

Having decided that his future was in the hospitality business, he applied for, and received a grant to study at the Tadmor Hotel School in Israel. He was only 15 years old and became the youngest student ever accepted in the training institute. He also came out from there one year later, having topped his class.

Rony was now ready for the ‘big time’ and entered the employ of the Jerusalem Hilton. By the time he was seventeen and a half years old he had become the night manager. “I was the youngest night manager in Hilton world-wide,” said Rony with an obvious degree of pride.

However, there was another group interested in Rony’s services - the Israeli Army! Aged 18 he lined up for his compulsory national service. Did they use the young hotelier’s skills in the mess tents perhaps? No, they gave him a posting as a tank driver. “I hated it. I’ve got claustrophobia, so it didn’t really work!”

Having escaped from the confines of his tank, Rony decided to go to London, as far away from tanks and desert sands as he could. He renewed his connections with his father, and polished up his English while he worked as a chauffeur. This job was as the family driver for Ali Butto, the President of Pakistan. He sat behind the wheel for two years until he was dismissed in somewhat significant circumstances. “I lost the job when they executed him,” said Rony, showing that wry Jewish humour.

From there, he spent some time driving with the ‘underground’ mini-cabs, but returned eventually, to his first love - the hotels, working as the Food and Beverage manager at the Sheraton Heathrow, and then moving to become the GM of the Maxwell’s restaurant chain. This position was to determine his next move, in a very off-beat way. While attempting to break up a fight in the restaurant, one of the combatants broke up a solid wooden table over Rony’s head.

After recovering from the initial onslaught, he was left with recurrent headaches, and his doctor recommended he wear a warm hat for the next twelve months. Realizing that wearing a turban was probably not the ‘look’ he was looking for, Rony decided that warm sun on his head would be better.

He tried Los Angeles and didn’t like it, so bought a round the world ticket and headed off, falling in love with Asia, and the warmth on his head. He arrived in Bangkok and didn’t think much of it and asked where the nearest seaside resort could be found. Of course this was Pattaya. “I was amazed by it, stayed three weeks and went back to London, sold everything, and returned to Pattaya.”

It was 1986 and Thailand was to change the course of his life in many ways. He married a Thai lady, Dang, and Rony became a family man, (by 2003 having two children, Eli and Benny). He stuck with hotels, managing properties in Pattaya, but eventually had to move to Bangkok, chasing the best positions.

It was in Bangkok that he realized that very few people were offering a service as a hotel broker, so Rony became one. He did not sell many hotels - but one was enough. That sold for $20 million.

His next serious group of clients were looking at leasing the Nipa Lodge in Pattaya, but they turned it down - but Rony didn’t! “I could see the value in it and anyway, Pattaya was where I wanted to be.” The name did not come with the lease, so it was changed to Nova Lodge, a name that has been very successful for Rony Fineman, hotelier and entrepreneur.

He had stayed in serviced apartments in Bangkok and felt that it was now time for him to diversify, and so Nova Park serviced apartments was built, along with the Alkemy restaurant. This has been successful and Phase 2 of the Nova Park development has started which will incorporate an Irish Pub and a high-end Spa, specializing in spa treatments from the Dead Sea in Israel.

Ah yes, the Dead Sea - Rony still has his roots in Israel. “My heart is in Israel, always has been,” says Rony. I asked him if he would return to live there permanently (he has a vacation there annually) and he gave another of those wry grins, saying, “My heart’s in Israel, but I don’t want to be blown up!”

The future Rony says, revolves about his family, but is really about business that Rony can do that will be good for his family. And he has plenty of ideas beyond that of Phase 2 of Nova Park. Those ideas include building a Five Star hotel in Pattaya and making a family entertainment venue for Pattaya. “The opportunities are here,” says Rony.

You leave with the distinct feeling that Rony knows what he’s talking about!