In his school days, Frank Del Rio was a competitive runner. Today, he’s running two cruise lines, as chairman and CEO of Doral-based Prestige Cruise Holdings, the parent corporation for Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises.
He learned how to run a business at Certified Vacations, where he was executive vice president for sales and marketing before leaving the company in 1993. His next stop was Renaissance Cruises, where, somewhat ironically, he was fired as co-CEO. Renaissance later went bankrupt.
In 2002, he founded Oceania Cruises with a group of investors, buying three ships that had belonged to Renaissance. In 2007, he and his partners sold a majority stake in Oceania to a private equity firm and the next year they acquired Regent Seven Seas Cruises.
Today, the two cruise lines operate eight ships, including the company’s latest achievement, the Oceania Riviera, which recently began cruises from Port Miami. Mr. Del Rio says the company is going strong. “We just completed another record year,” he said. “Except for a dip in 2009 following the unfortunate events surrounding the Great Recession, every year has been a record year.”
Mr. Del Rio came to the US at age seven when his parents fled Cuba. They lived in Connecticut for nine years, but later settled in the Miami area. He married his high school sweetheart and they have two children.
Mr. Del Rio discussed his company and his career during an interview with Miami Today reporter Scott Blake aboard the Riviera while docked in Miami.