Naomi Riu, chief financial officer of Riu Hotels & Resorts, has used her first post on LinkedIn to offer a personal account of how she entered the family business and why she believes hands-on operational experience still defines how she works as a finance executive.
Writing on social media, she said she started in hotel operations at the age of 16, working in the bar and kitchen of Riu Playa Park in Mallorca. The choice, she wrote, was deliberate: to understand Riu before managing it.
“I have spent years helping to maintain my family’s legacy from the inside. I started in operations. At 16, in the bar and kitchen of Riu Playa Park. Not in an office. That was a deliberate choice: to understand Riu before managing it,” she said.
She added that the judgment she draws on daily as CFO did not come from a consultancy background but from time spent working inside hotels. “The criteria I use every day were not built in a consulting firm. They were built in the hotels,” she said.
In replies to comments, she also defended the lasting value of frontline knowledge. “The basics learned in operations do not expire. Thirty years later they are still the ones that make the difference,” she said.
She described the decision to start at ground level as a conscious family choice rather than a handed-down tradition. “In our case it was a conscious decision, not a tradition. And that, with time, is what I am most grateful for,” she said.
Who Is Naomi Riu?
Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 1992, Riu is the daughter of Luis Riu, who has served as sole chief executive of Riu Hotels & Resorts since July 2024. She graduated in Business Administration from EAE University of Barcelona and holds a master’s degree in Audit and Accounting.
Before joining the family business in a senior capacity, she completed financial planning internships at CaixaBank and worked for two years at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Madrid. She also spent time working across hotel departments in Mallorca and the Canary Islands and served as assistant site manager during the renovation of the Riu Vistamar, a project she has described as a formative experience.
She became financial director of the Riu Group in 2018, taking over from Joan Trian Riu. In February 2025, her responsibilities were expanded significantly. She now serves as managing director for operations of Riu hotels in the Indian Ocean region, covering properties in Zanzibar, Dubai, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Mauritius and Thailand, as well as the Riu Plaza city hotels in Madrid, London and Dublin. She also oversees EMEA procurement, corporate social responsibility and billing and collections management.
A Generational Handover in Progress
Her expanded role is part of a structured succession process that Riu Hotels & Resorts has been managing since mid-2024. The process began formally when Carmen Riu, who had co-led the group alongside her brother Luis Riu since 1998, retired from her executive role in July 2024. She remains chair of the group’s governing board.
In February 2025, Luis Riu announced the next phase of the transition, bringing the fourth generation of the family into operational and commercial leadership. The changes were approved by the Family Board and the Riu Group’s Board of Directors.
Alongside Naomi, her brother Roberto Riu Rodriguez, 31, took on responsibilities in corporate sales and marketing while continuing his work in hotel design and construction. Their brother Luis Riu Rodriguez, 33, assumed operational oversight for the Atlantic region. Cousins Lola Trian Riu and Joan Trian Riu also took on new roles, with Lola moving to manage the family’s philanthropic funds and Joan leading operations across the Americas and several Riu Plaza properties in the United States, Canada, Central America and Germany.
Luis Riu, the CEO, continues to supervise the company directly and retains responsibility for expansion, hotel design and construction, and corporate product design.
Group Performance and Scale
Riu Hotels & Resorts was founded in Mallorca in 1953 as a small summer business and has grown into one of Spain’s most recognised hotel brands. The group managed 101 hotels across 22 countries in 2025, welcoming 6.8 million guests and maintaining an average occupancy rate of approximately 88 percent. Gross revenue for 2025 reached 4.188 billion euros, an increase of 2.6 percent on the previous year. The group employs approximately 38,955 people worldwide. TUI Group holds a 49 percent stake in RIUSA II, the joint venture entity that manages the hotel assets, with the Riu family retaining majority ownership and operational control.
Why the Post Has Drawn Attention
The LinkedIn post has attracted notice within the travel industry partly because it offers a personal, first-person perspective on leadership at a major family hotel group rather than a formal announcement. Her comments about beginning in hotel bars and kitchens reflect a broader philosophy that Riu Hotels has long applied to family succession: that understanding the business from the frontline is a precondition for leading it.
Carmen Riu, who helped build the group’s international presence over 25 years at its head, also began her career inside hotel departments before taking an executive role. She started at Riu in 1977 as manager of the Riu Bali in Playa de Palma, Mallorca, having first worked as a trainee across various parts of the business.
For Riu Hotels, a chain that has maintained family ownership and a consistent culture across more than 70 years of growth, the way the next generation enters the business carries significance well beyond standard corporate communications. Riu’s post makes clear that the group intends that culture to continue.
