September 2009 Developments - 64

40th Anniversary Passing the Torch: Next-Generation “Timeshare Kids” ollowing professionally in our parents’ footsteps has long been an American cultural and economic ideal, especially when the parent has been successful in his or her chosen endeavor. As one of the “old timers” of the timesharing industry, I have noticed more second and even third generation timesharing professionals joining our ranks each year. These are the children or grandchildren of the pioneers who started our industry in the 70’s and 80’s. Many years ago, Ed McMullen Sr., used to say that ours was a “tar-baby” business: “Once you get your ﬁngers stuck, you can’t get ‘em out!” For many second-generation timeshare professionals (including Ed’s two sons), this is exactly what happened. Consider, too, that the ultimate byproduct of what we build, sell, and manage is people having fun on their family vacations, fostering additional pride in what we do. In addition to a list of “timeshare kids” and their parents, what follows is a detailed focus on a handful of families whose parents played a signiﬁcant role in the growth of our industry. In many cases, the company they originally founded ultimately morphed into something bigger than they could have ever imagined. While there are many other pioneer families, we have speciﬁcally concentrated on those whose children are also in the business. Here are just a few of their great stories. Marge Lennon F families worked d together to restore the cabin and experience the beneﬁts of shared use and cost, resulting in deepening friendships and special memories. Never forgetting the cabin or the shared use/ cost concept, over a decade later in 1972, Bob sold one-bedroom Kauai beachfront condominiums by the month, initially priced at $2,950 with a 40-year land lease program. He then acquired a defunct 72unit motel, converting it to a 40-year rightto-use with an initial price of $1,250 for two weeks of use. (Because there were no existing timeshare laws or regulations, the partners sold use rights instead of a real estate interest.) In 1974, Bob Burns formed Vacation Internationale (VI) in Seattle with Bob Riggenburg, who had enjoyed success with a vacation home exchange company. VI began to acquire property on four Hawaiian Islands, with sales conducted primarily via seminars requesting $100 refundable deposits. Often 300 people would attend, closing as high as 50 percent. Because the buyers preferred widely divergent seasonal vacations, VI created the ﬁrst actual point system in the country 35 years ago, which has been widely replicated today by most major companies. fr from a business perspective. I w was motivated by the fact that I could have an opportunity to play a key role in the development of this new and fascinating business,” recalled Michael. “I wanted to expand my father’s concept to a national brand and help legitimize the concept. To overcome industry image issues, the challenge was to execute and approach it in an entirely different direction. I believe what we did in the early days of Disney helped set the pattern that followed for our industry.” Michael remained with Disney for eight years, returning to Vacation International in 1997. Two years later, he founded Private Residence Resorts, a company that develops, markets, sells, and manages small boutique fractional ownership properties. The Grings Clay Sr. Clay Gring Sr., is widely respected as one of the early pioneers of the timeshare industry, beginning his 38-year career with Fairﬁeld Resorts in 1971, when his publicly traded New York-based CPC computer company (partnering with George Donovan) merged with Fairﬁeld Communities Land Company. His early role at Fairﬁeld was to expand the company’s land and homes sales. He returned to Fairﬁeld during its bankruptcy period and installed the points-based system, merging ﬁxed-week deeded products with pure points, which today still supports Wyndham’s timeshare model. This innovative work was designed, developed, and implemented within a very large Chapter 11 reorganization. Since then, he has been a senior consultant to many of the major industry leaders, helping their companies ﬁnd resolutions to complex problems. Michael With his dad as the ultimate teacher, Michael Burns’ industry experience resulted in an impressive timeshare pedigree. In 1985, he became a marketing manager on the ﬁrst team that launched Marriott into the timeshare business. Later, at age of 32, Disney hired him to serve as VP and general manager of their new timeshare division. “Timesharing was such a novel idea at the time and required unique creativity The Burns Bob In the early 1950s, Bob Burns convinced ﬁve other families to jointly purchase and maintain an expensive but “tired” mountaineer ski cabin condominium in Washington State, which slept 25 people. For 10 years, the 64 Developments • September 2009

September 2009 Developments

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