This is the first in PBN’s second annual series of articles focusing on the backgrounds, challenges and successes of some of the area’s most influential and interesting business women.

In the lobby of Newport Grand, there is an oil portrait dating from the 1970s of a handsome man, with a strong face, white hair and blue eyes that almost twinkle on the canvas. Shown from the shoulders up, he wears a black tuxedo with a black tie, giving him an extra air of sophistication.

For frequent patrons of the casino in Newport, there’s something about the man’s smile that is familiar. He has the same smile as his only daughter, Diane Hurley, the CEO of Newport Grand LLC. He is the late Arthur Silvester, who as owner and general contractor built what was then Newport Jai Alai, which opened in June 1976.

Thirty-two years later, one of the premier gaming venues in southeastern New England remains a family-run operation, led by Hurley. Jai alai is gone. In its place are 1,120 video slot machines, along with simulcast races. A $30 million renovation slated for completion in September will expand food and beverage areas and add approximately 380 slot machines. More workers will be hired to supplement the existing staff of 220 employees.

Hurley is certain her father would be “thrilled” to see the exciting changes happening at Newport Grand, and he’d be just as delighted to know his daughter remains in charge. She did entertain offers a few years ago from potential buyers. “We never had to sell, unless an offer came along that was really attractive,” she explains. “We are not entertaining offers now. We’re getting the job done ourselves, and who knows what the future will hold?”

Born 60 years ago in Boston, Hurley grew up in Weston, Mass., and later moved with her family to West Palm Beach, Fla., where her father had built and owned a second jai alai fronton. The family maintained its New England connection by summering each year on Cape Cod.

After high school in West Palm Beach, Hurley went to Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass., earning a bachelor’s degree in theoretical economics in 1970 – one year after former presidential candidate and first lady, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, graduated from the small private school for women. When Clinton visited Rhode Island last fall, Hurley stood at the front of a mob of people hoping to meet her, Hurley had an edge – a Wellesley scarf – and she pulled it out to catch Clinton’s eye, before exchanging a few words with her.

Hurley wasn’t exactly sure what to do with her life after she graduated from college. She did economic research for a while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Radcliffe Institute in Boston and the Wellesley Centers for Women. She married, gave birth to two children and lived for a time in Belmont, Mass., before moving to Rhode Island in 1978 where she has stayed ever since, now living in Jamestown. In the 1970s, “most Wellesley women went into the professions,” she says. “The notion of going into a family business was not there. I didn’t know any - and I don’t to this day know a great number of women entering family businesses.”

Her father offered her a golden opportunity when she was 27 years old. He started Dinart Vending Corp., named for Diane and her brother Arthur Jr., that supplied food and beverages to Newport Jai Alai, and she was made president. “I didn’t have the good sense to be worried,” she says with a laugh. “I had a lot of work to do, I had a whole new business to learn.” Her brother has since retired and Hurley is the only family member active in Newport Grand today, although at 93 her mother, Renee Silvester, remains involved. “I just had a great conversation with her,” Hurley tells a visitor, “all about business. She was grilling me.”

Hurley was running the operation in 1991, when simulcast dog and horse races were added to Newport Jai Alai, and in 1992, her father let her take the lead when video-lottery terminals (VLTs) were installed. The next year, her father, who had sold the West Palm Beach fronton, passed away. “He was an extraordinary, self-made man, as honest as the day is long,” she says of him. In 2003, she was forced to get rid of jai alai. “It was a business decision. We had direct losses of $2.5 million, which was just not tenable,” Hurley says. “But it was a tough decision for someone who grew up with jai alai.”

Hurley seems most comfortable talking about Newport Grand rather than herself, and she clearly enjoys escorting a visitor through the casino and showing off what will be the benefits of the ongoing construction. What was once the jai alai court is now an expansive, deep-carpeted room with violet-colored walls, destined to be the non-smoking video slot parlor. The entryway, where there used to be about 100 slot machines, is being refashioned into a stylish lobby. A mirrored room full of slot machines will become a private function room. A cafeteria and dining area will be expanded into the type of large-scale buffet customers have come to expect at casinos. When the work is done, “this building will be 21st century,” Hurley says with pride. Oddly enough, she is not a gambler. “I’ve been gambling all my life on running a business,” she quips.

Hurley is active in the Newport community, serving now or in the past as: a member of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce; the first female president of the Newport Music Festival; a member of the Truro Synagogue board; the first female president of the board of the Newport County YMCA; and she is a member of the capital campaign committee for Child and Family Services in Newport. “She has contributed greatly to our community,” said Keith W. Stokes, executive director of the Chamber. The fact that she is in charge of a family-owned business means she gives local residents preference for jobs and always is ready to “reinvest in the community,” he says.

“She has a very high sense of community spirit,” he adds of Hurley, “and she runs a great business.” Surely, her father would be proud. •

To read the 12 articles in PBN’s inaugural Business Women series, click here; to see the June 30 special section featuring profiles of all 25 women honored at the 2007-2008 Business Women gala, click here.