Intrawest Corp. has hired ski industry
veteran Bill Jensen, the president of Vail Resorts Mountain
Division, to be its new CEO.
Jensen will take
over June 1, replacing Alex Wasilov a board member who took over
the day-to-day operations of the resort company after Fortress
Investment Group acquired the company in 2006 and its founder, Joe
Houssian, retired.
"We always wanted
to find sort of an operations CEO to come on board," said Intrawest
spokesman Ian Galbraith. (Wasilov's) skill set was setting a solid
foundation for growth. ... Now with Bill Jensen coming on board, a
resort expert coming on board, we really can take it to the next
level."
The hiring of
Jensen comes as Intrawest's Whistler-Blackcomb resort in Canada
prepares for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Jensen, a 30-year
ski industry veteran, has been with Vail Resorts since 1997 and
previously worked for Fibreboard
Resort Group (a collection of resorts in California, now part of
Booth Creek Ski Holdings) in California and the Sunday
River Ski Resort in Maine.
He currently also
is chairman of the National Ski Areas Association.
At Vail Resorts,
Jensen will be replaced by John Garnsey, senior vice president and
COO of Beaver Creek Resort, and Blaise Carrig, senior vice
president and COO of Heavenly Mountain Resort. The company said
both have been promoted to executive vice president of the
company's mountain division and together will be responsible for
oversight of the entire division.
In addition, ski
industry veteran Chris Jarnot has been named COO of Vail Mountain.
Jarnot has been senior vice president of marketing and sales for
Vail Resorts since February 2006.
All management
changes are effective June 1.
To
contact reporter Jeri Clausing, send e-mail to [email protected].