Former Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz to receive NSAA Industry Impact Award

Vail Resorts acquired Park City Mountain and The Canyons Village under Rob Katz's tenure. Photo: Vail Resorts

LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Rob Katz will receive the 2022 National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) Industry Impact Award next month at the 60th annual NSAA National Convention in Nashville, according to Ski Area Management.

Katz was the CEO of Vail Resorts from 2006 until late 2021. During his tenure, the company launched the Epic Pass model and secured 38 acquisitions, which included Park City Mountain and The Canyons, Kirkwood, Heavenly, and Northstar in California, and Whistler Blackcomb in Canada.

“(Katz) was the architect of the destination season pass — a groundbreaking product and the ultimate re-imagination of our industry,” James O’Donnell, president of Vail Resorts’ Mountain Division, told NSAA.

Timeline of Vail Resorts’ acquisitions (does not include Pennsylvania purchases late last year).

The headline of a 2016 Forbes profile of Katz says he uses a “casino model to drive peak performance.”

“Vail’s acquisition of Park City in particular played out like a black comedy, with Katz seen as the carpetbagger villain after the longtime owners of Park City and Snowbird, the Cumming family, inadvertently let their $150,000-a-year lease covering the top of the mountain expire. The Cummings, who still owned the base of the mountain and the ski lifts, vowed to rip out the lifts and leave Vail with a useless mountaintop. Katz saw through their bluff, eventually buying them out for $183 million in 2014 and signing a long-term lease for The Canyons resort next door.” — Forbes (2016)

The former CEO began his career at Apollo Global Management, a large private equity firm that is currently considering participating in a bid for Twitter.

During his time at Apollo, the firm acquired bankrupt Gillette Holdings Inc., whose assets included Vail Associates.

Katz later joined Vail’s board in 1996, and was responsible for the organization’s restructure that combined Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Breckenridge under the name ‘Vail Resorts.’

Katz took the company public in 1997 with an IPO of $22 per share. MTN closed Monday trading at $259.48.

Kirsten Lynch took over the role as CEO in November 2021 after Katz’s 15-year run. He now serves as the Executive Chairperson of the company’s board.

Vail Resorts sold 47% more Epic Passes for the 2021-22 season when compared to the year prior. When asked this season about the “Epic” crowds at Vail-owned resorts, Katz dismissed that the increase in product sales had anything to do with it.

“I think the thought that our Epic Pass sales have led to this crazy crowding is not true,” Katz told the Storm Skiing Journal & Podcast.

He did concede later on in the interview that on “peak days, on December 27, a powder day — yeah, there’s going to be some crowds.”

But added, “If that’s the price to pay to keep the sport growing, I think we all maybe need to embrace that a little bit.”

Travel time data published by Park City Municipal shows travel times at Park City Mountain this winter unlike ever before. Changes were implemented later in the season, and there is an improvement around March.

Also at the NSAA Convention in May, former Sugarbush owner Win Smith will receive NSAA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.