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Welcome to the November edition of Snow People, our monthly roundup of happenings to prominent ski industry and supplier personnel.

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Tom Feiten, Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows

Tom Feiten has been promoted to vice president of marketing and business development at Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows.

“Tom comes into this critical role with a deep understanding of the key strategic elements of the Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows brand, and his executive experience in the industry will allow him to optimize our sales and marketing efforts,” said Andy Wirth, president and CEO of Squaw Valley Ski Holdings.

Feiten joined Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows in 2011 as part of the business planning and strategy team. Previously, he spent three years with Teton Gravity Research and eight as the director of strategic finance for Booth Creek Ski Holdings.

“After five years of working closely with the marketing and sales departments at Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, I am highly confident in these two extraordinarily talented teams and the momentum we have built,” said Feiten.

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Doug Allen, Steamboat

Doug Allen, vice president of mountain operations at Steamboat Resort, will be retiring at the end of the 2016-17 season after 31 years with the company.

“After 30 years of reporting for duty at Steamboat Ski Resort, I made the decision this summer that this will be my last season heading the mountain operations department,” said Allen. “I know the team will continue to lead Steamboat in the right direction for future success.”

“There are few leaders in the ski industry who have had the impact of Doug Allen,” said Rob Perlman, president and COO of Steamboat. “Doug has helped shape the way skiers and snowboarders utilize the mountain, and [he] boosted Steamboat to a world-class, year-round vacation destination.”

Allen helped shape Steamboat's master development plans, revitalized its base area, and introduced night skiing and riding to the resort. He was also a member of the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board from 1990 to 1998, holding the chairman position for the last three years of his term. And Allen served as the ski area representative on the ANSI B77 committee that writes and maintains the National Standard for Aerial Ropeways.

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Todd HoffmanRyanSolutionsINN emailsizeInntopia

Inntopia has been growing rapidly as of late, and the recent acquisition of Ryan Solutions has expanded its executive team. Corey Ryan, founder of Ryan Solutions, is now chief commercial officer at Inntopia; Ben Zeeb, Ryan Solutions co-founder, has assumed the role of senior vice president of product development; Gregg Blanchard is director of marketing; and Amy Josef is the new director of strategic account management.

In addition to Ryan Solutions leadership joining Inntopia, Keren Meital Kinner has been hired as scrum master/agile coach on the software development team. Todd Hoffman is the newest strategic account manager. Anthony Converse is the new director of IT.

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Elan

Jeff Mechura has joined the Elan team as director of brand development. Mechura comes to Elan after 20 years with K2 Sports.

“Jeff's global brand and marketing experience, coupled with his knowledge of the North American market, will be instrumental in enabling the strengthened Elan team to aggressively pursue market opportunities and deploy our reinvigorated brand strategy with focus and determination,” said Leon Korosec, director of the winter sports division at Elan.

Mechura will be leading brand development, marketing initiatives, and future product collaborations for Elan.

Awards

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Bob Roberts Award of Excellence

The California Ski Industry Association presented its inaugural Bob Roberts Award of Excellence to John Wagnon. Wagnon recently retired as vice president of sales and marketing for Heavenly. His ski industry career also included 14 years at Kirkwood prior to his move to Heavenly.

John served on the board of directors for the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority and Ski Lake Tahoe, and worked as a commissioner for the California Travel and Tourism Commission, now known as Visit California.

Former CSIA president Bob Roberts attended the award ceremony to say a few words about John's contributions to the California ski industry, and to present the award to him with current CSIA president, Mike Reitzell.

Laurentian Ski Museum Hall of Fame

The Laurentian Ski Museum in Saint-Sauveur, Quebec, Canada, has inducted five new members into its Hall of Fame:

Jasey Jay Anderson, Olympic gold medal-winning snowboarder

John Fry, ski journalist

Roger McCarthy, alpine builder

Doug Pfeiffer, ski journalist and builder

Gerard Siegmann, alpine builder

Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame

Located at the Alf Engen Museum in Park City, Utah, the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame celebrated four new inductees:

Jan Leonard, lift engineer and founder of Cable Transportation Engineering Corporation

Christin Cooper, Olympic medalist and broadcast analyst

Steve Cook, Paralympic cross-country skiing medalist

Ron Steele, Rossignol America president