But from the early days on, there have always been professional ski teachers among the great names in ski resort management — Dave McCoy, Sepp Ruschp, Paul Valar, Herbert Schneider and Hans Thomer, to name a few. This trend appears to be continuing and expanding today with more ski area CEO’s coming from the ranks of the ski schools — sort of the Eton and Harrow of skiing.
The question is, why?
Are those who lead classes natural leaders? Or, natural hustlers? Or is it just that they hang around the resort for so long they can no longer be passed over? Does time spent in front of a beginner class teach them something about skiers that other managers, who don’t serve apprenticeships in ski school, have trouble figuring out?
Do they have a special feel for terrain and sense of slope skiability? Do they somehow bridge a gap between the business-school hired gun and the “average” employee? Do ski instructors make good presidential timber?
SAM polled the heads of eight ski resorts, all former ski instructors, asking each to ponder these questions. (Leaders of two mega-resorts, Vern Greco of Steamboat and Chris Ryman of Vail, both certified ski instructors and formerly active PSIA officials, declined the opportunity to participate.)
Although they may be biased, these resort managers said an early career path that included being a ski teacher prepared them for their jobs as well or better than any other training. None, however, intimated they could not have made it without some instructional experience.
“As a ski teacher I learned about commitment. It taught me flexibility: how to deal with situations quickly and decisively without a lot of lead time,” said Jon Reveal, general manager of Aspen/Snowmass. “I learned early on that we’re in the people business. Every ski area has lifts, parking lots, restaurants and machinery. Yet one is more successful than the next because of the way its management treats its employees and in turn, the way the employees treat the guests. The instructor is critical in this treatment of the guest.”
Jon Mahanna, who runs Dodge Ridge, listed some of the things his experience as an instructor taught him: “Customer service, communication skills, how to approach problems professionally and the importance of educating the new skier properly. I learned these things as an instructor, although I might have learned them somewhere else. … Most of all I learned about the importance of being a team player at a seasonal resort.”
Canadian Norm Crerar, part-owner of Silver Star Mountain Resort, had his eyes opened as a ski teacher. “I got to understand why people really take winter vacations. Because I was so interested in technique, I believed they came to ski areas to learn to ski. And, by God, I was going to teach them.
“It took a bit of time to realize that folks came for a holiday first and, if they learned to ski or improved on top of that, it was simply a bonus. But it was not their primary motivation. I don’t believe employees who come up from the financial or mechanical end of the business ever get a good feel for that.”
Swain’s owner, Robin Smith: “Most of what I know about the sport I learned through ski instructing. As a Demonstration Team member and an examiner, I got to see ski areas all over the country. It’s the perfect cover for an industrial spy. You see many approaches to the same problem. In directing my resort, I borrow and modify techniques I’ve seen — right or wrong — someplace else.
“As a good skier and a ski teacher, you know what a great day of skiing feels like. The good ski teacher and the good GM both try to create an environment where that can happen more often than not. Although the industry needs the help of more MBA types, the guy who ultimately shapes the experience has got to be a lifestyle skier.”
Nearly all these resort managers agreed that being a ski instructor had in no way hindered their thinking or progress as a manager, although Jonathan Jenkins, president and GM of Ski Roundtop had reservations.
“I learned to deal with a large number of people in a variety of ways. I now deal with more than 500 people on a seasonal basis and that requires a skillful mix of delegation, organization, leadership — and persuasion,” he said. “But I sometimes have more empathy than I should when I make hard choices. Making bottom-line business decisions in today’s climate is more stressful than it would be had I not learned empathy and compassion as a ski instructor. But I sometimes protect my staff rather than using cold, hard logic to make decisions.”
Brian Fairbank, CEO of Jiminy Peak, said: “If anything, I may have been too protective of ski school issues at first, but I quickly learned to balance all aspects of the operation. When it comes to promotions, I certainly promote from ski school, but equal consideration is given to everybody in the organization.”
Though each of the respondents reported good experiences with PSIA, the professional organization whose task it is to certify ski instructors, all agreed that PSIA’s educational horizons were not nearly broad enough to serve the industry as a whole.
“PSIA needs to come down off the mountain and start working with the rest of the industry to develop the market,” said Gary Kiedaisch, president of Stowe. “They ought to teach solid business practices and how to apply them to their profession. I’d recommend a strong business education with ski school experience as a vehicle to familiarize yourself with the customer at many levels.”
Robin Swain of Swain outlined the ideal ski area management training scenario: “The hot set up for a GM would be to have a PSIA examiner who is an MBA in finance and marketing with five years experience at American Airlines supervising aircraft maintenance. You have to develop a feel for everybody’s problems, speak a little bit of everybody’s language. What PSIA teaches is valuable, but it could broaden its educational scope. I got the nuts and bolts side from working heavy road construction in the summer doing college. I’m still struggling with the MBA stuff.”
Would these CEO’s recommend the ski school route as an avenue for personal and/or professional advancement within the typical ski resort? Their answers were generally positive, but tempered by caution.
“Yes,” said Hans Geier, president of Stratton, “but this is a difficult avenue in an already-small industry that is shrinking each year. I’ve always had good luck promoting a ski school director to a higher management level, particularly in operations or marketing. There are many examples of this kind of success in the ski industry.”
Kiedaisch: “Typically ski school people who progress to management also come from a ski racing background. Racing teaches you how to win. It also teaches you how to fall, get up the next day and try again. This kind of perseverance is critical in a weather-dependent industry.”
Crerar: “Dealing with the motivation of a large stable of ski instructors — with all their respective egos — certainly prepares for future human relations. I only wish my lift operators, food and beverage people and other staff came to me with the same qualifications and level of training that ski instructors do.”
Ski instructors also have their distinct weaknesses, not the least of which could be an ego too large or a focus too small …
Geier: “Too many instructors and ski school directors think it all begins and ends with them. I suspect the industry as a whole is at fault for this. We have failed to educate ski school directors about aspects of the resort operation other than their own.”
Smith: “Instructors fail to recognize the problems — as well as the contributions — of other departments. They don’t appreciate the limitations of machinery. They fail to see that what motivates a ski instructor does not necessarily motivate a food-service employee.”
Jenkins: “Ski school people can be ego-centered and opinionated. Let’s face it, skiing is an ego sport and those who are attracted to ski teaching have egos. Those who rise above their egos, those who are able to extract the beneficial lessons learned on the crucible of ski school are the ones who are able to achieve further success. That’s not a put down of the many fine people who are still teaching skiing without any apparent advancement. They just continue to enjoy the challenges where they are.”
Bottom line: Is it an advantage, when promotion opportunities present themselves, to be a member of the resort’s ski school? It doesn’t hurt, but there are certainly no guarantees.
“Instructors may be at an advantage,” suggested Jenkins. “I often use ski school personnel in situations that require people skills — ski shows, promotions, special events or projects or to entertain special guests. I frequently ask my ski school director for such people. But we also have a fine relationship with the ski patrol and what we call the courtesy staff. We use those people too.”
Aspen’s Jon Reveal summed it up: “I haven’t consciously looked to ski school for managers. However, the fact that everyone around me has some sort of link to ski school should tell you something.”
Our Distinguished Panel
Gary Kiedaisch, president and general manager of the Mt. Mansfield Company in Stowe, Vt., has been in the ski industry for more than 32 years and has viewed it from many perspectives. He began as a stock boy and sales clerk in his parents’ ski shop. Later, as a PSIA member, he was an instructor under Paul Valar in Franconia, N.H., directed the Sunday River, Me., ski school, was technical adviser to the Waterville Valley, N.H., ski school and was a member of the PSIA-E Demonstration Team.
Kiedaisch left the instructional realm to become a ski rep, which led to a series of management positions including western sales manager for Yamaha Ski Skis, VP of sales and marketing for Raichle Molitor and VP marketing worldwide for Head Sports. Before taking the reins at Stowe, he was VP of marketing at Waterville Valley.
Robin Smith began skiing on Army surplus skis at a free-of-charge rope tow in Attica, N.Y. In 1962, he got his professional start as a part-time ski instructor at Honey Hill in Warsaw, N.Y. — when he realized skiing was “too expensive.” Since that time his career has “degenerated,” as he says, to the point of becoming president and GM of Swain Ski Center in western New York state. (“I own most of the stock. That’s how I keep the title.”)
Now an accomplished board sailor, Smith describes himself as a one-time “true believer in PSIA, until time constraints and burnout restrained my zealousness in the mid 80s.” Within that context, he has held the title of ski school director (Honey Hill and Swain), director of skiing, PSIA-E Demo Team member, PSIA-E examiner and PSIA-E Certification Committee chairman.
Jonathan Jenkins, president and GM of Ski Roundtop, Penn., went, as he puts it, “directly from ski school director to area manager.” Jenkins, a Canadian, is educated in architectural design and drafting, and received his instructional training from the Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance before adopting, then becoming involved in PSIA.
He has been widely published in matters related to ski teaching and has held a variety of instructing and coaching jobs. His long credential list includes PSIA-E and CSIA examiner, chairman of PSIA-E Education Committee and director of PSIA-E.
Norm Crerar has done it all — north and south of the U.S.-Canadian border (he’s certified in both countries), in Europe where he passed the Ecole National certification in Chamonix, France, and New Zealand where he was chief examiner and course conductor in the mid-70s.
En route to his present position as part owner of Silver Star Mountain Resorts Ltd. in British Columbia, Crerar has been a member of the Canadian Demonstration Team, ski school director at Mt. Snow, Vt., president of the Canadian ski instructors association (ISIA), vice president of the International Ski Instructors Association (ISIA) and chairman of the 1987 Organizing Committee for Interski, which was hosted by Canada in Banff, Alberta.
“At first,” says Crerar, “I was particularly interested in the technical end of the ski school business. The people I looked up to were those on the first-ever Canadian Demonstration Team. I was motivated to become one of them. In those days, the big names in ski instruction were the ski school directors. You didn’t hear about big-name ski area operators. They were a poorly organized and independent lot back then. Now, of course, operators are much more together and sophisticated.”
Hans Geier, CEO of Stratton, Vt., spent the first five of his 33-year old industry career in ski school. He was an instructor at Gray Rocks, Quebec, and ski school director at Ski Roundtop. Never directly involved with Professional Ski Instructors of America, he received his Senior Certification in the Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance.
Geier’s managerial experience is broad and includes the GM position at Ski Roundtop/Liberty/Yellowstone and Ski Incline, Nev. In recent years, he moved from president of Snowmass to the president and general manager’s job at Stratton.
Jon Reveal, general manager of the Aspen Skiing Company, Colo., has held jobs at Dodge Ridge, Courchevel, France, Bear Valley, Calif., New Zealand, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin, Colo., as well as at Aspen-Snowmass.
Although he started skiing in 1948, he was “first paid to do something on skis” in 1957 and in 1964, Ray Patton of Dodge Ridge gave him his first job as a part-time ski instructor. Since October of 1968, Reveal has spent all his time in skiing. “I have lived well with no money and traveled a lot,” he notes.
As a manager of the Bear Valley Ski School in the late 60s — a hotbed of creative technical thinking that sent influential “graduates” to all corners of the skiing world — Reveal became one of the original directors and chief examiner for the Far West Ski Instructors Association, which later became the Far West Division of the PSIA.
A background in ski instruction, says Reveal, was valuable but not the key to his advancement. “The most important thing is to set a goal for yourself within a company — even when you’re in the trenches — then be ready to move quickly to an area of opportunity. Always guard against being type cast as a ski schooler, ski patroller, food-service guy, whatever. …”
Jon Mahanna is a freestyle turned instructor turned ski school supervisor turned director, ultimately turned operations manager then general manager of Dodge Ridge Ski Area in Pinecrest, Calif. — all over the course of 30 years. His knees remind him, “on a daily basis,” that he competed as a member of the National Freestyle Skier Association (IFSA) in its early days.
Mahanna first taught skiing at Bousquet’s, Mass., after school at the age of 14. Since his director was Court McDermott, an examiner in the Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance, Mahanna went with the CSIA. In time, Mahanna was certified in both PSIA-E and PSIA-W, where he became an examiner and board member after moving his family to Heavenly Valley, Calif. He later served on the National Ski School Management Committee of PSIA.
Brian Fairbank is Jiminy Peak, Mass., to many people. Now president and CEO of the skiing and real estate development at Jiminy after 28 years in the business, Fairbank began teaching part-time at Kissing Bridge in western New York when he was in high school. He became certified, and then went on to become an examiner, Eastern Demo Team member and was a member of the board of directors, PSIA-E, for four years.
Fairbank credits his ski school and PSIA experience for giving him insight into many aspects of ski resort operations, but maintains that “a short stint in ski school is probably adequate” for most who aspire to higher positions in the company. Equally important would be experience in marketing and finance. In fact, Fairbank attended an Executive Management Program at Harvard Business School from 1986-88. He wishes he’d done it “years earlier.”
— S.C.
