Vail Resorts Names Geoff Buchheister New Keystone Resort General Manager
BROOMFIELD, Colo.–August 1, 2017–Vail Resorts, Inc., (NYSE: MTN) (“Vail Resorts”) announced today the appointment of Geoff Buchheister, previously vice president for the company’s urban ski areas, as the new vice president and general manager for Keystone Resort.
The appointment follows the announcement earlier this summer that Mike Goar would be transitioning from the role at Keystone to serve as the new Heavenly Mountain Resort chief operating officer, with additional oversight of the company’s Kirkwood Mountain and Northstar California resorts.
“Over his 15-year career at Park City, and in his most recent role providing leadership for the urban ski areas, Geoff has demonstrated a passion for our business as well as the capacity to manage its complexity and intensity. Further, his drive and focus on the guest experience and the ability to connect with colleagues, resort guests and communities have established him as a successful leader for our company and within the industry,” said Chris Jarnot, mountain division executive vice president at Vail Resorts. “We’re confident that Geoff will apply all of this and more as he joins the Keystone team to build on the momentum that the resort has generated in recent years to create the ultimate family mountain experience in Colorado.”
Buchheister has nearly 20 years of ski resort industry experience, primarily at Park City in various financial leadership roles, most recently as the director of finance and resort services. He joined Vail Resorts in 2014 as part of the company’s acquisition of Park City Mountain Resort and was appointed to lead the company’s urban ski areas including Afton Alps in Minnesota, Mt. Brighton in Michigan and recently acquired Wilmot in Wisconsin. Most notably during his tenure as the urban ski areas general manager, Buchheister led the $13 million capital improvement plan at Wilmot, which completely transformed the guest experience for the 2016-2017 winter season, including new lifts, a revitalized base area, a new terrain park and high speed rope tow and expanded state-of-the-art snowmaking capabilities.
Buchheister grew up in the ski industry in Winter Park, Colo., where his father was an executive with Winter Park Resort, and he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) where he was a three-time NCAA All-American racer on the CU ski team.
“I am very much looking forward to continuing my leadership with the company at Keystone where the incredibly talented team has established the resort as the premier mountain resort experience for families,” said Buchheister. “In alignment with our company’s mission, I expect this next opportunity in my professional career to be an experience of a lifetime for me and my family.”
Buchheister and his wife, Tina, who is a physical therapist and was also a three-time NCAA All-American ski racer at the University of Utah, have two children, ages 7 and 10, and will be relocating from Park City, Utah to Summit County, Colo., in conjunction with his new role. The search to fill Buchheister’s urban ski areas general manager role will begin immediately.
The appointment follows the announcement earlier this summer that Mike Goar would be transitioning from the role at Keystone to serve as the new Heavenly Mountain Resort chief operating officer, with additional oversight of the company’s Kirkwood Mountain and Northstar California resorts.
“Over his 15-year career at Park City, and in his most recent role providing leadership for the urban ski areas, Geoff has demonstrated a passion for our business as well as the capacity to manage its complexity and intensity. Further, his drive and focus on the guest experience and the ability to connect with colleagues, resort guests and communities have established him as a successful leader for our company and within the industry,” said Chris Jarnot, mountain division executive vice president at Vail Resorts. “We’re confident that Geoff will apply all of this and more as he joins the Keystone team to build on the momentum that the resort has generated in recent years to create the ultimate family mountain experience in Colorado.”
Buchheister has nearly 20 years of ski resort industry experience, primarily at Park City in various financial leadership roles, most recently as the director of finance and resort services. He joined Vail Resorts in 2014 as part of the company’s acquisition of Park City Mountain Resort and was appointed to lead the company’s urban ski areas including Afton Alps in Minnesota, Mt. Brighton in Michigan and recently acquired Wilmot in Wisconsin. Most notably during his tenure as the urban ski areas general manager, Buchheister led the $13 million capital improvement plan at Wilmot, which completely transformed the guest experience for the 2016-2017 winter season, including new lifts, a revitalized base area, a new terrain park and high speed rope tow and expanded state-of-the-art snowmaking capabilities.
Buchheister grew up in the ski industry in Winter Park, Colo., where his father was an executive with Winter Park Resort, and he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) where he was a three-time NCAA All-American racer on the CU ski team.
“I am very much looking forward to continuing my leadership with the company at Keystone where the incredibly talented team has established the resort as the premier mountain resort experience for families,” said Buchheister. “In alignment with our company’s mission, I expect this next opportunity in my professional career to be an experience of a lifetime for me and my family.”
Buchheister and his wife, Tina, who is a physical therapist and was also a three-time NCAA All-American ski racer at the University of Utah, have two children, ages 7 and 10, and will be relocating from Park City, Utah to Summit County, Colo., in conjunction with his new role. The search to fill Buchheister’s urban ski areas general manager role will begin immediately.
About Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN)
Vail Resorts, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is the leading global mountain resort operator. Vail Resorts’ subsidiaries operate 11 world-class mountain resorts and three urban ski areas, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado; Park City in Utah; Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada; Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada; Perisher in Australia; Stowe in Vermont; Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin; Afton Alps in Minnesota and Mt. Brighton in Michigan. Vail Resorts owns and/or manages a collection of casually elegant hotels under the RockResorts brand, as well as the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Vail Resorts Development Company is the real estate planning and development subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc. Vail Resorts is a publicly held company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MTN). The Vail Resorts company website is www.vailresorts.com and consumer website is www.snow.com.