YOUR AD HERE »

Vail Resorts leads the ski industry’s charge toward gender diversity

Jason Blevins, Colorado Sun
Beaver Creek chief operating officer Nadia Guerriero speaks to participants in the Vail Resorts POWDER program in Beaver Creek on Dec.18, 2019. POWDER, which stands for Providing Opportunity for Women Through Diversity, Equality and Respect, is a new Vail, is a new program organized by Vail Resorts, intended to attract, train and retain women in leadership roles. (Andy Colwell, Special to the Colorado Sun)

The U.S. ski resort industry started with a bunch of mustachioed dudes focused on uphill transportation. 

Sixty-plus years later, resort skiing has transformed from an operation into an experience, with attention paid to safety, snow grooming, speedy lifts, lessons, food and fewer hassles. 

The evolution of skiing can be attributed to a more diverse array of captains steering the industry, including a growing number of women. And Vail Resorts, with women at the helm of eight ski areas — including three of its five Colorado resorts — is leading that charge toward diversity, not only by elevating women to top jobs at the Fortune 500 company, but developing a pipeline to identify and foster the next generation of leaders for the 37-resort operation.



“We have shifted toward thinking about what we are doing for people while we produce this experience, and that has opened the industry to a different kind of leader,” said Patricia Campbell, the president of Vail Resorts’ mountain division. 

A decade ago, she was among the country’s first female resort managers when she took the helm at Breckenridge, the nation’s busiest ski area. 

Support Local Journalism




Read more via The Colorado Sun.

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization dedicated to covering the people, places and policies that matter in Colorado. Read more, sign up for free newsletters and subscribe at coloradosun.com.


Support Local Journalism