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Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz establishes $58M charitable fund to support mountain communities

Vail Daily staff report
Vail Resorts Chairman and CEO Rob Katz
Jack Affleck

Rob Katz, CEO of Vail Resorts, has established a $58 million charitable fund that will make grants to nonprofit social service organizations in the mountain communities where his company operates.

The creation of the donor-advised fund was announced Monday by Vail Resorts. According to a news release, the funding will come from Katz exercising his share appreciation rights, or SARs, before their 10-year expiration date.

Those SARs will expire over the next 18 months, according to the release:

“After withholding taxes, Katz received 304,612 shares of Vail Resorts stock from the SARs exercise. Of those shares, Katz plans to sell approximately 114,000 shares and then donate 100 percent of the proceeds from that sale (approximately $25 million at current market prices) to the newly created charitable fund. In addition, Katz plans to donate approximately 148,000 shares of Vail Resorts stock (with a value of approximately $33 million at current market prices) directly to the charitable fund. Katz plans to retain the remaining Vail Resorts shares from the SARs exercise.”

The community grants will be doled out over a long-term period based on the recommendations of Katz and his wife, Elana Amsterdam.

“The grants will align with the couple’s charitable giving priorities and will include significant contributions to nonprofit, social service organizations that provide support to the mountain resort communities where Vail Resorts operates,” the release states. “Katz and Amsterdam will work with local mountain resort community leaders and Vail Resorts employees to identify and address critical local challenges that these communities are facing.”

“Elana and I are honored to be able to create this new charitable fund to help those who need it most, including support for the mountain resort communities we care so much about,” Katz said in the release. “We hope the grants can help make a difference by bringing people and programs together around community problems that need solutions.”

Vail Resorts’ four Colorado mountain resorts are Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone. The company also owns and operates Park City in Utah; Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood in California and Nevada; Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia; Stowe in Vermont; Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin; Afton Alps in Minnesota; Mt. Brighton in Michigan; and Perisher in Australia.


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