VAIL — Vail Resorts announced Friday that Chris Jarnot, executive vice president of the mountain division, will step down from his role after 34 years with the company.
Before taking on his current role in 2016, Jarnot previously served as Vail Resorts’ chief marketing officer and Vail Mountain’s chief operating officer.
As Vail Resorts continues to grow its portfolio of ski areas, it will create three regional leadership roles, according to the release:
- Bill Rock, chief operating officer of Park City Mountain, will relocate to Broomfield to oversee the resorts in Colorado and Utah.
- Pete Sonntag, chief operating officer of Whistler Blackcomb, will relocate to Broomfield to oversee Whistler Blackcomb and Stevens Pass as well as the company’s resorts in Lake Tahoe and Australia.
- Doug Pierini, chief operating officer of Okemo Mountain Resort, will oversee the company’s three Northeast resorts, three Midwest resorts and the 17 Peak Resorts’ ski areas, pending the anticipated closing of the transaction this fall.
Among other leadership changes, Keystone Resort general manager Geoff Buchheister will become the chief operating officer of Whistler Blackcomb.
The announcement appears to be part of broader restructuring at the company.
In July, readers contacted the Summit Daily to report that marketing staff at Vail-owned resorts in Summit County had been laid off or asked to relocate to Broomfield.
In an emailed response, Breckenridge spokeswoman Sara Lococo said, “As a growing company, it is imperative that we transform and optimize how we work together to achieve our goals at Vail Resorts. As part of that transformation, we are further centralizing certain product marketing functions …”
The news about the leadership changes was released shortly before trading closed Friday, and Vail stock fell 1.1% before rebounding slightly by the closing bell.