Vail Resorts

Vail Resorts

Type	Public
Traded as	: MTN
Founded	1997
Headquarters	Broomfield, Colorado, USA
Key people	Robert A. Katz, CEO
Number of employees	15,000
Website	vailresorts.com

Vail Resorts, Inc. runs four ski resorts in Colorado (Vail Ski Resort, Beaver Creek Resort, Keystone Resort, and Breckenridge Ski Resort), three in Lake Tahoe (Heavenly Mountain Resort, Kirkwood Mountain Resort, Northstar California), one in Utah (Park City Mountain Resort in Park City), one in Vermont (Stowe Mountain Resort), one in Minnesota (Afton Alps), one in Michigan (Mount Brighton), one in Wisconsin (Wilmot Mountain), one in New South Wales, Australia (Perisher Ski Resort), one in British Columbia (Whistler Blackcomb), and a summer resort in Wyoming. They also own luxury resort hotels throughout the world. The company trades on the New York Stock Exchange, symbol MTN. The company is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado.

Vail Resorts was founded as Vail Associates Ltd. by Pete Seibert (former WWII 10th Mountain Division ski trooper) and Earl Eaton in the early 1960s. Earl and Peter were both ski patrol guides at Aspen when they shared their dream of finding the "next great ski mountain". Earl, a life long resident and son of pioneer families in the area lead Peter to the area in March 1957. Peter set off to secure financing and Earl engineered the early lifts. On a string and a prayer, the ski resort was founded and it opened in 1962.George N. Gillett, Jr. purchased Vail Associates in 1985. Vail Associates changed its name to Vail Resorts and went public in 1997 after Gillett Holdings (owned by George N. Gillett, Jr.) went bankrupt.Apollo Management, headed by Leon Black, bought the company out of bankruptcy and took Vail Resorts public, controlling Vail Resorts through its growth until around 2003, when Apollo divested themselves of the controlling interest. Former Apollo executive, Rob Katz, currently runs the company. The skating rink at Beaver Creek was named the Black Family Skating Rink after Leon Black.