Pacific Group Resorts, Inc. Announces Growth Driven Executive Changes

PARK CITY, UTAH – Park City based Pacific Group Resorts, Inc. (PGRI) has announced a series of executive changes to accommodate its recent growth and to align itself for further expansion going forward. Current Chairman Douglas Anderson will transition from chairman of the resort operating company to concentrate on real estate development and redevelopment at the PGRI resorts as Chairman and CEO of PGRI’s affiliate company Resort Asset Holdings. He will remain majority shareholder and on the board of PGRI. Current President and CEO, Vernon A. Greco, will become Chairman of Pacific Group Resorts, Inc., and current Executive VP and CFO, Mark K. Fischer, will become President and Chief Executive Officer of PGRI. The changes will become effective in March of 2024. Greco and Fischer will also continue in their PGRI board seats and remain principals.

To expand its financial team, PGRI has hired Gregory Stevenson as Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer effective September 5, 2023. Stevenson has 18 years of experience as a CFO at private firms and publicly traded companies such as Fidelity National Financial (NYSE – FNF) where he was the CFO for several FNF companies, and companies owned by its chairman, William P. Foley II, including Whitefish Mountain Resort in Montana. He also served as the Executive Vice President and CFO of Foley Family Wines, Inc., one of the largest wine producers in the U.S., and as the Chief Operating Officer and CFO of Fidelity National Timber Resources which included Rock Creek Golf Course in Idaho as well as Cascade Timberlands and Lord Ranch. He spent a large part of his career working on Olympic organizing committees for the Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Salt Lake games and also worked for the International Olympic Committee. Stevenson began his career as a staff auditor with Price Waterhouse.

In the decade since its founding in 2013 by Fischer and Anderson, PGRI has grown into a mountain resort and hospitality company operating six properties ranging from the modest-size Powderhorn Mountain Resort in western Colorado to the recently acquired, and much larger, Jay Peak Resort in Vermont. The executive changes are the result of the company’s long term strategic and succession planning.

As Greco explained, “With the purchase of Jay Peak in November of 2022, and a desire for further acquisitions, we need to add depth to our executive ranks and more emphasis on some key areas of potential. The purchases of our resorts have included a fair amount of property, and Doug has significant experience in real estate. We’re at the point where we have more opportunities in those areas and that experience will be invaluable. Mark has been at PGRI since the beginning, and a lot of the growth we have been fortunate to experience is the result of his vision for the company’s expansion and his marshalling of resources so we could make the acquisitions we have thus far. Greg’s experience in the ski industry at Whitefish as well as at a variety of other types of companies will bring added expertise and an additional resource for us as we look forward to further growth both organically and through additions to our family of resorts.”

When Anderson purchased Ragged Mountain in New Hampshire in 2007, Fischer helped with resort positioning and marketing, and the seeds were sown to expand into the ski business in a bigger way in the future. In 2012, Fischer led the acquisition of Wisp Resort next to Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland, and that was the catalyst to form Pacific Group Resorts, Inc. Since that time, Fischer has initiated and overseen the acquisition of four additional properties for the PGRI portfolio including Wintergreen Resort in Virginia in early 2015, Mt. Washington Alpine Resort on Vancouver Island, British Columbia in late 2015, the aforementioned Powderhorn in October of 2018, and most recently, the noted Jay Peak Resort in Vermont’s Green Mountains.

Anderson offered his perspective on the growth that led to the executive changes, “Given our current size, this collection of resorts presents challenges ranging from the ever-present requirement to fund capital investments at the properties to the need to support the resorts with improved back-office functions at a pace to keep up with our progress. As we look to the future, a C-Suite with the expertise of Vern, Mark, Greg, and our Chief Marketing Officer, Christian Knapp, means we have the resources to continue to move forward in a strong and strategic way.”

Reflecting on PGRI’s position in the industry, Fischer noted, “We are in that awkward phase of a company’s progression where we are too big to be a small company, but we aren’t big enough to be a big company yet. Our objective is to make the transition to the next stage as effectively as possible while retaining the company culture we have fostered from the start. The adjustments to our executive ranks are designed to help facilitate that process. We feel quite fortunate to have put together a senior executive team to complement our very strong local resort management. Some of the changes, like hiring Greg, are effective immediately, while others, like the transitions for Vern and me, will occur over the next six months to make them as seamless as we can. Needless to say, we are very much looking forward to our future opportunities.”

About Pacific Group Resorts Inc. (PGRI)

Pacific Group Resorts, Inc. is an international resort operating company based in Park City, Utah whose portfolio includes Jay Peak in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Wintergreen Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Mt. Washington Alpine Resort in the Beaufort Mountain Range on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Wisp Resort in the Appalachian Mountains of western Maryland, and Powderhorn Mountain Resort on the Grand Mesa of western Colorado. PGRI also manages the mountain operations of Ragged Mountain in New Hampshire which is not owned by Pacific Group Resorts, Inc. Combined the company operates over 4,000 acres of ski terrain serving about 1 million skier visits per year, 99 holes of golf, over 40 food & beverage outlets, over 4,000 pillows, plus tennis, pickleball, pools, a water park, athletic fields, a whitewater rafting course, numerous retail operations, spas, and a variety of other amenities. For more information on PGRI, please visit www.pgri.us.

# # #