Resorts: Rob Katz of Vail Resorts

After several stormy seasons, Rob Katz returned as chief executive officer in May.

It’s been a long journey from the New York Catskills, where Rob Katz first donned skis as a tot, to his job as CEO of Vail Resorts, overseeing the 42 ski areas the company owns. And as of May 2025, Katz, who previously led the company from 2006 to 2021, is back for a second round at the top. He replaced Kirsten Lynch, who in 14 years with Vail Resorts served as chief marketing officer, then CEO for three and a half years.

(Photo top courtest Vail Resorts)

In middle and high school, Katz, who grew up in New Rochelle, New York, continued to embrace skiing at Hunter Mountain, where he skied in jeans (“for real,” he says). He also discovered Vermont areas like Stowe, Sugarbush and Killington thanks to an aunt and uncle (and cousin) who brought the young Katz along on their regular ski trips and eventually bought a house in Stratton. “I just loved that feeling of being able to go where I wanted on the mountain,” Katz recalls. “And I was compelled to want to get better so I could explore more of it.”

The year 1990 proved to be a watershed for Katz. He took his first ski trip to Vail with a friend whose father was one of the ski area’s original investors. (Katz says he slept on the floor during that trip.) And he started working at the investment firm Apollo Advisors in New York that August.

At that time, Apollo acquired the bank debt of Gillett Holdings, the parent company of Vail Associates. When Gillett came out of bankruptcy two years later, Apollo was its majority owner, with Katz overseeing the investment. Apollo took the company public in 1997 and renamed it Vail Resorts, with Keystone and Breckenridge ski areas already part of the portfolio. Katz joined Vail’s board.

In 2004, Apollo sold its shares in VR. Katz—who had in the meantime moved with his family to Boulder, Colorado—stayed on the board, serving as lead director. When VR CEO Adam Aron left in 2006, Katz assumed the role.

One of his inspirations in leading the company was George Gillett, whom Katz first spent time with during those early years at Apollo. “In terms of making Vail what it is today, from a business perspective, George had a huge, huge impact on that,” he says. “And the engagement with people, love of the sport, how you can wear that on your sleeve—I got that from George.”

One of his favorite stories about Gillett took place during a day skiing Vail’s legendary Back Bowls. “I was skiing behind him, and he was a really strong skier, very fast, and I was trying to keep up with him,” Katz recalls. “All of a sudden, he was zipping down, and he completely blew up—double ejection. I remember feeling like, ‘Oh, my god, what are we going to do?’” Gillett popped up, put himself back together and continued skiing just as fast as before. Katz’s takeaway: “This is a company filled with passionate people, and this is somebody who’s super passionate about the product, and about taking chances, and understands that even if not everything goes well, you just dust yourself off, put back on your skis and keep going.”

When Katz stepped down in late 2021, after serving as CEO for 16 years, he stayed on the VR board as executive chair and also joined the board of outdoor gear brand Yeti. And he continued working with the Katz Amsterdam Foundation, which he co-founded with his wife, advocating for issues like ensuring civic engagement in marginalized communities and promoting mental health in mountain towns.

Katz says it was VR’s people and culture, as well as feeling there was more he could accomplish, that ultimately convinced him to return as CEO this year. “I felt like there was a new transition that the company was going through, and that maybe the whole industry was going through, and there was an opportunity for me to help in that process,” he explains.

At the same time, he adds, “I also had to come to grips with the fact that when I started as CEO, I was 39 and now I’m almost 59. I don’t have the same energy, and I have to rely a little bit more on my wisdom and experience.” A generous compensation package no doubt helped. Katz earns $1 million annually, with the potential of a $1 million yearly bonus. He also receives $80,000 each year to spend at any Vail resort.

One of Katz’s early obligations was addressing a 3 percent decline in the number of Epic Passes sold (as of mid-September), as well as a 3 percent decline in North American skier visits in 2024–25. During an earnings call at the end of September, Katz called the results below expectations, and noted that “our approach to engaging with guests has not kept pace with shifting consumer behaviors and, as a result, we have not been able to fully capitalize on our competitive advantages.”

Among the measures VR hopes will attract additional guests? Getting more skiers to buy lift tickets. That may seem like a step backwards coming from the guy who introduced the Epic Pass to the ski world. But in the call Katz termed lift tickets “an essential driver of revenue and long-term growth,” adding that VR will enhance products and pricing that complement its pass program. Part of that strategy is the new Epic Friends tickets, which let passholders share a 50-percent daily discount with up to 10 friends this ski season. Each friend can then apply their one-day lift-ticket cost to an Epic Pass for the 2026–27 season.

Katz also inherited other challenges. Last winter, ski patrollers at Park City went on strike in late December 2024, after contract negotiations for better wages and benefits had stalled. During the pandemic, skiers complained on social media about limited terrain and services and long lift lines at many of VR’s ski areas, a perception that lingers. And in January a well-publicized letter from a VR investor brought the company to task on myriad issues, including leadership. Says Katz, “I’d rather be in a company that has a high feedback environment and people really care than in a company where nobody really cares about anything.”

His plans for VR include embracing new technology in areas like rentals, ski school booking and lift tickets. Additionally, Katz emphasizes that ski areas across the industry need to be more consistently inclusive, especially among communities of color. “It’s the right thing to do, but it’s also the smart thing to do because that is where population growth is happening, especially in the United States,” he says. “How we diversify the sport and realize this is where we need to be in the next 10 or 20 years is something we collectively need to do a better job of.”

Similarly, he argues against restricting access to the slopes, even as photos of long lift lines at Vail are a favorite on social media. “When people say, ‘Well, you should put more restrictions, and we don’t want people to come skiing,’ it’s like, who shouldn’t come?” Katz says. “I don’t want to be the one telling a family that they can’t ski this weekend because other people don’t want you there. I understand some resorts are going to take that attitude. That’s not going to be our approach.” The answer, he adds, is to invest in new lifts and terrain, and more parking. “The minute you stop thinking about how you bring new people in, you’re going to start declining,” he adds, recalling the numerous ski area closures in the 1970s.

As Katz leads VR into its next phase, he remains optimistic—driven, perhaps, by the freedom and exhilaration of skiing that he’s cherished since he was a kid. When asked what advice he’d give retroactively to Vail founders Pete Seibert and Earl Eaton, when they stood atop what would become the Back Bowls, catching that first glimmer of possibility, Katz answered succinctly: “Go for it.” 

Cindy Hirschfeld is a consulting editor for Skiing History as well as a frequent contributor to The New York Times.