Share price, PR mess blamed for ouster of Vail Resorts CEO
Faced with downward-trending stock prices and a series of blows to the company’s image, including a ski patrollers’ strike at one of its biggest mountains, Vail Resorts announced Tuesday that CEO Kirsten Lynch was stepping down after three and a half years at the helm.
She was replaced by Rob Katz, her predecessor, who previously ran the Broomfield-based company for 16 years.
“As Vail Resorts continues to execute its strategic priorities and transformational initiatives, the board believes now is the right time for this leadership transition,” said Bruce Sewell, lead independent director of the board, according to a news release. “Rob has a strong track record of driving innovation and executing consistent performance at Vail Resorts and has played a critical role in the development of Vail Resorts’ operations and long-term strategy for over the past three decades.”
Patrick Scholes, a Wall Street analyst who covers the travel industry for Truist Securities, cited dismal stock performance and the company’s negative image in the minds of many skiers as reasons for her ouster.
“The first and most obvious thing is the share price under-performance under her leadership,” Scholes said. “You can just pull up a chart of Vail Resorts and see the stock getting cut in half during that time — and this is against a very strong overall stock market comparative performance.
“Every year, they’d give financial guidance (to investors) at the beginning of the season, and for the last three years they’ve missed,” he continued. “You only get so many opportunities as a well-compensated CEO to miss your financial expectations.”
Shares of Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN) traded at around $355 a share right before Lynch was appointed CEO in November 2021. Shares closed at $151.50 on Tuesday, right before her dismissal, a decline of 57%. The price had dropped as low as $129.85 on April 8, a level not seen since March 2016. In a sign of relief, investors pushed the share price up more than 11% on news of Lynch’s departure.
A damaging 12-day ski patrollers’ strike at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah that occurred over the 2024-25 Christmas-New Year’s holiday season was one of several events that hurt the company’s image, Scholes said.
“What a black eye on the company,” Scholes said. “Who ultimately gets blamed for that? The head of the company. That was not a good look for Vail. From investors I’ve been talking to over the last year, (it was) just extremely frustrating. I think the board, they had to act.”
Lynch’s tenure got off to a rocky start in the winter of 2021-22. The company slashed Epic Pass prices, which brought about a surge of pass sales, but several of the company’s resorts went into the season under-staffed. That was due in part to the omicron COVID variant and high housing prices in mountain communities, but Vail Resorts felt a backlash in social media and national news stories alleging everything from long lift lines to unplowed parking lots, limited terrain and frustrated, overworked employees.
Since then, the company has been the frequent target of negative attention on social media.
“The negative reputation in the skier community — some of it deserved, some maybe not — had gotten away from the company,” Scholes said. “It lost the narrative of the quality experience.”
In an open letter to employees, Katz called Lynch a “transformative” leader and thanked her for her 14 years with the company.
“I am grateful for her leadership over these past three and a half years, during some of the most challenging times that our company has faced as we navigated dynamic events post-pandemic,” Katz wrote. “While our board felt that at this time, in this environment, it was the right decision to make a change, I, and the entire board, have a tremendous amount of gratitude for all that Kirsten has accomplished and for her immense contributions.”
Katz previously ran the company from 2006-21.
“My most important goal in returning as CEO,” Katz wrote “is ensuring we align with all our stakeholders to deliver an Experience of a Lifetime for our employees and guests while driving financial success for our company, so we can continue to invest in and do the work we all love.”
Per a resignation agreement that Vail Resorts’s Chief Human Resources Officer Lynanne Kunkel and Lynch signed on Monday, Lynch’s effective resignation date was May 22. She will remain as a strategic advisor at the company with full pay and health benefits until September 2025.
Lynch will receive a one-time lump-sum payment of $2.25 million, the equivalent of two years of her base annual salary. She is also entitled to a pro-rated bonus for the fiscal 2025 year, which ends July 31 and will be awarded her outstanding stock options.
Lynch had another $5.2 million coming in stock awards that will vest or become hers upon departure. That was as of last summer, but the current number should be close to that. That is beyond the $2.2 million severance payment.
Denver Post staff writer Aldo Svaldi contributed to this report.
Faced with downward-trending stock prices and a series of blows to the company’s image, including a ski patrollers’ strike at one of its biggest mountains, Vail Resorts announced Tuesday that CEO Kirsten Lynch was stepping down after three and a half years at the helm. She was replaced by Rob Katz, her predecessor, who previously…