When Park City Mountain Resort ushers in paid parking and Utah’s first eight-person high-speed lift next season, it will do it with a new person in charge.
Vail Resorts, which owns PCMR, announced Tuesday that Deirdra Walsh will replace Mike Goar as the resort’s vice president and chief operating officer.
Walsh came up at PCMR, starting there in conference sales in 2007. From 2010-19, she worked as director and then senior director of the mountain dining division. During that span she oversaw more than a dozen mountain restaurants and led several major capital improvement projects, including the construction of Miner’s Camp at the base of the Quicksilver Gondola, which was erected for the 2015-16 season.
(Kelli Price | Vail Resorts) Deirdra Walsh will take over for Mike Goar as vice president and chief operational officer of Park City Mountain Resort starting in May 2022. Walsh began working at PCMR in 2007 but most recently came from Northstar Ski Resort in California.
Most recently, she has run Northstar Ski Resort in north Lake Tahoe since 2019. Walsh will be among four females heading ski resorts in Utah. That’s up from just one in 2018-19.
Walsh will take over leadership of PCMR and The Canyons during one of their seasons of biggest growth. In addition to converting the Silverlode lift to an eight-pack — the first for Vail Resorts in North America — Park City Mountain plans to replace the Eagle and Eaglet lifts with a single high-speed detached six-pack. The resort has also announced it will require daily paid parking reservations at its main village lots beginning with the 2022-23 season. Plus, it has bumped its minimum wage to $20/hour and promised it will provide some employee housing near The Canyons.
“I am truly overjoyed to have the opportunity to come back to Park City Mountain, a place near and dear to my heart,” Walsh said in a press statement. “I know both the opportunities and complexities of this resort well, and I am eager to partner with the community alongside this dedicated team
Goar, meanwhile, will take over the Andermatt-Sedrun resort in central Switzerland, where he will hold the same titles plus that of managing director. Vail Resorts took over a majority share of the ski area in late March.
Goar began his career at Solitude in 1981 and worked there for 27 years before taking over as the VP and general manager of The Canyons from 2008-16. In 2015, he oversaw The Canyons’ takeover by Park City. Afterward, he spent a couple of years at the helm of first Keystone Resort in Colorado and then Heavenly in California.
(Vail Resorts) Mike Goar, the vice president and chief operational officer of Park City Mountain Resort, will leave his position starting in May 2022 to take a similar job with the Andermatt-Sedrun ski resort in Switzerland.
“Park City is an incredible mountain and an incredible town, but it is the people who truly make it special,” Goar said in a press statement. “I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to work alongside such passionate, hardworking teammates and community members. While I will deeply miss this place, I am excited to support our company as we expand into Europe – and thrilled to have the opportunity to lead the team at Andermatt-Sedrun.”
Walsh’s tenure begins May 30.
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