|
|
|
George N. Gillett, Jr., is founder and chairman of Booth Creek Management Corp., which oversees the Gillett family interests in diverse businesses including resorts, meat packing, car dealerships and professional sports. He is the owner of the Montreal Canadians National Hockey League team, and has recently acquired Liverpool Football Club.
In addition to serving as chairman and director of most of these companies, George is a member of the Board of Governors of the National Hockey League and a board member of CHC Helicopter Corporation.
George started his career in marketing and management consulting, initially with McKinsey & Company. A sports enthusiast since childhood, by the mid-1960s George was business manager and minority partner of the Miami Dolphins. A year later, he became owner and CEO of the Harlem Globetrotters. He established Globetrotter Communications, a national broadcasting group that launched Saturday morning cartoon shows featuring the Harlem Globetrotters.
When George Gillett bought Vail and Beaver Creek in 1985, it was George's wife, Rose, and their four boys who cast the deciding votes for him to do so. That strong sense of family would permeate everything the Gilletts did at the resorts over the next seven years. Avid skiers and longtime visitors to Vail, the Gilletts knew what worked for a family on the slopes. Applying his business acumen and a focus on customer service, Gillett set out to create the ultimate family winter escape. Among his innovations: massive installation of high-speed detachable chairlifts and additional groomed slopes. He also introduced a “one-stop-shopping” approach for the skiing experience: a centralized reservations service offering lodging, lift tickets and airfare from a central source.
A true entrepreneur, Gillett formed Booth Creek Ski Holdings, Inc. in 1995. Booth Creek is the fourth largest ski resort operator in the country, consisting of six resorts across North America. In 1999, Ski magazine voted Gillett as one of the "100 Most Influential Skiers of All Time." Now owner and operator of Grand Targhee Resort in Wyoming, the Gillett family is again redefining the ski experience.
Back home in Colorado, Gillett is a director and member of the executive committee of the Vail Valley Foundation and the Steadman Hawkins Research Foundation. He fostered the idea that a ski town can excel in the arenas of education, culture and healthcare. His innovative thinking and commitment to the ski community at large have left a lasting mark on Colorado.
Gillett attended Amherst (Mass.) College and graduated from Dominican College in Racine, WI., in 1961. He was born in Racine, is 68 years old and is married with children.
|
|
|
