BROOMFIELD, Colo.– Vail Resorts, Inc. announced the appointment of Kirsten A. Lynch as the new chief marketing officer for the Company. Lynch will assume responsibilities for the Company’s marketing functions, including brand marketing, advertising, CRM, market research, pricing, e-commerce, online marketing and strategic alliances. She will oversee the Company’s marketing efforts in its Mountain, Hospitality and Real Estate divisions. Lynch will begin in her new position on July 5, 2011, in the Company’s corporate offices in Broomfield, Colo.
“I’m thrilled to have someone with Kirsten’s outstanding track record with world-class, global marketing organizations, such as PepsiCo and Kraft Foods, join our Company and lead our very talented marketing team. Our company has made huge strides across all of our guest engagement efforts and Kirsten is perfectly suited to build on that success and continue to add best practice approaches from outside of our industry to all of our marketing activities,” said Rob Katz, chairman and chief executive officer of Vail Resorts.
Lynch joins Vail Resorts most recently from PepsiCo in Chicago, Ill., where she was chief marketing officer of Quaker Foods and Snacks Division from 2009-2011. There she led the brand marketing, consumer insights and shopper marketing organization for the $2 billion net revenue division to transform one of America’s most trusted brands into a health and wellness platform. From 2007-2009, she was vice president of marketing for Kraft Foods’ Cheese and Dairy Business Unit, leading aggressive price management and consumer differentiation strategies for a $2 billion portfolio of packaged consumer products. Lynch had worked her way up through Kraft Foods since 1996, holding various marketing positions for the company’s product divisions, including senior marketing director of Kraft Mac & Cheese and Family Dinners, and senior brand manager and brand manager for product lines such as salad dressings, barbecue, DiGiorno Pasta & Sauce and Miracle Whip. While heading up marketing for the company’s $900 million flagship business, Kraft Mac & Cheese, she helped the division achieve a nine-percent increase in net revenue, after four years of decline, driven by a clear vision, successful innovation and commitment to quality. In 2005, she was named “40 Under 40” by Crain’s Chicago Business.
Lynch holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Illinois State University (1990) and a master’s degree in business from Washington University in St. Louis (1995). Lynch is an avid skier and enjoys hiking, biking and sailing. She and her husband Scott Rendleman and their two children live in Boulder, Colo.
About Vail Resorts
Vail Resorts, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is the leading mountain resort operator in the United States. The Company’s subsidiaries operate the mountain resort properties of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone mountain resorts in Colorado, and Heavenly Mountain Resort and Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada, and the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The Company’s subsidiary, RockResorts, a luxury resort hotel company, manages casually elegant properties across the United States and in the Caribbean. Vail Resorts Development Company is the real estate planning, development and construction subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc. Vail Resorts is a publicly held company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MTN). The Vail Resorts company website is www.vailresorts.com and consumer website is www.snow.com.