By BEN MCCARTY
News staff writer
June 25, 2007

After 14 years at Mt. Hood Meadows, Dave Riley, the resort’s president and chief operating officer, will be leaving in July to take over a resort that he first enjoyed in his college days.

Riley will be moving on July 20 to become the president and chief executive officer at Telluride Ski and Golf Resort in southwestern Colorado.

Riley, who has overseen several record-setting attendance seasons at Meadows, said the move had less to with Meadows and more to do with the offer that Telluride provided him.

“The decision to leave had nothing to do with Mt. Hood Meadows,” Riley said by phone while out of town. “I am happy there and would love to continue there, it’s just about the great offer and opportunity and Telluride.”

Riley skied the slopes at Telluride while he was in college first at Colorado Mountain College, then Mesa State College, and said that his attraction to the slopes did not do much for helping him concentrate on his studies.

“It’s really fun to get the chance to go back and run it,” he said. “I’m excited.”

Riley came to Meadows in 1994 as a Controller, and steadily rose through the ranks until becoming president and COO last October.

Riley’s departure will be the second major staff shakeup for the resort this year. Riley entered his current position when Meadows’ founder, Franklin Drake, stepped aside as head of the resort in October, opening up the president’s job to Riley, and the chairman and chief executive officer’s position to Drake’s son, Matthew, who will take over Riley’s responsibilities until a replacement is found.

“(Riley’s) knowledge and dedication will insure his continued success with the larger challenges that come with managing an expanding destination resort,” Franklin Drake said in a release issued by the resort.

Matthew Drake wishes Riley luck in his new position, calling it “an incredible opportunity,” and said that Meadows will take its time to find a new replacement, and does not have a set time-frame in mind.

“It will take some time to replace someone like Dave,” he said. “We feel this is a very important position and we’ll be methodical in how we fill it.”

During Riley’s time at Meadows, the resort has seen boom years, including a record attendance of 500,000 skiers in 2005-06, and has also seen hard times, including this past season, which saw the beginning of the season wiped out by floods that wrecked Highway 35, and a skier being run down and killed on the slopes.

Even with its early season troubles, the resort received the “Overall Guest Service Program” award and “Heads Up National Ski Area Safety Award” from the National Ski Areas Association earlier this summer.

Riley is proud of the accomplishments of the Meadows staff, and thinks they will have no problem continuing their strong track record without him.

“It’s a huge team effort and I rely on dozens of people for everything that gets done,” he said. “That’s why Meadows is going to be fine.”

Of all the accomplishments at the resort during his tenure, Riley is most proud of the agreement that Meadows reached with the Hood River Valley Residents Committee in 2005 to settle a 30-year dispute between the two sides over the resort’s plans to develop on Mount Hood’s north face near Cooper Spur.

In the agreement, Meadows agreed to surrender all development plans on the north face in exchange for the HRVRC’s pledge not to oppose Meadow’s plans to develop 500 housing units near Government Camp.

“Meadows has had disagreements with residents for decades and to settle that was a big deal for the community and for me personally,” Riley, who lives in Parkdale, said.

Now, as he prepares to head to his fifth (and what he hopes will be his last) job in the resort industry, Riley hopes that Meadows will continue to search for ways to work with the local community and always be looking to improve.

“I hope that the resort continues to achieve sustainability,” he said. “There are very high expectations by the public to meet recreational needs in a way that is environmentally responsible and economically feasible.”

Mike McCarthy, president of the HRVRC, hopes that Meadows takes Riley’s words to heart when it chooses its next president.

“We would like to see them put environmental concerns at the forefront of their considerations,” he said. “We think they can have a strong business model and make environmental concerns a priority.”

While he gets ready to take over his new position, Riley will continue to help the resort in its search for his successor, someone he hopes is ready to tackle the challenges and enjoy the successes of running a major ski resort.