A new parent company will now oversee the Aspen Skiing Company and its sibling operations, Aspen Hospitality and AspenX. Each division will retain its current leader, but all will now be under the umbrella of an enterprise called “Aspen One” that has its own CEO, David Tanner.
The Crown family that owns SkiCo and its related enterprises announced the restructuring in a press release on Tuesday, a few weeks after the passing of SkiCo’s managing partner Jim Crown. Crown died in a single-vehicle accident on a racetrack in Woody Creek on June 25, leaving a legacy of vision, values and compassion; according to reporting in the Aspen Daily News, plans to restructure preceded Crown’s death and the concept had been in the works for months.
"The mountains and their transformative potential have and will always be our heritage,” Jim’s wife Paula and daughter Torie Crown wrote in a statement on behalf of the family. “As we devote ourselves to carrying forward Jim's profound legacy and steadfast values, we will continue to deliver unparalleled customer service, invest with a long-term mindset, and chart a future of growth. … We remain deeply committed to the Aspen community, our employees, and the values that have guided our company for the last 38 years."
Aspen One’s growing portfolio includes the skiing operations that started it all: Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk Mountain and Snowmass Ski Area are still under the Aspen Snowmass banner led by SkiCo CEO Geoff Buchheister, who took the reins from his retiring predecessor Mike Kaplan this spring.
But Aspen One also oversees a collection of hotels, retail concepts and luxury experiences that are already expanding beyond the Roaring Fork Valley — representing the global cachet of “Aspen” as a brand as well as a destination.
Aspen Hospitality debuted earlier this year with its own CEO, Alinio Azevedo, as a rebrand of SkiCo’s Little Nell Hotel Group that managed The Little Nell in Aspen as well as several Limelight hotels in ski towns like Aspen, Snowmass Village and Ketchum, Idaho. (Azevedo was previously the managing director and chief operating officer of the hotel group.)
The announcement in January explained the rebrand as an effort “to reflect the scale and breadth of this growing division,” with Azevedo leading “further expansion into new markets, including coastal and urban destinations.” Aspen Hospitality broke ground on a Limelight Boulder in January, converted Hotel Born into a Limelight Denver between February and May, and announced plans for a Little Nell in New York City’s Rockefeller Center in April.
And AspenX, which launched in 2021 with luxury experiences and a retail store in Aspen, had global aspirations from the get-go as the brainchild of Jim Crown’s wife, the artist and entrepreneur Paula Crown.
The division’s retail operations include collaborations with major brands like Prada, Rapha and Aether; luxury experiences range from mountaintop meals to cycling tours to a winter “beach club” atop Aspen Mountain in collaboration with fine art photographer Gray Malin. Under the leadership of COO Darcy Loeb, it has expansion plans “in and outside the Roaring Fork Valley in 2023 and beyond,” according to Tuesday’s Aspen One announcement.
David Tanner, now at the helm of Aspen One, will provide overall “guidance, resources, processes, and technology” so the teams in each division can “focus more directly on their unique business operations,” according to the release.
Paula and Torie Crown wrote in a statement that they were “proud” of the restructuring and of hiring Tanner, who has three decades of leadership experience with dozens of global brands.
“When we met Dave, we immediately felt that he was the ideal person to lead us into the future given his vision and values aligned to those of Jim and the family, his distinctive leadership experience, and his strong track record,” the Crowns wrote.
Tanner has served on the boards of several consumer companies, worked as a senior advisor with the Boston Consulting Group and served as an executive fellow at Harvard Business School, according to the announcement.
He was previously the CEO of Boardriders, Inc., an action sports retail company that includes brands like Quicksilver, Billabong and Roxy. And earlier in his career, he led the operating group at Oaktree Capital Management, held senior roles at Fortune Brands and worked as a consultant at McKinsey and Company. Before entering the C-suite, Tanner was a major and senior pilot in the U.S. Air Force, including service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tanner said in a provided statement that he looked forward to supporting Aspen One’s division leaders — Buccheister at SkiCo, Azevedo at Aspen Hospitality and Loeb at AspenX — “while also charting an exciting course to expand the Aspen brand and its promise to ‘Return Transformed’ globally."
"It was an absolute honor to spend time with Jim over the last several months and get to understand his values and priorities,” Tanner said. “I do not take this responsibility lightly and will partner closely with the Crown family, our existing leadership teams, and the broader Aspen community to expand the reach of one of the world's most elevated brands and execute on Jim's vision for the company.”
