Northstar hires COO from W. Virginia

A New York native has been hired to run the day-to-day operations of Northstar-at-Tahoe.

Bill Rock, 42, is leaving his post as president and chief operations officer at Showshoe Mountain Resort in West Virginia to be COO of the Truckee resort that was just acquired by Vail Resorts. Showshoe is an Intrawest property.

Bill Rock

At Northstar, Rock has a much bigger mountain to contend with – 3,000 skiable acres compared to 224, a 2,280 vertical drop v. 1,500 feet, 93 trails – a 50 percent increase.

Rock has been at the helm of the East Coast resort since 2007, having been vice president and general manager before that.

“Bill led a restructuring of operations to achieve major cost savings, while improving measures of guest satisfaction in key categories,” the Intrawest website says.

He has a background in sales and marketing. He has also worked at Durango Mountain Resort in Colorado, Stratton Mountain Resort in Vermont and Bristol Mountain Resort in New York.

Before joining the ski industry 14 years ago, Rock was a lieutenant in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. Rock and his wife have 3-year-old twins.

Rock will report to Blaise Carrig, co-president of Vail Resorts’ Mountain Division.

— Kathryn Reed