Two-time Olympian and Parkite Picabo Street has been nominated by Vail Resorts shareholder Oasis Management for a seat on the resort company’s board.
Vail announced Friday that she is one of four board recommendations from the hedge-fund management firm. The others are former Disney CEO Robert Chapek of Florida, Florida-based financier M. Ashton Hudson and Utah venture capitalist Bryce Roberts. Gregory Syvert Meyer of Florida nominated himself.
Oasis owns about 6.5% of Vail’s stock, according to its most recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.
It’s a significant portion of shares, which requires filing a beneficial ownership report — known as a Schedule 13D or 13G — with the SEC, former agency enforcement division associate director Bill Baker told KPCW’s “Mountain Money” in July.
Oasis’ play to stack the nine-member board appears to be part of an effort to influence Vail. The move comes months after rumors surfaced that Oasis was weighing a proxy fight.
“If you want to engage in a proxy fight, you try and replace the existing directors with directors who are more sympathetic to your point of view,” Baker said.
Baker said Oasis differs from other large Vail investors; it has a reputation as an activist investor. Unlike passive investors, activist investors want to guide companies — and Baker said Oasis has had success in that role primarily in Asia.
“What does that mean? It's really twofold. One is, have they been able to effectuate the changes that they thought would improve business prospects, and as a result of those changes, have they made money?” he said.
Still, Baker told KPCW Friday Oasis’ goals are unclear. The firm hasn’t amended its filing to Schedule 13D, which signals an intent to effect change or influence a company. It also requires more detailed information than the 13G passive investors file.
Park City billionaire and Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince has also called on Vail to go “asset-light” and sell off its mountains. As KPCW first reported, Prince wants to buy Park City Mountain.
Vail CEO Rob Katz has rebuffed Prince, but the resort has cut staff, mostly office jobs, over the last two years.
Vail’s stock price rose under Rob Katz’s first tenure as CEO. That’s when he introduced the Epic Pass and bought numerous North American resort areas. But since peaking around $370 a share in 2021, it’s fallen to less than half of that. On Friday the stock closed at $140.
Prince doubled down on his desire to purchase Park City Mountain in an Aug. 31 interview on KPCW’s “Mountain Money” show. He said Vail’s business model doesn’t allow it to invest in Park City because the resort company is in debt and doesn’t want its stock price to go down. He said the alternative is to sell the resort to someone like him, who can finance upgrades.
“In which world are you going to sell more Epic passes? One in which you have this deteriorating asset, or one in which some crazy person is willing to come in and invest in a ton of money because he believes in the community?” Prince said.
In a post on X Friday, Prince responded to the Oasis board recommendations with a GIF saying, “I love it when a plan comes together!” The scene is from the 1980s television series “The A-Team.”
Vail said Friday its board will provide a recommended slate of nominees after the candidates are vetted. Those are filed with the SEC and distributed to eligible voting shareholders ahead of the board’s annual meeting. A meeting date has not been set.
Vail, which owns 42 resorts across four countries, is currently conducting a search for a new independent director that is expected to wrap in 2027.
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