Alterra Mountain Company, which owns Deer Valley Resort in Park City, announced Kelly Vohs as its new chief executive Monday. He starts Oct. 19.
He joins the ski industry giant after making a career in the armed services and the real estate and hospitality industries.
“Some of the best days I've ever had have been on a mountain,” Vohs said in a statement. “My first job was in a restaurant kitchen, so I know this is a team sport. A great day on the mountain is won or lost by those teams. My job is to back them up so they can do their best work and love doing it.”
For most of the past decade, Vohs served as CEO for two of the Blackstone Group’s more than 270 portfolio companies. Blackstone touts itself as the world’s largest “alternative asset manager,” controlling more than $1.3 trillion in assets like real estate.
Per LinkedIn, Vohs led LivCor and oversaw 500 of Blackstone’s multifamily properties between 2020 and 2025. From 2017 to 2022, he was in the C-suite at Beam Living, which manages 15,000 New York City apartments.
Before that, he worked in hotels and restaurants.
Vohs has led operations for BR Guest Hospitality, a New York restaurant group, for two years. Then he served in leadership roles at different Hilton properties, including the Boca Raton Resort & Club, Waldorf Astoria Chicago and Conrad Chicago.
Blackstone also used to own Hilton.
Vohs served eight years as a Green Beret with the U.S. Army's 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Carson in Colorado, completing four combat deployments.
He runs the blog Better Today Than Yesterday and said he’s excited to return to the Rockies.
“Kelly has spent his career running businesses where thousands of employees show up every day to take care of people, from iconic resorts to communities that tens of thousands of families call home,” Alterra board chair Eric Resnick said in a statement. “With snow beginning to fall, our teams preparing the mountains and guests planning their winters, Kelly will take the helm at exactly the right moment.”
Vohs’ predecessor Jared Smith, who stepped down at the end of last ski season, came to Alterra from Live Nation Entertainment. He had been the president of Ticketmaster.
Vohs will lead Alterra at a time of sluggish growth in the ski industry. Both Alterra and its main competitor, Vail Resorts, have laid off corporate staff recently.
Vail is reporting declining pass sales, even though it believes it’s outperforming competitors like Alterra.
Vail is publicly traded; Alterra is privately owned.
