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Lifetime Achievement Award

By Tim Silva, Chair NSAA Board of Directors & CEO, Sun Valley Resort

As chairman of NSAA’s Board of Directors, I could not be
more pleased than to recognize Michael Berry’s contributions
with our organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In fact, it is
somewhat poignant that he was my first boss in Sun Valley more
Michael than 40 years ago.
Berry has been involved in the ski industry for nearly 60 years.
Berry In an often-repeated yarn, the Slutzky family who owned Hunter
Mountain gave Berry his first job at the age of 13, hiring him to clear
P RESIDENT O F ski trails with dynamite from the back of a pickup at their new ski
N SAA area in New York’s Catskills Mountains.
Since then, Berry has enjoyed success working at and
managing some of the most iconic ski areas in the country, including
Keystone, Sun Valley, and Vail. By 1980, at the age of 32, Berry was
named the vice president of Kirkwood Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe,
and became the resort’s president five years later, while also serving
two terms as the chairman of the California Ski Industry Association
Board of Directors.
Few in the ski industry are as deserving of acclaim and recognition During a tumultuous time in the industry, NSAA hired Berry in
from their peers than Michael Berry, the president of NSAA, and 1992 to right the organization’s ship following the disbanding of the
my friend and mentor. Over the course of his quarter of a century United Ski Industries Association, which was the formerly merged
fostering the world’s largest and most influential ski industry organization combining the Snowsports Industry Association and
trade association, Berry has successfully shepherded NSAA— NSAA. In his role as president, Berry was also selected to serve
and the industry—through unparalleled challenges, growth, and on numerous prestigious industry boards, including the National
consolidation; assaults from climate change as well as demographic Forest Foundation, the US Ski & Snowboard Association, the FIS
and economic forces; and an intensified legal and regulatory World Alpine Ski Championships Committee, and the board for the
environment. Through Berry’s insightful leadership and passion Colorado State University’s Master of Tourism program.
for the sport, he has secured a remarkably stable foundation for In one exhausting week over the 1997-98 New Year’s holiday,
the association’s long-term future and positioned the industry for Berry calmly and expertly managed one of the largest crises
sustained growth. facing NSAA and the industry—the back-to-back skiing fatalities

Timeline of a Ski Industry Trailblazer

1968: Obtains ski instructor
1947: Born in Duchess certification by the US Eastern 1985 – 1993: Serves as president 1992 to present: Serves as
County, New York. Amateur Ski Association. of Kirkwood Mountain Resort. president of NSAA.

1960: Hired by the Slutzky family at the age of 1980: Hired as vice president 1988 – 1992: Elected chairman 1997: Serves
13 for his first job in the ski industry at the newly at Kirkwood Mountain Resort of the board for the California as a board
opened Hunter Mountain ski area in the Catskills (following senior management Ski Industry Association, serving member of the
Mountains of New York, near his hometown. positions at Keystone, Sun two terms. National Forest
Valley, and Vail). Foundation.

C30 | CONVENTION 2017 | NSAA JOURNAL