Aaron Kellett Named Whiteface General Manager

Aaron Kellett Named New General Manager for Whiteface

WILMINGTON, N.Y. – The Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) has named Aaron Kellett the new general manager for Whiteface Ski Center, located in Wilmington, N.Y.  Kellet is replacing Bruce McCulley, who is leaving ORDA and Whiteface to become pastor of his church.
 
Kellett, a 2009 graduate of Plattsburgh State University College, began working at Whiteface in 2000, as a member of the mountain’s terrain park crew.  Five years later, he was promoted to terrain park and half-pipe manager before becoming the assistant general manager to McCulley in 2009.
 
“I have always been impressed with Aaron.  He has a style that combines knowledge and diplomacy that will make him successful at the mountain,” said ORDA president/CEO Ted Blazer.  “Whiteface has an incredible staff and I’m confident that the combination of Aaron at the helm and the wonders that the staff performs, that we all will be in good hands.”
 
“I am extremely honored to accept the new position and excited to help guide Whiteface into the future,” added Kellet. “Being the GM of Whiteface has been a dream of mine since the first time I skied down Cloudspin in the early 90’s. Thanks to everyone that has supported me along the way.”
 
Kellett began skiing at the age of two and started skiing Whiteface in 1992, with his father, Rob, a member of the mountain’s ski patrol.  He also competed internationally in aerials and moguls.
 
Kellett makes his home in Jay, N.Y., where he and his wife, Lindsay, are expecting their first child in late-December.
 
In other news, Lauren Garfield was named Whiteface Mountain’s sales and marketing manager. Previously, she had been employed as the mountain’s group sales manager. Joe Shoemaker took over the position of group sales.

I can not begin to tell you how positive this announcement is gonna be!  

AK is a skier!  

Hello more slide access!  Goodbye crusty, grumpy no fun police!!!  

YES!  YES!!

Aaron is a great choice. There's no doubt in my mind he will do a fantastic job.

LIKE!

How did that happen so fast?  2 weeks ago I had heard from someone that works there that the job had not been posted yet and no interviews had happened.  It seems the way this happened that Aaron was preselected by Bruce to succeed him.

ausable skier wrote

How did that happen so fast?  2 weeks ago I had heard from someone that works there that the job had not been posted yet and no interviews had happened.  It seems the way this happened that Aaron was preselected by Bruce to succeed him.

do u EVER quit with the silliness?

ausable skier wrote

How did that happen so fast?  2 weeks ago I had heard from someone that works there that the job had not been posted yet and no interviews had happened.  It seems the way this happened that Aaron was preselected by Bruce to succeed him.

 and it doesnt matter if you interviewed, I can tell by your posts on here you wouldnt have gotten the job!

Given that this is a state agency there is a fairly complicated and extensive process that must be gone thru to make a hiring at this level.   Job must be posted for so long, interviews, etc etc - its the state of NY for Gods sake which has many hoops to jump thru before it orders toilet paper much less hire a GM.

promoted does not equal hired.

ml242 wrote

promoted does not equal hired.

in terms of state hiring practices they are equal and in fact promotion opportunities are even more important so that other employees are given the equal chance to apply for a posted job and be considered

I could be wrong, it was my understanding that hiring practices were made more lenient by "hiring from within", i.e. companies have the ability to post classifieds even after the fact. And, because this person has already presumably passed the drug test or whatever beforehand, there is less paperwork, no references to call, etc.

Basically, there is less friction to move up usually than to get a foot in the door.

When Bruce took over for Jay, was there a "process" then, or was he simply promoted, as was just done with Aaron?

I seem to remember that transition being a foregone conclusion as well. Bruce was the assistant manager ... the manager left, so the assistant was simply moved up.

Face4Me wrote

When Bruce took over for Jay, was there a "process" then, or was he simply promoted, as was just done with Aaron?

I seem to remember that transition being a foregone conclusion as well. Bruce was the assistant manager ... the manager left, so the assistant was simply moved up.

The difference is that Bruce had been assistant for much longer and had much more experience than Aaron does.  He is very young and inexperienced from a business and management perspective to be running a $15M enterprise.  It would be a safe bet that he is the youngest person in the state government to be in such a position.

Bruce had a great deal of experience so it was ok to have a young and very inexperienced Ops Mgr in Aaron.  Aaron does not have this background and now the Ops Mgr will be even more inexperienced whomever that will be.  IMO Bruce's tenure was not as good as Jay Rand's.  Bruce as Ops Mgr probably was a big part of Jay's success.  Bruce's tenure experienced many more issues with lift ops and maitenance.  Aaron was the Ops Mgr for that period.

I have nothing against Aaron as I don't know him at all.  This all just seems pretty rushed to promote someone with only a few years experience when there are tons of snow industry pros out there.  Do we think that Aaron was the best asst ski area GM in the business?  An outside influence may have been a very big boost to WF to bring in new and differnet ideas.  Just the interviewing process alone could have benefited Orda from hearing some different ideas and visions that others may have had.

There was an interview process for Bruce and Aaron

How many candidates were interviewed?

ausable skier wrote

How many candidates were interviewed?

just because you apply for a position does not mean that you are qualified enough to be called in for an interview.  And I do know of others interviewed.

AK is da Man!  O, yeah!! Things are gonna get real good!

The lift op issue probably has more to do with the guy that retired after 32 years of working on them.  There has been a lot of very experienced people that have retired in the past 5 years.  As for will AK do a good job. Time will tell.  You bring up valid points

Pants wrote

just because you apply for a position does not mean that you are qualified enough to be called in for an interview.  And I do know of others interviewed.

Thanks for the update - good to hear that the interview process was undertaken.  Let's hope that Aaron steps up to the challenge and is sucessful.

Any news on who will be Ops Mgr?  

Bruce announced his retirement in mid-May. So for at least 4 months ORDA has been thinking about the decision.  I don't think you can call the timing hasty as winter is coming. One thing I've learned after getting to know some GMs is that there is always more to the story than is obvious.

No matter what Aaron does, there will be people who criticize him.  Mike Pratt, Bruce McCulley, Tony Lanza and every other GM gets crap for decisions they make.  (Not blowing on Rumor, blowing on WT, or blowing in October).  People love their skiing and ski mountains and in their passion - they always think they know best.

There is a solid base of knowledge at WF, between ops, patrol, marketing, ski school, ORDA.  I'm thinking that, with a little cooperation from El Nino, WF could have another great year.

Aaron - all the best. If there is anything NYSB can do for you, email me.

Sorry to be so Harvy - can't help it.