The travails of the US Ski & Snowboard Association…

Last March, Tiger Shaw, CEO of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard was let go as the organization’s results were evidently not up to the Board’s expectations. 

Shaw had been put in place when Bill Marolt left the leadership job in 2013. Was he installed because he was subdued, made no waves, or just because he could take the blame for Marolt’s management shortcomings, I’m not quite sure, but he evidently was never able to raise to the occasion, in spite of his $700,000 a year salary. 

He’ll be replaced by Sophie Goldschmidt on October 18th, as she relocates from Los Angeles to Park City. Her resume is impressive, with numerous leadership, commercial and marketing roles, most recently as CEO of the World Surf League (WSL). 

Prior to that, she held executive positions at the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), the Rugby Football Union (RFU), Chime Sports Marketing (CSM), the PGA European Tour and Adidas. Can she ski or snowboard? 

Yes, the British-born claims to be an avid skier, even though she’ll be the first non-athlete to serve in the role in at least 25 years. Hopefully she’ll be able to turn her ability to ski into true passion. 

Her job won’t be easy though, because the organization is too Olympic-centric and only pays attention at results every four years and focuses more on prima-donna skiers (i.e. Shifrin) than the base of the pyramid. She’ll need to visit a lot of active ski racing folks of all kinds, ask a lot of questions, take a zero-base approach and stay humble. 

Let’s simply hope she rises to the occasion!