SAM Magazine--Aspen, Colo., November 16, 2006--Pat O'Donnell, president and CEO of the Aspen Skiing Company, has moved up his retirement, which is effective immediately. O'Donnell joined Aspen in 1993 and became CEO in 1996. During his tenure, O'Donnell brought the environment to the forefront of industry thinking, as well as customer service.

"Although I had originally planned on working and riding through this coming ski and snowboard season," O'Donnell said, "we have developed our management succession plan over the past several months and I am confident at this point in time that our team is poised and ready to take the company to the next level."

Prior to Aspen, O'Donnell spent ten years at Keystone as VP of operations and he built and opened Kirkwood in Lake Tahoe. O'Donnell also held positions at Patagonia, Whistler and the Yosemite National Institute.

Mike Kaplan will take over the reins at the company.

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