“Vision, leadership, and commitment are all accurate descriptors of these individuals,” said Christopher Nicolson, president and CEO of CWSAA.” The awards were presented during the 49th CWSAA Annual Spring Conference, April 25-27 at Lake Louise.

Murray has served the ski industry for over 40 years. His tenure at various ski resorts and consultancy firms, including Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners, involved him in ski resort management and operation, mountain planning and modification and slope revegetation, financial analysis, resort feasibility and more. He started as a snowcat driver at Whistler and has since worked on ski area planning at resorts in 26 different countries, including the layout and design of all ski trails at the 1988 Winter Olympic site, Nakiska.

McLaughlin took the helm at Grouse Mountain in 1988, privatized the company and commenced its diversification into a four-season resort. In 1997 he partnered with Ballast Nedam to develop Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, which opened in 2000. “His vision of developing young skiers and making Grouse Mountain a place for families to enjoy together is one of the strongest aspects of Stuart’s legacy,” said Steve Paccagnan, CWSAA’s board chair.

Stimming embodies the spirit of the Lars Fossberg award: to encourage younger up-and-coming individuals in the ski industry who show a high degree of initiative and creativity together with the ability to improvise when dealing with the unexpected. He has participated on go2HR’s BC occupational health and safety committee since 2010 and has chaired the CWSAA Safety & Risk Management Committee since 2012. After leading Panorama’s efforts to become BC’s second ski resort to be certified by the WorkSafeBC Certificate of Recognition (COR) program, he has promoted the WorkSafeBC COR program to the alpine industry.