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When Doug Pierini took over as CEO of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort last summer, he came with more than 35 years of experience in the ski industry. Born in 1969, he grew up in Watchung, New Jersey, and skied at Plattekill Mountain, where his parents were part-time ski instructors, every weekend. He became an instructor there himself as a teenager to get a free ski pass.

JHMR was a homecoming of sorts for Pierini. He first visited in the early 1990s on a college ski trip from Rutgers. Shortly after graduation in 1993, he moved to the valley. He taught ski lessons and tuned skis at Pepi Stiegler Sports for several winters. In 1997, he became a supervisor at JHMR’s Mountain Sports School, a position he kept until 2003, when he left JHMR to become ski school director at Sierra-at-Tahoe in California. 

“I don’t remember how we came up with the idea of breaking the tram record and do it as a fundraiser. People paid me, Mike, and Sparky per run, and we raised a bunch of money for Search and Rescue.”

In 2002, Pierini, JHMR instructor Mike Janssen, and patroller Kirk “Sparky” Spreckhals set a record for the most trams skied in a day. Their 26 trams—more than 107,000 vertical feet of downhill—bested the 1969 record of 25 trams and still  stands today. 

In California, he started dating someone he had met at MSS. “We met in the locker room at Jackson and worked together as instructors, trainers, and managers,” Pierini says. They stayed in touch, and within a year of Pierini leaving JHMR, they were dating. In 2004, they married.

Over the next two decades, the Pierinis worked at more than a dozen ski resorts, from Okemo and Stowe in Vermont to Breckenridge in Colorado and Kirkwood in California. Pierini continued to move up in management while his wife, Leigh, is a trainer and examiner for PSIA’s Rocky Mountain region. By 2022, Pierini was vice president and COO for Vail Resorts’ Western region. 

“Coming back to Jackson was like coming home,” he says. “We both have always loved it here.” Now, with a year under his skis at the helm of JHMR and two years of reacquainting himself with the valley, Pierini says his two kids are settling in and he and Leigh are rebuilding their roots, even if a lot has changed. “When I left, summertime was a ghost town in the Village. To see how far it’s come is impressive,” he says. “I love what summer has to offer in Jackson Hole. We’re constantly improving our summer trail systems and our food experience as well as additional activities for families and events.” Pierini is also proud of the new via ferrata route up the looker’s right side of Corbet’s Couloir. JH