Sugar Loaf Mountain :: Team to meet this weekend

The team consists of:

1. Samuele Piana – Principal, Sereno, Ski Resort Solutions http://www.sereno.it/

2. Jason Ryan, CEO, neptune industries www.neptuneindustries.com, (designer, Olympic Snow Park, Park City, UT and Olympic Training Centre,

 Otsego, MI)

3. Dan Mathias – Principal, Chateau Fontaine Winery, formerly of Bavarian Village, Sugar Loaf Snow Resort

4. Mark Fisher – Former Ski Director, Sugar Loaf Snow Resort

5. Ed Budd –  Layout, Design and Operations, Sugar Loaf Snow Resort

6. Joe Moses- President, JKJ Golf LLC, Former Global Marketing Manager ( Adidas, Nike, Taylor Made)

7. Liko Smith – Entrepreneur

Liko Smith,  Entrepreneur and current buyer of the Sugar Loaf Snow Resort states “This team is not an “advisory board”  nor are we discussing pie in the sky scenarios; it has a crystal clear purpose, the opening of Sugarloaf as a feasible snow operation by Christmas of 2010.. says Liko Smith, . “The people of the community need this team to be very focused, and determined. We all bring a level of expertise and knowledge to the table, but there are two things we can be sure of; 1) it is going to be twice as hard as we think  2)  the date of opening is Christmas 2010; we’re operating under those pretenses” says Smith.

Smith continues “Samuel Piana was brought in from out of the country because aside from being the most recent person to analyze the snow operations at Sugar Loaf ( 2009 ), and working with the most updated technologies in snow resorts, he is working on projects worldwide that are similar to ours in layout, skiier profile, and various customer driven uses, there is a project in Russia that almost mirrrors Sugarloaf. He also brings in an outsiders perspective. Jason Ryan has a proven track record in developing assets across the US and directly in the midwest for snow and skate in ways that increase consumer demand and credibility long term, and Joe Moses brings a global marketing background from his time at Nike, Taylor Made and Adidas that can be very useful from a partner or preferred vendor perspective. The additions of Mark Fisher, Dan Mathias and Ed Budd were based on conversations I’ve had throughout the community. We need individuals that have “been on the ground” because we don’t plan to impose our version of reality onto Sugar Loaf but rather work within the limits of Sugar Loaf to get to a suitable reality for all of us. ..there may be other qualified persons but the team cannot get any larger, otherwise, it becomes less effective.

The team is working on the answers to 4 questions after insuring that the snow making issues are solved :

1. What aspects of Sugar Loaf need to be changed.

2. What aspects of Sugar Loaf need to be accentuated.

3. What new services, amenities need to be added.

An action plan will then be formulated and a new meeting date will be set. “We are working on several partner scenarious but that will not stop us from doing what we need to do to open the hill this year. We will have a plan of action very soon” finishes Smith.

The conclusions and the progress made at the meeting will be made available to the public on the “Friends Of Sugar Loaf” section of  www.Likosmith.com as part of the weekly update regarding Sugar Loaf.  Smith plans to re-open the closed resort by Christmas of 2010.