Squaw Valley Ski Museum Foundation hires Executive Director

Olympic Valley, Calif – Squaw Valley Ski Museum Foundation (SVSMF) announces that Sandy Chio has joined the organization as Executive Director.

“The hiring of an executive direction symbolizes quite a milestone for the Squaw Valley Ski Museum Foundation,” said David Antonucci, Squaw Valley Ski Museum Foundation Board President. “We found in Sandy the perfect complement of leadership, ski industry knowledge, Olympic heritage expertise and a passion for this project.”

Sandy comes to North Lake Tahoe from Park City, UT, where she led the marketing and communications team for the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, a non-profit created as part of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake to maintain and preserve three important legacy venues: Utah Olympic Park in Park City, Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, and Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Midway. The Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, one of the world’s most successful Olympic legacy business models, leverages public programming revenues, individual donations and public-private funding to subsidize the expenses of winter sports programs, athlete training and competitions.

For the past seven years, the Squaw Valley Ski Museum Foundation has been working with public and private partners to identify a site and to build a museum that celebrates the impact of the 1960 Olympic Winter Games on the greater Tahoe region. The museum also plans to recognize skiers, snowboarders and ski area pioneers who have influenced western winter sports since the time of the California gold rush. Squaw Valley Ski Museum Foundation Board believes in the importance of preserving and sharing local heritage with residents and visitors, as reported in studies conducted by the California Office of Tourism and North Lake Tahoe Resort Association.

Early on, the Foundation identified a site located within Placer County’s Squaw Valley Park at the entrance to Olympic Valley that addresses a number of stakeholder priorities. Now, fueled by Placer County Board of Supervisors approval last July to review an application for the site, Squaw Valley Ski Museum Foundation has reenergized its efforts to bring a new cultural amenity to North Lake Tahoe.

Sandy’s immediate focus is to lead the organization through this critical phase of planning and fundraising to secure the proposed site, and ultimately to develop a strategic plan leading up to breaking ground on the project as well as the on-going sustainability of the museum. Throughout this process, Sandy looks forward to engaging the Tahoe community in the Foundation’s efforts.

“There is so much ski history here and the opportunity to bring it to life for locals, visitors and future generations is paramount,” Sandy says.  “We have a lot of work to do and I know this museum project will gather together a diverse group of people passionate about skiing and riding, ski heritage and celebrating the Olympic-caliber athletes in the west.”

Sandy is no newcomer to mountain living. Prior to the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, she built a career and gained hands-on experience in mountain resort and destination marketing, leading efforts at Alyeska Resort in Southcentral Alaska, Telluride Tourism Board in Colorado, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in California, and Schweitzer Mountain Resort in Sandpoint, ID.

An MBA graduate of University of Washington and undergraduate from Northwestern University, Sandy, husband Steve, son Rye and two labradoodles are very excited to return to the Sierra mountains and make Lake Tahoe their home.

To learn more about this project and to make a financial contribution, visit OlympicSkiMuseum.com.