10/16/2026
Oasis Management Pushed Vail Resorts to Use AI-Drive Strategy Help Before Proxy Fight
Denver Business Journal (10/16/26) Barackman, Jenna
Before mounting a campaign to reshape Vail Resorts' (NYSE: MTN) board, Oasis Management spent over a year pushing the company behind the scenes to make changes it believed would improve the ski giant's performance, including using artificial intelligence to help guide business strategy The Hong Kong-based investment management firm Oasis Management Co Ltd. owns 9% of Broomfield-based Vail Resorts Inc. The investor has been pushing for boardroom change at Vail Resorts, nominating four candidates to its board of directors, arguing Vail Resorts has suffered from years of weak shareholder returns, declining guest satisfaction, operational missteps and insufficient board oversight. Oasis Management started meeting with Vail Resorts' investor relations team and top leadership nearly 18 months ago seeking changes to company strategy, being rebuffed and ultimately launching a campaign to have shareholders elect its chosen directors, the company said in a Tuesday U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. “We believe that Vail Resorts could be worth significantly more than its current stock price, that the status quo is untenable and that change is urgently needed to address the Company’s longstanding deficiencies and restore growth, profitability and credibility,” Oasis said in its SEC filing. A spokesperson from Vail Resorts said the company has made multiple changes over the past 16 months, including by launching its Epic Experience strategy to invest in the resorts' food offerings, ski lesson services, gear rental, guest engagement and talent. "We have enhanced our leadership team, revamped our marketing approach to celebrate what makes each of our mountains unique, and introduced new pass and lift ticket products and pricing strategies designed to broaden access," a Vail spokesperson said in an email. "We’ve already seen early proof points, including record guest satisfaction scores last year, increased lift ticket market share, and outperformance versus the industry on pass sales for the upcoming season." "As we look to the future, our focus is on building on that progress through disciplined execution, especially with our recently launched Epic Experience strategy to drive the next chapter of growth for Vail Resorts by making every part of the mountain journey more seamless, personalized, and memorable," the spokesperson continued. A preliminary proxy statement filed Tuesday ahead of Vail Resorts' annual shareholder meeting, expected in December, reveals that Oasis had met with company executives, including CEO Rob Katz, for more than a year to discuss issues before publicly advocating for change. Oasis, which began building its stake in the company April 2025, met with company leadership repeatedly in the following months, discussing company strategy around pricing, capital expenditures and operations, according to the Tuesday filing. During two meetings in July 2025, Oasis met with Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz discussing ski pass pricing, operational efficiency and other matters, Oasis said in its proxy filing. The investment firm offered to pay for Vail Resorts to use what it said is "a leading AI consulting firm” to help optimize its Epic Pass and lift ticket pricing strategies, "harmonize the Company’s structured and unstructured customer experience data, weather forecasts and other data" and create a unified operating model for the company, Oasis' proxy filing said. Katz declined Oasis’ offer to pay, but agreed to review the proposal, the Oasis SEC filing said. Vail Resorts ultimately did not engage with the AI firm it recommended, Oasis said. The four candidates Oasis wants shareholders to elect include M. Ashton Hudson, the Florida founder and chairman of Riverwood Asset Management and partner at Value Acquisition Fund; former Disney (NYSE: DIS) CEO Robert Chapek; Utah venture capitalist Bryce Roberts and Picabo Street, a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. Each of the candidates are being compensated to run for a board seat, according to previous SEC filings. The filing details that Oasis and Vail leaders continued meeting into 2026. In August, Oasis asked Katz to consider appointing Chapek to the Board. Katz interviewed Chapek, according to the filing, and provided some feedback calling him a “thoughtful guy.” Oasis then recommended two other candidates to the board which Katz also interviewed, the filing says. After director Sue Decker decided not to seek reelection, Oasis said Katz indicated he would share Chapek's name and those of the other candidates for consideration. Later, Katz made it clear the company did not intend to nominate any of them, the Oasis filing said. “We have sought to engage constructively with the Company, including by making numerous recommendations and introducing director candidates who we believe would contribute effectively to the Board,” Oasis said. “Unfortunately, the Company has largely ignored our recommendations, declined to appoint any of our candidates and appears no closer to addressing its longstanding guest experience issues.” In the weeks since Oasis launched its proxy push, Oasis has increased its stake in Vail from 6.2% in mid-September to 9% today. The board nominations come as Vail struggles to recover from an unusually warm and dry winter that plummeted visitation and, months later, have partially caused Vail’s multimountain access ski pass, the Epic Pass, to endure a steep decline in pass sales, a trend in recent months. But Oasis said the issues with the company are not primarily due to weather or its large network of 42 ski areas that it owns and operates. Instead, Oasis said issues lie with its board leadership, guest experience and continued operational deterioration. Oasis said Vail’s “stagnant, one-size-fits-all guest experience” has alienated guests, leaving both budget-conscious skiers and high-income guests with few options to have an experience that meets their needs. Marketing has also fallen behind, it said, and other major, public incidents, like labor unrest and overcrowding, has significantly devalued the company’s guest experience. It also argued that despite spending more than $1.5 billion on acquisitions and growing from 12 to 42 resorts, Vail's profitability has worsened and pass sales have fallen, suggesting the company has failed to translate growth into stronger financial results. During former Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten Lynch’s tenure, which lasted from 2021 to 2025, for example, the company lost around half of its value. Oasis said the board was too slow in replacing her, and when it did, no meaningful change was made by bringing back Katz, who was the CEO before Lynch.
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