Team Summit Colorado hires new executive director

Team Summit Colorado’s (TSC) Board of Directors has announced the hiring of CB Bechtel as the team’s new executive director. After a comprehensive international search, the Board unanimously approved Bechtel as the best qualified candidate for the position. He will be replacing Jerry Karl, who announced in November 2016 that he would be stepping down after leading the team for four very successful years.

Bechtel has more than 25 years of experience leading youth educational and recreational programs, along with over 30 years of coaching. He has been very active in USSA including serving as a race operations leader for high level settings including the alpine World Cup and World Championships as well as serving with several Rocky Mountain Division committees. In addition to his vast alpine experience, he has also become well versed in freeski, nordic and snowboard disciplines while overseeing training and competition venues for each for the past six years.

Bechtel will be leaving his current position as Director of Operations at Ski and Snowboard Club Vail (SSCV), where he has managed and overaw all aspects of their training and educational facilities, IT, safety, security and transportation along with coordinating the volunteer efforts for the Beaver Creek World Cup and the 2015 World Championships.

“It was an all encompassing job requiring me to manage and coordinate staff from all aspects of the team while requiring an incredible amount of diplomacy and communication,” Bechtel noted. 

His professional, diplomatic, and promotional skills will lead Team Summit Colorado into the future. Prior to joining SSCV, Bechtel served as the program director for the Loveland Racing Club from 2002 to 2011. During his tenure at Loveland, his vision and leadership resulted in substantial increases in athlete numbers and fundraising revenue, while program costs decreased. He was able to bring in new sponsors, an international level competition director, and set a new standard for high performing, low cost programs.

“I am extremely excited our Board of Directors agreed Bechtel was the right candidate to replace me,” said Karl. “His leadership, passion, and dedication, along with his local community involvement will ensure Team Summit Colorado remains Summit County’s premiere youth organization. Summit County is the ultimate location for Winter Sports activities as it offers four world-class resort partners, unmatched early season training opportunities, long winters, an extremely supportive community, along with top tier educational experiences. Bechtel has the knowledge and vision to help the team achieve the world-class experience we strive to provide.”

“I couldn’t be more excited than to be a part of Team Summit Colorado and their future,” Bechtel said. “TSC has a long history of training top level snowsports competitors, as well providing a great team environment where any enthusiastic youth can learn to love their sport while gaining valuable skills they can use throughout their professional life. TSC has all the tools necessary to be a world leader in competitive snowsports and I am honored to lead this organization.”

Release from Team Summit Colorado