Ski Utah director Nathan Rafferty living the dream

SALT LAKE CITY — Twenty years ago, back in his college days, Nathan Rafferty's idea of a dream job was one that would pay for his ski pass.

Man, did he get what he wished for.

As president and CEO of Ski Utah, the marketing and promotions arm of Utah's ski and snowboard industry, Rafferty's job IS skiing.

He's been in charge of the organization for the past six years, and he isn't your conventional CEO. Take his "powder clause," for instance. He has written it into the employee bylaws that if more than a foot of snow has fallen overnight, the staff (including him) can go skiing or boarding, on the provision that when they get to the office they have to work half again as many hours as they took off.

His basic philosophy is if you don't love it, you can't sell it.

"We've got a whole bunch of people who go out in the morning and climb mountains and ski down them and then come to work," says Rafferty. "It's not the kind of office where you have to be here at 8 sharp. If you run that kind of place, guess when everyone's leaving? 5:01."

He tosses the latest Ski Utah annual publicity report on the table like a parent showing off his kid's straight-A report card.

"It's fun to look at because it's compiled by people having a good time," he says.

Drudgery mystifies Rafferty. It is to be avoided at all costs.

As he says, "You've just got to have your priorities right, right?"

Rafferty is as homespun as Utah skiers come. He was born in Florida, but moved to Salt Lake City before he turned 1 when his dad left the Air Force and enrolled at the University of Utah. He didn't take up skiing until he was 13. He started at ParkWest (now Canyons resort), where he took lessons alongside the little sisters of his buddies who had been skiing since they were 5. It was the ideal motivation. "I got better really fast, or I couldn't ski with friends," remembers Nathan.

By the time he was at Highland High School he had a season pass and locker at Solitude and caught the UTA bus from the Foothill Village stop near his house.