Powder, the parent company of both Powder Mountain ski resort and its private residential counterpart Powder Haven, announced today the appointment of Brandi Hammon as its new president. Hammon, who previously served as Powder’s chief revenue officer, will now oversee all daily operations spanning resort development, real estate, hospitality and member experience. In her new role, she’ll work alongside CEO Reed Hastings to execute a long-term vision that balances growth with preserving the mountain’s authentic character. Hammon shared her vision for Powder Mountain’s future and reflected on her deep roots in Ogden Valley in a recent conversation.
You grew up in — and learned to ski in — Ogden Valley. How have your experiences in the area influenced your thinking about the spaces you’ll oversee in this role?
I moved to Ogden Valley at about 12 years old. The valley grounded me in the mountains. I’d already started skiing when I was much younger, as my dad built part of Snowbasin. My whole childhood was skiing until exhaustion, getting in the car and falling asleep. After school, we’d ski down the side of the road and ski all night at Nordic Valley. As I got older, I skied at Powder Mountain. Back then, you’d always have amazing snow consistently — we’re adding snowmaking now, which will be fun.
Powder is one of the last resorts that’s not crowded. Snowbasin, Park City, even Alta and Snowbird — the Epic and Ikon passes did one amazing thing by getting more people skiing, but on a Saturday morning, it’s overwhelming. We have an opportunity at Powder to turn the model. We have tons of land, can invest in real estate infrastructure, and still give the same ski experience we had in the 1980s.
At Mountain Luxury Real Estate and Lodging, you built a successful real estate business with over $1 billion in sales. How will you apply those entrepreneurial skills to the broader operations of Powder Mountain and Powder Haven?
My business has been in Ogden Valley, mostly Huntsville, Eden and Liberty. I have a good feel for the kind of person who comes to the valley and what drives prices there. When I first started Mountain Luxury around 2005, there wasn’t a house sold over a million dollars.
I’ve also owned a construction company, a restaurant and bought a lodging company. I’m good at multi-use spaces — how do you take lower volume and make it profitable over the long term? How do you have the same space produce different things at different times?
The entrepreneurial side is showing newcomers the authentic parts of the community. You walk into almost any community in America today, and there’s a Walmart, Starbucks, Applebee’s, Target — they’ve all been laid out the same. When you come to Ogden Valley and Powder, you see we haven’t done that.
How are you approaching the balance of managing growth while preserving the authenticity of the area?
I was part of the incorporation process for Ogden Valley. I also served on the land trust for several years and have conserved some ranches. That work is near and dear to my heart. So, how to do less development, get a higher return and honor what works for the community?
A couple things matter to me: First, Powder stays a public ski resort. Taking that away from the community is an absolute loss. Second, it can’t become a big mega-resort — that would change the fabric of the valley immensely.
“We’re not planning for a 2-year or 5-year flip or maximizing pass revenue. We’re planning how to make this resort work for 100 years.”
Reed Hastings has a passion for the mountain and doesn’t need to maximize return. He just wants to do a great job. Not every decision we make will make everybody happy, but we’re going to have public trails and a public ski resort. We’ll minimize development so it never risks becoming a mega-resort. We’re not planning for a 2-year or 5-year flip or maximizing pass revenue. We’re planning how to make this resort work for 100 years. We bought additional land to expand the private side. We sold out Phase 1 with the first 40 lots, keeping it in an area the community agrees density should be.
Someone asked what keeps me up at night. Losing public access keeps me up. Reed has promised that preserving it is something he’s all about. We’re not traditional “churn and burn” developers. There’s a lot of heart and thought that goes into what we’re putting, where we’re putting it and how we’re doing it.
What lessons from your experience as chief revenue officer of Powder will inform your strategy as president?
I’ve always grown all my businesses from the ground up, so I love getting in and knowing everything from washing dishes to how the software runs. As chief revenue officer, I built out the program for our lot sales — how we laid out the lots, wrote the design guidelines and did the pricing structure. I was responsible if we didn’t sell out.
I’ve always known who the buyer is in the valley. I’ve communicated with buyers and done the sales cycle with them. I grew a whole team in those two years, and we built everything from scratch. I got to work with Reed one-on-one, and once he figured out that I knew what I was doing, he let me run with it. Now I get to take his style and use him as a coach, too.
We also added a private club component while trying to keep it down to earth. We’re like your chill, fun private club. If you don’t care that everybody knows you’re a billionaire, we’re your place. If you don’t want your kids to feel entitled and you want them to know how to carry their own skis, if you’re okay with hooting and hollering and having fun — that’s Powder Haven.
What challenges or opportunities do you anticipate in the broader ski industry over the next decade, and how is Powder positioning itself in that landscape?
Season pass sales are down for Vail Resorts this year. Their revenue isn’t down as much as their pass sales, but they’ve found a tipping point where crowds are saying, “This isn’t the experience we want.” I see us being able to slide in on some of that.
The other challenge is staffing. You had protests by ski patrollers — rightfully so. We made a massive pivot last year, spending an extra $3 million in payroll. I believe we’re the top-paying ski resort in the state. We want the best people — curious, hardworking, kind people. Our staff makes or breaks a resort, and we’re fortunate to have made that pivot early.
Transportation and housing are other issues. We’re fortunate to be so close to population centers. Places like Jackson Hole and Big Sky — it’s hard for people to afford to live there. We spun up a whole shuttle system last year, which was a huge expense but a great investment.
How do you plan to collaborate with Reed, who will remain CEO, to advance the long-term vision of Powder Mountain and Powder Haven?
Reed is a passion guy. It’s beautiful working with someone who puts doing the right thing first. When I took the job, I said, “Reed, I will not take this job if you ever make me doubt my integrity.” Over these last two years, we’ve been so aligned. He’s more concerned about keeping his word than making extra money. As CEO, he’ll stay involved in all the big stuff. He’s passionate about Powder being successful and having the longevity of a beautiful, public-private resort. He loves the challenge and shaking things up. He’s also a snowboarder, and he’s excited to get his 100 days this year!
It’s fun because the sky’s kind of the limit. I have a massive list, and we prioritize by biggest impact, what’s executable, what has longevity and what will appeal to the most people. The big thing is finding ways to preserve it in perpetuity. We’re doing something different with the public-private model, and I think it will benefit the public side. I’m excited to prove that it’s going to work and, most importantly, get it deeded so people can have confidence it’ll stay public forever.
