Andre Quenneville by Tiffany Teske
...of my incredible hubby :) Congrats, my love! You see him above, in front of a bunch of mountain sheep butts, lol, as well as in front of Norquay, the ski mountain he manages. Andre was just named one of the top 10 ski area managers under 30, by Ski Management Magazine, even if he is 32... but he earned the biggest break in his career so far by the time he was 30.
I don't usually repost something I can link to, but I want to put the part of the article about Andre here.
Andre Quenneville
General manager,
Mt. Norquay, Alberta
At just 30 years old, lifelong skier Andre Quenneville got the opportunity of a lifetime—to take over general management of Mt. Norquay, a ski area that sits in the heart of one of Canada’s most popular tourism destinations.
Quenneville was plucked from an assistant GM position at tiny Edelweiss, a ski hill just outside of his hometown of Ottawa, Ontario. There, he was getting tons of hands-on experience running a resort, since the mountain’s GM was based off-site, making Quenneville the go-to manager on site.
His success in running Edelweiss did not go unnoticed. Fellow ski racer Bob Sudermann’s brother Peter, was the new co-owner of Mt. Norquay. The mountain was purchasd in the fall of 2006 and soon after the deal was done, Quenneville got a life-changing call: Would he like to come out and manage Norquay? Like, right away?
“The first thing I thought was ‘Wow, I’ll get to ski out West.’ The second thing I thought was ‘I get to live in Banff, which is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world.’ The third thing I thought was to call my wife—we had just built our first house and just had our first baby—and ask her what she thought!”
It was too good an opportunity to pass up, so they decided to make the move. He arrived just in time to start the season—at a resort he had never been to, with brand-new ownership, in a big-mountain setting to which he was completely new. It was more than a little overwhelming.
But fast forward two years and Quenneville, now 32, has two successful seasons of running Norquay under his belt and continues to impress the man who hired him in the first place.
“He’s a stellar person and good manager,” Sudermann says. “He can troubleshoot problems on the fly really well, juggle five things at once and make all the right decisions while he’s at it—it’s so interesting to watch him work.”
As for Quenneville, his favorite part of the job is really the job itself—it’s a small resort and he’s out there, in the mix, all the time. “I just love that feeling of not having a typical job—where if it’s snowing out, you probably don’t even want to go to work. Whereas here, everyone has a smile on their face and everyone is pumped and excited.”
You can read more about the other award winners on the SAM website in the article written by Katie Bailey.
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