Conrad Klefos - Resort executive
Conrad Emil-Snow Klefos died unexpectedly from complications from lymphoma on June 3, 2023, at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, Vermont. He was 69 years old. Klefos was born and raised in New Hampshire and skied for the University of New Hampshire team. He graduated in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in parks and recreation. After initial jobs at Hunter Mountain and Smuggler’s Notch, he served as vice president/marketing & sales at Jay Peak from 1980 to 2000. He was then associate publisher of Quebec’s Ski Press Magazine before moving to Maine in 2009 to assume marketing positions for Saddleback and Maine Huts & Trails. He served on several boards of directors, including the Jay Chamber of Commerce and Vermont Ski Areas Association. He is survived by his loving wife and best friend Lisa; his brothers Erik and wife Dawn, Knute and wife Joan, Brede and wife Jessica, his sister Susan, and several nephews and nieces. He was predeceased by his brother Kristofer. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the American Cancer Society. There will be a celebration of life on the summit of Jay Peak Resort on what would have been Conrad’s 70th birthday on Thursday, August 31, 2023 at 10am.
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Conrad Klefos - The Voice of Jay Peak
(The following is an excerpt from "Golf Wars," an article I wrote for the Newport Daily Express, in 1999 -https://jaypeakhistory.com/early-days/golf-wars/)
...Now I'm sitting with Conrad Klefos, Vice-President, Marketing, in the latter's office. We've never met, but I sense something familiar, only I can't put my finger on it at first. Then I twig. It's "The Voice of Jay Peak" (Klefos does his own radio spots). Now "The Voice" is saying, "Golf will change things dramatically. It's really going to even-out our operation." This is the same guy who I usually hear describe the latest huge dump of snow? What about the storm coming tonight, after the drought of December, I ask? Klefos assures me, without missing a beat, "We're always focused 6-8 months out. Right now, even though we're trying to get the skiing here up and running, I'm thinking about how the new Golf course is going to impact our mountain-biking and other programs."
Klefos directs Jay's 5-member marketing team, newly bolstered by web-wizard Chris Villiar, and together they put out a whole battery of material, including the 4-color Resort and Ski School brochures, press kits, and magazine ads. "Your best informational resources right now are our web pages (www.jaypeakresort.com & jaypeak@together.net)," says Klefos. "They give you page after page of detail. For example, every ski in our rental shop is listed, by make and length. The brochure, by comparison, is just a cover sheet. I predict in five years that I'll just print a color rack card with our web address."
"This has been a strange week. I'm postponing a lot of my radio ads until after the holidays... people just look outside, see brown fields and can't get past that, even though we've got all sorts of snow up here," continues Klefos, veteran of Jay Peak's marketing wars since 1980, and who's shepherded a marketing budget that has grown from $50K to more than $600K. "This snow storm will pick up the pace, though. Anyway, our team is already looking to the spring ski shows. Our pricing strategy for next season will be approved by the end of March, and printed by the end of April. Then we do a 12-city promotional tour that includes New York City, Tampa, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Toronto. We'll meet with ski group leaders, tour operators... The destination business that we drum-up at these shows, is more predictable, and benefits a larger proportion of the resort's facilities, than some of our day markets. And we're breaking into the international market now - we've joined SKI-USA - we're featured in their Spanish and English European catalogs and we've done the London (England) ski show the past two years."
-- Bob Soden July, 2023