Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — American Skiing Co. has tabbed a former Citigroup and IBM executive to aid in its ongoing effort to get out from under several hundred million dollars in debt.

Betsy Wallace has been named the new chief financial officer of the financially challenged company. Wallace replaces Mark Miller, who has been named to fill the vacant position of chief operating officer.

ASC is the parent company of the Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp.

"Betsy brings more than 20 years of accounting, tax and corporate finance experience as well as a proven ability to plan and execute complex financial transaction," ASC Chief Executive Officer B.J. Fair said. "She possesses not only the necessary financial skills to complete the financial turnaround we implemented last year, but also the leadership skills necessary to deliver improved financial performance going forward."

ASC was reporting $300 million in debt late last winter. That amount was reduced by about $88 million with the sale of Heavenly resort in California. The company has yet to file either its fiscal 2002 year-end earnings report or its 2003 first-quarter report, because of changes in accounting regulations.

Prior to joining ASC, Wallace served as CFO of Cyrano Sciences Inc., a start-up technology company.

Cyrano Sciences has developed handheld "electronic noses" that use chemical sensors to sniff out explosives, food contaminants and other substances.

Wallace worked for Citigroup as a director of business development and a regional financial controller for the bank's Asian office in Singapore. From 1995 to 1998, she held senior financial position with a large U.S. manufacturing company, Hubbell Inc., and with IBM.

She is moving from Los Angeles to Park City, Utah, to take the job with ASC.

Miller is filling the vacancy created when Fair was named CEO in March 2001. He has been CFO since joining the company in December 1998.

Before he joined ASC, Miller served as executive vice president of financial administration with Showboat, a Nevada-based gaming and hotel company.