After some years in an office downtown, Bill Cooper was ready for a change of scenery. Being an avid Cross Country Skier for most of his life, he looked to the North Shore Mountains for his next employment opportunity.
Bill started applying his skills at Cypress Mountain as a Cross Country Ski Instructor and quickly moved his way up the ranks. From instructing, he moved on to supervising instructors, then to directing the Ski School and eventually landed in his current position of Nordic Area Manager.
As Cypress Mountain’s Nordic Area Manager, Bill oversees the operations of one of the busiest Nordic facilities in Canada. The area attracts over 80,000 skier visits, 15,000 snowshoe visits, and 30,000 visitors to the family oriented Snow Tubing facility each winter.
Every season he leads over 150 employees in eight departments including: Ski Patrol, Ski School, Rentals, Maintenance, Guest Services, Food Services and Grooming. "My job requires patience, high energy, good organization, effective communication and interpersonal skills" said Bill, "I try to provide positive leadership, good role modeling and support for the people I work with."
Bill directs area operations that go on around the clock. A regular work day could include grooming, event planning, staffing, training, customer relations and much more sprinkled in between. In the off-season Bill works hard at planning, marketing and maintaining the mountain’s trails and facilities.
His skills in the industry were built up over the 15 years of experience he has at Cypress. He has been a ski enthusiast for most of his life and has added to his skill set through on the job training, ski industry conferences, courses, seminars and networking.
Bill’s advice for candidates looking for careers in Tourism is to gain hands-on experience, learn on the go and always be up for an opportunity. "Like most things in life, success comes with hard work, dedication and a positive attitude. Bring those attributes to the mountain everyday and opportunities are bound to show themselves."
As for future plans, Bill is looking forward to early retirement. "My hope is to retire in good health and enjoy the mountains I love…oh and to ski a lot more!"
