Vania Grandi Appointed New Alpine Canada President And CEO

The Board of Alpine Canada is pleased to name Vania Grandi to the position of President and CEO effective January 1, 2018. Grandi’s passion and experience as a Canadian ski racer, combined with her leadership and global business skills, positions her well to expand on the strategic vision of Alpine Canada.

Grandi comes from one of Canada’s most illustrious ski families. She was a member the Canadian National Ski Team along with her younger brother, four-time Olympian Thomas Grandi, and sister Astrid. She brings a deep understanding of alpine ski racing, with empathy and knowledge of what the athletes, coaching staff and an integrated sport team need to succeed on a global level. Grandi will be the first woman to lead Alpine Canada. She will relocate to Calgary where Alpine Canada is based.  

Grandi succeeds Mark Rubinstein, who served as CEO and President of Alpine Canada for the past four years, during which time the organization has achieved signiftant high-performance and business success.

“Mark has done an outstanding job of bringing Alpine Canada to where we are now, and we know he’s going to contribute significantly to his next endeavours,” said Martha Hall Findlay, Chair of the Alpine Canada Board. “Alpine Canada is now in a position to target the next level in performance and we are so excited that Vania will be joining us. She is someone who built on her ski racing experience to achieve extraordinary business and career success. Not only are we confident that she will do great things for Alpine Canada; she also provides a terrific role model to our athletes.”

After she left ski-racing, Grandi started her career as a reporter for the Associated Press in Rome, Italy in 1992. She worked for the AP in Rome for eight years followed by a year in Salt Lake City. She went on to be Media Relations and Communications Manager for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. In 2005, armed with an MBA, Grandi joined the global mining firm Rio Tinto, where she started as Sustainable Development Advisor and went on to hold several senior positions including Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Copper and Precious Metals, and General Manager Commercial Strategy. During the past three years, Grandi has lived in Montreal where she is General Manager, Marketing and Sales for Metallics products from operations in Quebec, South Africa, China and India.

Grandi sat on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, the Copper Development Association, the American Copper Council and the Responsible Jewellery Council, among others.

She grew up in Banff and completed high school at Burke Mountain Ski Academy in Vermont. She received her undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where she captained the women’s varsity ski team and was NCAA All American. Grandi attained her MBA at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. She speaks four languages and is a six sigma black belt.

“I am absolutely thrilled with the opportunity to follow my passion and focus my efforts on supporting Canada’s athletes and the broader ski community,” said Grandi. “Leading Alpine Canada brings my career full circle and it is a dream come true. Now I want to contribute to helping our athletes, coaches and parents realize their dreams too!”