Over the years Maurer has moved from being a part-time public relations employee to (currently) being Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Booth Creek Resorts, an owner of Northstar.

While in high school, Maurer moved from New York to the Bay Area in California. Her dad was a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories. After high school she studied journalism and business administration at California State University, San Diego before working for an ad agency in San Francisco.

Northstar
When Maurer first started working at Northstar, it was owned by Louisiana Pacific, one of America's largest building materials suppliers. The company eventually returned the resort to its original owner, the Fiberboard Corporation, a logging and paper company. Fiberboard went on to buy two other ski resorts, Sierra-at-Tahoe and Bear Mountain. In 1996, the three resorts were purchased by Booth Creek (it eventually sold Bear Mountain), which also owns three resorts in New Hampshire and one in Washington.

Far from being put off by the changes, Maurer found them to be a constant learning experience that kept her job fresh.

"By having different ownerships, it was like I got a new job each time. Every owner had different perspectives and visions," she said.

When Booth Creek purchased Northstar, Maurer also had to shift from concentrating solely on California resorts to learning about East Coast ski resorts as well. She enjoyed it. "People call me an 'info nympho' because I like learning new things," she said. Although today Maurer oversees marketing at all six resorts, her first love is still Northstar, because she sees it as a truly, year-round resort--from skiing in the winter to mountain biking, golf and the conference market in the summer.

"My heart bleeds blue," she said, referring to the color of Northstar's logo.

When Maurer first started at the resort, it had 250,000 skier visits a year. Today that number has more than doubled to 600,000. The resort's village has also undergone a facelift. The almost-completed Phase I includes 100 condominiums and 100,000 square feet of commercial space, with stores likes Starbucks and Earthly Delights, as well as an ice skating rink. Phase II, scheduled to be finished in December, will add another 100 condos and 40,000 square feet of commercial space. The Highlands Project, which is being developed across from the village and will break ground this summer, includes a five-star hotel, town homes and a gondola.

"We are constantly changing and re-invigorating."

Truckee
Northstar's growth has mirrored development in Truckee. When Maurer first moved to Truckee in the early 1980s, she estimates there were 3,000 people living there. At present, the town has a population of around 14,000.

Maurer says growth brings with it both positives and negatives. On the con side, it raises concerns about traffic, transportation, and open space, she said. On the plus side, more people mean more support for the economy.

In addition to her professional work at Northstar, Maurer is active in the community. Currently she is a member of the Truckee Tahoe Community Foundation Board of Directors; she chairs the NLTRA marketing committee; and she is on the National Ski Areas Association marketing council. She has also been on the board of the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival and the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association (NLTRA). She is also a former president of the North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce and of Ski Lake Tahoe.

With her high-powered job and community involvement, it's no surprise that Maurer, an avid outdoors person, has little free time for herself. However, she did take a vacation with her husband, David, and some friends. A summer ago they did a bike trip to Croatia's Dalmatian Coast.