Lifestyle

Outdoor

Snow

Yoga

Camping

Mountain biking

Slacklining

Snowboarding

Astronomy

Cooking

Reading

Photography

Wake surfing

Canyoneering

Longboarding and spending time with my nieces and new little nephew

Associate Instructor

Motivated and achievement driven leader with expertise in annual budget writing, managing payroll, identifying sales trends and creating sales strategies. Worked with a Fortune 500 firm as well as several small, entrepreneurial ventures. Thrive in ambiguity and highly adaptive to change.

The University of Utah has one of the finest outdoor recreation programs in the nation.  Design coursework and facilitate the curriculum.  This environment allows the opportunity to hone communication and problem-solving skills in a protected setting.

~Swiftly create an environment of trust with new students in unfamiliar surroundings, empower students to discover fortitude within themselves in stressful situations, aligning with the departments vision and mission statement through creating safe, lifelong experiential learning opportunities. 
~Teaching the proper and safe use of canyoneering equipment and Leave No Trace ethics while being an instructor and guide for several hundred U of U students through slot canyons in Southern Utah.

Oversaw and directed three Supervisors, an Administrative specialist and Visual presentation specialist along with 10 full time and 50+ part time employees serving 3.4 million customers in Utah’s Designated Market Area (DMA), the largest in the United States, coordinated sales and payroll resources of over $34 million in 2012.

~Implemented and monitored early adoption of new mobile selling devices and SAP, a POS   software transition, resulting in higher customer satisfaction survey results and increased productivity.
~Based on a need to fill a dozen entry-level management positions, created an Employee Supervisor Development Series, filling several vacant places within the first year of adoption.
~Facilitated change in selling culture through positive feedback paradigm shift, resulting in strongest employee survey results in company for past two years.
~Observed staff interacting with customers and provided them with real time, positive feedback that led to behavioral changes that exceeded performance metrics.
~2011 Store of the Year Award based on highest year over year increase in retail metrics; sales, memberships, payroll and customer service index performance.
~Peer nominated Core Value Award for Balance four years in a row from 2006 ~ 2010
~Peer nominated for highest level corporate award within the company, the 2011 Anderson Award, REI highest individual honor, based on living and representing all of the core values of the company: authenticity, respect, quality, service, integrity, and balance.

Assistant Store Manager

Supervised Action Sports department, elected from outside the company which boasts an 87% hiring from within ratio, for this critical role.  The store transitioned into the original power plant in Denver, tripling its square footage and quadrupling its employee base in the move.

~Dramatically increased productivity, improved processes and fostered teamwork within four departments worked through community service projects and team building activities such as employee ski, hike, and mountain bike days.
~Increased sales revenue by double digits in each of the four departments worked with an average of 300-350 employees as well as approximately $30-36 million in sales each year.
~Hiring and training manager responsible for conducting all new hire orientations and on-boarding which included sales, product and customer service training, loss prevention, outreach and visual merchandising standards for approximately five hundred new employees.
~Implemented Corporate Social Responsibility plan for Denver Flagship location, through mapping CO2 footprint of store, raising employee awareness of their CO2 emissions through air quality updates and commuter challenges, before REI had a national CSR policy in place corporately.

Flagship Supervisor

Tom Sims was a pioneer in the snowboard industry, carving the way for this action sports brand to design, market and sell some of the most innovative snowboard hard goods and clothing apparel since the early 1970s.
~Serviced the Rocky Mountain region, including CO, UT, WY, NM and lower ID
~Support over 150+ accounts through sales and service along with on snow demos
~Managed and coached several technical representatives throughout the region
~Collaboration between 25 professional riders and the engineering departments providing technical feedback and possible solutions on prototype designs

Manufacturer’s Representative / Team Manager / Regional Trade Show Manager

Production Manager / Safety Director

Manufacturer’s Representative / Finishing Supervisor

Find out detailed information about Gregory Varanese, Associate Instructor in Salt Lake City, UT

Gregory Varanese: Associate Instructor in Salt Lake City, UT

Gregory Varanese

University of Utah

REI

REI

Sims Sports Inc.

Full Tilt Wakeboards / Ice Age Snowboards

Never Summer Industries Inc.

Salt Lake Community College

University of Utah - David Eccles School of Business