LAKE PLACID — Ashley Walden has been named the new president and CEO of the state Olympic Regional Development Authority and will take over from current ORDA CEO Michael Pratt starting Sept. 11.

Walden, 41, is a former Olympic luge athlete and a resident of Lake Placid. She will be the first woman to ever lead this state authority. Pratt, who started his career with ORDA as a Zamboni driver during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, will retire on Sept. 29 after leading ORDA since 2017.

The hiring of Walden was announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday, following her confirmation by the ORDA Board of Directors earlier that same day. The ORDA board voted unanimously to hire Walden following an executive session on Monday, according to board documents.

“Ashley’s accomplishments, first as an athlete and now as an executive, run parallel,” ORDA Board Chair Joe Martens said in a statement. “She sets ambitious goals, overcomes challenges and inspires others to reach their full potential. I have no doubt she will do that as the Olympic Authority’s president and CEO, following in Mike Pratt’s giant footsteps.”

“I’m obviously extremely excited and honored to have even been considered, let alone selected, for the position,” Walden said Monday. “(I’m) really just looking forward to joining the ORDA team and working alongside so many great staff that are a part of that team.

“(I have) a tremendous outpouring of respect for Mike Pratt and the amount of work that he has done to build up the Olympic Regional Development Authority to the position it currently has and really lay the groundwork for an exciting future,” she added.

ORDA declined to share what Walden’s annual salary will be. The exact amount is still being finalized by the board, according to Martens. According to board documents, Walden’s salary will be “based on the recommendation of the search committee and a review of the salary history of the outgoing president and CEO.” As of last year, Pratt earned a base pay of $207,565. His total pay was $236,615, according to SeeThroughNY, a data platform operated by the independent Empire Center.

Prior to being hired as ORDA’s new CEO, Walden was the executive director of the Adirondack Sports Council, which led planning for the 2023 FISU Winter World University Games. Before that, she was director of sport and operations for USA Bobsled and Skeleton, the sports’ national governing body, and served as a leader for the team during the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She spent 16 years as a member of USA Luge’s national team, according to a March news release about her speaking engagement at the New York State Tourism Conference. She won a bronze World Cup medal in Germany in 2005 and finished eighth at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“I’m obviously really passionate about winter sports,” Walden said. “I got my start in sports here, at one of the ORDA venues, so it’s something that’s near and dear to my heart. When I saw the opportunity to be involved and to lead the ORDA team, for me it was just something that I really (was) super enthusiastic about.”

Walden is also a mother to two children, ages 4 and 10.

Hochul said she believes Walden will bring “dedication, leadership and deep sports knowledge” to the job and build upon the state’s capital investments into ORDA-managed winter sports venues over the last few years. The total public investment into ORDA over the past six years has topped $620 million, Adirondack Life magazine reported. The state in its most recent budget earmarked $92.5 million for ORDA. Hochul called these funding infusions a “generational investment.”

ORDA announced the job opening and Pratt’s retirement on May 18. The position was posted publicly. The search committee, composed of six ORDA board members, began reviewing the 19 applications they received on May 24 and conducted interviews from June 14 to July 1. Walden was formally approved in a resolution by the ORDA board Monday, following her recommendation by the search committee to the board.

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North Elba town Supervisor Derek Doty, Wilmington town Supervisor Roy Holzer, state Sen. Dan Stec and state Assemblyman D. Billy Jones each congratulated Walden on her appointment in a statement.

“As we all just witnessed, one of Ashley’s strengths is being able to work with others and form a team to get the job done, which the success of the World University Games has proven,” Lake Placid village Mayor Art Devlin said in a statement. “Using all the resources that the Olympic region has to offer, I look forward to seeing Ashley do the same thing at the Olympic Authority.”

“While the village looks forward to working with Ashley, it is bittersweet as we will be losing Mike Pratt,” Devlin added. “Mike has done an excellent job of taking all of his experiences and listening to those under him to repurpose and rebuilding all of the Olympic venues to what are unarguably amongst the best in the world. On behalf of myself and the village of Lake Placid we wish all the best to Mike in his retirement and to Ashley in her new endeavor.”

ORDA generated approximately $66.9 million in direct economic impact by spending money locally in the 2022-23 fiscal year to sustain the operations of its various facilities, according to a study conducted by Tourism Economics. Visitors to ORDA facilities contributed approximately $133.8 million to the local economy by spending money at both on-site and off-site establishments such as restaurants, hotels, retailers and other recreation/entertainment venues, according to the study. The study calculates those figures using “data and insights from numerous third-party studies and surveys, in addition to data on the origin and number of visitors at Olympic Authority facilities,” according to a June statement from Greg Pepitone of Tourism Economics.

ORDA manages winter sports venues in Lake Placid, including Mount Van Hoevenberg, the Olympic Speed Skating Oval, the Olympic Center — which includes the Olympic Museum and the Lake Placid Conference Center — and the Olympic Jumping Complex. It also manages three ski areas: Belleayre Mountain, Gore Mountain and Whiteface Mountain, including the Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway. ORDA also owns the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center and ORDA’s new corporate offices on Church Street, and leases the USA Luge facility to USA Luge.

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Enterprise Managing Editor Elizabeth Izzo contributed to this report.

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CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly said ORDA owns the USA Luge facility. It leases the land upon which the USA Luge facility was built.