Cloudflare CEO Slams Vail Resorts' New Board Pick as Park City Standoff Drags On

Vail Resorts' decision to add MGM Resorts International CEO Bill Hornbuckle to its board has drawn a sharp public rebuke from Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, the Park City billionaire who has spent more than a year pushing the ski giant to sell him Park City Mountain Resort.

Vail Resorts announced on July 30, 2026, that Hornbuckle would join the company's board as its tenth member, effective August 3. Prince, reacting on X over the weekend, mocked the pick as a natural fit for a company he accused of extracting money without giving much back, a comment reported by Investing.com and carried by Yahoo Finance UK.

Who Is Bill Hornbuckle

According to Vail Resorts' announcement, distributed via PRNewswire and reported by outlets including the Vail Daily and Park Record, Hornbuckle has led MGM Resorts as CEO and President since 2020 and has spent more than 35 years in hospitality, resort operations, and large-scale resort management, including earlier stints as MGM's president, chief operating officer, and chief marketing officer. He holds a hotel administration degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, chairs the U.S. Travel Association, and has served on the boards of T-Mobile Arena and the Clark County Stadium Authority.

Vail's release, as reported by the Park Record, emphasized that Hornbuckle maintains a longstanding home in Park City, which the company said gives him genuine familiarity with the mountains and with Vail's guests. Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz said in the announcement that Hornbuckle's experience running major resorts and building guest loyalty made him a strong addition to the board as the company launches Epic Experience, its multi-year push to modernize the guest journey. Hornbuckle, in turn, said he has long admired Vail's destinations given his own career in hospitality and personal ties to the mountains.

Industry outlet Unofficial Networks noted the appointment comes at a moment when Vail faces persistent activist-takeover speculation, framing the addition of a hospitality-industry veteran familiar with both Vail's business and Park City itself as a strategically timed move for a company under outside pressure.

Prince's Long-Running Campaign

Prince, a Park City native who worked as a ski instructor there in the 1990s before co-founding Cloudflare, has spent more than a year arguing publicly that Vail underinvests in lift infrastructure, snowmaking, and worker pay at Park City Mountain Resort, and has offered roughly $500 million toward a community-based purchase of the resort. Vail has consistently rejected the idea that the resort is for sale, pointing to $121 million in capital investment there since 2016, according to Investing.com's reporting.

Financial news outlet Semafor first reported in June that Vail had engaged takeover-defense bankers to assess the company's vulnerabilities, in part due to outside interest in its mountain assets — reporting that sent Vail Resorts shares up more than 11% in a single session, according to the Colorado Sun and the Park Record. Semafor followed with a separate report that Oasis Capital Management, an Asia-based activist investor holding what the Park Record described as a nearly 8% stake in Vail, was weighing a full proxy fight aimed at reshaping the board and potentially pushing the company to sell off individual mountains.

Katz has pushed back on the idea that Vail should pursue what Prince has proposed, an "asset-light" model in which the company would partner on mountain operations rather than own them outright. Speaking to Semafor, Katz said he wasn't a fan of that approach for Vail, while striking a more conciliatory tone toward Prince personally, saying he appreciated the passion Prince has shown for Park City without committing to follow any one individual's perspective.

What Comes Next

It remains unclear how Oasis Capital views the Hornbuckle appointment, according to Investing.com, and whether the board addition will be seen as a substantive response to activist pressure or simply a defensive move. Vail Resorts is scheduled to report fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 earnings on September 24 — Hornbuckle's first earnings call as a board member — a moment analysts and Prince himself are expected to use to press management on capital allocation and any potential asset sales. Vail shares remain roughly 9% below their 52-week high, per Investing.com, as the company works to demonstrate its latest board move is more than a defensive gesture against mounting outside pressure.