{"id":1538,"date":"2013-07-31T13:49:51","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T13:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/?p=1538"},"modified":"2013-08-08T14:15:24","modified_gmt":"2013-08-08T14:15:24","slug":"les-otten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/les-otten\/","title":{"rendered":"Show 72: Former CEO of American Skiing Company and President of Maine Energy Systems Les Otten"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Show Information<\/h5>\n

Show:<\/strong>\u00a072
\nAir date:<\/strong> Saturday,\u00a0July 27
\nGuest:<\/strong>\u00a0Les Otten
\nHost:<\/strong> Steve Woods (Stevoe)
\nStudio Contributor<\/strong> Debi Davis
\nExecutive Producer:<\/strong> Mark Gould (Sharky)
\nAssistant Producer:<\/strong> Shannon Maguire<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Les Otten was born in Teaneck, New Jersey.\u00a0 He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in Business Administration from Ithaca College, and then went to work in the skiing industry.\u00a0 First, he worked at Killington Ski Resort in Vermont and then moved up to Bethel, Maine and became ski operation manager of Sunday River.\u00a0 In 1980, Otten bought Sunday River and in 1995 he formed American Skiing Company.<\/p>\n

Otten became Vice Chairman and a partner of the Boston Red Sox from 2002 through 2007.\u00a0 In 2004, while Otten was part-owner, the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918.\u00a0 Otten told Stevoe how in 2004, he was at game seven in St. Louis, comparing the experience to the birth of a child.<\/p>\n

\"Les

TideSmart Talk with Stevoe host Steve Woods (left) is joined in the studio by former CEO of American Skiing Company and President of Maine Energy Systems Les Otten (right).<\/p><\/div>\n

Stevoe and Otten talked about what it was like back in 2000 putting together the group of owners to “Save Fenway” and how going to a baseball game\u00a0is good quality family time, spent sitting together and talking for hours.<\/p>\n

In 2008, then Maine Governor John Baldacci<\/a> approached Otten to chair the Governor\u2019s Wood-to-Energy Task Force.\u00a0 This initiative sought ways to reduce the state\u2019s reliance on foreign oil and stimulate the economy by developing renewable sources of energy made in Maine, by Maine businesses, for Maine people.\u00a0\u00a0 This initiative led Otten to the co-founding of Maine Energy Systems<\/a> with Harry \u201cDutch\u201d Dresser and William \u201cBill\u201d Strauss.\u00a0 Maine Energy Systems provides automatic wood pellet heating boilers to home and business owners, while offering lower costs, a reduced carbon footprint, and creating and retaining jobs in Maine.<\/p>\n

In 2010 Otten ran for Governor, as a Republican.\u00a0 Other candidates included Governor Paul LePage, Elizabeth Mitchell, Eliot Cutler, Shawn Moody and Kevin Scott.\u00a0 His campaign emphasized the need for Maine to create jobs, lower taxes, prepare students for the global economy and have Maine take control of its energy future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TideSmart Talk with Stevoe host Steve Woods was joined in the studio by former CEO of American Skiing Company and President of Maine Energy Systems Les Otten. The two discussed Otten’s work in the skiing industry, the Red Sox and Maine’s goverment. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}