John Bresee is a self-professed "lifelong ski bum who has flipped burgers at Alta, washed dishes at Snowbird and taught skiing at Stowe." In the 1990s, John turned his passion for the slopes into a career as a writer/entrepreneur, launching the Wasatch Canyon Reporter newspaper, becoming editor of Powder Magazine, and in 1997 co-founding Backcountry.com, where he now serves as President of the pure-play that generated e-retail sales of $27.5 million in 2004, good enough to rate 176th place on the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide list of America's leading retail sites. Backcountry.com describes its mission as "dedicated to being the best online retailer of the best built outdoor and backcountry gear on the planet," a description befitting the 39-year-old Bresee, a plain spoken commentator on the world of e-commerce and a frequent speaker at industry conferences. Having lost none of his passion to explore the powder on the mountain and the power of the Internet in commerce, John spends "what little spare time I have researching the ends of the Internet for the next wave."