Company Description
Whitecap Mountains Resort offers year-round family recreation, lodging, and down-home hospitality in Northern Wisconsin. Spread over a vast 400 acres within the ancient Penokee Mountains, it’s the perfect location for a corporate retreat, mountaintop wedding, extended family reunion, or relaxing getaway.
Penokee Skiing Group acquired Whitecap Mountains Recreation, inc in 2019, with the primary business goal and mission of expanding upon existing assets of the Whitecap Mountains Resort. The group made strategic capital investments into the resort with a mission to increase the quality of service and offerings; building the Whitecap Mountains brand into the premiere destination resort community environment for our customers and employees. Our short and long-term investment strategy is centered around continued improvements to the infrastructure of the ski operations, hotel, golf course, and overall operations of the entity. With additional capital, we will build out lodging for our customers since the original building was burnt down due to a fire.
Management Team / Advisory Board Bios
Dave Hataj
President
Dave is the second generation president and owner of Edgerton Gear, Inc., a Wisconsin based custom gear manufacturer, serving the food, paper, packaging, printing and power transmission industries, as well as many others. As a journeyman machinist by age 21, he then earned a Bachelor's Degree from the University of California-Irvine and then completed his Master's Degree from Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. focusing on Systems Theory in a Family Business context. In 2014, he earned a Doctorate of Transformational Leadership from Bakke Graduate University developing a curriculum called Craftsman with Character. The course introduces high school students to the trades and manufacturing as an excellent career path, while developing character and soft skills. Together with his wife, Tracy, they raised their 3 sons on a small farm in rural Wisconsin. Dave is also a shareholder and property owner at Whitecap.
Richard Rausch
Treasurer
Richard received his Sales and Marketing Degree from Willmar Community College in Willmar, Minnesota and has spent his career in Sales and Marketing mainly in the packaging and paper industries and retired in 2004. Richard served for 22 years in the U.S. Army achieving the rank of Sargent First Class. Richard was mobilized for the Iraq war in 1990 and retired from service in 1991. Richard is a shareholder in WMR.
Jim Lucas
Board of Directors
Jim has over twenty-five years of experience in the practice of Architecture. Jim has extensive background in all of the primary architectural services including design, construction document production, construction observation and contract administration. He has developed specific skills to focus more on services such as programming, space planning, code review & compliance, building and site design, project presentations, and preparation of documents and calculations for State approval and review. He resides in Wisconsin Rapids where his office is, but travels regularly to the southeast part of the State for work. Jim has three kids, two are done with their education with the youngest still in high school. He is a hobby artist, enjoys playing with a welder and torch to create outdoor sculptures from found objects. Jim has been skiing at Whitecap Mountains with his parents and siblings since the late 1960’s. He knows the area well and is sincerely interested in making sure that its beauty and family centered events continue for generations to come.
David Dziuban
David has 30 years of combined experience operating and managing ski resorts and landscaping companies. David spent 16 years working in the ski industry on the East coastbuilding lifts, upgrading snowmaking systems and managing mountain operations year round. David’s overall objective is to turn his expertise in the ski industry into a profitable and fulfilling business while creating jobs in a community that is in dire need of employing local residents with livable wages.
