Jack Damioli
When Jack Damioli was growing up in Brookfield, he never imagined that luxury resorts like the Greenbrier in West Virginia or the Broadmoor in Colorado existed, he said.
“Going out to a nice dinner for us was the Yankee Kitchen,” the Brookfield native said upon receiving the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber’s Valley Champion Award Nov. 7.
“Anytime we traveled as a family we stayed at mom and pop motels,” Damioli said.
But, Damioli was able to work at both resorts – he’s president and CEO of the Broadmoor – because of golf and his Brookfield upbringing. Whenever he addresses new employee orientation at the Broadmoor, “I talk about growing up in Brookfield. It was a small-town environment. We had a red light. We had some corn, some cows and this golf course and that was the focal point. Golf allowed an individual, regardless of age, to play with other individuals, regardless of skill levels, regardless of age. It was a wonderful environment.”
That golf course is Yankee Run, and Damioli got his first job, shagging golf balls for Ben McMullen, there at age 10. He worked at Yankee Run in various capacities for 12 years.
“It was a great socialization, a great learning experience of how to relate to people of all ages and backgrounds,” said Damioli, a 1977 Brookfield High grad. “I think that was a lesson I took with me.”
When he wasn’t working at Yankee Run, he spent a lot of time there playing golf. He lettered in golf for three years at Brookfield High, was a two-year member of the Youngstown State University golf team and taught golf at Ohio University, from which he graduated in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in recreational management and in 1983 with a master’s degree in sports administration.
By this time, he had learned about the Greenbrier, and a family friend, Steve Bartolin of Hubbard, worked there.
“When I was getting ready to graduate from college, I asked Steve’s father, who would come to the house, if by chance I could get an introduction at the Greenbrier because I wanted to be a golfer professionally,” said Damioli, who was inducted into the Brookfield Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame in 2020.
With that introduction in hand, Damioli got a job at the Greenbrier as bag room manager, eventually working his way up over a 23-year career there to general manager.
Damioli moved to Florida to work as president and general manager of the Gasparilla Inn and Club in Boca Raton, a job he held from 2006-13. In 2014, he joined the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.
“At the Broadmoor, we’re the longest running five-star, five-diamond resort in the world,” Damioli said. The Broadmoor has received five stars in the Forbes Travel Guide since 1960, and five diamonds from AAA since 1976, he said.
“It’s not me, it’s not the management team, it’s 2,100 people working together,” Damioli said. “We’re family, a large family.”
A proponent of management by walking around, Damioli gets to know the lives of the people who work there.
“We’re in the relationship business,” he said. “We achieve what we achieve as a result of 2,100 people working together.”
Under Damioli’s leadership, the Broadmoor has created three boutique camps, one atop Cheyenne Mountain, the second an “upscale dude ranch,” and the third a fly-fishing camp.
“One thing, no beanies and wienies,” Damioli said of the Broadmoor camping experience. “It’s Broadmoor quality food and service.”
Damioli also presided over the construction of a restaurant in a canyon by a waterfall, zipline courses and a railroad that goes to the summit of Pike’s Peak.
Damioli’s love of golf led him down his career path, and the work ethic he learned growing up in Brookfield made his career possible, he said.
“Brookfield was a wonderful place to grow up,” he said.
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