Cloutier Receives Charles Reb Gregg Award at the 21st WRMC

Atlanta, Ga.— Ross Cloutier received the Charles (Reb) Gregg award October 1 at the 21st Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC).

The Charles (Reb) Gregg Award for exceptional leadership, service, and innovation in wilderness risk management recognizes extraordinary contributions to the outdoor education community, adventure and service organizations, and programs and businesses that utilize wild places for their activities. Recipients of the Reb Gregg award have contributed significantly to the practice of wilderness risk management by raising standards of practice, providing valued service to an industry committed to connecting people to wilderness, and supporting the stewardship of wilderness.

This year’s recipient is a climber, mountaineer, author, businessman, consultant and a teacher.

Cloutier has been in wilderness education his entire career. He is known as an authority in adventure-related legal liability and risk management. For the past 22 years he has worked as the department chair of the Thompson Rivers University Adventure Studies department. He also serves as an assistant professor there. He oversees a faculty that includes adventure experts, researchers and visionaries.

In addition to his position at Thompson Rivers University, Cloutier owns and runs Bhudak Consultants Ltd., which is North America’s leading adventure tourism industry consulting firm.

At the WRMC award ceremony, NOLS Director of Risk Management Drew Leemon introduced Cloutier, saying, “I was impressed by his knowledge and insight into risk management issues and his willingness to tackle difficult challenges to help organizations and our profession.”

Jon Heshka who is a colleague, friend and fellow professor of Cloutier’s said, “Ross is always one step ahead. He founded the adventure studies department at Thompson Rivers University in 1992 and helped build it into what is widely-recognized as one of—if not the—best programs of its kind in the world. His book Legal Liability and Risk Management in Adventure Tourism was at the vanguard of this field when it came out in 2000.”