ERIC LADD
Founder, Chairman & Publisher
As the Founder and CEO of Outlaw Partners, Eric Ladd leads a dynamic team formed around the pioneering principles of the Code of the West. Founded in 2009, Outlaw Partners is an award-winning experiential real estate, marketing, media, events and adventure travel company based in Big Sky and Bozeman, Montana. Through its various entities, Outlaw Partners creates meaningful connections, supports local community organizations and inspires action in service.
Outlaw Partners’ award-winning media publications include Mountain Outlaw magazine, Explore Big Sky newspaper, Town Crier newsletter and VIEWS magazine, which have over 5,000,000 readers and subscribers. Outlaw also produces events in southwest Montana, including the Wildlands Festival and the nine-time PBR event of the year: the Big Sky PBR. Outlaw Partners has produced shows with headline artists that include Foo Fighters, Jason Isbell, Lord Huron, Brandi Carlile, Lukas Nelson, Indigo Girls and Turnpike Troubadours.
As a third-generation developer with over 30 years of experience in real estate sales and development, Eric also leads the real estate arm of Outlaw Realty. Having achieved over $2 billion in sales, Outlaw Realty is an industry leader in luxury real estate and consulting in southwest Montana. Eric has held leadership and consulting positions with companies including Yellowstone Club, Spanish Peaks Mountain Club, Moonlight Basin and Mukul Resort.
Eric co-founded Outlaw Real Estate Partners (OREP), a real estate investment, development and services company founded to thoughtfully create unique places that accommodate the exceptional growth occurring in Bozeman and southwest Montana. OREP is now one of the largest developers in the region with a variety of ongoing construction and development projects and planned communities spanning residential, commercial and industrial sectors.
Eric’s passion for wilderness, rivers and guiding began at the age of 15 and never subsided. Turning his passion into a business, Eric launched Boundary Expeditions in 2016. With his team of professional river guides, they operate exclusive, multi-day river rafting trips on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. He has completed expeditions that include the first descent of the Salween River in Tibet and a rare high-water descent of the Yangtze River in China.
Eric and his wife, Dr. Kaley Burns, live in Big Sky and have a strong passion for organizations that focus on the preservation of land, rivers, wildlife and social action. Eric is also involved in a non-profit group that supports orphans in Nepal, is a member of Big Sky Search and Rescue, and a board member for the Gallatin River Task Force. Outlaw Partners also launched the social impact brand Hey Bear to educate and raise awareness for bear safety. As an organization, Outlaw Partners has generated and donated more than $3,000,000 to non-profit causes and continues to inspire action-oriented behavior within the Outlaw team and its growing community.