Trustee Spotlight
Oliver Schupp
One of the more recent additions to Northwood’s Board of Trustees is Oliver Schupp, who lives in Madison, Connecticut, with his wife and two children, a twelve-year-old son and a daughter, Sophia, a current sophomore here at Northwood. Mr. Schupp graduated from the University of Mainz in Germany with a Master in Economics. He has worked for 25 years in finance in Frankfurt, London, and New York. He has run one of the largest global units within the asset management division of Credit Suisse with teams in New York, London, Zurich, and Tokyo. The unit has been a key profit generator responsible for several innovative first-to-market investment solutions. Currently, he is head of American operations and business for a large hedge fund based in Paris.
He joined the Board because he saw “the potential in the ski program, which is an underappreciated asset for the school and could help the overall strategic direction.” He noted that the school “has embraced change and drives an innovation-oriented curriculum. The focus on learning for the future is important, as the world is rapidly changing.”
At thirteen, Oliver visited America for the first time to see his sister; years later, he would come in the summers during university, working at a marina in San Diego and later doing an internship with a local broker. He found the U.S. enticing and fascinating, and when the opportunity arose in late 2000, he moved to New York, “never regretting it … Having come from a lower-middle-class family in a mid-size German town with almost all my friends still living there, I clearly was an outsider. Having tackled the ups and downs led me to believe that you can achieve great things when you take some risks, be determined, and really try hard. Of course, you need some luck as well.”
Oliver’s main outside interests include triathlon, biking and skiing. He’s completed four Ironman competitions and over five dozen other races and twice finished the L’etape du Tour, an amateur race of the hardest Tour de France mountain stage finish. He added that he enjoys backcountry skiing and touring, pushing his boundaries.
His advice for Northwood students: “Focus on what’s ahead and might be in demand. It is great to pursue your dreams, but you must also pay the bills. Ask yourself what jobs are needed in