INTERVIEW BY SARAH FRANZETTI

One year ago, Trevor Tuthill was on a train back to Poughkeepsie after a day of interning with Silvercrest Asset Management group in New York City. Dressed in a suit, Trevor was passing the time by reading a book called “The Buy Side,” when the passenger seated next to him happened to look over at him.

“Where do you work?” the man asked him. Trevor, an outgoing and bubbly person, immediately struck up a conversation, and soon learned that the man had recently started his own investment management firm after working for Neuberger Berman for many years. “We had a really nice discussion and he said he was always happy to help me out and to reach out whenever,” Trevor said.

Now a year later, Trevor has plans to meet up with this same man next week in New York City, after the two kept in contact since their chance encounter on the train. “You never know who’s sitting to your right or left,” Trevor said. “The conversations that I’ve started with people on the train have actually helped me to get probably most of my opportunities.”

WHILE MANAGING AN EQUITY PORTFOLIO IN HIGH SCHOOL—Wherever Trevor Tuthill goes, he manages to create connections with those around him—reflecting not on his commitment to his career, but also to building personal relationships.

"Now that I am a junior, looking back, you don’t really understand how fast it goes. As you get older and gain more hands on experience with internships and start to look for full time employment, you really have to enjoy it."

When Trevor was 16 and a junior in high school, his dad set him up with a Charles Schwab equity portfolio. “He said, I’m going to start with you a little bit of money with a Charles Schwab account—manage it however you want, but you should have a defined strategy in terms of what equities you pick and what the investment process in general is,” Trevor recalled.

Though his dad wanted to give Trevor financial experience at a young age, he wanted it to be an experience that would help him learn practical life skills. By letting him take the reins, it provided Trevor with a sense of self-reliance that he would carry with him as he got older.

“I’ve looked up to [my dad] for as long as I can remember,” Trevor said. “He’s taught me a lot and helped me out a lot with different opportunities.”

In many ways, Trevor is a blend of both his mother and his father. Where he inherited his father’s interest in management, he got his mother’s athletic nature. Trevor’s mom is an avid tennis player and his whole family enjoys hiking together, especially when they lived in a mountainous region of Arizona. During his freshman and sophomore years, Trevor was on the Marist hockey team, and two weeks ago, he completed a half marathon. Trevor said he hopes to someday hike Mount Kilimanjaro.

Growing up, Trevor always knew he wanted to do something under the umbrella of finance, but he wasn’t exactly sure what that was. As he continued to manage his equity portfolio throughout high school and then into college, he discovered he loved to keep up with the changing capital markets. He thrived on the thrill of watching the stocks climb and dip, and picking the perfect moments to sell or trade his shares.

“Since I was a junior I’ve been managing it and just been slowly growing it. In high school it was cool to get a feel for it, but I really learned a lot more in college, especially through internships. Because then I was actually learning about specific equity strategies and  different valuation techniques,” he said.

Gaining hands on experience is a consistent goal of Trevor’s, who has held different internships since he was a freshman in college. By working in several different positions, Trevor eventually narrowed down which type of finance he was the most interested in. “I didn’t know specifically what I wanted to do so I worked for New York Shipping Exchange.

Trevor Tuthill was 16 when he recevied an equity portfolio from his dad, who told him he could use whatever strategies he wanted as long as he managed it. Since then, Trevor has remained captivated by buying and selling stocks, and keeps a constant eye on the changing capital markets. An outgoing and ambitious person, Trevor is constantly striking up conversations with those around him, many of which led to him securing hands-on internships. Upon graduation, he thinks he will probably start working in New York, but as to where he'll end up, Trevor—who has already moved from New Jersey, to Arizona, and now to Virginia—is open to anything. 

Then I knew I didn’t want to do anything with shipping. And then from there, I didn’t know if I wanted to do investment banking or investment management, so that’s why I kind of had an investment banking internship and then I also worked for Silver Crest and went back and forth a little bit,” Trevor said.

Once he started to eliminate what he didn’t want to do, what he did want to do became much clearer. Eventually, Trevor realized that what he was most interested in was something he had been doing on a smaller scale since he was 16: managing equities.

Today, he plans on pursuing this interest after he graduates from Marist next May. “I probably would want to start as an equity analyst or as a trader, and then I’d like to eventually probably be a portfolio manager. I’d like to ideally be on the buy side, because I like to choose stock,” he said.

Whatever he ends up doing, Trevor’s close circle of friends and family have complete faith that his ambitious nature will lead him to success. “Trevor is someone who has managed to find more than 24 hours in a day. He goes from running a marathon, to studying for tests, to preparing for a highly important interview all in less than a day,” Trevor’s friend, Michael Bartelli said. “He is someone that you want to be around, because you hope that by spending time with him maybe some of his intelligence will rub off on you.”

As he looks toward his future, Trevor also takes time to reflect on the past three years at Marist. “Now that I’m a junior, looking back, you don’t really understand how fast it goes. As you get older and gain more hands on experience with internships and start to look for full time employment, you really have to enjoy it.”

For Trevor Tuthill, life is one big networking opportunity waiting to happen. He loves the uncertainty of “never knowing who’s sitting next to you,” and never knowing what will come next. After growing up in New Jersey and moving to Scottsdale, Arizona, and most recently, Virginia Beach, Trevor has no set plans for where his life will take him, professionally or geographically—and, he is perfectly okay with that.

“I think it would be cool to live in Paris, or even Australia. But I don’t really see myself there for a long term period. I definitely see myself starting in New York, and then I also love it out west, my girlfriend lives in San Diego, and we lived in Scottsdale. So I love that western culture. I could see myself maybe in San Francisco, I don’t know. You can’t really predict it now,” he said.

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