Michael Schmertzler

First elected to the NOLS board of trustees in 2001, Michael’s term was extended so he could serve as Board Chair through the 2008 financial crisis and into 2010. In February 2014 he was elected as Chair Emeritus. 

Michael is a graduate of a number NOLS courses: a Alaska Brooks Range river course, a Winter Ski course in Wyoming, a Mountaineering course in the Pacific Northwest, a Gannett Peak Mountaineering, and a Wilderness Upgrade for Medical Professionals (WUMP) course. He has also joined alumni courses and participated in scouting courses in Africa and Europe.

Michael has served as a director, founder, or chairman of a number of biotechnology, technology, and industrial companies, and as the court-appointed independent director of the major subsidiary of the post-bankruptcy Lehman Brothers estate. He has been on the faculty at Yale University since 1998 teaching undergraduate and graduate Economics and Finance courses. He is currently a Charter Trustee of Phillips Academy Andover and was previously a Governor and Treasurer of the New York Academy of Science. Michael’s professional career has involved serving in roles including the senior management of private equity and debt funds, the senior management of international investment banking and sales and trading, Chief Financial Officer, and as an investment banker, at Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston, and Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb. 

Michael is an EMT and WEMT and a commercially licensed helicopter pilot. His wife, Kuni, has been active in the preservation of wild lands as Chair of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. Their sons, Ian and Ethan, are also NOLS expedition and NOLS Wilderness Medicine graduates.

Michael holds a B.A. in city planning, history and molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale College; attended the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University; and has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.