By Business & Finance 
Pictured: Country Manager for Netherlands, Finland & Ireland at Trade Republic.
Hugo Suidgeest is Country Manager for Netherlands, Finland & Ireland at Trade Republic.
What was your first job?
Picking berries. We were paid by the kilo. The year after I became a supervisor and earned the privilege of eating hot snacks inside! My first job after college was in investment banking. We would help investors and companies to sell their company, or acquire another company.
What pushed you to pursue a career in this field?
I’ve always had an interest in businesses and I wanted to do something analytical and high impact. This was a great combination.
What would you regard as your greatest achievement to date?
I’m really proud when I see the Jump bikes being used around the world. I did the strategy work, some work on the acquisition, and the rollout plan for these when I was still at Uber.
Career wise, would you do anything differently?
I always try to focus on the future. You can’t change the past.
In one sentence, how would you define success?
Success is reaching your goals. I think that success looks very different for everyone, and that its important to really know what you want to achieve. It’s easy to copy others but it won’t be as satisfying as coming up with your own plan.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
You don’t have to have an opinion about everything. Focus on where your opinion matters.
How do you motivate yourself and your staff?
By thinking and talking about the life-changing impact investing can have on people. Trade Republic enables normal people to build financial independence with a couple of clicks and very small amounts of money. The only other thing you need to have is patience. We are democratising building wealth. This motivates everyone at Trade Republic.
How do you handle adversity?
Step back, see the bigger picture, laugh about it, and keep going.
How do you relax?
I love sailing. I completely forget about everything else. I once sailed around the Fastnet Rock, the most southern part of Ireland!
What are your aspirations for the future of the business?
I want to make life changing impact on normal people by making investing extremely easy and extremely cheap. We work on reaching more people and launching more and more product features to support that mission.
