Vikram Rupani '99

After graduating from the UWC, I moved to the Northeast to attend Babson College, a specialty business school located right outside of Boston. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with concentrations in Finance and Economics.

After graduating from Babson in 2003, I joined the investment banking analyst program at JPMorgan in New York. I decided to focus on industrial and transportation companies, and eventually managed to find my way into working with bankrupt U.S. airlines trying to raise capital in difficult times. After spending two grueling (but enjoyable) years working at JPMorgan, I moved to a hedge fund to begin trading airline credits and equities. I continue to work in this capacity, and remain fascinated with the ever-changing world of aviation. While I was at JPMorgan, I met my wife (she was not a banker!) and we were married in November 2006 in Goa. UWC friends who attended the wedding included Reginald Moraine, Aditya Shah, Siale Bain-Vete, and Alfredo Achecar (all class of '99).

My experience at UWC was a defining period, and the lessons learned continue to guide me in decisions I am faced with today. I am continually looking for opportunities to apply my corporate experience to make a positive difference, and most recently, my attention has been focused on making specific environmentally-friendly technologies more cost-effective. As part of a family business expansion, I am helping develop a low-cost resin solution to be used in manufacturing blades for wind-turbines, which would reduce their cost significantly and promote the harvesting of wind energy. In the future, we hope to expand into more advanced composites, including those used in building the next generation of aircraft–lighter airframe structures that result in greater fuel efficiency.