Schmitt has by no means walked away from capital markets altogether, but as he begins a period that he prefers to call “rewirement” he is reflecting on the changes he made in his career. He believes that he made those changes because he could see and seize opportunities as they came — just as he did with his first CEO role back in Brussels.
Opportunity and execution
“I think the lie that life is full of opportunities, but a lot of people don’t see them. Even more, I would say, a lot of people don’t have the confidence and the risk appetite to go after them,” Schmitt says. “I would not say that back when I started my career I planned it all out. But I was always very curious, I was always very interested, and I was always observing. When I saw an interesting opportunity come by, I would go after it.”
It was one of those opportunities that brought Schmitt to Canada. He was a founding partner at Capco — a Belgian consultancy firm — and came over to Canada to work with one of the banks, completing a transformation of their global markets business. The project was meant to last 18 months, but Schmitt saw opportunities in the Canadian market and convinced Capco to open an office here.
While he led Capco’s expansion in Canada and, eventually, the United States, Schmitt was approached by a group asking if he would work with them on a new alternative trading system in Canada that could offer some real competition to the TSX. That would become the Alpha exchange, which launched in 2008 with Schmitt as CEO.
Siezing those opportunities, Schmitt says, required work ethic and confidence on his part. It required collaboration, too. Schmitt attributes much of his success to the teams he built around him. He values teams with diversity of experience and opinion, capable of sharing different perspectives. Those teams, he says, will have a better understanding of the entire customer base. They will notice opportunities and they will find the right way to execute on them.
