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Gilbert von der Schulenburg Ahrens is the author of Shattered, Shaken, and Stirred: Reconnecting with What Matters Most After Loss and Adversity.  As a public speaker, he shares his personal and business experiences to engage with audiences on the process of recovering from adversity, and how to realistically confront and conquer fear and uncertainty.  Gil spent many years as an investment banker, most recently as Head of Venture Capital Coverage at J.P.Morgan.  He is currently a private wealth manager at J.P.Morgan.

Several of his relatives played significant roles during dramatic turning points in the histories of the United States and Germany.  He is a direct descendant of Israel Bissell, who has been credited with performing the real midnight ride in 1775 (while Paul Revere slept in a tavern) that warned American colonists of the British invasion.  Another relative, Daniel Bissell, was the second U.S. soldier awarded a Badge of Military Merit by General George Washington.  The medal was a predecessor to the Purple Heart, given originally to soldiers who exhibited unusual courage.  His German uncles, Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg and Friedrich Werner Graf von der Schulenburg, were among the high-ranking German officers executed for their central roles in the July 20, 1944 assassination plot against Adolf Hitler. 

Gil holds degrees from New York University and Boston University and studied music at the New England Conservatory.  Early in his business career, he co-founded an award-winning consumer electronics start-up, and worked in Japan in strategic planning at Sanyo Electric Company.   

Gil has been an elder at Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, is a member of M

enlo Park Presbyterian Church, and is on the board of directors at Abilities United, a non-profit in Palo Alto, California that helps champion those with developmental or physical challenges.  He is also a board member of the Bullis Purissima Elementary School Foundation in Los Altos, California.

He was born in Suffield, Connecticut and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Gil is married to Kim, an amazing woman with whom he shares the joy of raising a charming, brilliant and utterly wonderful young daughter.  Together, they all succumb to the whims of Sparky, their domineering Jack Russell Terrier and Bella, a demur Scottish Terrier determined to dominate every inanimate object.

Gil is passionate about music, ice hockey, Formula 1 racing, University of Texas football, and cigars (a vice he acknowledges freely).  If life were perfect, Gil would be an Italian, at least in aspects of food, fashion, mind, matter, and the spoken hand. 

factoids & tidbits

most desired occupation

Formula 1 Racing Driver

2nd most desired occupation

NHL Hockey Coach

most unlikely occupation

Hollywood Confidant

Favorite vacation spot

Just about anywhere in Italy

philosophy

There’s only one God...and it’s not us