{"id":8587,"date":"2013-06-01T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-01T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:18:16","slug":"wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/","title":{"rendered":"Wendy L. Schoppert &#8217;88, MBA &#8217;89"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Deliberate and Bold<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Wendy-Schoppert.jpg\" alt=\"Wendy L. Schoppert \" class=\"wp-image-8588\" srcset=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Wendy-Schoppert.jpg 320w, https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Wendy-Schoppert-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Wendy-Schoppert-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br \/>When Wendy L. Schoppert mentors young professionals hoping to follow in her footsteps, she always offers the same advice: \u201cMake yourself uncomfortable,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause if you\u2019re not uncomfortable, you\u2019re not learning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That philosophy has guided Schoppert through a series of companies to the position that has been her career goal since earning her MBA: CFO, a title she assumed two years ago at Select Comfort, a Minneapolis firm that designs, manufactures, and retails the Sleep Number bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI very deliberately sought out new areas to learn instead of taking a vertical route,\u201d Schoppert says. \u201cI decided to move around into different functional areas to build up my toolkit for future roles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Select Comfort, Schoppert followed her own advice when she became CIO, although she had no previous leadership experience in information technology. It was 2008, the height of the economic meltdown, and Schoppert boldly slashed IT expenses by more than 50 percent \u2014 a tough move that ultimately contributed to a turnaround of the company. \u201cWe literally saved the company by focusing on our core business and building a lower cost structure,\u201d Schoppert says. Last year, Select Comfort increased sales by 26 percent and earnings-pershare by 34 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schoppert attributes the company\u2019s growing market share to three key strategies: increasing awareness of the Sleep Number brand, optimizing and expanding the retail store portfolio, and adding innovative products, such as the adjustable pillow and memory foam series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Schoppert\u2019s career has spanned the travel industry, financial services, and consumer products and retail, one common thread is her appreciation for analytical, data-driven decision making. She recalls her fascination for math as a child growing up near Princeton, N.J.; she later majored in math at Cornell. \u201cI loved the problem-solving aspect of math,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When she isn\u2019t working, Schoppert loves to go on adventure tours with her 12-year-old son, Brett. So far, they have visited Alaska, France, Spain, Italy, and the Galapagos Islands. \u201cWhat I enjoy providing for my son is an appreciation of the world outside the U.S.,\u201d says Schoppert, who was recently appointed to the University\u2019s President\u2019s Council of Cornell Women. \u201cI want to make sure he has a global perspective as he grows up and decides how he wants to contribute to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deliberate and Bold When Wendy L. Schoppert mentors young professionals hoping to follow in her footsteps, she always offers the same advice: \u201cMake yourself uncomfortable,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause if you\u2019re&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":8588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[171],"tags":[196],"ppma_author":[],"class_list":["post-8587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-profiles","tag-archived"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.6 (Yoast SEO v28.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Wendy L. Schoppert &#039;88, MBA &#039;89 - Cornell Business Centers &amp; Institutes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Deliberate and Bold When Wendy L. Schoppert mentors young professionals hoping to follow in her footsteps, she always offers the same advice: \u201cMake\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wendy L. Schoppert &#039;88, MBA &#039;89 - Cornell Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Deliberate and Bold When Wendy L. Schoppert mentors young professionals hoping to follow in her footsteps, she always offers the same advice: \u201cMake\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Centers &amp; Institutes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-01T04:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-14T18:18:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Wendy-Schoppert.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rachel Cherry\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rachel Cherry\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/01\\\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/01\\\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rachel Cherry\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/483887a306c16ef5516d1fbccd06df98\"},\"headline\":\"Wendy L. Schoppert &#8217;88, MBA &#8217;89\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-01T04:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-14T18:18:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/01\\\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":388,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/01\\\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/Wendy-Schoppert.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Archived\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Alumni Profiles\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/01\\\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/01\\\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\\\/\",\"name\":\"Wendy L. Schoppert '88, MBA '89 - Cornell Business Centers &amp; Institutes\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/01\\\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/01\\\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/Wendy-Schoppert.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-01T04:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-14T18:18:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/483887a306c16ef5516d1fbccd06df98\"},\"description\":\"Deliberate and Bold When Wendy L. Schoppert mentors young professionals hoping to follow in her footsteps, she always offers the same advice: \u201cMake\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/01\\\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/01\\\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/01\\\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/Wendy-Schoppert.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/Wendy-Schoppert.jpg\",\"width\":320,\"height\":320},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/01\\\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wendy L. Schoppert &#8217;88, MBA &#8217;89\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/\",\"name\":\"Centers & Institutes at Cornell Business\",\"description\":\"Cornell SC Johnson College of Business\",\"alternateName\":\"C&I\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/483887a306c16ef5516d1fbccd06df98\",\"name\":\"Rachel Cherry\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wendy L. Schoppert '88, MBA '89 - Cornell Business Centers &amp; Institutes","description":"Deliberate and Bold When Wendy L. Schoppert mentors young professionals hoping to follow in her footsteps, she always offers the same advice: \u201cMake","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wendy L. Schoppert '88, MBA '89 - Cornell Business","og_description":"Deliberate and Bold When Wendy L. Schoppert mentors young professionals hoping to follow in her footsteps, she always offers the same advice: \u201cMake","og_url":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/","og_site_name":"Centers &amp; Institutes","article_published_time":"2013-06-01T04:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-07-14T18:18:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":320,"height":320,"url":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Wendy-Schoppert.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rachel Cherry","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rachel Cherry","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/"},"author":{"name":"Rachel Cherry","@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/#\/schema\/person\/483887a306c16ef5516d1fbccd06df98"},"headline":"Wendy L. Schoppert &#8217;88, MBA &#8217;89","datePublished":"2013-06-01T04:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-14T18:18:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/"},"wordCount":388,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Wendy-Schoppert.jpg","keywords":["Archived"],"articleSection":["Alumni Profiles"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/","url":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/","name":"Wendy L. Schoppert '88, MBA '89 - Cornell Business Centers &amp; Institutes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Wendy-Schoppert.jpg","datePublished":"2013-06-01T04:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-14T18:18:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/#\/schema\/person\/483887a306c16ef5516d1fbccd06df98"},"description":"Deliberate and Bold When Wendy L. Schoppert mentors young professionals hoping to follow in her footsteps, she always offers the same advice: \u201cMake","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Wendy-Schoppert.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Wendy-Schoppert.jpg","width":320,"height":320},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2013\/06\/01\/wendy-l-schoppert-88-mba-89\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wendy L. Schoppert &#8217;88, MBA &#8217;89"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/#website","url":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/","name":"Centers & Institutes at Cornell Business","description":"Cornell SC Johnson College of Business","alternateName":"C&I","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/#\/schema\/person\/483887a306c16ef5516d1fbccd06df98","name":"Rachel Cherry"}]}},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-30 12:49:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"authors":[{"term_id":11,"user_id":33,"is_guest":0,"slug":"rc827","display_name":"Rachel Cherry","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/291dad291c2985a6fc76cb92e0239bbbc34eece546f5b984ef6c12566f40598a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","exclude_author":"","first_name":"Rachel","last_name":"Cherry","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8587"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13033,"href":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8587\/revisions\/13033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8587"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=8587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}