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Schuyler Thorup

Executive Vice President, Overseas Operations

Schuyler’s role

As the Executive Vice President for Overseas Operations, Schuyler Thorup oversees the delivery of the agency’s programmatic activities across 120 countries, with an annual budget of $1.3 billion and a staff of approximately 7,500. Schuyler ensures the fulfillment of the agency’s mission of service, catalyzing change at scale for poor and marginalized populations centered on human dignity, social cohesion and the leadership of over 1,800 local partner organizations. 

Schuyler’s commitment to CRS

Prior to his executive appointment in 2013, Schuyler was the Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean from 2006 until 2012. During his tenure, he oversaw diverse humanitarian and development programs across 17 countries, including the agency’s emergency response to Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake, which claimed more than 200,000 lives.

Schuyler began his career with CRS in 1990 in Angola, leading emergency feeding and relief operations during that country’s civil war. In the following years, he managed challenging emergency and humanitarian programs in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho and Peru.

Schuyler was appointed CRS Country Representative for Armenia in 1997, serving until 1999, when he returned to the United States to work as the Regional Development Director for the CRS Southwest Region, based in San Diego. In 2003, Schuyler returned to Africa as the agency’s Country Representative for Malawi, a post he held until he was named regional director in 2006.

Education and other roles

Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Schuyler holds a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and Spanish from the University of Virginia. He earned master’s degrees in Public Affairs and Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Schuyler received a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship and an Inter-American Foundation Fellowship to support master’s level studies in international relations at the University of Belgrano in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as well as community-based field research in the Brazilian Northeast. He speaks both Spanish and Portuguese.

Prior to joining CRS, Schuyler worked for the Private Sector Division of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and was the Coordinator for the Venture Capital Network of Texas at the Small Business Division of the Texas Department of Commerce in Austin.

More about Schuyler

Schuyler is married to Cecilia Damonte. They have two children, Natalia and Santiago. He is a member of the Catholic International Community – St. Austin’s Parish in Nairobi