Thomas W. Ostrander

Corporate and Philanthropic Board Member

After a nearly 40-year career on Wall Street, and a 2015 move to Nashville, TN, Tom is pursuing a diverse group of professional activities. He is on the Board of Directors and chairman of the Audit Committee of Eneti (NYSE-NETI), a European green ship construction company whose products will place ocean offshore power-generation windmills. Tom has also invested in and advised Tennessee-based startups, including an online healthcare marketplace and a craft brewery and taproom. After a 1976 Harvard MBA, Tom's Wall Street investment banking career started at Kidder Peabody & Co., and in 1989 moved to Citigroup and its predecessors, including Salomon Brothers. From 1985-1997, Tom also sat on an Advisory Board at the FASB (ruling body of accountancy), and in 1975, as a CPA at Ernst & Whinny, the Advisory Board of the Paton Accounting Center. 

Outside of work, Tom was on the National Down Society Board, 12-year board president of Ballet Hispanico, and now, board and management team member at United States Heartland China Association. In addition to the DAC, Tom has met with other U-M schools and units–such as the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, School of Education, and Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies–in varying capacities, including networking, introductions, shared activities, and collaborations. Tom served as co-chair of the New York City/Tri-State Major Gift Committee in U-M’s Michigan Difference Campaign.

Tom and his wife, Kelli Turner (Ross and Law School alumna), and with the help of their five children, have worked with the university in expanding its outreach to alums in Nashville and Middle Tennessee. Tom's oldest son John is a 2009 LSA grad, and Tom's maternal grandparents met on the U-M campus in 1899. For a period of five months in 1983, his grandmother was U-M’s oldest living alum.