Her Story
About Jessica
Jessica Schupak is a hospitality development professional with expertise in food and beverage development. Since 2009, she has worked with hotel companies, developers, and property owners to shape F&B strategy, support concepting and programming, and guide the design development process. Before founding her own business, Schupak was head of development at a restaurant group based in New York. Her earlier career included strategy consulting and internal corporate development roles focused on strategy and M&A. She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University. Schupak also holds a Level 2 award in Wine and Spirits with Distinction from WSET. She attributes her success to empathy for stakeholders and values personal integrity, kindness, and gratitude in her work.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jessica
01What do you attribute your success to?
Empathy for all of the different stakeholders that I interact with is really understanding where they come from. I think is part of what makes my approach effective.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
From the book 'Let Them' - sometimes you need to let things play out, and you need to be okay with that. You can't control the whole process. You can't control all of the different stakeholders' inputs. You need to trust them to do their work and do it well. And then if it doesn't work out, you have to be okay with that.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
You have to stay true to yourself. You can't shape yourself to try and be successful in the situations that you're in. Ultimately you will find the most success trying to be the best version of yourself you can be, not trying to be a different person.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges is to be committed to something that's truly special, that is committed to excellence. It's very easy to say a lot of things that sound exciting. But to actually have the commitment to do the very hard work to achieve excellence and sustain excellence is a different thing.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Personal integrity, kindness, and gratitude.
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