Eric Greenwood '16 used his time as a Prefect at GA to learn initiative and leadership skills, which he then brought to Lehigh University. Currently working at GroupeConnect in Boston, Greenwood has added advertising, marketing, and soccer to his daily routine. 

Q — What have you been up to since graduating from Germantown Academy in 2016?

A — I attended Lehigh University and graduated in 2020. Right after college I started working remotely for a small advertising agency in the Philadelphia area that mostly worked in the medical device area. I worked as a project manager for that agency for about a year and then shortly after that I moved up to Boston, where I am now located, working at a larger advertising agency, in kind of a hybrid role between content management account management and our work here consists of having a client in the financial services industry so we do a lot of advertising for the bank.

Q — Why do you do what you do?

A — I knew I was interested in marketing and advertising just from watching commercials and enjoying how they message to different audiences of people and how they sell products. At Lehigh, I studied marketing and a few other things to supplement that such as psychology and data analytics which kind of help in terms of understanding consumer behaviors. The marketing field is pretty data heavy, as we do a lot of tracking for the campaigns that we run so all of that from college really set me up nicely to jump into different agencies. I was lucky because I feel like I always knew that I liked marketing and wanted to be in that world, so right out of college being able to find something in that space and then continue after that first job as well has been gratifying.

Q — What GA experiences influenced you or helped you get where you are today?

A — I loved my time at GA. One big thing I would say that kind of sparked some leadership qualities that were helpful was the House system and being a Prefect. It was really my first role in terms of leading a meeting or organizing a group which was very applicable to my current day to day work life in terms of running meetings and running projects. It was one experience that really helped me in that journey and got me interested in account and project management. I was a part of Truesdell and that was a lot of fun. Forming relationships with teachers that helped me understand what I liked and didn’t like in terms of different subject matters and tasks was pretty helpful, and assisted me in what I wanted to do.

Q — What are your interests away from work?

A — I am a pretty big soccer fan. I follow Liverpool, an English soccer team, so I’m invested in that and watch the games and follow along. I played soccer at GA and some club soccer in college, and play in a few leagues in Boston now, so I try to stay active on that front. Aside from that my other kind of hobby is woodworking. My first job out of college for a few months which was right at the beginning of the pandemic was custom cabinet building where I did a lot of sanding and putting together cabinets, so that was pretty cool. In my own projects I’ve made a couple small benches and tables and some flights for holding beer. I’ve been trying to keep active with it but it’s also hard living in a city and not really having access to tools and space. It is very enjoyable.