Wouter Goedkoop was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1939 and grew up in Bloemendaal, close to the North Sea. He went to Haarlem High School and in 1962 graduated from Dartmouth College, where he was on the varsity rowing squad. For two years, he served as an officer in the Royal Dutch Navy and later joined IHC Holland, a dredging and offshore equipment firm. In 1969, he graduated from Harvard Business School. He then was a consultant before joining ITT Europe in Brussels, where he was a controller in the automotive division and later an acquisition specialist. He then joined Continental Can, serving as a division controller, international manager for glass closure, and then vice president of subsidiaries in Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. In 1982, he moved to Darien, becoming president of a ceramic capacitor company. He later joined a startup company that worked to improve the mobility of physically impaired people, retiring in 2005. He was chairman of the Center for Contemporary Printmaking and is on the board of Creative Connections and Friends of Selleck Woods. He and his wife Hanneke live in Rowayton and have two adult children and four grandchildren. He enjoys tennis, paddle ball and golf.
