TRIUM alumnus Victor Meyer brought a unique set of life experiences to his TRIUM student cohort. As a U.S. Naval officer and Navy SEAL, he was responsible for planning and executing missions of national and international significance. He has participated in numerous overseas deployments - the Arabian Gulf, East Timor, Yemen - and currently serves as chief of contingency planning at the London-based headquarters of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe.

As varied and colorful as his life has been, Victor realized that something had been missing: "a world-class business education with a global focus." The TRIUM Global Executive MBA provided that missing piece. Victor chose TRIUM for the individual strengths of its elite partner schools. But he also found that the personal experience turned out to be as important as the academic, and that his fellow students were also his teachers. "TRIUM," he says, "has been as much about learning about myself as learning the course material. It has helped me to see myself through the eyes of colleagues from other countries and cultures. We not only learned from each other, we taught each other as well."

Frédéric Dervieux has always had global ambitions. In his long career at the Nestlé Corporation, he has undertaken assignments in Germany, Spain, Brazil and China, returning to his native France for three years to manage a factory in the company's ice cream division.

But Frédéric's goal was to go beyond being a technical manager to becoming a general manager, a business unit manager and eventually the manager of an entire division. So in 2001, he embarked on a new phase in his career by entering the TRIUM Global Executive MBA program. TRIUM offered him both the truly international program he was looking for as well as a schedule that would not tie him down to semester-long periods in one place. "At Nestlé you are always on the move," he says. "The way the TRIUM program is organized has allowed me to meet the requirements of my current position, while gaining the skills that will propel me to my next one."

Less than a year into the program, Frédéric was promoted to director of ice cream industrial operations in France, with responsibility for operations in two locations. Recently, he received his second promotion in 16 months. He is now responsible for 18 factories in 11 European countries. Frédéric credits his promotions in part to the additional expertise he gained in the TRIUM program. "Nestlé recognizes that my studies are contributing to its business. TRIUM was hard work, but it was worth it."

Korbinian (Koko) Kohler is the third generation of the Kohler family at the head of GMUND Paper, a luxury paper company founded in 1829 in Gmund am Tegernsee, Germany. After completing his university studies in Germany, with internships in New York and Paris and an exchange term in London, Koko returned to Paris for further studies at the Sorbonne, but wound up founding his own successful business, a sales agency representing three major flexible packaging manufacturers in France. Three years later, he sold the company and returned to Germany to join the family firm, first as Sales Director, now as co-president.

Koko had been thinking of going back to school for his doctorate, but when he discovered TRIUM on the Internet, he realized this was the program for him. "One of the best things about TRIUM," he says, "is the people that you meet and interact with so intensively. The relationships I've built with both classmates and professors have been excellent-and are continuing beyond graduation."

"Another important thing TRIUM has done for me is to build up my confidence in my own decisions and actions. I'm better able now to judge whether what I'm doing in a given situation is the right course or not."

Born in Malaysia and trained in Singapore, the UK, and Canada, Dr. Seang Lin Tan is an internationally recognized expert in reproductive medicine and the treatment of infertility. A pioneer in the simplification of in-vitro fertilization, Dr. Tan founded the McGill University Reproductive Center in Montreal and built up McGill's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, of which he is Chairman, into one of the strongest in North America. Dr Tan is a leading figure in the academic world of obstetrics and gynecology, has published seven books, over 240 original scientific papers and has been on the editorial boards of nine medical journals. He is regularly invited to speak at national and international scientific meetings and has received numerous awards and honors, including the Resolve Award of the National Infertility Association of the United States, the Howard Eddey Gold Medal by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the MRCOG Gold Medal by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the United Kingdom. Dr. Tan's short term goal in seeking an MBA was to acquire the management skills he felt he needed to further strengthen his department. His long-term goal, however, was the establishment of a Foundation for Women's Health to promote the reproductive health of women and couples in centers around the world. The capitalization of the foundation became the focus of Dr. Tan's final TRIUM term project.

"The main attraction of TRIUM for me," says Dr. Tan, "was its international outlook as well as the top reputation of the three partner universities." Although most physicians who acquire an MBA intend eventually to give up clinical medicine, Dr. Tan is fully committed to continue working as a physician. His TRIUM experience, however, has given him an extra dimension as a manager that has allowed him to run his department much more effectively. "The opportunity to exchange ideas in totally different areas with people from diverse walks of life has opened up new ways of thinking for me and given me new approaches to problem solving."