Olivier Jarry
TRIUM Global Executive MBA, Class of 2008
Senior Vice President, Novartis
Director and Founder of GreEneSys


GreEneSys Founding Members:
Yoshio Ino - Japan - Investment Associate, Spring Mountain Capital, LP
Olivier Jarry - France - Senior Vice-President, Novartis
Yoshihiro Nishi - Japan - President, Tierra Financial Advisors Inc
Ronald Rocher –Mexico - Commercial Manager, South East Asia, Tenaris
Marcus Silva – Brazil - European Field Maintenance Manager, Air Products Plc


The TRIUM final term project is often cited as one of the more valuable and differentiating facets of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA program. Oliver Jarry, TRIUM Class of 2008, along with 4 of his classmates created GreEneSys, an entirely new socially minded alternative energy business concept for emerging, rural economies.

In his present role, Olivier Jarry leads international business development initiatives for Novartis. He is currently creating a new distribution channel in rural India for a range of medicines from Novartis, in partnership with local pharmacy chains, hospitals and NGOs. He has managed different business units at country (Brazil) and at regional level (Latin America and Asia). Novartis is a world leader in offering medicines to protect health, cure disease and improve well-being.

With diverse cultural, educational and professional backgrounds, the GreEneSys Group proved quite representative of the TRIUM global mindset: Ronald Rocher, from Mexico, is working for an Argentinean Company in France; Yoshio Ino, an investment banker from Japan, is working in New York City; Marcus Silva, a Brazilian businessman, is working in England in the industrial gases industry; Yoshihiro Nishi, from Japan, has been studying theology and is now an international consultant.

“The five of us in our group, three engineers and two investors, found out during TRIUM’s first module that we all had a fascination for bio-fuels, not so much as an attempt to cure the addiction for petroleum in developed countries but as a way to empower small, underserved communities to take charge of their own needs”, adds Jarry.

It was then that they hatched the idea for GreEneSys, a consulting firm that makes a reality of bio-fuels production and utilization at medium scale in emerging countries. GreEneSys provides affordable mid-size equipment and solutions to under-resourced rural farmers so they can generate energy locally for their own needs (i.e., food crops cultivation, electricity, transportation) while also creating an additional source of income from the surplus.

“Today, the cost of importing fuels actually slows down the development of numerous emerging countries, ones that often have large, underutilized and pauperized rural populations. The investing capacity of farmers is limited, and we recognized the need to allow them to achieve some independence in energy, by giving them access to low-cost but still efficient bio-fuels equipment.”

While this was a truly unique concept that was rooted in a global common good, Olivier and his cohorts discovered that they were not alone with regard to their inspiration.

“It is probably worth noting that I was amazed by how many of the term projects in our cohort were socially minded and centered on offering opportunities to emerging countries, protecting the environment, or facilitating education. In my mind, this is what you get when you mix up mature, responsible, socially-aware women and men who have not abandoned their dreams of changing the world. I think this is a wonderful reflection of the TRIUM mindset; caring about making a difference and being incredibly passionate about delivering meaningful results.”

Through the TRIUM participants and alumni, they had some very important doors opened for them.

“Given the TRIUM network we had access to understand the market conditions and approach of many potential customers in numerous countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Tanzania, India and Thailand. Each TRIUM contact brought a different and valuable contribution which resulted in opportunities such as…participating in an industry conference in Rome, negotiating with a potential supplier in Brazil, starting a dialogue with an NGO in Tanzania, finding a social entrepreneur in Nigeria, meeting with the best bio-fuels specialists in an Indian university, discussing financial terms with US investors etc. The connections and the willingness to help by students, alumni and teaching staff has been truly extraordinary.”

Aside from the networking capabilities, the real return from the project was much more directly correlated to Olivier’s ability to think differently and determine how to better apply this new global vision to his current career aspirations.

“You see, many organizations have realized that they obtain the best value from their leaders if they behave like entrepreneurs. Large corporations expect new ‘growth engines’ to be created and become entire new divisions in the future. In this context, the term project becomes an indispensable piece of TRIUM’s learning process as it enabled us to become ready to undertake similar business creation inside our own organization after TRIUM. One does this by integrating all the knowledge acquired through the different modules and by developing the ability to transform an idea into a viable business through teamwork in a relatively short period of time.”

So in the end, three key themes surfaced from the term project that appeared to have a resounding impact on Olivier and his classmates: 1) becoming a passionate, socially minded business person 2) establishing an incredible global network through students, faculty and alumni and 3) the ability to accelerate a career given the global, entrepreneurial approach towards business.

“I would also say that this group term project and this program has already changed my career, my view of life and hopefully will eventually change the lives of others around the world. It was in a phrase a “change agent.” I would be remiss without also saying the intensity and the educational importance of the term project (in comparison with what the other EMBAs may offer) is something that should not be missed by potential EMBA candidates. TRIUM’s term project is the most practical, personal, interesting and deepest “case study” one will ever work on.