Student Profiles

TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE

RICCI S. WHITLOW   
Director of Operations, Johnson & Johnson Wound Management
As Director of Operations for JJWM, Ricci is responsible for two of the division's European sites along with other responsibilities in the United States.

"Because my job is global in nature, I was intrigued by the international makeup of the TRIUM program and its participants," she explains. For Ricci, the rewards of the program go beyond the purely academic: "TRIUM is also very much about the people you meet in the program and the process of sharing and learning from each other's experiences. TRIUM participants come from all over the world, and their level of experience is tremendously high. Interacting with them so closely takes you to the next level in understanding other people's cultures. It also takes your thinking to a different place from where it had been. In this environment, you get to think about issues from different perspectives and from completely different mindsets. I can see already how TRIUM is going to be a transformative experience for me, personally, professionally…all the way around."   >>read more>>close

EXPLOSION OF IDEAS

JAVIER SUÁREZ   
Director, ING Wholesale Banking
A native of Madrid, Javier came to the TRIUM Program with dual degrees in law and business administration and over a decade's experience in the investment banking industry, first with Spain's Banco Santander and then with Dutch financial giant ING. After working in ING offices in Madrid and London, he is currently Director at ING Wholesale Banking in Milan, where he is responsible for equity research analysis for the Southern European utilities industry.    >>read more

"In my position, I have a lot of contact with clients in different locations and of different nationalities," Javier says. "One of the most valuable things I took away from the TRIUM Program was a better understanding of my clients and how to interact with them."

Much of that "better understanding" came out of Javier's term project, which he feels was the most challenging part of the program, but also one of the most rewarding. "Our project focused on a very real case—there was nothing theoretical about it. Basically, we were enlisted by the company of one of our teammates as external consultants to explore opportunities for diversification. We studied the company in depth and presented our ideas at the final TRIUM module at NYU and subsequently to the company's top executives. The beauty of the project was the opportunity to offer concrete, implementable recommendations directly to top management and have them respond so positively."

For Javier, the TRIUM Program has generated what he calls "an explosion of ideas," many of them triggered just by casual conversation with his fellow TRIUM members. "You're sitting at the dinner table with colleagues and you hear so many different stories of opportunities and experiences all over the world," he says. "You suddenly understand how many things you can do in life that are different from what you've been doing."

Two exciting new projects have stemmed directly from Javier's TRIUM experiences and training. He is writing a book on equity valuation for the Spanish university at which he has lectured for many years, and is in the early stages of starting up a consultancy firm with a TRIUM colleague. "It's amazing to have access to such a vast and diverse set of CVs as you do as a TRIUM alumnus," Javier continues. "I know that for any idea I may want to develop, I have a phone number to call and a TRIUM colleague to consult. And on whichever continent I may want to implement an idea, I'll have a friendly contact there who can give me an introduction to the market or to a specific organization or situation. There are so many opportunities available thanks to this network of TRIUM colleagues and now friends."

Looking back, Javier considers it an honor to have been associated with his TRIUM classmates and professors. "The level of quality is outstanding across the board," he says. "The three universities involved, the faculty, the curriculum, and above all the participants themselves—it's like a potent cocktail that when put together creates in you that explosion of ideas."   >>close

FEEDING THE INTELLECT

JUAN CARLOS GARCÍA CANIZARES   
Managing Director, Quadrant Capital Advisors, Inc.
Juan Carlos García is an investment banker with deep experience in corporate strategy and mergers & acquisitions. A co-founder of Estrategias Corporativas, a Bogota-based, Latin America-focused investment bank, he joined the Santo Domingo Group (a major international beer industry investor) in 2000 as Vice President of Planning and Strategy for Bavaria and is currently a managing director of Quadrant Capital Advisor's New York office.   >>read more

"I spent most of my 20s and 30s building my career and my professional experience, but the tradeoff was not being able to feed my intellect as much as I would have wanted to. I've always believed in the importance of being at the forward edge of business knowledge—that's what drew me to the TRIUM Program at this stage in my career. It's an extraordinary way to update your skill set and access the latest information and research from top faculty at three of the world's leading business learning centers."   >>close

THE BIG PICTURE VIEW

STEVE REID   
Chief Operating Officer, Goldcorp, Inc.
Steve Reid's 30-year career in the mining industry has taken him around the globe and far from his native Australia. A mining engineer by profession, Steve has held corporate, mine-management and operational posts in Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, South Africa and Canada. He is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Goldcorp, Inc., one of the world's largest gold-mining companies.   >>read more

"Mining is certainly an international business, which often requires people to travel," Steve says. "In my case, I've now worked longer outside of Australia than I have in it. As a result, my view of the world is much broader than it would have been otherwise. I've seen many different cultures and understand the ambiguities and challenges of dealing with other societies."

Steve's global mindset played a major role in his selection of an MBA program. "I don't think I could ever have done an ordinary backyard type of EMBA program," he says. "TRIUM's international perspective was the key for me."

Steve had considered completing an MBA much earlier in his career, but the responsibilities of a fast-moving, mobile career and a young family made him put that plan on hold. "Even though the mining business is not known for being at the leading edge of management theory or practice," continues Steve, "I always maintained a keen interest in the business side of things and tried to steer my experience into areas that gave me exposure to knowledge I would have gotten through an MBA." A few years ago, and with the encouragement of his employer at the time, Steve began looking at MBA programs again. "The search didn't last long," he says. "All the dynamics of the TRIUM Program worked for me: its global reach, modular structure, and the opportunity to travel to different international locations, study with top-flight faculties, and look at businesses in their socio-economic context. All of this struck me as unique and extremely valuable."

For Steve, the benefits of the TRIUM curriculum have been tangible, practical and immediately applicable on the job. "You're not just learning theory," he explains. "You are absorbing new ideas and information that you can take away and instantly apply to your business. You also get to use your own business as subject matter in some cases. In one case, one of the readings I had to do for my TRIUM class was so relevant to things that were going on in my business that I shared it with my general managers by making it required reading for one of our management meetings. I've also found that during each module, I have come home with a list of ‘good ideas' for my business that I've compiled during the lectures."

A key part of the TRIUM experience is the term project, and in Steve's case, it explored a subject the mining industry has been attuned to for many years: sustainable development and the environment. He and his team developed a business model around originating carbon credits from greenhouse gas emissions. "The project gave me and my fellow team members the big picture view that I like to have on things, especially for a topic as complex as this," says Steve. "We first had to understand how the Kyoto Protocol, greenhouse gas-emission controls, and how the trading of carbon credits are going to influence business in the future, before we could even start building our project. Our focus is the extraction of the greenhouse gas methane from landfills in Brazil. Destroying methane produces revenue in two ways: it creates carbon credits that can be sold to emitting companies in say, Europe, where they are required because of their Kyoto commitments, and the extracted methane can also be used to generate power. It's a win-win scenario for the company driving the process, both of the countries involved in the credit trade, and the global environment as a whole."

On the eve of his final TRIUM module, Steve counted that "big-picture view" as one of the great benefits of the program. "Another," he says, "is that TRIUM gives you the time, the tools and the rationale to think about the things that are really important for your business. If you're not careful, you can spend your professional life dealing with ‘urgent' things that are clamoring for your immediate attention. TRIUM gives you both the incentive and the time away from the job to think about your business in the context of what really matters most."   >>close

BROADENING HORIZONS

PASCAL BOUCHIAT   
Group Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Rhodia
Pascal Bouchiat was clearly on a CFO track at the French specialty chemicals company Rhodia, but to reach his goal he knew he needed to broaden his horizons. "My background was in industry and finance, primarily in technical positions," Pascal says. "I had reached a point in my career where I wanted exposure to the bigger picture, to develop a truly global perspective on business." That's where the TRIUM program came in.   >>read more"I wasn't necessarily looking to go back to school," continues Pascal, "but the opportunity to know top-level people from around the world was an incomparable benefit."

For Pascal, his TRIUM term project was both challenging and richly rewarding. Pascal and his highly diverse teammates—four nationalities and even more professions were represented among the six team members—served as consultants to Valois, a leading French producer of packaging devices and dispensing systems for the home and personal care, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. "There was nothing theoretical about our project," observes Pascal. "At every step of the way, we were responding to the company's real needs and concrete strategy questions. Our presentations to Valois senior executives were very well received."

Looking back at his TRIUM experiences, Pascal, now CFO of Rhodia, says, "The program is very demanding. A lot is expected of participants. But the payback for that commitment is extraordinary. It's so much more than just a line on a CV. I do believe that TRIUM was a key step—an enabling factor, if you will—in my becoming CFO."   >>close

RUNNING WITH THE BEST

JOANNY DALLOZ   
Executive Director, UBS
"I got so deeply involved in my work that it became impossible to find the right window to take on such a major commitment as an MBA program," Joanny says. About four years ago, however, Joanny, now an Executive Director at UBS, felt he was at a point in his career where he could begin to carve out space and think again about pursuing an MBA.   >>read more

"The program combines the best of three top-ranked international business schools, and that's exactly what I was looking for," he says. "I had been impressed by NYU Stern years earlier, Paris HEC was a natural cultural fit, and the London School of Economics brought a unique political and societal perspective to the mix that I found very appealing." The structure of the program was ideal, too. "I knew I couldn't relocate for an MBA program," he says. " TRIUM's modular structure meant I didn't have to move or ask for a leave of absence from my management. Sometimes in life, if you're lucky, things just fall into place, and for me, that's how it was with TRIUM."

In his pre-TRIUM career, Joanny performed many different functions and gained deep experience in very specific areas. What he felt he was lacking was the global picture. "You do some of this and some of that, but putting it all together is another matter entirely," he explains. "That's what TRIUM allowed me to do."   >>close

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