Andrei Maklin

Andrei Maklin (TRIUM Class of 2013) has spent the years since TRIUM building and scaling businesses in frontier areas of financial services and technology. His work has focused on blockchain B2B platforms, including a Web3 enabler for building and scaling applications, a financial asset tokenisation platform that reached $1B tokenised in its first year, and a trade finance platform with $5B in annual turnover. He also invests at an early stage in Web3 startups.

“Back then I was a fairly typical Executive MBA candidate – decent corporate career, comfortable life, and a growing sense that I was building someone else’s dream. The obvious midlife options were a sports car or a startup. My wife and I reviewed them and chose the startup.

I only wanted to do one EMBA, so I visited the top programs and met students, alumni, and faculty. TRIUM won on the people. Before I even joined the alumni were more willing to help than anything I saw elsewhere. That turned out to be worth more than rankings.

My first startup was a disaster – or an expensive lesson. Still, it started the journey: three scaled blockchain platforms, successful exits, and a lot of lessons I don’t recommend learning firsthand.

Through all of it, TRIUM kept showing up: intros, partnerships, co-founders. One example. My Stanford-educated business partner emailed a dozen Stanford alumni for niche Canada market insight and got a few polite generic replies. I contacted five TRIUMers. Two replied with real insight and great contacts, and one became a contractor. My partner said, “Looks like I chose the wrong school.”

Now I’m building again focused on turning private equity into something liquid and yield-generating. Once again, I’m building with TRIUMers. At some point it stops being coincidence and starts looking like a pattern.”

Andrei’s story also captures something that comes up often in the Class of 2013 reflections: what TRIUM gives people is not only the experience during the modules, but a network and shared frame of reference that continues to matter when careers shift direction.

Voices from Class of 2013:

Donna Costa (Class of 2013): “During the programme itself, it was tremendously valuable to work with very smart, experienced and international colleagues.”

Olga Jordao (Class of 2013): “My horizon is much wider today. I know that I can learn complex new things that I never thought I would be able to do.”

As TRIUM marks its 25th anniversary, stories like Andrei’s help capture what lasts after the modules end: the relationships and shared frame of reference that continue to matter as careers shift, new ventures take shape, and priorities change.

In an anniversary year, it is also a chance to place those reflections side by side across cohorts and generations, and to see how many of them are still unfolding, shaped by the world as it changes and by the community that has grown with it.