Dayo Forster

Before beginning TRIUM, she was project leader in East Africa for the World Savings Bank Institute (WSBI) Gates Project, a project funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation aimed at doubling the number of savings accounts held by the poor. Since finishing the program, she has ventured into more entrepreneurial endeavors, launching Toghal, a homeware startup which reinterprets traditional designs from the continent to produce contemporary designs for the home.

On reflecting on the usefulness of her time at TRIUM, she points out that “the program has generally made me more curious, and it has widened my ability, or at least my confidence, in tackling new aspects of my work. I have been able to think through HR issues related to building a team, for example, considering the skills required and how to build a blend of abilities and personalities.” For her, when considering TRIUM versus other EMBA programs, a key deciding factor was the convenience of the schedule. “The way the resident modules were structured fit in closely with my children’s school terms, and meant my being away wasn’t that disruptive to family life,” she says.

One of TRIUM’s strengths is teaching students to understand the global economy from a larger perspective, and this was an especially important takeaway, Dayo says:

Getting insight into what China and India mean for the world – and for Africa – meant a great deal to me. I liked how the program tried to integrate some local content into the modules, so that I got a sense of what made business in China and India tick.

She has put theory to practice, with the recent launch of Toghal, as she starts to build what she hopes will be a business with global appeal.