Valerie Corradini

So enthusiastic was she about the opportunities presenting themselves to her at TRIUM, Valerie soon quit her job at executive talent firm Egon Zehnder International to soak up all she could from the program and begin to explore her next career. “I was inspired by TRIUM,” she says.

Returning to the rigor of academia wasn’t easy, Valerie, a mother of two young boys, admits. “Calendaring their lessons and ball games during the program’s modules required some intricate strategizing,” she says. But being with her classmates in New York, London, Paris, Shanghai, and Chennai, India, was an experience she thoroughly enjoyed. “The structure, where you spend two weeks at a time together, is one of TRIUM’s strengths. Every evening there are people to go out to dinner with, and it quickly becomes comfortable and interesting because of the time you’ve spent together.” Classroom discussion was invigorated by the contributions of her classmates, who are respected experts in their own fields, she added. “What they add to the program can’t be replicated.”

As she grew increasingly immersed in TRIUM, Valerie stood for class representative, and she laughs that the job has continued beyond her degree. “I’m still in communication with the other two class reps and with other alumni. Some of us get together every other month.” The alumni-organized “Module 7” reunion, to be held this year in Moscow, “is a wonderful event to get to know previous years’ alumni and to reconnect with your own cohort.”

Valerie became interested in the payments industry early in the program and reached out to Visa as the TRIUM program progressed. “I found the industry to be a fascinating convergence of technology and finance,” she says. Starting as the Global VP of Human Resources, she has since transitioned into a strategy and operating role in Visa’s Commercial Business, building out the Global Accounts efforts in advance of the Visa Europe acquisition. She works closely with Visa’s Financial Inclusion team, who design and execute programs to bring people, largely in developing nations, into the financial system. “The opportunity to democratize access to capital around the world is challenging and tremendously interesting,” she says.

“TRIUM helped me become a much more versatile executive, with global exposure I hadn’t previously had. Moving from single industry sales and strategy into this role, which is essentially a strategic operating function, is a big change. TRIUM gave me a great foundation from which to expand my skillset and the benefit of a global network of experienced colleagues.”