Engagement
“They all had big dreams they were passionate about; they all knew what they wanted and believed they could achieve it.”
Masters entrepreneurial spirit shines through We are always happy to feature the successes of our alumni and in recent issues of IMPACT we have covered a number of entrepreneurial Masters graduates. In this article we catch up with some of them.
Alumna recognised as a top entrepreneur Congratulations to Khdeija Sidi-Boubacar who was named in the Poets and Quants Masters in Management Entrepreneurs of 2020 list. Published in November 2020, by the US graduate business education publisher, the list is made up of 20 successful entrepreneurs from leading Masters in Management programmes around the world. Khdeija graduated from our MSc Management (Entrepreneurship) programme in 2017 and then built her own company, Raiona. Raiona is a business matchmaking service which Khdeija describes as “arranged marriages for companies”. Companies come to her with an issue, and she connects them with another company that can collaborate with them to solve it. Raiona operates from Mauritania and works with businesses f ro m a n e t wo r k s p re a d a c ro ss 1 4 4 different countries. As part of the Poets and Quants report, Khdeija shared experiences along
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her entrepreneurial journey, including studying here in Durham. She said: “One of the best things about Durham University Business School is how supportive and accessible its staff are. The time I spent there helped me to build my self-confidence, gain important business knowledge and tools, improve my n e t wo r k i n g s k i l l s a n d t a ke t h e decision to create my own start-up upon leaving the UK.” Khdeija recalls her time in Durham as “the best year of my life”, and described the cohort she shared her Durham MSc Management journey with as very passionate: “They all had big dreams they were passionate about; they all knew what they wanted and believed they could achieve it. It is something I truly admired and found inspirational.” You can read the full article and Khdeija’s interview on the Poets and Quants website poetsandquants.com and find out more about Raiona at raionaa.com
Durham University Business School / IMPACT