Mary Nnah
Seven-Up Bottling Company Lim (SBC) has unveiled Miss Dafi-Rogers-Halliday as the 12th winner of the 7Up Harvard Business School MBA Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to a deserving young Nigerian every year for a two-year MBA programme at the prestigious Harvard Business School, United States of America.
The Managing Director of Seven-Up Bottling Company, Mr Ziad Maalouf, during the presentation of the scholarship, restated the company’s commitment to the development of a pool of well-trained young global leaders able and capable of providing transformational leadership that will impact the political economy of Nigeria and the African continent in no distant future.
According to Maalouf, Nigeria is one of the countries with the best young talented population who are making an impact both locally and globally, especially in the fintech space. He said the 7Up HBS MBA Scholarship is aimed at complementing this pool of talents and raising future leaders with a global vision.
Chief Marketing Officer, SBC, Mr Norden Thurston, who recalled the event of the first presentation of the first winner of the 7Up HBS Scholarship 11 years ago, said he was immensely proud of the impact past winners are making in society. Citing the example of Misan Rewane, who, through her skills training organisation, the West African Vocational Education (WAVE) has trained and placed over 5000 graduates in several companies in the hospitality industry.
While thanking SBC for the Harvard Business School MBA Scholarship, Dafi-Rogers-Halliday, a first-class graduate of Economics, said the scholarship is an honour as it has helped her to realize her long-life dream of studying at Harvard Business School. “The journey to the 7Up HBS Scholarship was not easy. It was a tedious process. I feel validated. And being selected meant that Seven-Up was able to connect with my story,” Rogers-Halliday said. The award winner, who is from Rivers State, said her only regret was that her father, who had passed on years back, was not able to witness such a momentous event.
While stating some of the criteria for the 7UpHBS MBA Scholarship award, Group Head, Culture and Transformation, SBC, Mrs Yinka Olufade, said the award, which was instituted 12 years ago as part of the activities marking the 50th anniversary of SBC, is open to Nigerians who have lived in the country continuously for two years and had applied and got admission to Harvard Business School and are now looking for the funding opportunity.
