What is the Dias Fellowship about?

I established this scholarship to benefit European students who come to Harvard for graduate school wanting to mirror my own experience. Like the Dias Fellows, I benefited from a fellowship, during my time at Harvard Business School; and like them, the fellowship allowed study regardless of financial considerations.

I was born near Strasbourg, France, of a French-German mother and French-Portuguese father, and I felt European well before there was a unified Europe on the political map! Before attending HBS, I first came to the US to study at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, with a stint at Goldman Sachs in London in between. Throughout my career, I have worked all over Europe, in Paris, London, Brussels, Bonn and Berlin.

After HBS, I worked for George Soros in New York for several years, before joining another hedge fund, Viking Global, at its launch. In 2001, I started my own fund, Aragon Global, with seed investments from Julian Robertson at Tiger. I built it over the years as one of the largest funds run by a woman. Ten years later, I turned it into a family office, which invests broadly across equities, principally in the US and Europe.

Despite the long hours it took to build the business and build a track record, I never lost sight of the common good. I was lucky to have mentors who devoted a significant chunk of time to philanthropy, and when Aragon turned into a family office, I followed their lead and started a foundation funding educational causes, especially scholarships and early childhood education.

What does it mean to be a Dias Fellow?

The mission of the Dias Fellowship is dual: to create an alumni community of Europeans that will gather annually for fellowship reunions, day trips, and lectures with the goal of meeting inspirational people and influential economic and business actors; and to help the Fellows get involved with non-profit initiatives, even at the beginning of their careers.

Although I grew up in France, where the State shoulders the vast majority of programs on anti-poverty, the arts, and scientific research, I have become a firm believer in the American system of non-profit funding. I have served on the boards of the Museum of Modern Art, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, among others. And in the past few years, I have noticed that Europeans are starting to emulate some of these American systems of funding and non-profit involvement. I hope the fellowship can help its members in pursuing this path.

The Dias Fellowship will give the Fellows the chance to meet and get to know one another during the school year and after graduation.

I am proud to be a part of making the Dias Fellows’ education a meaningful one.