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Eight exceptional women join the Oxford MBA as Laidlaw Scholars

Published

Each scholar has demonstrated academic excellence and strong leadership potential.

The Laidlaw Foundation invests in education to create systems change through breaking poverty cycles and reducing inequality. All of the scholars have demonstrated commitment to the Laidlaw Foundation's aims. The Scholarship provides significant financial support up to the full cost of the MBA.

Oxford Saïd is proud to have achieved 47% gender parity on the MBA and continues to strive for greater diversity and equality.

Meet the scholars

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Adebusola Adegbuyi works as a Software Engineer at American Express and has an academic background in Computer Science and Software Systems Engineering. She chose the Oxford MBA due to its venture and entrepreneurship opportunities, as well as its focus on responsible business in Africa.

She explained the importance of the scholarships: ‘Diversity of backgrounds, opinions and perspectives drive corporate success, but it shouldn't be just about the bottom line; we need women to be involved in making decisions that could potentially affect them.’

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Fisayo Adeleke joins the MBA from PwC, her commitment to education for women and girls came into focus when aged 19 she was accepted for an opportunity at SEO Africa, an organisation that trains and creates opportunities for under-represented students, it was the first time that she had been in a female-dominated environment. The opportunity she had made her determined to pay it forward, crediting a female mentor with driving her to aim high.

Now as an Oxford MBA she wants to support women and girls, particularly through encouraging more girls to apply to top universities and firms: ‘I plan to scale up the work I have been doing to help increase women’s access to opportunities.’

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Princess Agina brings extensive experience of developing STEM curriculums and creating social entrepreneurship youth camps in the U.S. and Mexico. Her focus on supporting others has existed since childhood, she describes how being black, first-generation and female affected her interactions with the society around her. She experienced entrenched biases and this has shaped her determination to make a difference:

‘Because of the complexities of intersectionality, attaining gender parity is not only a matter of shattering glass ceilings, but necessitates smashing concrete roofs intended to be impenetrable to the most underserved of us.’

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With a background in impact investing Nouss Bih has been focused on improving access to funding for female entrepreneurs as well as developing and supporting a pipeline of African entrepreneurs. She is excited to join the MBA as a Laidlaw Scholar as the accolade acknowledges her passion for gender equality and ethical leadership.

‘I strongly believe that encouraging female leadership leads to the emergence of role models and creates a virtuous circle by showing younger female professionals that they can also become accomplished meaningful leaders.’

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The drive to do purposeful work led Davinia Cogan to move from a career in the traditional finance sector to impact investing. She works for a non-profit organisation focused on reducing energy poverty, a problem which disproportionately affects women. She currently works with start-up companies that sell solar and clean cooking products to raise investment capital. For Cogan, the Laidlaw Scholarship has offered the financial ability to undertake the Oxford MBA.

She described how the pandemic has shone a light on women doing the bulk of unpaid work in the home: ‘It has created an immense opportunity to examine - and reset - status quo corporate culture.’

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South African born Paseka Khosa studied an undergraduate degree in Mining Engineering and Business Administration, this in itself was remarkable as she faced discrimination for entering this field as a woman. Her response: ‘If people like me never get into these spaces, then they will remain spaces not meant for us; it is up to us to change this narrative.’

She hopes that young girls will see her as a role model for believing in herself and marking out a space for herself in a male-dominated industry.

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Starting off her career in the Office of Nigeria’s Vice President, Ifeoluwa Ogunbufunmi has been working as a Nigerian corporate attorney alongside volunteering for women’s causes for five years. Ogunbufunmi explained how the Laidlaw Scholarship has unlocked the opportunity to study for an MBA at Oxford Saïd. She is excited to be part of a global network of women bound to change the world.

She describes the scholarship as a ‘platform for extraordinary impact, showcasing to other women like me that impossible is nothing!’

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Asha Vettoor is the founder of Swara, a social enterprise that empowers women in rural areas of India through a sustainable clothing initiative. The pandemic meant that the enterprise had to make home-working adjustments and also showed a need to close a digital gender divide by providing smartphones. Vettoor’s work has been recognised by Google and she was awarded their SheThePeople Digital Women Award for Social Impact 2020, she was also a speaker at the first TEDx Women event organised in the state of Kerala.

In the future she hopes to scale Swara and empower more women. Vettoor described the importance of having more female leaders: ‘We need leaders who have empathy, who have lived through similar struggles, to make decisions that help other women overcome these gender barriers.’

Kathy Harvey, Associate Dean, MBA and Executive Degrees, congratulated the scholars: ‘It is a pleasure to welcome these extraordinary women to Oxford Saïd. Working with the Laidlaw Foundation has enabled us to expand our scholarship offering for women as part of our vision for greater equality and diversity on the MBA.’

Susanna V. Kempe, CEO of the Laidlaw Foundation added: ‘We need more women in C-Suites. We need diverse leaders with intelligence and integrity. We need role models who will pay it forward. That is why we are so thrilled to welcome the first cohort of Laidlaw Scholars joining the Oxford MBA. We have every confidence that this group of extraordinary women will use the world class education and connections that they receive from Oxford to go on and do remarkable things.’