Minority MBA students nearing graduation have a few more weeks to apply for a new training program by the Robert Toigo Foundation that aims to provide entry into the private equity industry.
The foundation has teamed up with the Washington-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group to create the Toigo Private Equity MBA Fellowship, which gives students a yearlong crash course in the private equity industry. The fellowship places participants with private equity firm Carlyle, a plan sponsor and a portfolio company during the yearlong rotation. Fellows will receive a $50,000 tuition payment toward their student loans. Carlyle is contributing $1 million toward the fellowship over the next four years, said Nancy Sims, president of the Toigo Foundation, an Oakland, Calif., non-profit organization that aims to place minority MBA students in the finance industry.
Ms. Sims described the fellowship as a marriage between the industry's goal of finding new talent and Toigo's mission of grooming minority students for the industry. “We're trying to partner with the industry in constructive ways to create new (training) models,” she said.
Second-year MBA students can apply by visiting http://www.toigofoundation.org. Applications are due by Dec. 11. A final selection is scheduled in January. — Timothy Inklebarger