Alumni Spotlight: Roshan Thiran, ’96

A jet-setting alum reflects on how UB helped him build a career at some of the biggest companies in the world before launching his own enterprise

By Michael Schneider, ’84

Roshan Thiran is grateful for the career he has built since graduating from University of Bridgeport in 1996, but he seems even more thankful for what he picked up on his way to campus.

“My wife and I were both scholarship students to UB, and we ended up seated together on the flight from Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia] to New York,” he recalls. “By the time we landed, we’d already done the first important leadership exercise of adult life: learning how to talk to a stranger without being weird.”

The two were then picked up at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York by UB staff and driven to campus together before heading to their dorms — him to Cooper Hall, her to Barnum.

For Thiran, it was the first of many stops. “I started in Cooper Hall, moved to Chaffee, then to Barnum, then Seeley, and then another place I honestly can’t remember. Because my scholarship covered housing, I went wherever I was placed. The best part: It gave me a ‘mini-United Nations’ experience. I had at least six roommates from six different countries, including Poland, Bosnia, Lithuania, Mexico, Malaysia, and Thailand.”

Thiran majored in International Business and played soccer for the Purple Knights from 1993 to 1996. Upon graduating from UB, he had already been working for General Electric (GE) for almost a year. At the time, NBC Universal was owned by GE, so he joined NBC’s Rockefeller Center office in New York. Then, he spent time in London managing GE Capital’s acquisition integration process before returning to the U.S. to manage GE’s Y2K project.

Next, Thiran found a role in Asia — running a Malaysian aviation business. “After a turnaround in that business, I moved to Singapore, Tokyo, and finally to Shanghai for a few years, before joining Johnson & Johnson in a global role. I finally moved back to Malaysia to start my own startup and social enterprise in 2009.”

Now, Thiran is the founder of Leaderonomics, which he says, “is essentially about solving problems by helping people grow into leaders — and helping organizations stay human while still performing in a world moving at AI-speed.”

“I wanted to build something focused on developing people and transforming cultures — not just hitting numbers,” he added. “Today, my work includes advising leaders, building leadership and culture programs, hosting interviews with leaders globally, and growing a platform of initiatives and ventures aimed at strengthening organizations and communities.”

Thiran calls his UB experience one of the biggest turning points in his life.

“It didn’t just give me a degree — it offered global exposure, lifelong friendships, an expanded worldview — and, quite literally, my wife.”

“I came to Bridgeport thinking I was going to ‘study abroad.’ I left realizing I was being shaped for a much bigger journey. UB really opened my eyes to possibilities and made me unafraid to challenge the status quo, assumptions, and even leadership.”