Tijan Diallo
Lifelong Learner
Tijan Diallo simply can’t stop learning. A Haslam MBA student in finance, he thrives in the classroom, but his interests extend far beyond it. He reads voraciously and often goes down rabbit holes with online research. Recently, Diallo joined a campus club to learn to crochet and hopes to explore baking and painting next. Travel is another passion, with Chile and Argentina next on his itinerary through an upcoming Haslam group trip. “My parents have always been big on travel because it opens your eyes to other ways of life,” he says. “I’ve been to more than 40 countries, and I lived in Dubai for a few years.”
Fashion is another interest of Diallo’s, one that runs in his family. His father and uncle own a clothing business in New York, where Diallo grew up and developed an interest in clothing design. In high school, he launched his own clothing brand and made a few thousand dollars from the venture.
At 22, Diallo and a friend co-founded the designer brand Sinclair. “It was the beginning of the pandemic, and we were sitting around with nothing to do,” he recalls. Nine months later, they secured more than $1 million in their first round of fundraising. “It was an amazing time. We went from zero to 10,000 followers in a month, celebrities were wearing our stuff, and the business grew exponentially.”
Diallo thrived on the pace of running a startup, constantly switching gears from raising funds to managing the supply chain and bookkeeping. “As a founder, you have to wear many different hats,” he says. “Every decision you make impacts the brand.”
A few years into the venture, Diallo chose to step away from Sinclair to deepen his business knowledge through an MBA. He explored several schools but felt most drawn to Haslam, where he received the Charles and Cantey Ergen Fellowship that covers tuition and includes a graduate assistantship. “I’m very grateful, and I’ve learned to love the Volunteer Spirit here at UT,” says Diallo, who plans to graduate in December 2026. “Seeing how alumni give back makes me enthusiastic to go out and do well in the world so I can do the same for future students.”
