Taran left a promising career on Wall Street to go to Harvard Business School, which helped transform her career from a vice president on Salomon Brothers’ trading floor to a corporate strategy, general management, and talent development executive.

Taran’s first stop after HBS was Walt Disney Studios, where she worked in strategy and finance positions. From there, Taran was recruited to Viacom (MTV Networks/Nickelodeon), where she rose through the ranks from director of international business development to executive vice president and general manager with P&L responsibilities. Taran’s leadership, business strategy, and general management performance at Nickelodeon were chronicled in the Harvard Business School case study, “Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America.”

After ten years at MTV Networks/Nickelodeon, Taran became an entrepreneur. She first launched Taran Swan Consulting, an executive coaching and organizational development consultancy that helps senior executives enhance business results. Taran also cofounded The Media Fix, a strategy and consumer insights consulting firm.

In 2012, Taran became CEO of R2T2 Laboratories Inc., a startup company and developer of orthopedic and sports medicine therapy products. The company’s first product, Therma1, has been used by pro sports teams, sports medicine doctors, physical therapists, and other health care professionals, and appeared in personal care segments on Dr. Oz and QVC.

In 2015, the HBS Leadership Initiative engaged Taran as Project Director of the 50th anniversary of AASU (AASU50), responsible for the strategic direction and implementation of its initiatives and events.

Taran has served on the boards of a venture capital fund and an early-stage multicultural multimedia business backed by Goldman Sachs. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with an undergraduate degree in computer science, attended NYU’s Courant Graduate School of Mathematics as a Bell Laboratories Fellow, and received an MBA from the Harvard Business School.