Maria is a senior advisor to boards and executive teams on matters of strategic communications, crisis and issues management and organizational change. She draws on decades of experience reconciling the positions of private, public, investor and NGOs focused on climate change, environmental sustainability, human rights and social impact.
Maria has worked extensively with boards and leaders of multinational corporations and with foundations, family offices, and nonproft organizations that span global issues. Her skills combine strategic communications and opinion research expertise with campaigning and stakeholder engagement tactics. Often, she helps clients prepare for and navigate moments of tension or change – whether internally or externally driven. Maria’s clients have included: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Columbia University, World Bank/IFC, Mars, NRDC, PepsiCo, PwC, World Wildlife Fund, New York Botanical Garden and a range of family offices and social impact leaders.
Maria began her career as a policy analyst for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), supporting rounds of multilateral negotiations and engagement with NGOs. She spent several years in the program team at the Council on Foreign Relations, before joining Penn, Schoen & Berland (a WPP company). At PBS she used research-driven insights to develop messaging and campaign strategies for presidential and parliamentary contests around the world including Ukraine, Serbia, South Korea, Zimbabwe, Bermuda and the U.S. This work also included helping companies with crisis and reputation campaigns. Most recently, Maria was a Partner at Brunswick Group, a global critical issues, and fnancial situations advisory frm. Over 15 years, she helped to grow the firm and the Business & Society practice along with four adjacent offers which she helped to incubate: ESG, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Foundations and Nonprofts and Stakeholder Engagement. In addition to client work, she was head of Brunswick’s New York office, leading a team of 250 professionals, and guiding the growth of the second largest office in the global firm.
Maria attended Tufts University and Harvard Kennedy School. She is active on the Advisory Boards of the New York Botanical Garden, the Turkish Philanthropy Fund and Tufts’ Institute for Global Leadership. She lives in NYC where she and her husband established TriBeCa’s premier gallery for tribal textiles and handwoven carpets.