An irrepressible entrepreneur, Maria entered the business world at age 14, landed on Wall Street at age 17, and shattered the glass ceiling at age 21. Fiercely determined and keenly insightful, she became a retail bond trader when female executives were as rare as pink diamonds.
Realizing that she had a knack for streamlining corporate operations and increasing profitability for her employers, she shifted into operations management. As the first internal consultant (Special Projects Manager) at Bear Stearns, she worked closely with every department and branch office.
Maria has worked at financial firms such as Merrill Lynch, Reynolds Securities (DeanWitter), Bear Stearns, Carroll McEntee McGinley, and government broker, FBI. She owned a Wall Street Consulting firm for two years, working on projects related to GNMA trading and REPO accounting.
In 1998, Maria founded Elevating Your Business, a company dedicated to coaching high-achieving professionals and entrepreneurs in accountability, business growth, time and self management, vision/purpose, profitability, and other success and performance improvement areas.
Maria has been quoted in prestigious media outlets including: Money magazine, Jim Cramer’s The Street, Women’s Day, Market Watch, Advisor Max, and The Bottom Line.
Maria has spoken at more than 100 business and association meetings, retreats, conferences, webinars, radio shows, and TV shows—in the U.S. and internationally. She is an Internet marketing veteran, article marketing pioneer, trained life coach, certified teleseminar leader, author, and former newspaper columnist.
A life-long volunteer, Maria tutored first-graders at age 10, and has received numerous awards for her work with teenagers and environmental protection. She currently lives far enough from Seattle, WA to enjoy living in the country, but close enough to city life. She is a proud NYer—first and foremost, a master gardener, and financial business news junkie. Maria loves to cook, play card games, attend the theater, drive around the country, volunteer, teach, and peruse hardware and office supply stores.
