Since co-founding the “anti-research” research company GoodQues in 2019, Maria has made it her mission to push the boundaries of consumer insights practices. And she’s succeeded, pioneering new approaches to research design (think: meditation) and new forms of research outputs (think: stories instead of statistics). Named one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. by Inc Magazine in 2023, and top global market research company in 2020 and 2021 by the StartupPill, GoodQues partners with loyal clients such as P&G, PepsiCo, Adobe, Pernod Ricard and more to fuel their audience understanding. Maria was previously with advertising agency Grey and prior the Chief Strategy Officer at Air Paris, a global agency working with startups and new ventures to build brands. Throughout her career Maria has launched, built and repositioned companies for success – overseeing strategy for brands such as Covergirl, Marriott, Kiehl’s, McCormick, MAC and more – earning EFFIES, Cannes Lions and Clio Awards along the way. Maria is a SXSW speaker, regular Adweek contributor and Columbia University lecturer. A refugee raised in New York City, Maria has managed brands and teams in every corner of the world from Bangalore to London.