About me
As Chief Marketing Officer, Maria is responsible for shaping all organizational communications and marketing efforts, successfully raising Miami-Dade County’s profile as a world-class business destination in an integrated, consistent, impactful way. In this role, Maria leads the development and implementation of The Beacon Council’s global marketing and communications strategy including creative development and production, relationship management, digital and social marketing, paid and earned media, sponsorships, events, partnerships, media relations, and corporate communications.
A seasoned professional with more than 20 years of experience delivering creative, brand-building solutions for Fortune 500 companies including Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, The J. M. Smucker Company, and Johnson & Johnson, Maria was most recently a Group Director at WPP’s Zubi Advertising. In addition to leading account strategy and management for Dunkin’ Donuts, Walgreens, and SC Johnson, Maria also managed new business development. She managed similar responsibilities as Vice-President at CSA Marketing, crafting brand and promotional strategies for global brands including Nestlé Waters, Nescafé, Lysol, Bounty, and Pampers, and rolling out successful shopper programs at leading retailers across the country and the Caribbean.
Prior to her work in marketing and communications, Maria wrote for a variety of print and online publications including Latina, Miami Herald, Teen People, The Miami New Times, MSN.com, CitySearch.com, LiveNation.com and HispanicAd.com. She also served as Executive Producer on “Generation ñ”, a PM magazine show for USA Broadcasting that was based on an eponymous magazine where she was also Managing Editor.
A graduate of Yale University, Maria is involved with the Yale Club of South Florida, the Yale Alumni Schools Committee, and United Way of Miami Dade. She is also a Board Member and Vice-Chair of the Arts & Business Council of Miami, and a member of the Cannes Lions/Association of National Advertisers’ Global CMO Growth Council.
Skills
Languages
- English - Native
- Spanish - Native
Talent you might be interested in
Positions
Chief Marketing Officer
• Lead development and implementation of global marketing and communications strategy including creative development and production, digital/social marketing, paid media, sponsorships, events, partnerships and corporate communications.
• Leverage insights to develop targeted campaigns for key objectives/priority audiences: regional, national and international B2B and talent recruitment; local business and talent retention; small business; workforce development; #MiamiTech ecosystem; Investors.
• Build MDBC brand and network to extend reach, reinforce value proposition and thought leadership, and position the organization for optimal success in all development efforts.
Key Highlights:
o Oversee communications re: high-profile announcements including Blackstone, SoftBank, Starwood and Amazon, with placements including NYT, WSJ, Bloomberg, Business Insider, CNBC for MDBC, local government and partners.
o Collaborate on presentations to prospects, investors, Board and partners, speaking to Miami's business advantages and highlighting opportunities for strategic partnerships.
o Execute high-profile B2B events with 500+ attendees, domestic and international missions, and curated C-suite meetings (successfully shifted model online in 2020).
o Drove double-digit growth in brand awareness and engagement in target markets and with key audience segments, leading to development and investor teams exceeding goals.
o Produced award-winning custom relocation guide, Advantage Miami (2018-2020).
o Oversaw MDBC brand refresh, as well as custom branding for four new initiatives, and three new websites/portals (all during COVID/2020).
Her road to Group Director at Zubi is ripe with interesting detours that inform her strategic perspective. Focusing on the evolution of U.S. Hispanic identity during her studies at Yale, Maria has spent over 15 years analyzing and engaging this consumer group. Initially taking a more creative approach to connecting with this audience, Maria worked as a copywriter and journalist, writing for leading publications including Latina, The Miami Herald, Teen People, MSN.com and CitySearch.com, and producing a bilingual PM magazine show called Generation ñ for USA Networks.
Wanting to dial up the engagement of her left-brain talents, Maria shifted her focus back to strategy, developing and managing Hispanic marketing campaigns for consumer packaged goods leaders including Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, R.C. Bigelow, and Nestlé Waters NA, working on Bigelow Tea, Bounty, Dentyne, Juicy Juice, Lysol, Nescafé, Nesquik, Pampers and more. Leading program development and activation for Nestlé USA’s Hispanic multi-brand co-marketing initiatives, Maria worked on site for almost 2 years, working with the Brand, Multicultural and Customer Teams to develop culturally-relevant, integrated shopper solutions that drove incremental volume and successfully engaged Hispanic consumers at top customers.
Returning to Zubi in 2011, Maria puts that shopper expertise to work as the lead on the agency’s CPG and Retail businesses. With the help of her morning cup of Dunkin’ Donuts Hazelnut Coffee and 2-3 carefully timed shots of Café Bustelo, she currently manages account teams that support Dunkin’ Donuts, Disney and Johnson & Johnson, having previously managed Walgreens, S.C. Johnson, The J.M. Smucker Company and SunnyD for Zubi.
Vice-President, Strategic Planning & Client Management
Mahou-San Miguel, and the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Spearheaded all new and organic business development efforts
• Rolled out satellite offices in Los Angeles and Bentonville
• Developed and managed high-performance Client Management teams across multiple offices
• Collaborated with Executive Committee on key internal growth initiatives
