Senior Consultant
Maria has a deep-rooted passion for Leadership and Sustainability. She believes that leadership skills and personal growth are crucial for undergoing transformations and establishing long-term sustainable organisations. Maria brings significant experience in facilitation, leadership development and sustainability. With great enthusiasm and care Maria holds space to have genuine conversations to explore the underlying causes of the present symptoms.
Background and experience:
With experience in a variety of sectors (construction, IT and governance for example) and her background in Sustainability, Maria understands the importance of acknowledging the interdependence of large systems. Therefore, she is equipped to quickly adapt to changing and fast-moving environments. Maria has worked for both small start-ups, major international organisations and medium sized firms. Here, Maria was responsible for managing and developing leadership transformations, stakeholder management and building new business propositions.
Maria has experience in developing and executing Leadership and Cultural & Behavioural Change Programs. She has experience in Large Scale Agile transformations and coaching individuals to building high-performing teams. She designs and delivers workshops on purpose, vision and value creation to ensure organisations are deeply connected to their ‘why’. She is wired for connection and loves to build strong relationship in which there is space to show vulnerability and therefore to have genuine conversations.
Her purpose is to support individuals and teams within organisations to become conscious of their highest potential so they can start contributing to something bigger than themselves. She believes that when the personal purpose of individuals aligns with the organisations ‘why’, the organisation can start long-term sustainable development. Moving the motivation from profitability and market share to meaningful impact in which the business model is the vehicle for success.
Maria holds a Masters in Environment and Sustainability with a focus on Business and Leadership from Monash University in Melbourne (First Class Honours) and Bachelor of Arts in Social Innovation from the University of Applied Science Breda in The Netherlands. She is trained as a personal development coach in Neuro Linguistic Programming and soon to be ICF (International Coaching Federation) accredited through the ‘Co-active’ model.
Inspired by:
Maria is inspired by psychologist like Esther Parel, scientists like Brene Brown and Environmental heroes like Jane Goodall. Maria’s favourite Friday night is a long and deep conversation around a fire with some acoustic guitar. She fills her cup by connecting with people on a deeper level. She is most happy and energised when she can be in nature during a long and challenging hike. Maria loves cooking and hosting dinner parties and is passionate about everything regarding ‘health’, including physical, psychological and spiritual health.
Maria’s book recommendations: ‘Into the magic Shop’ by Dr James Doty, ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear, ‘Clear Leadership’ by Gervase R. Bushe, ‘The book of Joy’ by Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu, ‘It didn’t start with you’ by Mark Wolynn.