Transformation leader. Change agent.

I’m an executive and consultant with 20+ years of experience in building great products and programs, teams and cultures. I help organizations evolve to be happy, healthy, and efficient — to focus on the right opportunities, deliver on big goals, and thrive as they scale.

My approach: Clarify the goal, simplify the solution, and amplify the impact.

A seasoned perspective

I’ve led strategy and operations, program management, and executive communications for world-class international organizations that numbered from tens to thousands of people, both distributed and remote.

In addition to the technology, education, and publishing industries, I’ve supported political, nonprofit, and academic organizations. With more than 20 years of professional experience, I’m highly adept at developing and driving business transformation, change management, and professional evolution with teams of all scopes and sizes.

I can see a problem, generate and validate an idea on how to address it, build a cross-functional strategy and plan, and drive everything through precise communication and execution with empathy, calm, and compassion.

If you need help finding your next step, whether as an individual or as a collective, please get in touch to see how we can partner together to unlock growth.

Previous collaborations and affiliations include:

• Chief

• City of Chicago

• Google

• The MacArthur Foundation

• McGraw-Hill Education

• The Mozilla Foundation

Notes of appreciation

I had the opportunity to work with Mari during her time as COO at Grow Progress, and her impact was immediate and meaningful. She brought a level of structure and clarity that helped us operate as a more aligned, mature company.

Mari is highly detail oriented and thoughtful in how she approaches both people and process. She helped us establish core OKRs that gave the company much needed focus, and she improved how teams worked together by streamlining meetings, reducing redundancies, and strengthening cross functional collaboration. The day to day simply worked better with her in place.

What stood out most to me was Mari’s emotional intelligence. She holds a high bar while leading with empathy, creating an environment where people feel both supported and accountable. When my dad passed away unexpectedly, Mari showed up with genuine care, generosity, and kindness. I felt truly supported during a deeply difficult time.

I’m grateful I had the chance to work with Mari and would recommend her to any organization looking for a strong, thoughtful operator who can bring structure while keeping teams aligned and engaged.

~Tori Becker, Director of Product Marketing and Enablement, Grow Progress

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Mari is an impressively talented coach and leader.

When I was considering a move from The New York Times to Meta, I sought Mari's perspective about the differences between working at a FAANG company and a media company, and how I might best position myself for success in a new environment. Based on her experiences at Google, Mari gave me actionable feedback that enabled me to hit the ground running and quickly become effective in a very different culture.

Further, Mari's experience as a woman with long-term leadership expertise gave me confidence that she might have insight about unique challenges I might face in the particular dynamic of Big Tech. I would recommend that other senior women considering their next professional move seek her counsel.

~Allison McHenry, CTO, Daily Kos

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Mari brought an operations focus which drove clarity and productivity – and was tapped to lead two sensitive, business-critical projects at the highest levels of the company. Her ability to bring structure to chaos is phenomenal – and I truly hope we’ll work together again in the future.

~Lisa Kamm, SVP of Product, The New York Times

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Mari is truly a wonderful mentor and coach. I had a coaching session with her while I was looking for a new senior level researcher role. It was one of the most productive meetings I've ever had. Our session helped me create clarity about what was most important to me for my next role and maintain focus on those things throughout my search.

She also provided some really useful frameworks for evaluating opportunities, and helped me create a set of questions to ask during interviews to make sure I was getting the information I needed. I credit her with one of the smoothest job hunts I've had despite a poor job market for my discipline, and I highly recommend working with her.

~Thomas Dunlap, Senior UX Researcher, Etsy