Speakers

After earning her business degree at Penn State University, Maya began her professional career in Advertising Sales at Havas Media representing brands such as Moet-Hennessy, Pernod-Ricard, Dannon and McDonald’s. After working from behind the scenes for multinational food and beverage companies, she decided to step out from behind the desk and bring her sales experience to the floor.

In 2010 she rolled up her sleeves and joined celebrity Chef and restauranteur John De Lucie of The Waverly Inn, to open his popular The Lion, Crown, Bill’s Food + Drink, and Windsor Bar. After executing some of the most high-profile events in NYC, including Vogue’s MetBall after-party, she decided to head downtown. With her newfound love of bars and restaurants, Maya joined creatives and operators, Serge Becker, Matt Abramcyk, and Akiva Elstein, to lead their sales and events team at establishments such as Smith and Mills, Tiny’s and the Bar Upstairs, Miss Lilly’s, and Yves.

After 8 years in a boutique F&B environment, she returned to the corporate world with Starwood Hospitality Group. There, she led F&B Sales, Events, Partnerships and programming at the 1 Hotel (Brooklyn Bridge and 1 Hotel Central Park). Over the course of 4 years with SH Group, she oversaw high grossing events for clients such as Mercedes, Google, Audi, and IBM.  When The Collective Living, a co-living concept based out of the UK, ventured into the US market, Maya went on to join their F&B development team. She worked closely with brand and marketing, and led the team in partnerships, events, and programming for the pre-opening of their US locations.

In 2020, Maya and her family relocated to Miami Beach to be closer to a project that was near and dear to them: Esme Hotel. Her husband, a partner at Infinity Real Estate, led the re-development of the former Clay Hotel, spanning the entire south side of the historic street. When it came time to program the hotel, naturally, he tapped into his wife’s decade plus long experience in hospitality. Maya is both an investor and employee of the Esme hotel, overseeing events, brand and marketing on behalf of Infinity Real Estate.