Maya has a background in publishing management and digital product development, and later economic development and building technology business clusters. She is currently working in Economic Development at Lancashire County Council, while also studying part-time on the Lancaster MBA.
Maya’s passion lies in building the capability and productivity of the North of England. At The Landing In Media City, she led the development of business support and incubator programmes to support growth in digital and technology SMEs as well as building a network of private partnerships to ensure the business ecosystem in Salford is sustainable.
She is currently leading the curation of the Northern Power Futures conference, a 2-day event powered by the Northern Power Women network, presenting talks and debates on the economy and society, all with speakers (men and women) under 35. She is passionate about finding ways to support younger leaders to find their voice and strength, and to this end has also sat on the national board of Girlguiding for the past 4 years. In this role she has contributed to a full programme overhaul, projects to improve governance and accountability, and is the trustee lead on the organisation’s digital transformation work which recently saw the launch of a new member CRM system for 100,000 volunteers.
Maya began her career at Hearst Magazines UK where her understanding of young audiences and commercialising digital platforms saw her rise quickly to become one of the company’s youngest publishers at the age of 26.
Elsewhere, Maya is a Director and Trustee of The Dukes Theatre in Lancaster, a Non-Executive Director of a small technology start-up, HE Inventions, and sits on the Industry Advisory Board for Lancaster University’s school of computer science, advising on curriculum development to suit industry.