Her Story
About Maral
Maral Dadourian is a higher education professional with over 20 years of experience promoting international education. Born and raised in the United States, she moved to London after meeting her future husband and began her career in the sector by temping in the marketing and recruitment office of a local university. She fell in love with the work and has remained in education ever since. Maral holds a bachelor's degree in fashion and marketing from a private liberal arts college in Central Illinois. Prior to entering higher education, she worked in consultancy and spent four years as a computer programmer at Anderson Consulting, now Accenture. She currently serves as Country Manager, USA at the University of Glasgow, recruiting American students to study there while managing a team of three remote staff members based in the US. Her responsibilities include educating students on applications and university offerings, planning high school visits, educational fairs, conferences, and organizing a high school counselor tour and advisory board. Maral attributes her success to her perfectionist drive to deliver tasks to the best of her ability and her ability to incorporate feedback. She values being a supportive, collaborative manager who respects her team.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Maral
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think it's just motivation within me to do the best that I can. I've always been sort of a perfectionist... when I set a task, and I work for that task. I want to make sure that I've crossed all the T's and the I's... deliver it to the best of my ability, but also then take criticism and use that to better the task.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
If you set your mind to something, then you are capable of achieving it, so you just have to work hard and persevere. And a lot of times, you're gonna get more no's than you're gonna get yeses, but eventually, you'll have the win.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think education is extremely important, and it opens the doors for many opportunities, and I think women, considering that they've always been sort of the underdog, have a role to play in that, whether it's within their own educational pathway or their personal life, I think there is an opportunity for women to guide the next generation.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The challenges are that education is becoming really global, and there's a lot of universities out there worldwide that teach in English. So for the U.S. market, they have a lot of choice... The opportunity is that there's always gonna be students going to college... it's about educating individuals about having a degree from abroad. I think it's something that a lot of people don't realize that they can actually do, and it tends to be significantly cheaper than going to a university in the States.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think just support, being supportive, so offering guidance to my team, as well as to the students... Be supportive of other people's ideas. Try to get them to the next level... I would just like people to think that I'm a manager that actually respects their employees and works with them, and not actually top-down. It's a collaborative effort.
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