Her Story
About Maura
I've always been drawn to perishables and anything related to the food industry. My main area of expertise is perishables - I love produce, I love the meat department, anything related to perishables is what actually is my comfort zone and what fascinates me the most. A normal day starts with just checking day-to-day operations - payroll, compliance, merchandising, perishables. I oversee the region that's close to $900 million, so this year will be probably $1 billion. Miami is very diverse, and because we cater so much to tourism, it's all around food. It's such a mix of different cultures, and that's actually how I learned Spanish when I moved to Miami, because I'm from Eastern Europe, from Romania. I spoke Romanian, got to the United States and spoke English, and then I learned Spanish when I moved to Miami just to be able to communicate and better understand their culture and actually relate to their culture. I want to be able to serve them and get closer to the employees as well. I've always loved to be around people. Although I've been in finance, I could not see myself in a cubicle 9 to 5. For me, I like to be present on the sales floor, I like to talk to people, I like to see members that they come and shop with the kids and see the kids growing up and they're coming to the store week after week. Also, be so close to so many team members that you can touch their lives in a positive way. It's more the customer service, serving the community and serving the members - how can I do better?
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Maura
01What do you attribute your success to?
As an immigrant coming from Europe here, I always wanted to do better and be a role model for my son. That if I was able to make it, everybody can make it, but more important than that, be able to develop people to the next level and see them grow. There's nothing that satisfies me more than look at the people that I was able to develop them that became managers, regionals, and so on and so forth. For me, it's like a legacy, something that I did, and I moved somebody or I changed somebody's life into the right direction.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Success is part of multiple failures. My former boss said that you're gonna achieve success and you will need, after you're gonna have multiple failures, just brush yourself up and keep going. Never give up. And my former market vice president, Arnaldo Escobar, always told me, be better than great. That was his model - be better than great. Always chase the next level, never stop. I think that probably somebody that shaped my future more than anybody else was my former market vice president, Arnaldo Escobar.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Self-care is not selfish. You need to be able to take care of yourself to be able to take care of everything else that comes after. I told all the females in the business, self-care is not selfish. You need to be able to take care of yourself first, to be able to take care of everything else that comes after. Because females, sometimes we put ourselves last and build resentment with time. And I think nothing makes you feel more empowered and better than when you take care of yourself, because when you take care of yourself, you feel good, you feel beautiful, you feel empowered, you feel you can move mountains.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think probably the biggest challenge is adapting to such a rapid and evolving environment, right? Like, AI. And that's why I had to recognize that I need to move the needle and probably go back to school and try to better understand how AI is going to shape the future. Probably less human workforce and more robotics, and how can we adopt to that? Little by little it will replace the human touch. And, you know, being in my 40s, I'm still challenged of how can I change and evolve with the new and upcoming technology.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Commitment and honesty. Commitment to whatever you do. Be committed. And honesty. Those, for me, have always been my staple on being successful. Honest, to be able to earn the trust. And commitment to be able to move the business to the next level.
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