Maria Alice Maia

Maria Alice Maia holds a Master of Science in Administration from the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EBAPE), with a concentration in Behavioral Sciences. She also holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from FGVs São Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV EAESP), focusing on Public Administration. Post Graduate in Data Science (UC Berkeley) and Corporate Finance (FIA USP)With 15 years of experience leading business growth strategies, Maria Alice has served as an executive, head, and director at major companies such as Itaú, Stone, Ambev, and FALCONI. At Alura, she served as Director of New Business. Most recently, she joined the advisory board of the Águia Group, focusing on Growth across eight of its companies.As an entrepreneur, she founded and led NaHora.com, Latin America's first last-minute ticket sales startup. Her work was recognized with the Santander Entrepreneurship Award (2011), the Mulheres Tech Sampa Award, and the Startup Chile Award (both in 2017). After scaling the business to 100,000 customers, she successfully exited the venture. Currently, she leads Auge, a business growth consultancy specializing in developing new revenue streams.During her undergraduate studies, she was recognized for her academic performance and engagement with a scholarship for a leadership course at Cass Business School in London. She was also selected for a research partnership at HEC Paris, where she studied Sustainability and Change Management, and conducted CNPq-funded research on Oriented Productive Microcredit Public Policies. Her primary research interests include entrepreneurship, change management, sustainability, microcredit, and new technologies.