A proven transformational leader with over 30 years of experience at Lockheed Martin, Maria has held critical positions across all major business areas. As the Vice President and General Manager (VP&GM) for the newly formed National Security Space line of business, Maria oversees an expansive $6.6B+ portfolio and leads over 8,000 full-time employees to deliver integrated end-to-end solutions, high-performance systems, critical space architectures and innovative concepts to help customers successfully execute vital national security missions. With a customer-centric, people-first mindset, Maria oversees the execution of hundreds of programs, operations, and maintenance contracts as well as critical research and development (R&D) and notably leads the Lockheed Martin’s corporate-wide executive steering group for Combined Joint All Domain Command & Control (CJADC2). Furthermore, Maria advocates within the legislative and executive branches of government for Lockheed Martin programs of record and pertinent policy objectives that directly impact the future of the aerospace and defense industry.
Before her current role, Maria was the VP&GM of Special Programs at Lockheed Martin Space from January 2021 to September 2023. As the head of Special Programs Maria oversaw the execution of an expansive profile comprised of predominately classified programs for DoD and Intelligence Community customer bases. During her tenure at Special Programs, Maria also created and led numerous workforce improvement initiatives including the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility-Life (SCIF-Life) initiative that was later adopted and implemented company-wide.
Prior to Special Programs, Maria was the VP&GM of Mission Solutions, a dynamic line of business within Lockheed Martin Space that provided both DoD and Intelligence, communities, and commercial entities with mission-critical intelligence solutions through the optimization of satellite constellations, life-cycle data processing technologies and resilient systems infrastructure, further enabling rapid information exchange across global networks. Under her charge, Mission Solutions delivered enterprise cloud and application-based solutions for mission management, command, and control (C2), collection orchestration and tasking, processing, and data analytics as well as premier operations and sustainment of mission critical space-based programs.
Additionally, Maria is a fierce advocate of digital transformation (DX) and business transformation strategy, workforce development strategy, technology methods evolution and integration (Agile, A.I., cyber), and embodies an unwavering commitment to the Customer Mission. Furthermore, Maria is an executive champion of diversity and inclusion, recently completing a lengthy term on the LM Corp Executive Inclusion Council.
Across the aerospace and defense industry, Maria is a sought after thought leader on CJADC2, Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA), Software-defined satellite architectures, cultivating next-gen workforces, classified workplace transformation, the pursuit of space-based 5G and the application of breakthrough artificial intelligence to influence the tactical edge of warfighting.
Outside of her primary leadership roles, Maria serves on the Board of Directors for Zeta Associates (Chairman), the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA), the National Space Security Association (NSSA), as well as the Colorado Chamber of Commerce.
Maria is a March of Dimes Heroine in Technology Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, and was named to FedScoop’s Top Women in Tech in 2018. More recently, Maria was named to the Wash100 Class of 2023, an elite group of leaders and change-makers who are projected to make the biggest impact on the government contracting and federal sectors during their award year. Additionally, Maria was identified by Via Satellite in 2023 as one of the leading women driving the aerospace industry forward.
Maria earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s in systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the proud mother of three and currently lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado with her husband.
