Francisca Maier

In my current position at Chief of Staff at Thinx – a DTC underwear brand headquartered in New York – I am heavily involved in scaling the business as well as engaging in commercial planning as well as change and stakeholder management. As the right hand and proxy to our CEO, I am instrumental in bolstering her effectiveness while acting as an executive gatekeeper toward the rest of the organization. I manage the annual planning process and help articulate the organizational vision and define success as well as track progress against our organizational goals; acting as a key implementer and communicator of strategic projects across the company. I also drive operational excellence through continuous improvement and ownership of our organizational design and core business processes, and I partner with our People team to promote an organizational culture that brings alive our company’s mission and values. Lastly, I oversee and continuously build out our PMO (Project Management Office) and lead a team of 5 Project Managers and 1 Executive Assistant. Prior to joining Thinx, I completed my MBA at MIT, where I took a deep dive into Analytics and Retail Operations. I completed a certificate in Business Analytics to acquire advanced skills such as coding in R and JuliaPro, and – over the summer between my first and second year – I interned in the Logistics team at footwear and apparel manufacturer New Balance, where I helped the company strategize how its owned-and-operated stores and e-commerce customers should be serviced moving forward. I also defined the company’s inventory stocking strategy, audited the parcel delivery market and subsequently presented my recommendations to the CEO and senior leadership team for implementation. Prior to enrolling at MIT, I spent eight years working in Account and Project Management at Marketing agencies across Europe, managing the creation, execution and continuous optimization of marketing initiatives for brands such as PlayStation, Emirates Airlines and Mercedes Benz. I helped my clients translate their business challenges into a cohesive brief with tangible objectives ad KPIs, and subsequently developed a communication strategy, led creative teams and oversaw the global implementation of our work across all touchpoints (in-store, digital, social, TV, etc.) by working cross-functionally with all markets and agencies involved. In my last full-time position, I worked at Berlin-based ad agency Heimat as Account Director on otto.de, where I helped reposition the brand to appeal to a younger, female, fashion-forward target audience – through storytelling with a focus on e-commerce. I also led a team of nine people and acted as a senior advisor to clients at the executive level while managing $2.5 in yearly revenues.