As a co-founder and Managing Director of .406 Ventures, Maria brings 23 years of entrepreneurial, operating and senior management sales and marketing experience in venture-backed technology companies, with particular strengths in IT security and technology driven services (e.g. managed services, SAAS etc.). As such, Maria focuses on investments in the IT Infrastructure, IT Security, and digital media sectors. She is actively involved as an investor and board member in Adtuitive, Bit9, Digitalsmiths, Kaltura, Memento and Veracode. Prior to founding .406, she was Senior Vice President of VeriSign, following its 2005 $142 million acquisition of Guardent – a Sequoia, Charles River Ventures and NEA-backed IT security company that Maria co-founded, led as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, and for which she received “Massachusetts CEO of the Year” and Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” awards. Prior to Guardent, she was Senior Vice President for sales and marketing at i-Cube, an IT services company, which was acquired by Razorfish in 1999 for $1.8 billion. From 1993 to 1997, she was responsible for North American sales at Shiva, the category creating remote access company.

A noted expert in information security, Maria was named one of the top 25 women in Information Security by Information Security Magazine, inducted by Women’s Business Magazine into the “Women’s Business Hall of Fame,” and recognized by Upside Magazine’s “Women to Watch in Technology.” She holds a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College, where she is a Trustee emerita and where she currently serves on the Investment Committee.

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