Maria Shopova

Maria is a senior communications professional with wide experience in project managing global integrated campaigns. Her expertise spans employee and stakeholder engagement, internal communications, issues management, website communications and media relations.

Currently, Maria is an Associate Partner at corporate affairs firm Sermelo where she leads account and project work for a number of clients across a variety of industries, including retail, insurance and technology. In her role, Maria provides external communications and stakeholder engagement strategy counsel to clients, as well as supports Sermelo’s owner in the daily operations of the agency.

Maria began her career at Burson-Marsteller’s New York office, where she used proprietary research tools to help clients identify gaps in their use of communications channels, allowing more effective engagement with employees and key stakeholders. Maria moved to the Burson-Marsteller’s London office in June 2007.

After leaving Burson-Marsteller, Maria joined the Carbon Trust Standard. As PR and Stakeholder Communications Manager, she was responsible for designing, developing and implementing public relations strategy and activities, as well as maintaining relationships with key customers, opinion influencers, Government, NGOs and trade bodies.

In October 2009, Maria was named one of PR Week’s ‘29 under 29’, an exclusive annual ranking of the brightest young talent in the UK’s PR Industry. Just recently, Maria was a finalist in the Outstanding Young Communicator category of the 2013 CIPR Excellence Awards.

Maria holds an Executive MBA from London Business School. She graduated magna cum laude from Ithaca College with a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Communications, Learning and Design and a Certificate in International Business, with a Minor in Advertising/Public Relations and German. As an undergraduate, she also studied abroad at the Ithaca College IES Centre in Vienna, Austria. Maria is fluent in Bulgarian and a beginner in German.