Maria Pearson co-founded grow.ME, a Dubai based global development consultancy, with Klaus Misera. She is also a co-founder of Women-able, a regionally funded business skills and growth program for women.
As a grass roots practitioner in SME business growth, grow.ME developed Women-able, a business skilling and growth program which has been funded by partners, such as MasterCard Foundation, The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and JP Morgan. Women-able, now in its fifth cycle is a strong community of more than 350 alumni, supporters, coaches and mentors. In addition to its own corporate programs and projects, Grow.ME support local accelerators, incubators and investment funds like Sheera, Flat6Labs, WAIN and Womena.
In 2016, Maria was appointed to the UAE GEMS Board, to provide insight on female entrepreneurship in the UAE and record how female economic entrepreneurship impacts communities through creating employment and boosts spending in the micro business economy. Pearson was an Entrepreneur in Residence at UAEU Science and Innovation Park (SIP), awarded the MBR award for best University Entrepreneurship program in 2017.
