Data scientist by education. Business leader by choice. Human at heart.
Origins. Tehran. Chicago. Karlsruhe. A PhD in data mining earned magna cum laude, research at DePaul University Web Intelligence lab and IBM T.J. Watson. A technical foundation that still underpins every strategy Maryam builds today.
Career. Twenty years. Seven iconic organizations. From her early days as a data scientist at SAP and GroupM to VP and Director roles at adidas, Sky, GoStudent, Delivery Hero and Zalando, Maryam has always sat at the intersection of data and business strategy. Today, through her consultancy Natural Intelligenes, she brings that depth of experience directly to the leaders who need it most.
What drives her. Better decisions, better teams, better leaders. Maryam is as passionate about the psychology behind human behavior as she is about data and business strategy because data only tells part of the story, and the rest is deeply human. That belief shapes not just how she works with data, but how she leads, mentors, and connects with the people around her.
Berlin-based. Iranian roots. International career.
Maryam has done this before. More than once.
Building a data strategy is one thing. Transforming an entire organization's relationship with data — the platform, the people and processes, the definitions, the intelligence, and the AI on top of it — is another. Maryam has led that full transformation, end to end, at some of Europe's most complex and ambitious organizations. What she brings is not just expertise. It is a repeatable methodology, tested across industries and scales, for turning data chaos into competitive advantage.
- 01 — Foundation
Build data infrastructure you can actually trust.
Governing, structuring, and connecting data so every model, dashboard, and decision is built on something solid, secure and trustable.
- 02 — Organization
Build the team and operating model that makes data a business function.
Defining roles, structures, and ways of working that turn data capability from a support function into a strategic asset at the heart of the business.
- 03 — Definition
Agree on what the numbers mean before drawing any conclusions.
KPI frameworks, data glossaries, aggregation layers, and shared definitions that ensure every team speaks the same language. Most transformations fail here. Most organizations skip this step entirely.
- 04 — Intelligence
Activate customer data into decisions that move the business.
Segmentation, CLV, experimentation, and measurement frameworks that connect customer understanding directly to growth, retention, and marketing investment.
- 05 — AI & Learning
Embed AI and continuous learning loops so the organization gets smarter with every decision.
Not AI as a tool on top of everything else — but AI as a system that learns, improves, and compounds over time, trusted because it is built on governed data and causal understanding.
Across adidas, Sky, GoStudent, Delivery Hero, and Zalando — Maryam has led this transformation repeatedly, at scale, and across every stage.
Transformed legacy infrastructure and project-based ways of working into a modern, agile, product-driven data organization and delivered €10M+ in uplift through personalization, CLV, and next-best-action systems across web, CRM, and call center channels.
Built the first customer data platform, establsihed customer insights and data science departments from scratch, established agile operating models, developed segmentation frameworks and personalization algorithms across all consumer touchpoints, and pioneered the company's first AI strategy , contributing to €1B in ecom sales with 53% uplift in conversion.
At GoStudent the team existed but the strategy, structure, and direction did not. Maryam assessed the existing organization, hired to fill the gaps, and established the operating model, prioritization frameworks, and AI and analytics roadmap that turned a capable but fragmented data function into a strategic business asset.
Led global marketing intelligence across 72 markets and 9 brands — establishing driver trees, unified ROI measurement frameworks, consumer value segmentation, and CLV models that connected marketing investment to long-term business outcomes.
Designed a hybrid customer segmentation connecting product features to long-term business value, enabled natural language SQL to democratize data access, and contributed to the customer data platform strategy enabling cross-channel personalization at scale.
Every organization starts somewhere different on this journey. Maryam meets them where they are and builds from there.
Wondering where your organization is on this journey?
Credentials
- Ph.D., Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Magna cum laude)
- Best Innovation Award in Women in Big Data Hackathon
- Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship Finalist for academic standing, leadership and community service
- Guest Lecturer at university
Personal
- Active Berlin Toastmasters member
- Advocate for Women in Technology & Leadership
- Mother of two
- Swimmer, Zumba, hiking
- Meditation channel owner (Telegram community, Persian)