WORDS FROM COLLEAGUES
"Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life." – Amy Poehler
SAMANTHA KOLLASCH (STAFF MARKETING ENGINEER LEAD)
“I had the pleasure of reporting to Maya while she led our Inbound Marketing team. She combines clear strategic vision with exceptional collaborative leadership — setting a strong direction for multi-channel programs (SEO, paid media, email, social, and web) while trusting her team to execute with their expertise.
Her strategy consistently tied digital, content, and brand initiatives to measurable business goals: improving lead gen, strengthening brand awareness, and optimizing the revenue pipeline. She drove full-funnel thinking (content strategy, editorial planning, web optimization) and partnered seamlessly with Product Marketing and Sales to ensure a cohesive buyer journey and consistent messaging across channels.
What stood out was how she balanced guidance and autonomy. She provides thoughtful direction and priorities, removes roadblocks, and empowers team members to innovate and own outcomes. Her emphasis on performance measurement and iterative optimization ensured we continually improved ROI and campaign impact.
She’s a strong mentor and an outstanding leader for any organization looking to scale programs, elevate brand authority, and build a high-performing, collaborative marketing organization.”
Caitlin eckert (marketing programs leader)
“Maya is one of those people whose fingerprints are on everything but who never makes it about her. When I started working with her at Gladly, she was on the digital demand gen side driving organic and paid programs. By the time I left, she had grown into leading the entire inbound digital team, owning web presence, brand standards, and content infrastructure. That kind of growth doesn’t happen by accident.
Maya understood that organic wasn’t just an SEO play. She built systems that tied content strategy to product messaging to what was actually happening in the sales pipeline, and the results showed up across the board. She made the whole marketing org look sharper because of how intentional she was about what went out the door.
Her team operated with a level of independence and consistency that only happens when the person leading them has set clear standards and actually trusts people to meet them. Maya could present digital strategy to leadership and then turn around and QA a landing page on her phone on a day off. That range is rare, and I’d bet on her to build and scale any digital marketing function.”
ANGIE TRAN (STAFF CONTENT & COMMS LEAD)
“Maya consistently sets the bar for communication and collaboration. She’s incredibly good at anticipating leadership and exec needs, and often preps the team for what’s coming down the pipeline before it even formally arrives. That kind of foresight makes our work sharper, calmer, and more effective.
She’s also deeply collaborative in the best way — she rolls up her sleeves when it’s helpful, but also really trusts the team and empowers us to own our work. She’s a strong advocate for her team, and I’ve personally felt that through her support, mentorship, and belief in my growth. My transition from a content-focused role into a broader comms and content lead role — and my first promotion!! — happened because she invested in me, challenged me, and created space for me to step into more responsibility.
She genuinely wants her team to win, and she backs that up with action. That mix of clarity, trust, and advocacy makes her an exceptional manager.”
Aashna malpani (content marketing strategist)
“Maya demonstrates exceptional leadership across every dimension that matters: strategic thinking, operational execution, team development, and stakeholder management.
She has built a high-performing team by creating clarity, accountability, and psychological safety. Her direct reports know what's expected, feel empowered to lead, and trust that Maya will support them when challenges arise. The results speak for themselves. In the short time I've been here, I've seen meaningful shifts in team confidence, collaboration, and output.
Maya invests deeply in individual development. When I was underperforming earlier this year, she didn't wait for a quarterly check-in. She made time daily to help me build the skills and strategies I needed to succeed. She does this across the team, and it shows in how people grow under her leadership.
She also ensures her team's contributions are visible. Maya consistently positions her direct reports to shine with key stakeholders, giving credit generously and creating opportunities for the team to demonstrate impact.
Maya sets a standard for what effective management looks like. She makes people better, raises the bar, and builds a team culture that drives results. I'm grateful to work for her and proud of who I am becoming under her mentorship.”
Tammy Jackson (EXECUTIVE MARKETING and Communications LEADER)
“Maya is among the most data-driven individuals I’ve ever worked with. Her ability to extract and predict market trends and buyer behavior from data is unmatched. She tackles projects with focus and tenacity. More than once I’ve witnessed Maya working for hours and weeks on end to solve a puzzle that no one else could figure out, whether in HubSpot, Marketo, WordPress or another platform. She also has the ability to put things into proper perspective, which is a welcome attribute on any team. As a digital marketer she is outstanding. As a coworker she is reliable and fun, always ready for a laugh. It is a true honor to work with her.”
TERESA CULLEN (SENIOR DESIGNER)
“Maya is one of my favorite people to work with at Gladly. She takes on such a huge role, balancing many projects and stakeholders. No matter how big or complex a project is, she is always organized and ahead of things. There are many things I appreciate about Maya, here are just a few: She is a clear and transparent communicator, she is always willing to help, and is a great team player. thanks for all you do Maya!!”
PATRICe WILSON (SaaS FP&A Leader)
“I have been a colleague of Maya Williams since 2008. Since that time Maya has proven her achievement and willingness to go for any challenge, and she has done so with a positive attitude and exceptional dedication. In particular she has grown exponentially passionate in digital marketing and all facets entailed.
She has proven her dedication through her calculative and collaborative planning in order to deliver premier content and customer service to her market audiences. She has done so without forgetting about positive team collaboration and communication. The most recent project that I have had the pleasure to work with her on was blog development. Maya’s position as the team lead and digital media expert has allowed our four person team to meet rigid deadlines and communicate ideas and concerns in a positive, comfortable, and innovative space.
She has an uncanny ability to oversee projects through understanding individual team member’s needs and talents. Her leadership abilities have allowed the progress of our blog to far surpass what my initial expectations were regarding timelines, content, and overall enjoyment of the project.
She has an exceptional ability to motivate and oversee teams through effective communication across many platforms. This is partly attributed to her zealous to continually challenge herself and meet her high expectations in the realm of digital marketing.”
MADDIE LATOCHE (SEO & Paid Media Professional)
“Maya's thoughtfulness, insight, and sharp attention to detail ensures successful delivery of projects, tests, and strategies. Although Maya is relentlessly focused on her goals, and manages her projects with speed, organization and flexible collaboration, she's always putting herself in the shoes of our customers -- what are they looking for? What is their experience like? Whenever I ask Maya a question about a project, she always responds with a data-driven insight or perspective I hadn't considered. Working alongside Maya makes me raise my own game, and I know I can always turn to her for a question or her input.”
MARCIN STRYCZEK (SR. BRAND DESIGNER)
“Working with Maya at Gladly was truly one of the best experiences I’ve had in my career. She’s not only a strong leader, but an even better human. She’s thoughtful, steady, and always made space for my ideas and expertise in brand design, which made me feel trusted and valued. In her role leading inbound marketing strategy across digital, content, web, and cross-functional teams, she had a clear vision for how everything should connect, from brand voice to pipeline growth, and she worked hard to bring alignment across marketing, product, and sales. Even when things felt chaotic, she stayed calm and brought clarity and order to the team. She genuinely cares about building strong processes and mentoring the people around her, and I learned a lot from her leadership. I would absolutely jump at the chance to work with her again.”
Kristine king (business development leader)
“Maya is Maya. In my time working more deeply with Maya, it's not a question to say she exemplifies ALL core values. She brings a positive energy to all conversations, collaborative projects, and any 1:1 conversations that is infectious. It makes folks strive to do better because you're so in awe at how she's got everything locked down tightly.
Maya is incredibly responsive, always open for feedback, and always open to experimenting / learning new tactics from other teams that benefit from her digital marketing efforts. What I love about Maya is how often she communicates to stakeholders and project partners. Even if it's a small update/acknowledgment along the lines of "Hey! I know you and I talked about this. I haven't forgotten. I'll be working on it XYZ." she'll communicate it and that's not something you get from others often. It helps with alignment and agreement on expectations. It has been a pleasure working with her and I hope to continue partnering with her for more initiatives moving forward.”
Nicole wise (communications leader and B2B marketing professional)
“Maya is an unbelievably talented digital marketer. I worked with her for four years at Sonic Foundry on the marketing team and she taught me a lot about email strategies, SEO, SEM, creating targeted campaigns and lead gen (and a lot more). Whenever I had a question, the first person I’d go to was Maya. When everyone else would hit a wall with a project, Maya could swoop in, figure it out and make it look effortless. She is the most data-driven person I know, always asking the right questions to ensure her marketing efforts are based on targeted, strategic data to get the most ROI. I’ve witnessed her create — unprompted — the most detailed and impressive marketing report to track that ROI. Maya is an amazing asset to have on a team, and anyone would be lucky to get the chance to work with her.”
marissa slavinsky (BRAND COPYWRITER)
“Maya is an exceptional co-worker and asset to Gladly. She is thorough with her feedback and reasoning behind it, isn't afraid to push back, takes feedback in stride, and does each of these in the pursuit of ensuring Gladly is a successful business and well-respected brand.
Maya is kind, approachable, whip-smart, and collaborative. In the few projects I've had the pleasure of working with her on, she comes prepared to help ensure we start things off on the right note and set me up to do my job well. It's incredibly refreshing to work with someone as diligent and warm as Maya.
Maya is also open to trying something new (i.e. challenging the status quo!). She is responsible for helping push our brand presence online in innovative ways, ensuring we are speaking the language of our customers and prospective customers.”
angie tran (Senior content marketing manager)
“She's a team player and always down to help, no matter how "dumb" the questions are. Maya is why I feel comfortable and confident taking over Gladly's social media programs. On top of spending time with me going over how she previously ran social and how to read social analytics and decipher which ones are most important, Maya even gives me words of encouragement. And did I mention she's endlessly patient? Maya is integral in helping transform the content team to become more data-driven. It's not just social media that I ask her questions about — she's also my go-to for any questions regarding content metrics. I look forward to continuing to learn from her and working together to take content to new heights. She's a hard worker, and everyone at Gladly holds her in high esteem as I do. Thanks, Maya, for being someone I can count on at work!”