Maria Gordon

Masha Gordon is an experienced board executive, an avid

alpinist, and a mother-of-two. She started her career as a

journalist for the Washington Post in Moscow and later

studied in the United States; gaining a BA in political

science from the University of Wisconsin and MALD from

the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Masha spent the next 16 years of her career working in

finance. She spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs where she was

a Managing Director in the Investment Management

Division and most recently led the emerging markets

portfolio management team at PIMCO.

She moved to a portfolio career of non-executive board roles

in 2014 and currently serves as a Chairwoman of the board

of directors of Detsky Mir, Russia’s largest retail chain of

children’s goods, an independent director of Alrosa, world’s

largest diamond company, Moscow Stock Exchange, Tinkoff

Credit Services and Polyus Gold. Her portfolio of non-profit

roles includes being a member of the Board of Advisors for

the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a trustee of the

Girls Day School Trust, UK’s largest network of private girlsonly

schools.

In October 2015, Masha embarked on a journey to set a

women’s world record in Explorers Grand Slam, an

endurance challenge that features climbing highest peaks on

every continent, including Everest and skiing to the North

and South Poles. On June 11, 2016 she set a new Guinness

record at 7 months and 19 days. She has since climbed

Makalu and Lhotse, world’s 3 and 5th highest peaks. Masha

is a founder of GRIT&ROCK, a charity that administers a

largest pool of expedition grants focused exclusively on

women.