MARIA THOMAS

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Maria Thomas, 69, is a now Etsy’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
She is a new Chief Operating Officer (COO). At the moment she’s in the Southern hemisphere, taking a brief break before jumping into Etsy. Etsy is a happening little company with a lot of promise. The three-year-old site, where people buy and sell homemade arts and crafts, last year sold $27 million in goods with very little marketing. Its secret? Hitting a chord with people who are tired of the ordinary and the mass produced.
As the Vice President and General Manager of NPR, she spearheaded the organization’s wildly popular and innovative podcasting offerings. Now Thomas, a onetime exec at Amazon, is back at her e-commerce roots. When she began Pendragon Ink, Ltd. over 25 years ago, Maria changed the look of traditional invitations with her hand-painted flowers, expressive lettering and dramatic flourishing all now familiar standards.

“I think that’s really the basic appeal. If you think about it, ever since ‘Pretty Woman,’ Hollywood has been recycling this endlessly.”
“Our model is more ‘The Little Engine That Could. We’ve sort of lost our faith in the power of magic.”