Maryam Pessaran Garg

A life-long learner, Maryam joined USC Marshall where she had the foresight to launch MODMASK pre-pandemic as a graduate class project. This learning experience turned into a profitable venture, the learnings of which have been shared with students worldwide through the HBR case study and speaking engagements at business schools. Her master's education in entrepreneurship coupled with startup experience motivates Maryam to continue learning and share those learnings, previously as the Director of Blackstone Launchpad at USC and currently as a Principal Venture Consultant at UC Irvine's Entrepreneurship center. She began her career 15 years ago in Digital Marketing, leading a small team of social media and paid search marketers, growing in responsibility over time to manage high-visibility product launches and then developing end-to-end corporate strategy for Macys.com. She leveraged this experience to launch her own Consulting firm (Retail Tech Consulting LLC) providing product and strategy consulting to eCommerce firms. Retail Tech Consulting LLC was directly responsible for the product strategy and execution of launches such as Buy Online Pickup in Store, Same Day Delivery, etc. for Macy's and Bloomingdales.