MAD Day – HBS PLD Summit 2017 – Maria Conceiao (5 mins)

Maria Conceiao was an Emirates airline crew member and was so moved by the plight of the slum children in Dhaka that she set up the Maria Christina Foundation to help them. Over the past nine years she has helped hundreds of kids get an education by opening up schools for them in the slums.

In order to find for new ways to raise funds, Maria has taken to pushing her own physical limits. She was the first Portuguese woman and third national to summit Mount Everest and was awarded a double Guinness World Record for her conquest of 2014’s 777 Ultramarathon Challenge, a seven full-distance 50km ultramarathon that was run on each of the seven continents within seven weeks. These are just 2 examples of the amazing feats Maria has accomplished.

Maria has received several awards and recognition for her work, including European Union Woman Innovators Award, Emirates Humanitarian Woman of the Year 2009, Emirates Woman of the Year 2009 and is a 6 times Guiness World Recorder Holder. She is currently training to go to the South Pole and is an inspiration to people all over the world as she is never afraid to transform herself for helping those in need.