“Using My Voice to Help.”
Marie Mathews is an executive leader, entrepreneur, contract acquisition professional, educator, researcher, and community advocate whose career reflects more than two decades of experience across hospitality, large-scale event operations, business ownership, healthcare services, education, scientific research, and civic leadership. Her professional journey is defined by an ability to see opportunity from multiple perspectives and translate complex challenges into practical strategies. Whether building a business, developing partnerships, coordinating people and resources, supporting community organizations, or navigating demanding operational environments, Marie approaches leadership with a combination of discipline, curiosity, adaptability, and purpose. Her personal motto, “Use My Voice to Help,” captures a philosophy centered on applying experience and influence in ways that create meaningful value for organizations and communities.
As Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MGM Bartending, LLC, Marie has transformed her hospitality expertise into an entrepreneurial platform focused on sophisticated event execution, contract acquisition, workforce deployment, client relationships, compliance, and strategic growth. She founded the company in 2022 and developed it into a multi-regional hospitality operation supported by a network of more than 400 professionals. In her executive capacity, she oversees strategy, financial reporting, business development, marketing, staffing, regulatory requirements, client relations, and the logistical demands associated with high-capacity events. Her leadership demonstrates an understanding that sustainable growth requires more than winning business; it requires building the systems, relationships, infrastructure, and accountability necessary to execute consistently as an organization expands.
Marie’s experience in hospitality and experiential operations has placed her in demanding environments where timing, coordination, risk management, and customer experience converge. Through MGM Bartending and her contract acquisition and event leadership work with ESN, an OVG company, she has contributed to operations associated with major sports, music, cultural, and corporate events. Her portfolio of experience includes environments connected with Formula One, the IndyCar Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, PGA and LIV Golf events, Art Basel Miami, Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Boston Calling, Dreamville, Electric Forest, Innings Festival, Gasparilla, Valspar Championship, and major brand activations. These experiences have strengthened her ability to mobilize teams and resources while maintaining attention to operational detail, regulatory expectations, partner requirements, and the guest experience.
Contract acquisition, business development, and scalable operations have become central themes in Marie’s executive evolution. She is particularly effective at viewing an organization as an interconnected system—evaluating the commercial opportunity while simultaneously considering people, logistics, financial implications, compliance, partnerships, and execution. Her interests extend to corporate acquisition and integration strategy, multi-market expansion, government and corporate contracting, strategic partnerships, and operational process development. Marie is energized by situations that require leaders to identify value, negotiate a viable path forward, establish an executable framework, and remain accountable through implementation. This ability to move between strategy and execution gives her a valuable perspective for organizations navigating growth, transformation, acquisition, or operational complexity.
Her leadership foundation, however, extends well beyond entrepreneurship and hospitality. Marie’s professional background includes healthcare-related responsibilities with UnitedHealthcare, where her work has involved medical management and provider-service functions, including claims research, prior authorizations, benefit analysis, medical terminology, and ICD-10 coding. Her scientific and academic experiences have also contributed to a highly analytical approach to decision-making. She has participated in microbiology research involving DNA extraction, PCR, gel electrophoresis, western blots, and ELISA, and previously supported neonatology-focused undergraduate research at Morton Plant Hospital. These experiences reinforced habits of evidence-based inquiry, structured problem-solving, careful assessment, and respect for regulated environments—qualities that complement her broader experience with compliance, risk management, quality, training, and process improvement.
Education and teaching have played equally important roles in shaping Marie’s leadership style. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences from the University of South Florida and graduated Summa Cum Laude from St. Petersburg College, where she completed an associate degree with a biology and pre-medicine focus. During her academic career, she held significant student leadership positions, including President of Phi Theta Kappa, Founder and President of the Undergraduate Science Research Society, Founder and President of the Interdisciplinary Studies Club, and Student Director of Curricular Development. She also served in tutoring and teaching-assistant capacities across mathematics, anatomy and physiology, sciences, writing, and ethics. These experiences strengthened her capacity to explain difficult concepts, develop others, ask rigorous questions, and bring together people with different areas of expertise.
Marie’s intellectual curiosity has also resulted in research presentations and authored academic work under the name M. Cram. Her subjects have ranged from neonatal weight loss and microbiology to environmental medicine, public health stigma, ethics, DNA extraction, and the historical influence of alcohol. This interdisciplinary record reflects a professional who has consistently resisted being confined to a single lane. Instead, Marie has built a career around learning how different systems function and then applying that knowledge to new challenges. Study abroad experience in Ireland and Northern Ireland further expanded her perspective through the study of social psychology and American government, adding international exposure to a career already characterized by broad professional and academic interests.
Community leadership and governance represent another substantial dimension of Marie’s professional identity. Her service has included board and committee involvement with organizations focused on nonprofit governance, education, business inclusion, neighborhood development, youth programming, and community advancement. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Joyful Play Organization and contributes to governance efforts with the Tampa Bay LGBT Chamber. Her broader leadership experience includes school and parent boards, community planning, volunteer service, and youth hockey coaching. Through these roles, she has gained firsthand appreciation for the responsibilities of governance: asking constructive questions, considering stakeholder interests, supporting organizational missions, strengthening accountability, and helping leadership teams translate vision into sustainable action.
Recognition such as being named among KNOW Women Tampa Bay’s 40 Under 40 and an independent publication’s 40 Over 40 Inspiring Women reflects the breadth of a career that has combined professional ambition with service. Marie is also an LGBT Business Enterprise® certified business leader through the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Yet her leadership philosophy is grounded less in recognition than in impact. She believes professional experience becomes most valuable when it can be used to solve difficult problems, strengthen organizations, create opportunities for others, and contribute positively to the communities those organizations serve.
Marie’s interest in additional board and advisory opportunities represents a natural continuation of that philosophy. She is particularly interested in contributing to mid-cap and larger organizations, with strong enthusiasm for hospitality, sports, and music while remaining open to opportunities across industries. She brings the perspective of an entrepreneur who has built operations, an executive who understands contracts and commercial growth, a researcher trained to examine evidence, an educator accustomed to developing people, and a community leader familiar with governance and stakeholder responsibility. In the boardroom, she can contribute to conversations involving strategic expansion, contract acquisition, operational efficiency, risk assessment, regulatory considerations, workforce strategy, partnerships, integration, and the practical realities of turning ambitious plans into executable initiatives.
At the center of Marie’s story is an ability to connect strategy with action. She is comfortable thinking about the larger chessboard while remaining attentive to the individual moves required to achieve an objective. Her experience ranges from intimate service environments to complex productions involving hundreds of thousands of attendees, giving her an unusual appreciation for how scale changes organizational requirements. She understands that strong leadership is not simply about identifying where an organization should go; it is about building the structure, aligning the people, managing the risks, and maintaining the relationships necessary to get there.
Outside of her professional responsibilities, Marie’s interests in scuba diving, cycling, hockey, international travel, live music, and sports reflect the same curiosity and energy visible throughout her career. Coaching youth hockey further connects her personal interests with her commitment to mentorship, teamwork, and community involvement. Across business, education, research, hospitality, and civic service, she continues to pursue opportunities where her experience can help others move forward. For Marie, leadership ultimately comes back to a simple principle: use knowledge, experience, relationships, and one’s voice to make a constructive difference.
Character:
Marie leads with purpose, accountability, resilience, and a strong commitment to creating value for both organizations and communities. Her willingness to serve, mentor, build, and take responsibility across business and civic environments demonstrates a leadership character rooted in contribution rather than title alone.
Knowledge:
She brings interdisciplinary knowledge spanning executive leadership, hospitality operations, contract acquisition, business development, healthcare, scientific research, regulatory environments, risk management, education, and governance. This breadth enables her to examine challenges through multiple lenses and connect operational realities with larger strategic considerations.
Strategic:
Marie combines entrepreneurial vision with an execution-oriented understanding of growth, partnerships, acquisitions, integration, contracts, logistics, and multi-market operations. She is particularly skilled at seeing the broader organizational chessboard, identifying where value can be created, and developing practical pathways that move an opportunity from concept through execution.
Communication:
Experience as an executive, educator, researcher, contract professional, board participant, and community leader has developed her ability to communicate with diverse stakeholders in complex environments. She uses communication not only to articulate ideas, but also to build alignment, strengthen relationships, develop people, facilitate decisions, and advance meaningful organizational and community outcomes.
