Maria Walsh is senior vice president and head of Benefits at Hearst. Walsh also serves as a Scout for HearstLab, a community of early-stage, women-led startups working inside Hearst, where she assists with the evaluation process and provides investments with introductions and networking opportunities. 

Previously, Walsh was vice president of Global Benefits and Mobility at Nielsen. In this role, she oversaw the benefits and wellness strategies for the company’s more than 46,000 employees across 100 countries. She managed vendor negotiations, contracts and relationships; designed and implemented measurable tools to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of initiatives; and ensured compliance with existing and new regulations across locations. Earlier roles at Nielsen included director of Global Benefit Plans and Wellbeing and director of U.S. Benefit Plans. Before joining Nielsen, Walsh was the manager of Health and Wellbeing Strategy at Citibank, Inc. At Citibank, Walsh designed and executed strategies and policies programs for 150,000 employees in the U.S. across the medical, pharmacy, dental, vision, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, retiree medical and wellbeing policies. From 2000 to 2002, she was a senior analyst for retirement plans at UBS. Walsh began her career at Prudential Financial as a pension consultant. 

Walsh received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Drew University.