Maria-Lisa Farmakidis graduated from Athens College in 1991 and holds a BA in History from the University of California, Berkeley, Magna Cum Laude & Phi Beta Kappa and an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School. She is an Executive Director in the Debt Capital Markets Division of Standard Chartered Bank in New York City. She is responsible for covering North American Corporates across sectors with a focus on global funding solutions. Prior to this, she held various positions with JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, PIMCO and Deutsche Bank.

She mentors students in Technology Entrepreneurship at the City College of New York and regularly serves as a judge in entrepreneurship competitions run by The MIT Enterprise Forum European Chapters. She is currently in training to become a Docent at the Whitney Museum of American Art.