Maria Hatzistefanis

Maria Hatzistefanis' business made worldwide headlines when it unleashed its ground-breaking Snake Serum anti-wrinkle cream on to the high-end skincare market.
In just 11 short years, her company, Rodial, has become a worldwide phenomenon and will turn over £15 million in 2011, thanks to high-performance beauty products that are heralded as a natural alternative to cosmetic surgery, and combine nature with science, like the exotically-titled serum.
Rodial's anti-ageing and body-sculpting products are now sold in over 1,500 luxury stores, including Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Space NK and Selfridges in the UK, and in 35 countries, from the US, Canada and United Arab Emirates, to India, Australia, Malaysia, and Russia.
Looking for ways to grow her business even further, Maria recently launched a second global skincare brand, NIP + FAB, this time aimed at the mass market, it is already a best-seller and retails in 3,000 stores worldwide, including Boots in the UK and Target in the US.
After graduating from the University of Athens, Maria worked briefly as a beauty editor at Seventeen magazine in Greece before moving to New York, where she achieved an MBA at Columbia University. She worked at investment bank Salomon Brothers for three years before moving to London in 1997 where she later launched Rodial.