Maria Boukhval brings a career unlike any other to this role. She earned an IB Bilingual Diploma at Schule Schloss Salem in Germany, then studied Hospitality Management through BOS4 at Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) in Switzerland — one of the world’s most prestigious institutions. After her second internship, she made the defining choice of a true operator: she stepped into the field and went on to manage Ski Resort Logoisk, leading a team of 200 and delivering a 95% guest satisfaction score. She later completed a full merit-based government scholarship at Belarusian State Economic University, graduating with a BBA in Hospitality Economics. By 25 she was Art Director in Minsk, producing 100+ events annually and supporting Belarus’s leading artists. She co-founded five ventures across food, hospitality, investment real estate, e-commerce, and AI — including Riviera Business & Spa, which won Belarus’s national Golden Key Award and achieved 95% occupancy in its first year. In Silicon Valley, she led GenAI program operations at Adobe across Firefly, Acrobat AI Assistant, and Adobe Express, before founding AiVass LLC, her AI systems and GTM architecture consultancy. She holds a PMP, MBA, CSM, and U.S. Permanent Residency granted under the EB-1A Extraordinary Ability classification.

She brings to PMI SFBAC a rare combination: the operational discipline of someone who has run real businesses under real pressure, the strategic clarity of a global program leader, and the conviction of a founder who builds from purpose, not position. Her agenda for 2026–2027 is built on five pillars — AI-native operations, learning experience innovation, brand and communications leadership, operational excellence, and global community impact — all united by a single belief:

“I am not here to rise within a hierarchy. I am here to build something this chapter has never had before — a living system that develops professionals who think architecturally, integrates AI as a force for human liberation, and sends members back into the world fundamentally more capable than when they arrived.

Plus est en vous. There is more in you. There is more in this chapter. There is more in what project leadership can mean for this world.”

— Maria Boukhval, CEO, PMI SFBAC