Maranie Brown believes she can change the world.
And through her dedication to her community, nonprofit leadership, and her impressive career in technology, she’s on track to do just that.
“If there are people who need something, who are without, I see it as my duty to do what I can to bring people together and solve those problems,” Brown BSFCS ’12, MBT ’23 says. “As I’m climbing the ladder of success, it’s important to me that I bring someone up with me. I aim to do well and do good in the world.”
Born and raised in Atlanta, Brown originally thought she might take a different path. Growing up, she wanted to be a pediatrician. She planned to attend a university out of state, but when she realized the number of resources and programs available at UGA, she decided to stay closer to home.
“One of the women that I admired growing up was my pediatrician. She was smart and liked science and math just like me. I connected with that curiosity,” Brown says. “But I started getting this feeling that there were other things that I could tap into while getting involved on campus.”
As she dug into her studies in math and science, she saw mobile apps and social media rising in popularity. She drifted away from her dream of becoming a physician and realized technology was her true calling. She landed an internship during her senior year with a digital company in Atlanta and commuted from Athens multiple times a week, kickstarting her career in the tech world.
Brown held marketing and technology positions at You Are Here and North Highland, an Atlanta-based business consulting firm, before accepting her current position as a vice president at BlackRock, a global investment and asset management company, in 2021. She leads a team responsible for complex data strategy initiatives. Right as she took on that new role, she entered UGA’s master’s program in business technology and completed her degree in 2023.
Outside of her professional endeavors, Brown sits on a number of nonprofit boards around Atlanta: United Way of Greater Atlanta, ATLeaders Council, Hands On Atlanta, and Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company, to name a few.
Brown’s passions range from the data and numbers in her job to education and the arts beyond it. She says empowering students, especially young girls, to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is critical. Through her work with organizations like the Girl Scouts of Atlanta and its yearly STEM expo, she hopes to get girls excited about the field.
Her efforts have been noticed at the highest levels. In February, the Atlanta Business Chronicle recognized Brown as a 2026 Corporate Citizen of the Year.
“We’re getting young women thinking about the kinds of careers that we may need in the future, helping them to think critically and see themselves in STEM careers, and thinking about those careers in ways that are exciting to them,” she says.
Brown has kept close ties to the university and has been an active member of the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences Alumni Board, UGA Young Alumni Leadership Council, and her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. She was named to UGA’s 40 Under 40 list in 2022 and Georgia Trend’s 40 Under 40 in 2024.
“Georgia has such an amazing network, and to be able to talk with recent graduates and students about what it means to be a part of this network and how to leverage it in meaningful ways is both rewarding anda lot of fun,” Brown says. “UGA has given me so much, and I strive to pay it forward.”