María José Marín Rey-Stolle
Member of the Board of Directors
María José Marín Rey-Stolle (Madrid, 1987) is one of the most prominent figures in the world of Spanish entrepreneurship. She has a solid background in international management and business finance, and holds a double Spanish-French degree in international business from ICADE and Reims Management School.
After working as a consultant at Oliver Wyman and as an auditor at PwC, she founded and is now CEO of We Are Knitters, the world's leading digital brand in the hobby and crafts sector, headquartered in Madrid with 96% of revenue generated outside Spain. Since 2021, the group has also included Funem Studio, a Belgian-based digital brand of loom kits, acquired in full.
In 2020, María José was awarded the Princess of Girona Foundation Prize for Enterprise for María José Marín was honored in 2020 with the Princess of Girona Business Award for "knowing how to unite tradition and modernity, turning the age-old tradition of knitting into a modern hobby". Since 2024, she has participated in the network of Ambassadors with the aim of making the Foundation's values and goals known in different areas, having taken part on several occasions in the Foundation's Talent Tour.
Since 2019, María José has been an Endeavor Spain Entrepreneur, the most powerful network of entrepreneurs in this country. In addition, María José was a finalist as Protagonist of the Year in ModaEs, along with Pablo Isla, and We Are Knitters has won the SME of the Year Award in Emprendedores, the Aster Award from ESIC, the DHL Award for Internationalization and the Award for Internationalization of the Spanish Association of Young Entrepreneurs, CEAJE.
At business and social forums, she is an active champion in the fight against the digital divide, as well as socio-economic and gender gaps in entrepreneurship, and she has spoken at events such as DEMO 2020 and South Summit, among others. She teaches at IE University, lSDI, ICADE and IESE.
Since May 2021 she has been First Secretary of the Ateneo de Madrid, having been re-elected twice through to 2027. As a founding member of “Grupo 1820,” a community of over 500 members dedicated to revitalizing the institution, she has contributed to the growth and renewal of this 200-year-old Madrid institution devoted to the arts, sciences and literature. Since 2021, the Ateneo has grown by over 1,000 members, doubled its annual budget from €800,000 to €1,700,000, and established itself as one of Madrid’s leading cultural institutions.
Since 2022 she has been a member of the Executive Committee of the ICADE Business Club, a network of university alumni dedicated to awarding scholarships and fostering entrepreneurship, among other activities.
Category:
Independent.
First and last appointments:
- 23 February 2021
- 26 June 2024
Boards of Directors of other listed companies to which she serves (*):
None.
(*) Excluding: (i) holding or family-owned companies and (ii) positions in companies that had been already recorded in the previous biographical note.
Boards of directors of other unlisted companies on which she serves (*):
- Sole Director of We Are Knitters USA Inc.
- Sole Director of No.10 BVBA
(*) Excluding: (i) holding or family-owned companies and (ii) positions in companies that had been already recorded in the previous biographical note.
Other paid activities:
Associate Professor at Universidad Villanueva.