Masters of Scale The C-suite is messier than you think, with Maryam Banikarim
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Mar 17, 2026 
Maryam Banikarim, former CMO of Univision, Gannett and Hyatt and founder of NYC Next and The Longest Table, blends marketing savvy with community building. She talks candidly about career pivots, C-suite politics, and the value of pauses. Stories from growing up in Iran and creating civic projects highlight resilience, belonging, and why embracing mess can spark joy and bold moves.
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Dream Job Turned Political Challenge
- Maryam recounts arriving at NBCUniversal as her dream job only to be warned it was like the “mean kids” table and told she had “the worst job outside of the janitor.”
- She used that outsider label to push change while learning to be kinder and navigate internal politics instead of mass firings.
Messy Moments Build Career Resilience
- The Messy Parts podcast focuses on what goes wrong for successful people and how those moments create growth.
- Maryam argues growth happens in the bumps and developing 'muscle memory' for recovery accelerates future resilience.
Revolution Childhood Shaped Her Grit
- Maryam describes growing up during the Iranian revolution, losing her father later, and how constant upheaval taught her to rebound quickly.
- Those early traumas seeded a lifelong comfort with being an outsider and improvising through crisis.