Maria Lyra provides advice to clients in both public affairs and strategic communications. She is part of a team advising a major international energy company on a wide range of communications and public affairs activities. She also focuses on healthcare, intellectual property, and competition.

She joined GPlus from the United Nations office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Nairobi where she worked as information officer covering various crises in Eastern and Central Africa, including the Kenya post-election crisis. She has also been involved in the UN advocacy campaign on the global food crisis.

Previously Maria Lyra was working in Brussels as a consultant for Unisys Belgium, where she contributed to the creation of a range of European Commission internet portals, including the Open Source Observatory and Repository.

Before this she worked as a journalist, writing and editing articles and newsletters for various websites of the EU institutions. Earlier in her career Maria Lyra worked at the Italian Permanent Representation to the EU, where she assisted the Counsellor in charge of External Relations and CFSP during the Italian Presidency of the EU in 2003.

Maria Lyra holds a Masters in European Political and Administrative Studies from the College of Europe (Bruges) and a Master's degree in International Relations from the University of Trieste. Besides her native Italian, she is fluent in English, French and Spanish.