Meet Emerald: the Buff of Business Development
This post is part of a weekly series in which we get to know Sifties.
Emerald Maravilla is a Senior Manager of Sales Development who has been with Sift Science for eight months. If she could time travel, she would go back to the Philippines in the 1950s, before her parents, aunts, and uncles were born. For her birthday, she asked her parents for notebooks containing stories of their childhoods – so she can understand more about how they informed her own experience growing up.
Where is your favorite place to be?
Besides my bed, the beach. I have a thing for water — particularly the ocean. When I moved to New York, I lived near the East River, but that wasn’t good enough. Something about the expansiveness of the ocean reminds me that I’m so small, and it gives me perspective.
I love to hang out on the North Shore of Hawaii — there’s always a beautiful sunset, great food, and the water is a perfect temperature. I like just hanging out in the shallows because I’m not the best swimmer, so when I’m there I have a fairly high degree of confidence that I won’t die.
What are 5 things that make you happy?
- My dog Splash, known on Instagram as #splashtheschnoodle, love of my life, reason for breathing
- Really good cheeseburgers and fries. In-N-Out is my favorite. My typical order is a #2 with whole grilled onions, fries well done, and pink lemonade. If I’m feeling extra hungry, I’ll get my fries animal style.
- Really good music. I love 90s hip-hop and R&B, Motown, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, and *NSYNC
- Being with my family. I come from a massive family, I’m one of 30 cousins, and they’re like my siblings
- The Golden State Warriors. I’m not a bandwagon fan. I’ve been a fan for as long as I can remember — I’ve met Don Nelson who was the Warriors coach from 1988-1995, I remember when Latrell Spreewell choked out his coach in 1997, and when they traded Chris Mullins, also in 1997. So now I’m just lucky to be their fan during such success.
- BONUS! 90s television. Particularly Saved by the Bell and Who’s the Boss. Tony Danza is my #1 dreamboat, Zack Morris is #1.5
Speaking of the Golden State Warriors, I know that you’re a big Steph Curry fan…
Yes. He’s the theme of my birthday this year, complete with Snapchat filters of him. My dog is named after him, and I used to have cardboard cutout of his face on my desk at my last job.
I follow the Warriors on Twitter, and back in 2012 I saw that they were on Market Street in downtown San Francisco. My friend was dropping me off, and as I get out of the car, there’s Steph Curry, waiting to cross the street by himself. I asked him to sign my shirt, and he said “Yeah, but I need to catch up with my team. Cross the street with me.” I thought to myself “Of course I’ll cross the street with you. I’d walk on fire for you.” This was before the Warriors were an all-star team, and people thought they were crazy for signing Steph. We had a pep talk that day, and I like to think that my vote of confidence catapulted his success in his breakout season right after.
What was your first car?
A ‘91 baby blue Mazda Protege with 231k miles on it. It used to be my grandpa’s. He loved driving from here to Reno or here to Vegas to gamble on the weekends. Anytime someone in the family needed a car, he would give it to them – so he always made sure to have two cars. I felt really lucky to have it. Now, I drive a 2016 red Mini Cooper.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I am pretty introverted. I’m not shy, but I get a good amount of my energy from my alone time. I highly value a weekend indoors with books and a lot of good Netflix. I love people, and I love being in sales and managing a team, but I can’t do a lot of that stuff if I haven’t had “me” time.
