Maya Baltazar Herrera is a writer, an actuary, a  consultant and a teacher.



She was born Maria Elena but soon decided to answer only to Maya as her full name was only ever used in anger or exasperation – either by her parents or by nuns.



As a young child, Maya flirted with the idea of becoming a professional artist and quickly realized she had neither enough talent to be financially successful in art nor the dedication to starve for it.  Instead, Maya became an actuary and eventually branched out to management consulting and education.



Being Gemini, Maya takes pleasure in bringing her different perspectives and disciplines to her work. She enjoys being able to bring together both a finance and organization perspective to her projects.  She likes to believe that her strength lies in her capacity to understand the human element and connect it with rigor to the business perspective.



Maya enjoys writing, interior design, and dabbling in architecture.  She believes that form follows function but success comes from harmony between people and space.



Maya is a director of Solutions Incorporated, a management consulting firm that specializes in providing actuarial services, technical advice to financial security companies, employee benefits advice, and strategic human resources consulting. She is also in the faculty of the Asian Institute of Management where she teaches finance, risk management, corporate valuation, leadership and human resources management. Maya is a Fellow of the Actuarial Society of the Philippines and is in the Board of Abelica Global.



Maya writes the column Integrations for The Manila Standard Today. She loves science fiction, fantasy, Archie comics, and historical novels. Her secret vice is romance novels. Some of her favorite authors are Orson Scott Card, Judith Krantz, Robert Heinlein, Jeffrey Archer, Michael Crichton, Jean Auel, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Eileen Goudge, Colleen McCullough and Wilbur Smith. This is a list constantly in flux as she discovers new authors.



She cooks and maintains an herb garden. Her all-time favorite movies are The Way We Were and What Dreams May Come. She thinks no day is complete without chocolate; that most jobs can be tackled with a strong dose of caffeine; that butter is worth it; and all problems can be put into perspective with a bottle of San Miguel Beer and a long talk with a good friend. She interprets natal charts and reads tarot spreads.



She lives beside the Marikina River with her husband, Henry and her three children, Tinka, Kevin and Sami in a house she designed herself.