Maria Rocha Barros

As Chief Legal and Public Affairs Officer, Maria is responsible for legal, compliance and public affairs matters of Booking.com. Before Booking.com, Maria was the European General Counsel of AB InBev, the leading global brewer, where she  was responsible for legal, government relations and external communications. Prior to that, Maria held a number of roles at AB InBev in its global HQ and Mexican operations, where she worked on various M&As deals (including the $100 billion combination with SABMiller), post-deal integrations and in growing AB InBev’s international business. Prior to AB InBev, she worked for years in private practice in Brazil and the U.S., including at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York. 

Born in London, Maria loves traveling and has lived in the UK, US, Brazil, Mexico, Belgium and now the Netherlands. Maria is passionate about her profession and truly believes in the role of in-house counsel as a force for good within companies. Since October 2018, Maria has served as a Board member of ACC Europe, the world's largest association of in-house lawyers.

Maria holds a Masters in Corporate Governance from Stanford University, a bachelor of laws from the Universidade de Sao Paulo (Brazil), and is admitted to practice in the U.S. (New York), England & Wales and Brazil.