Watch Marie Williams's Video.

John 9:25 “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

Marie works primarily with MBA students at the Harvard Business School. She believes that Jesus is Lord of business (like everything else) and wants to use businessmen and women to change this world for the better and to live out the good news of Jesus. Due to the vast resources created and distributed by business, those who pursue careers in business will often find in their hands much economic, social, and political power, which can be used to promote God’s purposes (redemption, healing, salvation, justice) and bring Him glory. This opportunity to steward resources and to serve others through business is a gift from God. He longs to be part of the daily conversation and is the only source of wisdom and strength as businessmen and women pursue God’s mission through their vocational calling and giftings. Marie’s hope is that many Harvard MBAs will use the gifts and opportunities that God has given them—not to make their name great, but to make God’s name great.

Marie completed a Master of Divinity degree at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in 2005 and now works full-time with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Graduate and Faculty Ministry in Boston. Before campus ministry and seminary, Marie worked in business for 5 years. She began her career in GE’s Financial Management Program then moved to the Latin American M&A and Merchant Banking group of a large investment bank and finally ended up at a Latin American Venture Capital Fund in NYC. Marie still enjoys an occasional business-consulting project but has channeled most of her business energy into micro enterprise development (MED). She is an active volunteer with PEER Servants, a local Christian MED organization with partners in 13 countries around the world. Marie holds a degree in finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is married to Andy Williams (not the singer), whom she both admires and loves dearly.

Marie grew up on a dairy farm in Tremont, Illinois, in a huge and loving family, and in a very conservative Christian denomination (for example, the women wore dresses and headcoverings, kept their hair long—usually worn in a bun—and were silent in church). By high school, Marie had decided that God was antiquated and irrelevant to her life. So she threw her energy into traveling the world and pursing whatever pleasure or adventure presented itself. Marie met Jesus towards the end of her junior year in college, after God removed the idols upon which she had built her house: friends, popularity, adventure, and relationships. “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” (Ecc 2:11) Over the upcoming years, Marie was shocked to discover that following Jesus did not mean living a boring, fun-less life, but rather was the greatest adventure she had ever embarked upon. It has not been an easy journey, but it has been the best.

Marie is daily humbled and grateful that God chose her (for no merit of her own I can assure you) for salvation, for fellowship with Him and for building His kingdom here on this earth. She is thankful to her Father in Heaven that her restless, searching heart has finally found its rest in Him.