When Maria Hollins walks into a room, something unusual happens.
People relax.
The CEO of Ann Summers is often referred to as the “CEO of Sex”—a title that reflects her role at one of Britain’s most recognisable brands, but reveals very little about the woman herself.
Spend five minutes in her company and another picture emerges.
She listens. Not the performative listening often associated with senior leadership, but the genuine kind that makes people feel heard. In a crowded room, she has a remarkable ability to make each person feel that, for a few moments, they are the only one there.
That quality wasn’t learned in business. It was inherited — shaped by women who never questioned whether they belonged.
Her grandmother, affectionately called “Mrs Jones the Trader” by her grandfather, built a loyal customer base one conversation at a time. Her mother stood beside auctioneers selling cattle into rings filled almost entirely with men, never asking for permission because, in her mind, there was no permission to ask for.
Those women shaped Maria’s expectations long before she became a CEO.
“I never really questioned that, as a woman, I couldn’t do something,” she reflects.
That quiet certainty carried her through a rapid retail career, becoming an Executive Director at just thirty before eventually leading one of Britain’s best-known brands. Yet success brought an unexpected companion — imposter syndrome. For years she carried the quiet fear that one day someone would discover she wasn’t good enough. Only with time did she realise her success had not been accidental. It had been earned.
That experience shaped the leader she became. Attitude, curiosity and potential matter more to her than polished CVs. Leadership, she believes, is not about proving yourself. It’s about creating an environment where other people discover what they are capable of.
The same philosophy runs through her personal life.
For most of her adult life, Maria has trained four or five times every week. Not because she’s chasing perfection, but because movement is the constant that keeps everything else in balance. It supports her leadership, her family life, her relationships and her health.
Exercise isn’t something she squeezes into an already busy diary. It’s one of the habits that enables everything else.
I asked what her favourite form of exercise was.
“Peloton, by far,” she laughed. “I just get on it and go. By the end of the session, I’m exhausted.”
She also swears by her core stability ball — twenty minutes whenever time allows.
“Do you belong to a gym?” I asked.
She burst out laughing.
“No. It would be a complete waste of money. I’d never get there.”
That answer told me more than any fitness programme ever could. She has adapted exercise to fit her life instead of waiting for life to fit around exercise. No grand gestures. No expensive memberships gathering dust. Just simple, consistent choices that add up over time.
She enjoys good food, a glass of wine and the occasional cocktail. What distinguishes her is not perfection but consistency. Week after week, year after year, she has continued to invest in herself while balancing the competing demands of senior leadership and family life.
That consistency mirrors the way she leads: steady, committed and always looking ahead rather than over her shoulder.
Then she shared a story that made us both laugh.
A couple of years ago she attended a boot camp wearing a Meta-Age T-shirt. One of the trainers wandered over, looked at the logo and asked:
“Meta-Age… is that a rock band?”
“I don’t know whether he thought I was more rock ‘n’ roll than I looked,” she laughed, “but I just smiled and said, ‘No… it’s people like me.'”
That may be the simplest explanation of Meta-Age I’ve heard.
It’s not about pretending you don’t age. It’s about refusing to let ageing become an excuse for withdrawing from life. It’s about staying engaged, staying active and staying curious.
And that’s precisely what Maria has been doing for decades — long before she knew it had a name.
Before we finished, I couldn’t resist one final question.
“How do you feel about being called the ‘CEO of Sex’?”
Maria laughed.
“If it helps sell Ann Summers, why not?”
The perfect answer. No embarrassment. No carefully rehearsed corporate response. Just someone comfortable enough in her own skin to know the difference between a headline and reality.
The headline says “CEO of Sex.”
The person behind it is a mother, a leader, and someone who has quietly made looking after herself part of everyday life.
Discover the full story behind Maria Hollins — the women who shaped her, the values that drive her, and why she’s a founding Meta-Ager.
👉 Read her full profile on Meta-Age
