Maria Luisa Francoli was born in Barcelona, on March 7, 1961.  She started her professional career in the US in the travel industry, both airline and tour-operator; she moved on to Banking in the M&A's time, and then finally to advertising when she joined MPG in 1993. She started as Corporate Development Manager, responsible for MPG's geographical and business diversification.

In 1997, Maria Luisa started the online arm of Havas Media, Media Contacts, developing the network to become one of the leaders in Europe, Latin America and the USA.  In July 2003, Maria Luisa was appointed CEO of the Media Planning network, the largest division of MPG and following the reorganization of Havas Media, she has been appointed as CEO of MPG.