40 Under Forty 2020: Lora Markova

Photo | Matt Wright Lora Markova

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Lora Markova, 39

Title: Co-founder & creative director
Company: Earth & Aerial Yoga, in Hudson
Residence: Hudson
Birthplace: Bulgaria
College: Ryerson University

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Lora Markova has been many things: a magazine editor, television news reporter, marketing director and, most recently, founder of Earth & Aerial Yoga in Hudson. She helped Good Morning America cover the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, participated in the launch of the international business publication Wall Street Market Research, and helped her husband, Karim El-Gamal, open the popular Rail Trail Flatbread Co. restaurant in 2012.

The local business community knows her best for her work with the Marlborough Economic Development Corp., where she served as director of marketing and communications from 2013 to 2020. She managed MEDC’s 2019 rebranding, authored more than 140 press releases and helped attract at least two new breweries to the city’s downtown. No matter what field she pivots to, she’s consistently determined to rise to the top. Markova’s lived many places, but she makes each new landing into her home. From Europe to Dubai to Central Mass., she throws herself into her communities wholesale, even volunteering her expertise to local business owners looking for help managing their own public relations efforts and helping a group of local mothers raise funds to build Hudson’s first inclusive playground.

What four people would you like to travel with for a year? My husband, Karim, and my best friend Sofia; they are fantastic travel partners. Barack & Michelle Obama; I admire them, and they’d be fun.

What is your new favorite activity since the pandemic began? Hanging out with my newborn daughter and watching my 5-year-old do crazy tricks on her aerial yoga silk.

What is your dream job? Current affairs TV show producer and/or host. I’ve always loved working in TV, talking to different people, learning about the world and uncovering untold stories.