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After completing one year in the 6th form at a London Public girls day school, Mary left to take up a mechanical engineering apprenticeship in a manufacturing firm. She joined a firm of consulting engineers after gaining her qualifications (she was the only female student at college).

Mary then went back to a boiler manufacturer as a sales engineer and from there she joined Shell-Mex and BP as a heating engineer advising the marketing departments.

In 1978 she started working part-time for the Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association after spending seven years looking after her children. This became full-time in 1988 when she took over the secretariat of the group whose members were responsible for building services maintenance. During this period the first known Standard Maintenance Specification was produced. Due to its success it was sold in an electronic format in 1995 - a first for HVCA publications.

The same year, 1995, Mary formed the forerunner of the Facilities Management Association. This was due to a large number of companies expanding their businesses to cover total facilities, with whom she worked. FMA became a separate limited company using some of HVCA facilities until Mary retired in May 2001 when she became FMA’s first association secretary. In 2010 she stepped down from this position but remains Secretary of FMA Limited.