Argentine by birth, she worked in finance when she met Willem-Alexander, eldest son and heir apparent of Queen Beatrix, in 1999.

Originally from the Basque country, her ancestor carrying the Zorreguieta surname, José Antonio Sorreguieta y Oyarzábal Gamboa y Sagastume, migrated to Argentina around the year 1790.

[5] Maxima's father was a scion of the Zorreguieta family who had been landed gentry, professionals, regional politicians, and statesmen for generations.

This private university is governed by a directory of local bishops, including the current Pope Francis, then Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Grand Chancellor of UCA.

From July 1996 to February 1998, she worked for HSBC James Capel Inc. in New York City, where she became vice president of institutional sales for Latin America.

La construcción de una reina", she was invited to Seville by a friend living in New York who openly said she would introduce her to two European princes.

[citation needed] The news of the couple's relationship and eventual marriage plans caused controversy in the Netherlands, due to the involvement of Máxima's father Jorge Zorreguieta as a cabinet minister during the National Reorganization Process, the most recent Argentine dictatorship.

Her father's 1979–1981 tenure as a minister took place during the later stages of the Dirty War (1974–1982), a period of repression that saw about 30,000 people killed or disappeared during the seven-year military regime.

At the request of the States General, Michiel Baud, a Dutch professor in Latin American studies, carried out an inquiry into the involvement of Zorreguieta in the Dirty War.

[11] The couple announced their engagement on 30 March 2001; Máxima addressed the nation in Dutch (which at the time she only spoke at a basic conversational level) during the live televised broadcast.

She was a member of a special parliamentary commission which sought to recommend ways to increase the participation of female immigrants in the workforce.

In 2007, Máxima inadvertently caused a wave of massive criticism[citation needed] when in a speech to the Scientific Council for Government Policy she said that in the seven years that she had been in the Netherlands, she had been unable to find the Dutch identity.

In this capacity, the Queen focuses attention on the importance of financial education and managing money sensibly, especially where children and young people are concerned.

The Queen acts as special advisor to the Platform and consults with interested parties on ways of increasing people's financial awareness and resilience.

The Queen is committed to extending the reach of various financing opportunities, both through coaching and by providing credit for new and existing small businesses in the Netherlands.

[24][25][26] Queen Máxima currently serves as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA).

In September 2009 then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon designated her to this role in order to raise awareness on the importance of inclusive financial systems for achieving economic and development goals such as poverty alleviation, food security and education.

In her work as UNSGSA, the Queen focuses on how formal financial services such as savings, insurance, and credit can prevent people from falling into poverty due to expenditures on healthcare, and people who are not able to protect themselves against rising food prices and poverty because they do not have access to basic savings accounts.

[35] On 13 May 2011, the Dutch parliament confirmed that Máxima would become queen consort of the Netherlands upon her husband's accession, after a debate over her future title and style.