Who is Marcia Malzahn?

Marcia Malzahn (Marci) was born in Managua, Nicaragua, Central America. In 1979, her family left Nicaragua due to a communist revolution and fled to the Dominican Republic where they lived for seven years. Marcia moved to Minnesota in 1986 and started a 23-year career in community banking. She rose through the ranks from teller to co-founder of a community bank as the Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer. After ten years with the bank, she created and focused on the bank’s risk management program as the EVP, COO, and was promoted to Chief Risk Officer.

Before starting the bank in 2005, Marcia took a detour from banking for five years and worked for a $34 million revenue non-profit organization where she led IT, HR and Finance. In October 2014, Marcia started a community bank and credit union management consulting firm, Malzahn Strategic, focused on strategic planning, enterprise risk management, treasury management, talent management, and leadership coaching.

Today, Marcia divides her time between inspirational keynote speaking engagements in the financial services industry (both in person and virtual), webinars and workshops, coaching emerging leaders in banking, writing books and blogs, and consulting for Malzahn Strategic. The highlight of her personal life is spending time with her two grandsons each week!

Her books include Devotions for Working Women: A Daily Inspiration to Live a Successful and Balanced Life (2006), The Fire Within: Connect Your Gifts with Your Calling, (2015), The Friendship Book: Because You Matter to Me (2016) (English and Spanish editions), Bring YOUR Shoes: A Fresh Perspective for Leaders with Big Shoes to Fill (2019), and Inside Your Mama’s Tummy – Your Journey Until You Arrived (2022) .

In addition to books, Marcia frequently publishes articles on LinkedIn, Crowning Achievements International blog, Malzahn Strategic Blog, her personal blog and is a contributor to various banking publications and Latino American Today e-newspaper.

Marcia is the recipient of a number of professional awards, including:

• 25 On The Rise award given by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Forty Under 40 award given by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal
• Top Women in Finance award from Finance and Commerce Newspaper
• Outstanding Women in Banking award given by the North Western Financial Review magazine (now BankBeat)
• Amazing Outside Director by BankBeat Magazine

Marcia holds a B.A. in business management from Bethel University, is a certified life coach, and is a graduate and faculty of the Graduate School of Banking in Madison, Wisconsin.

Community Involvement

Marcia has long been involved in the community—locally and globally, personally and professionally. During the past 30 years, Marcia has served on the boards of multiple nonprofit organizations including of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities, Shine in the World Ministries, Way to Grow, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, InFaith Community Foundation (now Thrivent Charitable Impact & Investing), United Financial Making a Difference, HOPE International, National Speakers Association Minnesota Chapter, and Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable.

She helped launch Darkness to Light Education Project and Wings of Africa International, both non-profit organizations. She also served on the local, district and international board of Financial Women International, an association focused on helping women in the banking and financial services industry become effective leaders. Marcia also served on the advisory board of Homes for Heroes, Inc., a for-profit organization and a family-owned community bank in Minnesota.