Malia Lazu

Malia Lazu is a Lecturer in the TIES Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Lazu, an award winning, tenured strategist in diversity & inclusion, has sparked deep economic development and investment in urban entrepreneurship for over twenty years. In her most recent role as EVP and Regional President at Berkshire Bank, Lazu worked to generate wealth for communities by expanding access to capital and spurring economic growth—especially in communities of color that have traditionally been left behind.

In her first nine months at Berkshire, Lazu evolved the $13 billion bank’s strategic focus beyond traditional community banking services to prioritize tangible community impact. She helped to diversify the board of directors; developed a suite of financial products and programs that support entrepreneurs of color; and launched ReevX Labs, a collaborative workspace and innovation hub for the urban startup community.

A serial entrepreneur in her own right, Lazu has created and led a number of socially responsible business accelerators across Boston. She worked with the city to create Accelerate Boston which helped launch over twenty minority businesses in its first five years and continues to help minority entrepreneurs raise capital. She was also the founder and president of the Future Boston Alliance, now known as Epicenter, which built an ecosystem of creators, consumers and investors to develop businesses in the creative industries. As a fellow at MIT’s Community Innovators Lab, she launched The Urban Labs, a multicultural agency helping brands see returns on diversity.

Lazu began her career as a political organizer and bridge-builder founding Mass VOTE, a state-wide voter engagement campaign. She has led culture-shifting campaigns for the actor and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, as well as businessmen and philanthropists like Peter Lewis and George Soros.

Lazu currently sits on the boards of GBH, Boston Harbor Now, Massachusetts Business Roundtable, Revolutionary Spaces, Chica Project and The Nation magazine editorial board. She was named one of Essence Magazine’s 50 Founders To Watch in 2017, Boston Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business in 2019 and Boston Magazine’s The 100 Most Influential Bostonians in 2021.