Marcia Davies
COO of Mortgage Bankers Association
Marcia ensures cross-organizational alignment and facilitating the implementation of strategic initiatives, as well as maintaining oversight of organizational priorities for the MBA. She is the lead strategist for MBA’s external activities, providing leadership, guidance and overall management to the public affairs and marketing divisions. In addition, Marcia provides strategic direction and management of MBA’s Conferences, Membership, Education, Information Technology and Office Services divisions. She is also a Board member of MBA’s Opens Doors Foundation. Marcia is the founder of mPower – MBA Promoting Opportunities for Women to Extend their Reach — MBA’s networking platform for women in the real estate finance industry. Under her leadership, mPower has grown into an engaged community of more than 4,000, providing best-in-class conference and webinar programming, networking events, and online opportunities to stay engaged.
From Marcia Davies
The more diverse the group around the leadership table, the better the outcome. If you look at it from different angles and consider different perspectives, the opportunity opens itself up for you to consider ways you otherwise wouldn’t have had the insight and advantage to consider.
You really need to take care of people that are working hard to help you advance company objectives. It’s your job to make sure that you treat them well and you listen to them and you help meet their needs.
Show up with empathy seeking to understand somebody else’s point of view… you never know what may have happened that morning. And you never know what’s going on with someone else.
Relationships and empathy are a priority and a key strategic plank. People show respect to one another. Diversity would be considered as something that’s required in order to get to the best result. And we would really listen and factor in the contributions of the whole team by developing trust and relationship.
The more diverse the group around the leadership table, the better the outcome. If you surround yourself with people who think like you and have the same background as you, you’re probably going to come up with solutions that are in your comfort zone to tackle a problem or seize an opportunity. But if you look at it from different angles and consider different perspectives, the opportunity opens itself up for you to consider ways you otherwise wouldn’t have had the insight and advantage to consider.
We formalized the mPower program to help expand opportunities for talented women… I hope that our community will continue to grow and be strong and that we’ll see more women rising in the ranks in this industry and more women represented on boards and more women’s’ voices around the table.
About Marcia Davies
Diversity for Marcia Davies isn’t political expediency—it is smart business. A diverse array of opinions brings true creative thinking to an enterprise, and stimulates the kind of productive thinking that drives a true maverick. Davies also believes wholeheartedly in an empathetic approach in business, whether in dealing with the consumer or her own team. Fomenting respect is a strategic plank that leads an enterprise in only the most positive directions. Davies foresees and hopes for a future, too, that includes more women on boards and at the C level to expand on and enhance diversity in mortgage banking.
