Education & recognition
MA, Social Science, Stanford University Graduate School of Education
BS, Sociology, Pomona College
Building Excellent Schools Fellow
Legacy Award, California Charter Schools Association
“Culture is the strategy, not the poster on the wall. Legacy is the real measure, what stands after you’re gone.”
Malka Borrego, Founder
About
I build organizations that last, and I help leaders do the same.
I’m Malka Borrego. For 15 years I was the Founder and CEO of a charter management organization in Los Angeles. I started with one school and grew it into a network serving more than 2,000 students. I hired the teams, built the systems, raised the money, sat with the hard calls, and learned what it takes to build something that keeps working after you step back.
In 2022 I moved into consulting and coaching. My network carried me for four years, and I’m grateful for that. I’ve done work I’m proud of with leaders and organizations who trusted me with their hardest problems. Now I’m giving that work a real home, a brand and a company that shows who I am and who I’m here to serve.
The turn
Recently I stepped into a fractional CEO role, leading an organization through a genuinely hard stretch. It confirmed something I already felt. The thing I’m best at is walking into complexity, steadying it, and building a path forward that other people can carry. That’s the work I want more of. Fractional leadership, executive coaching, and the board and retreat work that helps teams decide who they want to be.
What I believe
Culture is the strategy, not the poster on the wall. Systems are how you free your people instead of trapping them. And legacy is the real measure, what stands after you’re gone. I’ve lived all three. I didn’t read them in a book.
The Los Angeles part
I moved to Altadena in 2021 and I’m still here, rebuilding alongside a community I care about. That matters to me. I know what it means to keep going when the ground shifts under you.
If any of this sounds like the kind of help you’re looking for, I’d love to hear your story.
LinkedInOrganizations I’ve founded, led, and served
