After moving to Rochester from Mexico at the age of 15 so her parents could work at IBM and the Mayo Clinic, Mara Garcia Kaplan earned a BS in finance from Winona State University. At the same time she decided to become an attorney, she accepted a position as a loan officer at a large bank. For the next year, she drove to St. Paul virtually every night to attend law school.
Kaplan, the current vice president of the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association, moved to the Twin Cities the next year and now practices corporate international law at Faegre & Benson, LLP. “I work with our clients on cross-border transactions and advise them on many aspects of doing business globally,” she says. “Because of my background, I have a special interest—and an advantage—in the Latin America market.”
Kaplan, who lives in Maple Grove with her husband Ryan and their two children, has a long history of volunteering in her community. “I do feel it’s a blessing to be living here, although I didn’t see it that way 15 years ago when I moved here,” she says. “It’s a great country with great opportunities, and volunteering is a way to say thank you.”
