Victoria T. Melendez, CFA, is a member of the board of directors for the Vilcek Foundation. She currently works as an independent investment consultant, primarily engaged by foundations, family offices, and trusts in an investment advisory capacity. Melendez focuses on mission-aligned asset allocation to help her clients achieve their financial goals and realize their vision.

From 1998 to 2021, Melendez worked at Rockefeller Capital Management, where she held various roles, including as a global equity analyst for the firm’s multibillion-dollar global equity strategy, as a client advisor, and as a member of the firm’s manager selection committee. Before joining Rockefeller Capital Management, Melendez worked with Morgan Stanley International in their Tokyo and London offices between 1993 and 1998. Prior to that time, she was with Jardine Fleming Securities in Tokyo and hedge fund International Financial Markets in London. Melendez has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from Harvard Law School, and is a member of the New York State Bar Association (retired from practice). Following her graduation from law school, Melendez worked with Cleary Gottlieb and with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy as a tax and corporate attorney.

Melendez has had a lifelong passion for the arts, which began when she was a student at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City. During her junior year at LaGuardia, Melendez served as an intern at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was through her internship that Melendez deepened her understanding of the fine arts, and where she first met Marica Vilcek. Melendez received her AB from Harvard University, where she concentrated in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, with a focus on Japanese studies. 

While pursuing her career in law and finance, Melendez has maintained engagement with the fine arts. She is currently the president of the Japanese Art Society of America (JASA), where she also serves as a member of the program committee and organizes events and lectures for JASA members by curators, academics, authors, and collectors. Melendez previously served as a member of the Vilcek Foundation Board of Directors from 2019 to 2022. She also was a trustee of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR). From 1999 to 2002 she served on the Program Committee of the Harvard Club of New York City, where she organized programs in culture and the arts.

Melendez’s father worked at the United Nations in various capacities as a Colombian national in New York City. Her mother was a Spanish language teacher and is descended from Italian immigrants to the United States. Her family’s background, as well as her experiences living and working abroad in Tokyo for nine years and in London for four years have helped to ground her understanding of the diversity of immigrant experiences, and cemented her commitment to upholding diversity and honoring multicultural values in her work.