Melanie Mortimer
Melanie Mortimer is President of the SIFMA Foundation, the nation’s leader in youth investor and financial education that ensures all young people, regardless of background, have access to transformative knowledge and tools to prepare for their financial futures.
The SIFMA Foundation cultivates tomorrow’s workforce and prudent investors through programs that excite youth about the dynamism and opportunity inherent in the capital markets, while improving their STEM performance and critical life skills. The Foundation teams financial professionals with 15,000 educators each year to confidently teach personal finance and help students chart pathways to careers in the sector. The SIFMA Foundation is on a bold new mission to expand its cumulative reach to 20 million students, including 10 million girls, within the next three years, and enlisting funding and support of individuals and financial institutions and the partnership of school districts, government leaders and teachers nationwide to achieve this goal.
Prior to joining the SIFMA Foundation, Mortimer was Merrill Lynch’s Director of Global Philanthropy, managing signature programs focused on financial literacy, global citizenship, and entrepreneurship for millions of youth across 70 countries and the firm’s arts and culture grants, educational scholarship programs, skills-based volunteer initiatives, and global team-building community events. Prior to that, Mortimer led employee, shareholder and executive communications for the international business arm of multi-billion dollar trading firm Itochu Corporation in Japan. She also served as Senior Editor and Contributing Writer in her four years at Tokyo Journal magazine, where she managed a team of researchers, writers, and editors and their contributions to the publication.
Mortimer obtained her Master’s in International Management and her MBA from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan as a Mombusho Fellow and her BA in English from Agnes Scott College in Georgia. She is a 2019 graduate of the Securities Industry Institute at Wharton. Mortimer has published numerous articles, is the recipient of several awards and honors, and has served on a number of boards including Philanthropy New York (Vice Chair), Virtual Enterprises International (Advisory Chair), NYC Department of Education CTE Business & Finance Industry Commission (Chair), Jumpstart Coalition (Secretary) and Association of Corporate Contributions Professionals. In 2017, Mortimer was named a Sterling Fellow, a network of multi-sector leaders working to increase economic mobility in New York City.