Victoria Márquez-Mees, a Mexican economist, is the first Chief Accountability Officer of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Managing Director of the Independent Project Accountability Mechanism, the Bank´s non-judicial project grievance mechanism. From 2011 to 2020 she worked at the Inter-American Development Bank Group in Washington, D.C, as head of the Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism (MICI) covering the LAC region.
As part of her endeavours to promote transparency, accountability, and redress within the multilateral finance arena, she served as the first secretary of the Independent Accountability Mechanisms Network (IAMNetwork), which congregates twenty-three accountability mechanisms from international financial institutions. The network seeks to promote collaboration amongst mechanisms, raise awareness of accountability within the development finance sector, and share best practices.
In her native country Mexico, she worked for the Carlos Slim Foundation leading the negotiations and implementation of the Salud Mesoamerica Initiative, in collaboration with the Gates Foundation, the Government of Spain and the Inter-American Development Bank. She was also instrumental in the setting up of the foundation´s genomic research programs at The Broad Institute and the coordination of the health program of Fundacion Inbursa, a partnership with Obra Social La Caixa of Spain and Banco Inbursa in Mexico.
With more than 30 years of professional experience, Ms. Márquez-Mees has dedicated a significant part of her career to international cooperation and the institutional strengthening of civil society organizations in the areas of health and the environment. She worked for the Mexican Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Commerce, as well as for the British Council. Her consultancy worked has been varied, from promoting the adoption of vaccines and enhancing public awareness of health issues to delivering numerous workshops on institutional strengthening of civil society organisations in the LAC Region.
She graduated with honours in Economics from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico, has a master’s degree in the same field from the University of Essex in Great Britain, and conducted research at the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Chevening Scholar.
She holds seats in the supervisory board of the World Benchmarking Alliance, a Dutch organization seeking to generate a movement around increasing the private sector’s impact towards a sustainable future by incentivize and accelerate companies towards achieving the 2030 SDGs; the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA), a global network of professionals dedicated to promoting best practice in the use of impact assessment for informed decision making regarding policies, programs, plans and projects.
She was recognised by the Líderes Mexicanos magazine as a global leader in their 101 Global Mexicans list for 2022.