Impact Investment Leader Margaret Anadu Joins Mellon Foundation’s Board of Trustees

“Margaret is a finance industry veteran with a strong background in institutional stewardship and social-minded entrepreneurship, bringing seasoned insight and sharp acumen to our organization,” said Kathryn A. Hall, Mellon Foundation Board Chair. “Her impact-driven investment record and expertise will contribute meaningfully to the continued enhancement of Mellon's internal systems, financial structure, and overall strategy. We are very pleased to welcome her to our Board.”

As co-founder and lead of The Vistria Group’s Real Estate efforts, Anadu heads up one of the largest and fastest-growing affordable and workforce housing funds in the United States. Her leadership has been instrumental in furthering investment strategies that empower communities and create sustainable economic growth on behalf of the firm, which prioritizes both delivering significant financial returns and ensuring positive social change for communities across the nation.

“Margaret joins Mellon's Board with deep knowledge in sustainable investment practices and the humanitarian vision of making lives better that is central to all our work at the Foundation,” said Elizabeth Alexander, Mellon Foundation President. “Her expertise in areas such as housing and community development, together with her longtime commitment to advancing racial and gender equity, will help to further vitalize our grantmaking and strengthen our underlying operations. We look forward to working alongside her in shared support of Mellon's mission.”

Prior to her tenure at The Vistria Group, Anadu served as a Partner at Goldman Sachs where she was the Global Head of Sustainability and Impact for Asset Management and head of the Urban Investment Group (GSUIG), the first impact investing platform at a major U.S. financial institution. Under her leadership, GSUIG invested over $2 billion annually in affordable and workforce housing, community facilities, educational space, industrial facilities, green infrastructure, student loans, and small businesses.

“I’m honored to join the Mellon Foundation’s Board of Trustees,” said Margaret Anadu, The Vistria Group Senior Partner. “Few institutions match its boldness in nurturing the human spirit—through culture, education, history, and the ongoing struggle for justice. Time and again, it leads with heart and courage, investing in voices and ideas that might otherwise go unheard. It’s a privilege to support this extraordinary mission.”

Anadu currently serves as chair of the board of directors of the New York City Economic Development Corporation and sits on the boards of the Urban Institute, New York-Presbyterian, and the Center for an Urban Future. She is widely recognized as one of the foremost experts on equitable access to capital having invested over $10 billion across hundreds of transactions throughout the United States and was named to 40 Under 40 lists by Fortune, Black Enterprise, and Crain's, and was recognized by Commercial Observer as one of the most influential figures in U.S. commercial real estate.

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The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation's largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.