Victoria Márquez-Mees

Victoria Márquez-Mees, a Mexican national, is the first Chief Accountability Officer of the EBRD's Independent Project Accountability Mechanism. Her term was recently renewed for four years, and she plans to focus on strengthening the mechanism and leaving it with an excellent foundation for the future.

Before joining the EBRD in July 2020, she served as Director of the Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism (MICI) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) from 2015 to 2020. In parallel, she was the first secretary of the Independent Accountability Mechanisms Network (IAMNet) from 2016 to 2019.

In recent years, she has been committed to raising awareness among international financial institutions of the risks of reprisals faced by human rights defenders and to promoting capacity building to address these issues in development finance.

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 organisations in the areas of health and the environment. She has held various positions at the Carlos Slim Health Institute, the Mexican Ministry of Health and the British Council in Mexico, devoting her free time to mentoring young professionals.

She is currently a member of the Supervisory Board of the World Benchmarking Alliance and a Board Trustee with HelpAge International. She is also a member of the Board of the International Association of Impact Assessment, a visiting professor in practice at the London School of Economics Latin America and Caribbean Centre and a member of the International Women’s Forum, Mexico Chapter.

Ms Márquez-Mees graduated with honors in Economics from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico and has an MA in Economics from the University of Essex. She has also conducted research at the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Chevening Scholar.