From a young age Melissa Lee, our Senior Vice President of Capital and Investments, knew that she had a passion for working with numbers and she has followed that passion throughout every phase of her career. With an impressive track record of overseeing the financial aspects of major projects and initiatives throughout the DMV, her path crossed with our organization. The stars aligned for us at the right time and Melissa officially joined our enterprise in the summer of 2021 to lead our internal capital
and investments team.
A numbers-girl from day one
Early on, Melissa realized that she had a knack for numbers as math came more naturally to her than her peers in grade school. As she progressed academically, she discovered that the equations she had been computing in her head solved real life equations and that discovery led her to gather that she possessed a deep understanding of complex concepts that was not natural to many of the other kids around her. Fast forward to her time at University, she worked as a bank teller where she learned to become extremely comfortable handling money and doing quick math. Melissa’s life-long curiosity and drive towards numbers had always been unique, but as she progressed in her career her enthusiasm for finance and investment led her to some amazing opportunities.
An impressive career in the District
Throughout her career, Melissa earned many amazing opportunities that allowed her to sharpen her finance and investment skills. One of the most memorable projects of her career was when she worked at WMATA where she helped secure bridge financing for the initial procurement of the 7000-Seriesrailcars. The financing, procurement, and delivery would span almost the entire course of her 7-year career at WMATA, but still remains one of her most rewarding projects to date. Another rewarding initiative (one that eventually led her to The Menkiti Group) was creating her own Consulting Group, Lee Squared Consulting Group (LSCG). When Melissa felt that she wanted more agency over her endeavors and could do more in the world as a consultant, she felt that creating her own business at the time was one way to impact more lives than she could as an employee. Over the course of three years Melissa consulted with many community-based clients that she was proud to partner with.
Melissa’s road to The Menkiti Group
Melissa’s first interaction with The Menkiti Group came through an introduction to Bo to talk about investment fund management. Bo and Melissa recognized potential synergies and decided to work together through a consulting agreement. After a few months of working together they realized that they could achieve amazing things together if Melissa were to join the enterprise. Soon after this realization, Melissa joined the team as the Senior Vice President of Capital and Investments…and the rest is history!
Melissa outside of work
Outside of work Melissa is proud to be the mom to two wonderful kids and absolutely loves her role in life as their mom. Melissa’s kids are what gets her up out of bed each morning and they give her a reason to try to be better every single day. Other ways she works hard to better herself daily is by perfecting her routine of a morning workout and meditation before beginning any work. For her, meditation is a relatively new addition to her morning routine, but it has helped her to stay present and clear-minded throughout the day. Melissa enjoys traveling and one of her favorite trips, during the pandemic, was a cross-country drive to Los Angeles, CA with her family. One other thing that Melissa loves to do is read! If she picks up a good book it doesn’t matter what she has going on…she will finish it in one sitting! She visits her public library often because she doesn’t have any more space in her personal library at home.
