Guadalupe Mendoza (M.A.) has been the first Institutional Development Director at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) since July 2016. Her role is to contribute to IMCO’s strategic, operational and financial sustainability.

Guadalupe Mendoza is a seasoned philanthropy and civil society professional with more than a dozen years of experience working for international private foundations investing in Mexico, supporting a wide array of non-profit groups including think tanks. Right before joining IMCO’s professional staff, Guadalupe worked as a consultant for The Ford Foundation, The Open Society Foundations, The Oak Foundation, Hispanics in Philanthropy, The MacArthur Foundation, and The Fund for Global Human Rights. She has also worked with some civil society organizations assisting them to undertake institutional development processes, and is the country partner for the Grantee Experience and Insight Report. Prior to that, Guadalupe was part of the Global Development and Population Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for nine years. Guadalupe had the opportunity to be part of the definition of the Global Development strategy in Mexico. The work that Guadalupe supported was instrumental in strengthening the transparency and accountability field in the country, and the technical capacity of the organizations working on it. Guadalupe also led a body of work to improve the policies that foster philanthropy and civil society development in Mexico; and spent her last two years at the Hewlett Foundation as Acting Managing Director for the Foundation’s work in the country. She was accountable for a $6M annual grantmaking budget and for the performance of the team on the ground.

Prior to working at the Hewlett Foundation, Guadalupe worked for the Development Finance and Economic Security Program at the Ford Foundation regional office for Mexico and Central America. Guadalupe brought her experience in microcredit and small income-generating projects to develop of a line of work that addressed the financial needs of rural communities also affected by extensive migration.

Prior to her U.S.-based Foundation assignments, Guadalupe lived close to seven years in Japan, where she successfully pursued her Master’s degree in Development Economics from Sophia University. While in Japan, she had the opportunity to work as a Spanish language teacher for Japanese radio and TV, she was a Spanish-English translator and, for some time, she provided news reports for CNN en Español. Guadalupe earned a B.A. in International Relations from Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM) and is an active board member of various civil society groups, including Incide Social, Mexico’s Fund for Nature Conservation (Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza) and few others.