Maria Elena (Mel) Lagomasino is the CEO and managing partner of WE Family Offices, which helps financially successful families organize and manage their wealth like a well-run company. A recognized global leader in the wealth-management industry, she is a founder of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard, an investor think tank.
Before founding WE, Lagomasino served as CEO of GenSpring Family Offices, a wealth-management firm. Previously, she served as chairman and chief executive officer of JP Morgan Private Bank, an institution with more than $300 billion in client assets under supervision. Lagomasino began her career in banking at Citibank in 1977. Joining Chase Manhattan Private Bank in 1983, she was named head of Chase’s worldwide private banking business in 1997 ahead of the JP Morgan-Chase merger.
In September 2006, President George W. Bush appointed Lagomasino to assist in the effort to secure private sector funds to aid disaster victims in Central America and to serve on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s Advisory Board on Transformational Diplomacy. The next year, Hispanic Business magazine named her one of its Women of the Year. In 2012, the National Association of Corporate Directors named Lagomasino to its Directorship 100, while American Banker recognized her as one of the year’s 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance. In August 2015, Private Asset Management magazine named her one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Private Wealth.
Lagomasino serves on the boards of Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Coca-Cola Company, and the Walt Disney Company. In January 2022, she was appointed a member of the advisory board of the Millstein Center at Columbia Law School. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
A graduate of Manhattanville College, Lagomasino earned graduate degrees from Columbia University and Fordham University.
