Melissa McGowan joined global investment firm Avenue Capital Group in 2008 and is currently a vice president. In this role, she has primary responsibility for investor relations and marketing. Prior to joining Avenue, Melissa worked for Merrill Lynch as a controller in their Equity Derivatives Group. There, she was responsible for analyzing and accounting for a proprietary derivatives portfolio. She was also an analyst in Equity Management Reporting at Morgan Stanley.

A native of California, Melissa received a bachelor’s degree in finance from Syracuse University, from which she graduated cum laude in 2005.

Melissa says that the meaning she finds in her Irish heritage is best summed up by the famous Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright and poet Oliver Goldsmith (1730 – 1774), who wrote “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.”