Determined from a young age to work in Washington DC, Salena graduated from high school early at the age of 17 to pursue a bachelors and then a Masters degree in Politics which she finished at the age of 21.

Instead of DC, she ended up in a foreign direct investment role in state government managing inbound investments from Germany, France, and Italy in automotive, racing, orthopedics, and advanced manufacturing.

Unexpectedly drawn to the business side of her role, Salena decided to pursue a Masters in Advanced Finance at IE University in Madrid, the world’s 3rd ranked finance program in 2016, her year of graduation. During that time she participated in a microfinance consulting project in Ghana, sparking her passion for sustainability and responsible investing.

This passion led her to a revenue-generating role in renewable energy principal investing at Macquarie Capital in 2017, the year of Macquarie’s landmark privatization of the Green Investment Bank. In 2018 she pivoted again to a role in Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, the largest infrastructure manager in the world, to facilitate the merger integration of GLL, a Munich-based real estate investment platform.

Salena is passionate about D&I and equal opportunity and has sat on the steering committee for Fusion, Macquarie EMEA’s Ethnic, Religious, and Cultural diversity employee network group, for most of her time with the firm. She has facilitated programming around connecting colleagues of differing background (the Know Your Colleague series of panel discussions, roundtables, and 1:1 coffee chats) as well as cultural events such as performances and programming for Black History Month, Eid, Diwali, Chanukkah, and others. She currently mentors four young women embarking on their careers: one in tech, two in front-office financial services roles, and one in politics.