Melissa Balaban

Melissa serves as Chief Operating Officer at Pura Vida. Prior to joining in 2021, she was the Director of IR and Marketing at ITE Management, an investment firm with $1.8 billion under management, specializing in industrial transportation related assets and companies. There she was responsible for managing the firm’s capital raising and investor relations effort and team. Prior to ITE, she was the Director of Marketing and IR at Pura Vida Investments for over 4 years. Melissa began her hedge fund career at Ospraie Management, a commodity and basic industry equity firm, where she was an Investor Relations and Marketing Associate. Later, she moved to ParkRiver, a spin out of Ospraie Management’s non-investment team, where she was the Director of IR and Marketing. Prior to joining Ospraie, she served as a Research/Sales Associate in the Corporate Client Group at The NASDAQ Stock Market and as a Consultant in the Investment Management Division of FactSet Research Systems. She received a B.S. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.