Vanessa Bechtel
President & CEO
About
Ventura County Community Foundation -- President & CEO
Vanessa Bechtel, AIFA, CSPG, serves as President and CEO of the Ventura County Community Foundation (VCCF). Over the last five years, because of the support of thousands of generous donors, the foundation has been able to grant over $111 million in service to our community, advancing a wide range of causes, including access to education, health care, housing, the environment, animal welfare, arts and music, disaster relief and response, and so much more!
Prior to her work with VCCF, Bechtel served as executive director of the Santa Barbara City College Foundation. She co-founded Monarch Wealth Strategies in 2008 and was honored as Business Woman of the Year by the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce in 2010. Bechtel was recognized as Nonprofit Leader of the Year by the Ventura County Leadership Academy in 2019 and Humanitarian of the Year by the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation with her spouse, Jim. In December 2020, Bechtel was named Woman of the Year for 2020 by both the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce and the 19th Senatorial District and 37th Assembly District.
Bechtel graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Law and Society. In 2016, she received her master’s degree from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. She also received her master’s certificate from the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Onati, Spain in 2002.