A series of manganese(II) and (III) complexes of tridentate NN O donor set Schiff base ligands has been prepared by the electrochemical oxidation of a manganese anode in an acetonitrile solution of the Schiff bases (R-salaepH). These complexes are found to be of the form [Mn(R-salaep) 2 ] and [Mn(R-salaep) 2 ]ClO 4 . The single crystal X-ray structure of bis{[2-(2-pyridyl)ethyl]-iminomethyl-5-nitro-phenoxy}manganese(II) was determined. In dichloromethane solution with 0.2 M Bu 4 NPF 6 as supporting electrolyte the one-electron oxidation of the manganese(II) complexes, [Mn(R-salaep) 2 ], yields their related manganese(III) complexes [Mn(R-salaep) 2 ]PF 6 .