Melissa Roth Mendez is a globally recognized brand executive with 20+ years in the Consumer Brands and Luxury Retail industry. She has an eclectic, multidisciplinary background that includes work in brand reputation and management, culture building, retail strategy, PR, marketing, risk, sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion, and with substantial expertise as a corporate lawyer. Versatile in quick-thinking and crisis management, Ms. Mendez has earned a reputation for her innate ability to design and develop creative strategies, ensuring the successful resolution of complex corporate issues in diverse global industries.

Currently, Ms. Mendez leads MRM Brand Advisory where she spearheads comprehensive domestic and international consulting engagements addressing brand-related challenges, from market positioning to international business strategies.

Before joining MRM, Ms. Mendez spent 16 years at Burberry in pivotal global roles as one of the key executives instrumental to driving the 160+ year-old international luxury brand’s global organizational transformation. While at Burberry, Ms. Mendez was recognized for creating an award-winning global brand protection program. Furthermore, she designed the global ESG strategy across Design, Product, and Marketing teams, addressing reputational and legal risks related to the content, design, product, sustainability, and people. She emphasized employee growth and retention at all levels, nurturing a diverse and cohesive workforce of 10,000 global employees. Notably, a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, Ms. Mendez founded, and served as the executive sponsor of Burberry’s first-ever global employee resource group (ERG), the W|E Women Empowered network. Ms. Mendez also launched the Empowered Black Network by mentoring leadership and serving as an executive sponsor while continuing to advocate for creating additional ERGs to support working parents, Latinx, and Asian employees. She also developed the first DEI roadmap for the global corporate affairs function.

Ms. Mendez holds a Juris Doctor from the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, graduated Magna Cum Laude, and was Valedictorian of her class. She recently earned a certificate in ESG for Senior Leaders at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and will be participating in an executive program at the Harvard Business School this Fall. She has been awarded Luxury Counsel of the Year by the Luxury Law Summit for demonstrating leadership across the business and luxury sector and has consistently been recognized as one of the top 300 trademark attorneys in the world from 2017-2022 by the World Trademark Review. Recently, Seramount recognized her work in DEI with an Honorable Mention in the Valued Ally category at the Seramount ERG Impact Awards.

Ms. Mendez has served as a board member and advisor for various organizations, including Burberry New York, International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC), Westmoreland Sanctuary, and Rippowam Cisqua School. Ms. Mendez is also a former sitting member of the Global Innovation Policy Center at the US Chamber of Commerce. Having served on both private and not-for-profit boards, Ms. Mendez is passionate about helping others succeed not only in corporate endeavors but also in non-profit engagements.

In her spare time, she enjoys competitive, tennis, baking, and spending time with her family, which includes 8 chickens.