With over 20 years of experience in the hospitality, finance, and customer relations fields, Mele has served her organizations and their communities as a catalyst for progress and exceptional service. Her emotional intelligence, appreciation for all cultures, and knack for curating consumer experiences has allowed her to lead teams and optimize consumer touchpoints. Mele’s career can be traced to several points of origin, including her work as a Business and Risk Analyst for Bank of America. There she paired her business acumen and financial intuition to successfully manage a $13 billion consumer finance portfolio. After 5 years of developing management systems, Mele began overseeing the operations of MEM enterprises. As Partner, her contributions ranged from acting as an internal financial advisor for corporate partnerships to compiling market research that would inform the business’ plans for sustainability. Concurrently, Mele established Culturfied—a non-profit that nurtured a global mindset among middle school aged students by fostering intercultural learning through enhancing appreciation for cultures. While overseeing the programming for Culturfied and during her 12 year stint at MEM, Mele identified and began to nourish her love for designing luxury consumer experiences.Mele recognized that regardless of the transaction at hand, every stakeholder was is seeking an experience that leaves them feeling seen, valued, and worthy. This notion and her extensive business management resumé led to the successful launch and co-ownership of The Diamond Hotel and Restaurants in premiere Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Mele’s hand was visible throughout the fabric of the hotel’s design, marketing strategy, and delivery of customer services.Mele continued to iterate on the vision for The Diamond Hotel and leveraged her MeleWorld venture to explore memorable travel excursions. Here she found ways to immerse herself and others in a variety of cultures and adventures unique to premiere attractions in cities across the globe. These encounters uniquely positioned her to craft itineraries that fed long lasting memories of those who took part in MeleWorld. When Mele’s not creating yet another indulgent escape for guests, she can be found spending time with her children, sampling international luxuries, exploring the wonders of the world, or fondly reflecting on her time spent clerking her father’s jewelry store and listening to his from farmer to jewelry retailer businessman journey.