Melanie advises the Steward team across key initiatives as well as areas opportune for deployment of the firm’s strategy. She is the Founder of 2ndGenPartners, a private equity independent sponsor focused on propelling sustainable growth in the agribusiness distribution, healthcare, education and health and wellness product sectors. Melanie is responsible for originating and evaluating investment opportunities as well as structuring and negotiating transactions.

Prior to 2ndGenPartners Melanie led the transaction teams for SK Capital Partners’ global carve-out acquisition that formed Archroma, a Swiss-based global specialty chemical manufacturer serving the branded consumer, textiles and sealants market. She also served as Chief Transformation Officer for Bain Capital owned Burlington Coat Factory as the previously family-owned retail business experienced strong growth that led to the IPO in 2013. Before that she served as Assistant General Counsel at ARAMARK, a global food services business and prior to that practiced corporate law at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia advising mergers & acquisitions, venture capital fundings, private equity recapitalizations, Chapter 11 & 13 reorganizations and public capital raising. Melanie started her career at Goldman Sachs. While at Goldman, Melanie represented the firm at various trade associations and worked on a number of Goldman’s pre-IPO business initiatives.

Melanie speaks and moderates panels on diversity of perspective, risk management and entrepreneurship. In 2017, she spoke at the Women’s Health Conference in Camden County and moderated a Diversity in the Boardroom panel for the Philadelphia chapter of the NACD. Melanie serves as Trustee of the Virtua Health Foundation, South Jersey’s largest healthcare provider. She also currently serves on the Advisory Board of School Improvement Partnership, a data and research provider to municipal bond investors in charter schools, having recently served as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. She was featured in Deloitte’s 2009 Women on Boards publication, having served as an advisor to many public and private corporate boards as well as serving as Governance Chair and as Secretary of the Executive Committee for the Board of the YMCA, Burlington & Camden Counties.

Melanie graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Rutgers College and earned her JD from the University of Virginia, School of Law.