Melissa Adams

Melissa Adams is Chief People & Performance Officer of Duarte, Inc., responsible for the company’s culture and talent strategies to enable all our people to thrive. As a leader in HR for over two decades, Melissa brings a wealth of best practices for creating engaged, diverse, and inclusive work environments where people and business results excel. Through her experience in a range of industries, across businesses of all sizes in the U.S. and Europe, Melissa has developed proven strategies for cultivating employees and strengthening culture to support and sustain business growth. She’s particularly passionate about creating innovative training experiences that build empathy and inclusion, underpinned by her deep expertise in psychometric and relationship awareness tools. As a result of Melissa’s leadership, Duarte’s employee engagement measures have skyrocketed, with scores well above benchmarks for similar companies. She has received several accolades for her work, including National Employer of the Year and Outstanding Contribution award. In addition to multiple coaching and psychometric accreditations, Melissa has an International Human Resources Management Degree with honors from Southampton Solent University, UK.