Born in Washington, DC, Melissa has always had a tenacity for team building and her natural leadership, which was birthed at a young age, has led her to her numerous achievements across several different industries. After attending college in New York City 2005, Melissa entered the fashion industry working for several brands in the NYC fashion scene out of the Empire State Building amongst creative, bold & an elite levels of leadership and taking a major interest on the business side of fashion.

Upon returning to DC with her newly found superpower nurtured in NYC, Melissa immediately rose the ranks at Intermix by multiplying revenues in where she eventually became the District Manager for Training and Team Development at a Corporate Level for the entire northeast region of the United States. Although Melissa enjoyed working in the Business Side of the fashion industry, her drive to develop high-performing teams led her to an opportunity to dive into the Business world for multiple industries.

Now, Melissa Cruz isn’t just a founder — she’s a force of operational brilliance. As the powerhouse behind Chief Collective, Chalet Settlements, Rework Consulting, and Domus, she’s built a reputation for making bold ideas executable and businesses scalable. Whether she’s refining the strategy for a multi-state real estate brokerage, leading a national implementation team for a consulting firm, or reengineering internal systems for growth-stage companies, Melissa shows up with clarity, precision, and results.

Her work spans industries, but her superpower remains the same: bringing order, direction, and momentum to businesses at critical inflection points.

Melissa is the rare leader who thrives at both 30,000 feet and ground level. She’s just as comfortable sketching a GTM plan with a CEO as she is deep in the back-end of a CRM workflow. As a COO, she drives structure with intention, building scalable operations without sacrificing culture or vision. As a consultant, she doesn’t offer advice — she builds the roadmap, assembles the crew, and helps execute every turn.