Melinda Brown is a seasoned finance executive with over 40 years of experience in the global consumer product and luxury retail industries. In addition to broad experience in all aspects of finance associated with a publicly traded company, Melinda has significant leadership experience in the areas of transformation, risk management, governance, finance, project management and transactions (acquisitions/divestitures and structured financial), acquisition integrations and change management. She is qualified to serve as a financial expert.
Melinda was Senior Vice President and Controller of Tapestry, Inc. from September 2012 to August 2018 and continues to advance their SAP transformation efforts on a part time basis. During her tenure, she redesigned the control environment and organization. Today, Tapestry benefits from a very strong and sustainable control environment and a high-performing control function, led through an empowered culture that is supporting a multi-brand business while undergoing significant transformation. This mature control function has been designed to achieve best in class capability as Tapestry implements SAP globally benefiting from out-sourcing and regional/functional consolidation, along with an impressive bench of talent. Melinda’s achievements earned her and her team a seat at the table. She played a key role in all major initiatives, supporting large transactions (including the acquisition/integration of Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman, major technology initiatives and business transformation amid an ever-changing landscape.
Prior to Tapestry, Melinda spent 30 years with PepsiCo, Inc. in both their corporate office and the North America beverages segment, providing her the exposure and opportunity to proactively influence outcomes and build capabilities. She was a key member of the leadership team responsible for nearly 50 bottler acquisitions and integrations, the spin-offs of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, the bottler spin-off and re-acquisition, and the acquisitions and integrations of Gatorade, Quaker, and Tropicana. While in the role of Controller of Pepsi’s multi brand $20 billion North America Beverage segment, Melinda also served as the business lead for a multi-functional, multi-year North America SAP implementation, which, at the time, was the largest SAP roll-out ever and piloted their first enterprise risk management program. In Melinda’s final role, she led the company’s North America shared services centers, and developed PepsiCo’s global outsourcing strategy and business case, which was subsequently executed and established the global finance productivity office.
Melinda began her career working in public accounting in 1977, and the FASB in 1980.She holds a Bachelor of Science and MBA, both from the University of Connecticut. Melinda is a UCONN Foundation Board member, serving as the Audit Committee Chair and a member of their Executive and Finance committees. She is a CPA and member of the AICPA and Connecticut Society of CPAs.