Melissa Karetny serves as Executive Managing Director, Chief People Officer at Cresset. In this role, she oversees the firm’s strategic and operational HR programs and initiatives. She has over 20 years of experience driving people strategy, innovation, talent management, as well as organizational transformation and optimization.
Most recently, Melissa led an 18-month long transition initiative at JP Morgan Chase (JPMC), following the acquisition of First Republic Bank, where she was responsible for retaining key talent and mitigating risk as client accounts and data were transitioned to JPMC. Prior to the acquisition, Melissa was the Vice President, Human Resource Business Partner (HRBP) at First Republic Bank, supporting the Chief Operating Officer and Operations Executive Leadership team (OELT). She also served as the HRBP Team Lead for key functions, including operations, technology, risk management, legal, marketing, BSA/AML, corporate security & Investigations, and information security. In this role, she partnered with leadership to enhance scalability, streamline processes, and improve career pathways.
Before joining First Republic Bank, Melissa was the Senior Director, HRBP for digital, product and technology at Macy’s Inc., as well as the San Francisco Corporate HR Lead. During her 14-year tenure, she played a key role in the company’s digital transformation. She also led the restructuring of Digital and Enterprise Product Management. Melissa has extensive experience overseeing HR systems migrations and leading Workday implementation at First Republic and Oracle HCM migrations at Macy’s. Earlier in her career, Melissa held various roles in Human Resources at Citi, Viacom, and Alloy, Inc. in New York City.
Melissa holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics and law from Binghamton University.