Meet the Team

The ‘Melissa’ behind the company name, Raymond Melissa is responsible for corporate growth strategy and supervising business and new product development, sales, and marketing. A computer industry veteran, he co-founded several tech-oriented firms during the 1970s, including Eikon, Inc., and in 1974 helped launch Printronix Inc., a computer printer manufacturer. In 1978, Melissa also co-established Trilog, Inc., one of the first companies to develop a color printer.

From humble programming beginnings in 1992, Phil Maitino shot up to the top of the executive rankings with his extensive knowledge of Melissa’s many data quality-centric products and solutions. Maitino handles all software development, existing product support, and new product creation. He graduated from California State University, Fullerton with a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 1991.

Another part of the ‘Melissa’ name, John Melissa is our Chief Financial Officer. He also works with accounting and pursues opportunities for mergers and acquisition. Melissa is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and has worked as an auditor and consultant for the State of Nevada and a national CPA firm.

Meet Bud Walker, a visionary leader with over two decades of expertise in data quality. Formerly the Product Manager for Melissa's product stack, Bud now spearheads the company's global expansion, dealing with data centers, partners, regulations, security and market analysis. As a practicing data quality evangelist, architect, and solutions developer, Bud shapes the strategic vision, ensuring the next generation capabilities of the company's tools, services and people are ready to meet the information challenges of the future. With a track record of over 20 years, Bud not only manages but transforms, reflecting an unwavering passion for excellence.

Greg Brown powers Melissa’s brand management, business-to-business, internet, and email marketing strategies. He is a DMA-certified Marketing Professional, and having worked for over 15 years on both the client and agency side, he brings a unique perspective to developing creative, results-oriented marketing programs to acquire and retain customers.

From product inception and development to quality assurance and technical support, Admound Chou makes sure Melissa is functioning smoothly and efficiently. Responsible for overseeing our collection of US and global products, he also ensures the correctness and responsiveness of sales engineering.

Dennis Bedford joined Melissa in September 2013 and served as Director of Compliance until his appointment as General Counsel in June 2014. Among the areas he oversees are review of terms of U.S. and global contracts and license agreements, patents and trademarks, privacy and data management regulations, and internal audits. He is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science. Bedford received his J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, CA and has been admitted to the State Bar of California.

Daniel Kha Le, Chief Data Officer, or rather, our Chief Data “Wrangler” (yee-haw!), runs research and development for multiple departments at Melissa. Daniel heads our Database Group, Data Engineering Group, GIS Team, and is responsible for many aspects of business development including data ingestion and data management. He is passionate about process and data flow, ensuring everything is connected together in order to drive new insights. Daniel graduated from University of California, Irvine with a degree in Chemical Engineering, Emphasis in Information and Computer Science, and a Minor in Materials Science.

With a passion for computing and distributed systems, Rodolfo Lopez brings a unique blend of technical expertise and decades of experience to his role as Melissa's Vice President of Information Systems.

A graduate of the University of Havana with a B.Sc. in Computer Science, he leads a multinational IT team, orchestrating the provisioning of servers and ensuring high availability across a geo-distributed network spanning data centers worldwide.

His keen eye for network architecture keeps Melissa's web services humming along with the highest uptimes in the industry, while his adherence to stringent frameworks like NIST, SOC 2 and FedRAMP guarantees our government and important clients peace of mind their data is secure.

When he's not tackling complex IT challenges, you might find him at a gathering with his family in sunny Southern California.

Meet Lauren Sveen, our Vice President of Sales, with a 16-year tenure at Melissa Data. Lauren's expertise in both sales and leadership plays a pivotal role to drive our company's success forward. Her dedication to understanding our clients' evolving needs fuels the growth of our solutions ensuring we continue to deliver top-tier data solutions to our valued clients.

With experience in Office Management & HRIS, Bette oversees all areas of Payroll and Benefits at Melissa. From recruitment to compensation to compliance, Bette makes sure the employee experience is a positive one. Moving the company to an internet based HRIS allows employees to track and manage their own “personnel file” so HR can now focus on employee retention, attracting superstar applicants, & supporting the company’s goals. Before joining Melissa in 2007, Bette held management positions in accounting and operations. She is an RRCA certified running coach.

Wendy started at Melissa Data as an HR Administrative Assistant, using her years of experience in office management and HR to advance her career within the organization.

In her current role, she oversees a wide range of HR functions, from recruitment and onboarding to policy development and performance reviews. She enjoys learning from the unique perspectives and experiences everyone in our team brings to the table.

Wendy is dedicated to giving back to the community and finds fulfillment in volunteering her time with a local nonprofit organization.

She is excited to continue contributing to Melissa’s success.