Melissa Zoleta

About Melissa Zoleta

With a bachelor’s in hospitality management from the Rochester Institute of Technology as well as an associate’s degree in culinary arts from The Culinary Institute of America, Melissa has over 15 years experience in corporate events management. Working within the financial services industry for clients including Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and MetLife, Melissa has demonstrated her ability to plan, coordinate and execute corporate events for C-Level executives. She has diverse experience ranging from running day-to-day food service operations for over as well as event planning for more intimate gatherings for senior level executives ranging from 10 – 300 guests. She is known for her strong relationship management skills, delivering for her clients within a variety of parameters, oftentimes under time and budget constraints and always executes flawlessly. Melissa is proficient in Microsoft Office, Microsoft Publisher, EMS Reservations System Caterease, SignUp4 and Seeuthere.

Experience

1. Senior Event Planner - Rewards & Recognition

   MetLife

   Sep 2011 — Present · New York, NY, US

   Lead event planner for MetLife University, an educational program for key brokers presented by MetLife’s product experts. MetLife University consists of 6 events in 6 cities across the country in 12 weeks with a budget of $1.5 million- Lead event planner for Broker Consultant Relationship Management group. Successfully organize and implement all regional and national Broker & Consultant Summits with budgets ranging from $10k-$225k per event. These events range from small intimate dinners to larger golf outings and formal dinners- In charge of onboarding and training new team members in all event processes- Major functions as a senior event planner include: research venues, hotels, and cities for events, site visits, venue selection, budget proposal and management, vendor and contract negotiation, registration creation and maintenance, manage attendance, order promotional items, post-event collection and reporting, account reconciliation, ensure best practices are in place.

Education

• Rochester Institute of Technology

  Bachelors Degree, Hospitality (Food Management); Communications/Language

  2000 — 2002

• The Culinary Institute of America

  Associates, Culinary Arts

  1997 — 1999

Skills

• Surveymonkey
• Leadership
• Budget
• Event Planning
• Coordinating Events
• Contract Management
• Corporate Events
• Registration Website Creation
• Recruiting
• Contract Negotiation
• Menu Development
• Marketing Strategy
• Account Reconciliation
• Marketing
• Budgeting
• Microsoft Office
• Event Management
• Attendee Registration
• Customer Service
• Social Media
• Vendor Relationships
• Outlook
• Budgets
• Management