About Melissa Stires
For two decades, Melissa has traveled the globe to build relationships, seek investments, and design marquee events.
Melissa Tony-Stires began her career at twenty-four, volunteering to hand out name tags at events she had no business attending. Two decades later, she has led more than 60 international delegations across 33 countries, directed the 40th Anniversary celebration for the Sultan of Oman, launched the first educational partnership with the Fortune Global Forum in Chengdu, and worked alongside royalty, heads of state, and the world's wealthiest business leaders.
None of it came from an invitation. All of it came from relationships.
Melissa is a Certified Advanced International Protocol Officer and an accomplished events, marketing, and fundraising executive across the corporate, tech, academic, and government sectors. In 2023, she was named Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Central Florida. She teaches audiences the unwritten rules of global business, the difference between delighting people and dazzling them, and how to build the kind of relationships that open doors for decades.
She considers herself a citizen of the world, but she is a small-town Central Florida girl at heart, with a laugh she once tried to change, and every intention of taking the picture.
What People Are Saying
“Melissa is pure sunshine on a stage. She is powerful, positive, funny, and incredibly empathetic. She has that rare ability to command a room without ever making the room about her. Instead, she makes the people in it feel seen, capable, and important.”
“Melissa doesn’t just speak to an audience; she connects with them. Her energy is infectious, her stories are memorable, and somehow she makes a room full of people feel like she’s speaking directly to each of them. You leave feeling more confident, more energized, and ready to do something differently.”
“What makes Melissa such a compelling speaker is that you believe her. There is no performance between her and the audience. She is warm, honest, energetic, and completely herself. She can make you laugh one minute and have you seriously reconsider how you’re living or leading the next.”