Melisa Denis of Southlake was appointed to the Board in 2020, and her term expires in May 2025.
Melisa currently serves as KPMG's National Tax Leader for Consumer Goods and the global lead partner on two multinational accounts. She served as the overall Consumer and Industrial Market Leader for Dallas. She also served as the Major Market Leader for Global Mobility Services ("GMS") in Dallas and Denver bringing more than 30 years of international tax and human resource consulting services to her clients. Melisa served as the CFO and board member of the KPMG鈥檚 Global Mobility practices international advisory board. She started her career with Arthur Andersen and later moved to Montreal, Canada on a two-year international rotation. She repatriated to the US and joined KPMG in 1996. Melisa was admitted to the KPMG partnership in July 1998.
Melisa was instrumental in the creation of KNOW (KPMG Network of Women). The grassroots effort started in Dallas and was expanded to Chicago and Atlanta and throughout the firm. Melisa is passionate about mentoring and helping women. Taking this passion of helping women outside of KPMG, she began a non-profit organization to navigate executive women to the boardroom. In 2009 Melisa founded The Board Connection, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of women serving on corporate boards and in the executive suite. The organization identifies and connects accomplished women in the state of Texas to develop a pathway to the boardroom. Focusing on executive women the organization provides programming and development opportunities to help them achieve their goal of serving as a director on a corporate board.
Melisa co-chairs the Dallas Chapter of Women Corporate Directors "WCD" and serves as the Co-Chair of the Advisory Board for WCD globally. Melisa served on the KPMG Women's Advisory Board. Melisa serves on the Global Executive Board of Enactus (formerly Student In Free Enterprise) heading the audit and finance committee. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the College of Business of the University of North Texas. Melisa served on the KPMG Board of Trustees for the KPMG Foundation and a Board of Director of the Ph.D. Project. She served as the Chairman of the board of Faith Christian School. In 2020 she was appointed to the Board of Regents at the University of North Texas System.
In 2010 Melisa was named as one of DFW's Top 25 Changemakers by the Dallas Business Journal Women in Business Awards program. She was also named a winner in the 2011 w2wlink Dallas Ascendency Awards. In 2013 she was honored with the Outstanding Alumni Service Award at the University of North Texas.
She is a CPA and frequent speaker at many local and international business organizations. Melisa received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of North Texas. Melisa and her husband have two children, Alexis, a senior with KPMG in Denver, and Andre, a staff member at Duff & Phelps.