Melissa Kuwahara

Melissa is a member of the Finance team and does senior level placements in Financial Services and Private Equity companies. Prior to joining CDS Melissa worked for 8 years with Heidrick & Struggles a large global retained firm. She has successfully placed CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, CHROs and other senior functions. Some clients she has worked with include JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, American Express, KeyCorp, TIAA-CREF and Texas Pacific Group. Melissa spent many years specializing in candidate interviewing and assessment. She believes strongly in the importance of candidate fit and drills down both on experience and competencies to ensure the client and the candidate are a good match. Early in her career she worked at Kumon as a Manager.

Melissa holds a degree from the University of Adelaide with a double major in Politics and Japanese.

She has lived and worked in Australia, United States, India and Japan. She speaks fluent Japanese.

Melissa loves traveling and is passionate about cooking.