Overview
Melissa Sumner is a senior client principal in Heidrick & Struggles’ London office and a member of the Leadership Assessment, Leadership Development, CEO Succession, and Executive Coaching practices. She supports clients in identifying and building future-ready leadership, teams, and organizations.
Experience
Melissa is a chartered occupational psychologist with more than 20 years of experience in executive assessment, succession planning, team acceleration, leadership development, and executive coaching across the U.K. and internationally. She combines deep expertise in talent assessment with a practical approach to helping organizations navigate change and improve performance.
Known for developing data-driven, scalable talent solutions, Melissa helps clients make informed talent decisions and maximize the value of talent insights at both the strategic and operational levels. She is certified in a range of psychometric tools, including Saville Wave, Hogan, OPQ, and 16PF, and has a Practitioner Diploma in Executive Coaching from The Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC).
Before joining Heidrick & Struggles, Melissa was chief people officer for a fast-growing international security consulting firm. Earlier, she led global talent and culture functions across the aviation, consumer, and cybersecurity sectors, overseeing the full talent lifecycle and guiding organizations through large-scale talent transformations and periods of change.
Education
Warwick Business School, Executive MBA, with Distinction
Manchester Business School, MSc, Organizational Psychology
University of Manchester, Bachelor’s Degree, Psychology 2.1