Good morning. What would make a veteran technology investor take on the role of finance chief for the first time? For Alex Melamud, it’s a deep conviction in the company and its leadership.
Melamud is the new CFO of Denver-based Engine, a travel technology startup backed by Telescope Partners, Blackstone, Elefund, and Permira. He’s leaving the investor seat to join the executive team full time at Engine, which serves over 1 million business travelers, according to the company. It surpassed 1,000 employees—up from 700 at the start of 2025—and is expanding rapidly while strategically using AI to fuel growth.
Melamud’s first connection with Engine was at the board level. In 2024, while a managing director at Permira, a global investment firm specializing in private equity and credit, he decided to join Engine’s board. “In my 16 years of investing, I had never come across such an enormous TAM (total addressable market) of greenfield opportunity,” he said, referring to the many small and midsize businesses with unmanaged travel booking—those handling it themselves instead of using a third party.
Melamud led Engine’s Series C financing, with a $140 million Permira investment that pushed Engine’s valuation to $2.1 billion in September 2024.
Engine is a modern travel platform designed for small and midsize businesses, as well as groups. Its standout feature is offering both publicly available hotel rates and a wide range of exclusive, proprietary corporate rates (“closed rates”) that aren’t accessible to the general public, Melamud explained. These negotiated rates, with average savings of 26%, are sourced through Engine’s marketplace, partnerships and wholesalers, he said. Businesses log in to access this closed ecosystem, keeping these exclusive prices confidential and separate from public hotel pricing.
The platform is free to use, with no contracts, minimums, or fees. Melamud also points to Engine’s Direct Bill feature, which extends companies a line of credit for one to two weeks. This lets businesses with frequent travelers settle payments twice a month, much like a biweekly paycheck cycle, he said.
Before becoming a prolific investor, Melamud began his career nearly 20 years ago as an investment banking analyst at Lehman Brothers and Barclays. Taking on the CFO role at Engine, he said, was “purely serendipitous.”
“I didn’t come into this year thinking I would become a CFO in the middle of the year,” he noted.
During a board meeting with Engine founder and CEO Elia Wallen, they discussed how the company didn’t have a CFO at the time. And Melamud has always enjoyed diving deep into challenges. Since joining Engine, he is no longer on the company’s board or with Permira.
Is an IPO next for Engine? “As long as we build a strong business tackling this market, we’ll have a couple of options,” Melamud said. “But right now, it’s not something we’re thinking about actively.”
On the risks and opportunities ahead, he said: “The current macro environment has much more volatility, which can challenge our customers’ ability to plan. But Engine’s opportunity is to alleviate that friction.”
And in his spare time, Melamud focuses on his family. “I have three young kids, and they’re at the ages where everything is still new,” he said.
Sheryl Estrada
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Leaderboard
Eric Christel was appointed EVP and CFO of Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLMN), parent company of brands including Outback Steakhouse. Christel joined the company on Aug. 4 for a transition period and will assume the CFO role on Sept. 8. Current CFO Michael Healy will assume the newly created role of EVP, strategy and transformation. Christel brings nearly two decades of financial leadership across the food and beverage sector, including his role as SVP and CFO of The Campbell’s Company’s Snacks Division and several leadership roles at PepsiCo.
Michael Graham was appointed CFO of ZoomInfo (Nasdaq: GTM), a business-to-business database and intelligence platform, effective Aug. 1. O’Brien has served as interim CFO since September 2024. Before that, he held various roles at the company since December 2017, most recently as VP of FP&A since 2023. Prior to joining the company, O’Brien held accounting positions at RainKing Solutions and Kaseya.
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