Ana Melendez is the CEO and owner of A&E Wholesale, a distribution company that provides over 3,000 items in the categories of beverages, candy, chocolate, medicine, cigars, automotive supplies, and paper products to over 1,200 convenience stores in North Florida and South Georgia.
During her time in Tallahassee, Ana has won awards for her lobbying contributions in the Florida Senate and House of Representatives. In 2017 and 2023, she was invited by the DBPR Secretary to be a panel leader for their annual “Celebrating Women in Business” event. In 2018, she won the Golden Ace Award in recognition of her leadership and commitment to Authentic Community Engagement. She has made contributions to the Red Cross, United Way, AMI Kids, Second Harvest of the Big Bend, Legal Aid Foundation, Seminole Boosters, and The Kearney Center/CESC. Additionally, she currently serves as the President of the Florida Association of Wholesale Distributors Board of Directors, and a Board member of the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, the Community Foundation of North Florida, the Capital Area Red Cross, the Tallahassee Museum, the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, The Tallahassee Ballet, and the Governors Club.
Prior to purchasing A&E, Ana was the Director of E-Commerce at Essendant, a $6B Fortune 500 distributor of office products, furniture, and cleaning supplies. As one of their youngest Directors, Ana led the launch of Innovera, a private label brand of technology products available in Walgreens and Costco and grew the brand to $60M in annual sales. This included traveling to countries such as China and Taiwan with her global sourcing and quality teams. She also managed the $300M OEM technology accessories business for Essendant that included brands such as Logitech, Kensington, and Sony.
Ana holds a BSBA in Marketing and an MBA from The Ohio State University. She was also one of 60 CEOs around the country that were accepted into the Stanford Business Scaling Program in 2017 and graduated from the Jim Moran Institute SBEP program in 2022. Her interests include painting, performing on alto saxophone, supercar racing, sports, and traveling. Originally from Mexico City, Ana currently resides in Tallahassee, Florida with her husband Michael and her son Addison.