Founder/Principal Consultant - Melody CHEN

Melody Chen founded POP Partners due to her passion for helping start-ups, SMEs and scale-ups in overcoming their HR and recruiting obstacles. Her objective is to be a true HR Business Partner, delivering positive impacts and empowering her clients to succeed. ​ 

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In 2025, Melody also launched her coaching practice after doing career coaching part-time for the past seven years for aspiring management consultants. Drawing on her experiences in HR/recruiting and coaching leaders and her teams at her full-time roles, she turned her passion for human connection and meaningful impact into another mission of POP Partners — helping mid-career professionals and leaders find their next step with clarity and purpose via career and leadership coaching. 

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HR & Recruiting Experience

Before pursuing her MBA, she held the position of Recruiting Manager for McKinsey & Company Southeast Asia. Overseeing a team of 8, she successfully doubled the size of the consultant pool across 7 countries in SEA by experimenting with new approaches. As a leader, she also collaborated with the People Director and Partners on strategic planning, drawing talent roadmaps, setting up programs and policies and supporting performance reviews. ​

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She assumed the role of Head of People for her client Aspire - one of the hottest fintech start-ups in Southeast Asia - to build their People function. Within 2 years, she orchestrated a complete transformation of their People team, the company culture and propelled the company's growth by >4x in headcounts. 

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Additionally, Melody served as the Director, HRBP (APAC) for a global customer experience technology company - Medallia, as well as the Head of People, Southeast Asia (including India) for a Chinese fintech company (Wecash Asia Pacific) where she focused on recruiting, performance management, compensation and benefits, and manpower planning for new market entry. She also introduced the region's first formal performance review process.

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Melody has provided support to prominent start-ups across Singapore and Southeast Asia, including well-known venture-backed companies like Aspire, Wati, and Propseller, as well as local SMEs such as the artisan brand Arte Oros. 

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