Juan Melli is a Managing Director in Mercury’s Westfield, NJ office. He is an award-winning, bilingual communications strategist with over 15 years of experience in public relations, political campaigns, government relations, message development, digital media and crisis communications.

Juan has served in several senior communications roles in government and politics. He was communications manager for the City of Hoboken and was a long-time trusted advisor to Mayor Dawn Zimmer. In Hoboken, he managed communications under the most extreme conditions during Hurricane Sandy and built the strongest social media presence in the state.

Juan was Digital Director for the campaign of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, Director of New Media for Governor Jon Corzine’s campaign, and Associate Editor and Columnist for PolitickerNJ.com. He founded BlueJersey.com in 2005 – one of the first websites for state-level political news and analysis.

Juan is an active volunteer who serves on the board of the Hoboken Community Center, the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, and the Jersey City-based Team Wilderness. An avid hiker, he is also a volunteer trail maintainer on a section of the Appalachian Trail and served on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee.

In 2006, PolitickerNJ.com recognized Juan as “Politician of the Year” and later ranked him #17 on the Top 100 Power List. He was ranked among the Top 10 Power Brokers in Hudson County in 2018 by Talk On the Hudson.

Juan is a 2002 graduate of Rutgers University and earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in 2008. He resides in Hoboken, NJ with his wife and two boys.