Former Missourian editor has new global assignment

Melissa Miller had a passport, but rarely used it.

"I had never been out of the United States except for the Caribbean, which I don't really count," she said as she gazed over the twilight skyline of Barcelona, Spain, during an interview with the Missourian last week. "So it was a little crazy to take a job in a country and continent I had never been to."

Melissa Miller, who served as business editor at the Southeast Missourian from 2010 to 2012, is on a "mission assignment" with Nestle in Barcelona, Spain.Submitted

The Jackson native, who served as business editor for the Southeast Missourian from March 2010 through December 2012, accepted a position earlier this year to be an "adoption and change specialist" with Nestle at the company's information technology hub in Barcelona.

Nestle is a multinational consumer product conglomerate based in Switzerland, and since 2014 the company is said to be the world's largest food and beverage corporation in terms of revenues and other metrics. The company's portfolio of products covers almost every food and beverage category from Gerber baby foods and cereals to Lean Cuisine and Stouffer's frozen meals, Nescafe coffee and Perrier bottled water.

And, of course, Nestle chocolate.

Nestle is also the parent company of Purina PetCare products, which is headquartered in St. Louis (and has a cat litter production facility in Bloomfield, Missouri).

After leaving the Missourian, Miller accepted a position at Purina's St. Louis offices where she became senior communications specialist, responsible for a variety of internal communications strategies ranging from blogs and newsletters to digital and social media platforms.

"When I joined Purina in 2013, I was writing website, magazine and social media content about dogs for breeders and veterinarians," she said, explaining her experience as a journalist in Cape Girardeau was good training for her current position. "Even when I was at the Missourian, I was tweeting at press conferences, writing blogs and doing things on the Missourian's website."

Even before her stint at the Missourian, when she was director of the tourism bureau in Santa Claus, Indiana, from 2006 to 2009, Miller found herself immersed in social media.

"Facebook started around 2006 and it was around that time that social media was starting to take off," she said. "So I kind of dabbled in the tech stuff in every job in some way."

Miller's role at Purina's St. Louis eventually involved coordinating with the company's IT department in the development and rollout of an internal communications platform. "I was doing all the communications for Nestle across North America working with all the different Nestle operating companies," she said. "And then after the project launched and Purina had a lot of success with it, they asked me if I would come be a part of the global team. that's how I was offered this assignment. When they asked me I thought 'well, why not?'"

Technically, Miller says she's remains a U.S. employee. "But I'm on what Nestle calls a 'mission assignment' which is funny because when you say 'mission' people think Jehovah's Witnesses or similar religious pilgrimage," she said with a smile. "But the point of it is kind of similar in that you go to another market within Nestle to learn and experience things and then take that knowledge back to where you came from."

Miller's "mission" in Barcelona began September 1, which, coincidentally, was her 40th birthday. "It was ironic that I started on that milestone birthday," she said. "I celebrated with my family in Jackson before I left, but on my actual birthday I just walked around Barcelona and explored a little bit."

At first, the only familiar face Miller saw was that of Max, her 13-year-old Chihuahua, but it didn't take long for her to fit in with the rest of her work team.

"I'm here by myself, but the cool thing is, so is everybody else," she explained. "Barcelona isn't home for any of us so we kind of have a kinship when it comes to complaining about the bus or whatever kind of frustrations we're having, we all seem to be going through it at the same time."

Miller's co-workers include people from South Africa, the United Kingdom, Brazil, the Netherlands and Argentina.

"I'm the only one from the U.S.," she reported, "and it's been amazing to learn from them."

Miller and her team are involved with the roll out of various IT technologies throughout the Nestle organization.

"As we're launching new tools, technologies, upgrades, conference calling solutions, new data programs or whatever, I'm like the translator between the IT nerds and the real people who are using the programs," she explained. "A lot of it involves education about the tools and providing tips on how to use the programs which is really important because you can have great tools, but if people don't know how to use them it's not helping your business. We find ways to help people do their work more quickly and efficiently. That's what our group is all about."

As for day-to-day life in Barcelona, Miller said she becomes more and more accustomed to it every day as she finds her way around and learns the language.

"I don't speak Spanish, but I'm learning," she said. "I had a little in high school, and I'm getting ready to start some classes that are offered through work, but you can usually find someone who speaks English here."

On weekends, Miller says she "gets to be a tourist" and explore Barcelona and the surrounding area.

"There's so much here that I haven't been able to go see or do yet," she said. "Even if you did something every weekend, you can't do it all. I'm looking forward to friends and family coming to visit and doing some of the tourist things with them."

As for her parents and sister back in Jackson, Miller said she stays connected via Skype and is planning a trip home for Christmas. But because she won't be home for Thanksgiving next week, she has asked her family to put a laptop at her place at the table so she can "virtually" enjoy the Thanksgiving meal with them.

Miller's Barcelona assignment will last through November 2020, after which she says she will likely return to Nestle Purina's offices in St. Louis.

"But we're working on projects all over the globe, so who knows?"

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