Melissa Santaniello is a managing director within the Private Credit team at StepStone Group. Previously, she spent seven years as a director of manager research at Tiedemann, where she focused on manager sourcing and investment due diligence on hedge fund and private investment opportunities. In addition, Santaniello is a board member of the Alignment of Interests Association (AOI), an LP-only non-profit investor think tank dedicated to alternatives investing, comprised of institutional investors. Prior to Tiedemann, Santaniello worked at Plural Investments and Cadogan Management’s FoHF. She began her career on the sell-side as a research analyst covering the TMT sector and holds a bachelor of science degree from Cornell University.