carol melton

founder and CEO, adeft Capital

Washington, DC | PathNorth member since 2015

 As CEO and founder of Adeft Capital, Carol Melton advises and invests in a range of innovative businesses at various stages. Carol established Adeft following many years in senior management at two global media and entertainment companies. Carol was a top five senior executive officer at Time Warner when AT&T acquired the company in 2018. As Executive Vice President of Global Public Policy, she managed a worldwide portfolio for the company's HBO, Warner Bros. and Turner divisions (and earlier in her tenure Time Warner Cable, Time Inc. and AOL), with offices in Washington, London, Brussels, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires. Before joining Time Warner, Carol served in a similar capacity for the earlier-combined Viacom and CBS and its various business interests, including Paramount, MTV Networks, Showtime and all CBS divisions. Earlier in her career, she was a legal advisor to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. 

Carol serves as a board member of The RealReal and real estate company JBG Smith, and is Vice Chair and a director of the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Carol is a co-founder of WE Capital, a consortium of women engaged in social impact investing, and a founding board member of startup incubator Halcyon. In addition, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a partner in Geneva-based Monthly Barometer, which holds a Summit of Minds conference each fall in Chamonix, France. Carol is also part of the investor group that owns the Washington Spirit women’s soccer team. 

She holds a J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law; an M.A. in communications from the University of Florida; and a B.A. from Wake Forest University. 

Carol has served as a moderator and speaker at numerous domestic and international conferences related to trade, technology and innovation. Washingtonian magazine has repeatedly named her among the 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington.  She holds a J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law, an M.A. in communications from the University of Florida, and a B.A. from Wake Forest University.