Mercury Fuels’ Pricing-Expediting Manager, Melissa Zuniga, doesn’t mind a challenge. In fact, she relishes them.

According to Chris Cooper, Executive Vice President for Mercury Fuels, “She took the lead in consolidating all of the pricing efforts and being responsible for all of the MercFuel group’s pricing,” he said. 

He explained that Melissa consolidates all of the fuel pricing from each of the suppliers and then uploads all of that information into Mercury’s pricing system.

“It’s kind of a critical part of our day to day business, and Melissa has really shone,” Cooper said. “She has a unique aptitude for staying on top of it and being sure it’s done on time. She's also reduced our error rate, or pricing discrepancy, as a result of the wrong pricing being entered, or mistaken details around the pricing,” he said.

“I was willing to learn and do whatever I had to do to make sure that I could be successful,” she said.

“I realize that for the position that I'm in now, it’s good that I understand the billing and pricing part of it, so I have a good idea of everything of what needs to be done, or why it needs to be done,” Melissa said.

A willingness to learn and problem solve has really paid off for Melissa in recent months, when she revamped how Mercury Fuels handled its clients’ credit card charges. Previously, there was a backlog of credit card receipts, which was causing a real problem.

Melissa says it’s these different challenges that arise in her work that are part of what she enjoys about her job.

“When I took on Expediting, that was a new thing. I hadn't done it before, but I jumped straight into it, I like those kinds of obstacles,” she said.  “You’re a little scared at first, and then you jump in and realize, ‘OK, I got this,” she said.

She also credits her coworkers and their ability to work well together as a driving force for not only their success, but also her enjoyment of the job.

“I’ve been working with everybody here for forever, it’s like a little family,” she said. “I just love the atmosphere here,” Melissa said.

Born and raised in Houston, Melissa lives with her husband and two children, Victoria, 16 (“and driving, so that’s scary,” she said) and Apolonio, 13. She also has a granddaughter, Katherine, through her stepson, Kristopher, and his wife. Melissa says that much of her spare time is occupied with her kids’ activities – football, soccer, swimming, etc. – but she says they also enjoy taking family vacations. They’ve traveled to Disney World, Hawaii, and next year they hope to go on a cruise to Alaska.