Melissa McCaw was appointed by Governor Ned Lamont to serve as the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, also known as the CT Budget Chief, effective January 9, 2019. OPM is the Governor's staff agency in Connecticut and is responsible for policy, planning, budgeting and management of state government.

McCaw is a seasoned professional with eighteen years of budgeting, finance, operations and planning experience in government and higher education organizations. McCaw previously served as the Chief Financial Officer and the Director of Budget, Management & Grants for the City of Hartford for 3 years overseeing both the Budget and Finance functions, with a general fund budget of $570 million and an all funds budget in excess of $1 billion. McCaw led the City through 3 years of intensive restructuring including significant reductions and savings, restructure of department staffing and operations, benchmarking of key areas of expenditures, labor negotiations, revenue maximization, shift to a pay-as-you-go capital improvement program, renegotiation of leases and development of the city’s municipal recovery plan, establishing a new standard of fiscal responsibility.

Prior to this, McCaw was the Budget Director at the University of Hartford for nearly seven years. In this capacity, McCaw developed and managed the university budget, led the administration through years of financial challenges, implemented university wide agency reductions and/or restructures and also co-chaired Strategic Planning initiatives to strengthen the University’s financial and business model, maximize the use of assets and technology, and streamline operations.

McCaw began her career at OPM as a Budget Specialist within the Health and Human Service and General Government focus areas of the Budget and Financial Management division for nearly eight years.

McCaw holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Wesleyan University and a Master of Public Administration, with a concentration in Public Finance & Budgeting from the University of Connecticut. She was born in Norwalk, raised in Waterbury, and has lived in the State of Connecticut for her entire life.