Beauty boss in chief Melisse Shaban, Founder & CEO, Virtue Labs, knows an opportunity when she sees it; and like most good things, Virtue came about when she least expected it. Virtue was born in a university lab, far, far away from the beauty world, where a group of scientists were creating life-changing regenerative medicine. The discovery that the same science could be applied to beauty products was a creative pivot, and one that Melisse Shaban could not ignore. That technological breakthrough, called Alpha Keratin 60kuä, led her to found Virtue Labs, which holds exclusive license to this technology for cosmetic purposes. Virtueä, its debut hair care line, launched in February 2017, and there’s been no looking back. Quick on her feet and unconventional in her thinking, Shaban heard the siren song of the beauty business at an early age and started her career in the industry right out of the gate. She got her first big break as General Manager of Aveda, working in tandem with founder Horst Rechelbacher, whose inspiration is largely credited with bringing the natural beauty movement to the US. From the tundras of Minnesota, Melisse found herself with an opportunity to work with another legendary founder, Dame Anita Roddick, this time as Chief Operating Officer & General Manager of The Body Shop in the Americas, an opportunity which brought her to her adopted home state of North Carolina. Melisse’s career continued to catapult, most notably as the CEO of Frédéric Fekkai, where she oversaw double-digit year-on-year growth, which directly led to the acquisition of the brand by the Procter & Gamble Company. Additionally she has served at the helm of industry innovators StriVectin and Niadyne, Inc. For most people, these would be more than a lifetime of achievements to reflect upon; but Melisse, is not most people, and Virtue is not most brands.
