Melissa Shields is a senior payments executive with deep expertise across subscription and payments verticals. Driven by a passion for innovation, she has led initiatives to optimize recurring transactions and pioneered new tokenization flows in collaboration with fintech partners. Melissa currently serves as Head of Payment Strategy at VGS, where she helps merchants design tokenization and vaulting solutions that power next-generation commerce.

Before joining VGS, she led payments strategy at Starbucks, where she guided large-scale initiatives and modernized multi-party payment frameworks. She also brings extensive experience in subscription and digital media from her publishing background. In that role, she oversaw subscriptions and mobile applications while pioneering alternative payment models that helped reshape industry standards for mobile wallet subscriptions.

Beyond her operating roles, Melissa has served as Chairman of PaymentsEd since 2024, contributing to national committees focused on emerging payment technologies and the future of commerce.