Valerie Di Maria has earned recognition as a public relations leader in both the corporate and agency worlds. She is currently Director, Client Strategy & Growth for Peppercom, a leading full-service public relations firm, where she works with an array of clients to develop comprehensive communications and marketing programs and leads the agency's outreach to CEOs and other C-suite executives.

Prior to joining Peppercom, she was Senior Vice President and Group Marketing and Communications Director for Willis Group Holdings Limited, the global insurance broker. Di Maria led worldwide marketing, brand and reputation management, executive communications, media relations, employee communications, government affairs, community relations, corporate philanthropy, and events.

Previously, she was Corporate Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs for Motorola, the global telecommunications company. Prior to Motorola, she was Vice President of Corporate Public Relations and Advertising at GE Capital, the international financial services firm owned by General Electric.

On the agency side of the house, Di Maria was President of the New York headquarters of Grey Advertising's worldwide public relations agency, GCI, and Vice Chairman of the GCI Group. During her time there, she helped the firm break into the top 10 global list of PR firms for the first time. At GCI, she managed corporate and marketing work for Westinghouse/CBS, IBM, Pharmacia, M&M/Mars, 3M and the International Olympics Committee.

She joined GCI from Omnicom's Porter Novelli public relations where she was Senior Vice President/Group Supervisor and ran the consumer marketing practice.

In May of this year, Di Maria was honored with PRSA's John W. Hill Award for leadership in the practice of public relations and demonstration of the highest standards of ethical conduct. She has earned several other awards including two PRSA Silver Anvils and two Big Apple awards, and a CIPRA award for work with such clients as Kraft/General Foods, SkyTel, and SmithKline Beecham. She was named one of the "Ten Top Women in PR," one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in PR" and a "tech industry key player" by PR Week, and previously recognized as one of the "Ten Agency All-Stars" by Inside PR.

As an advocate for the public relations profession, she was influential in starting the Council for PR Firms, the first trade association for the industry, and currently sits on its Client Advisory Board. She is a board member of the Arthur W. Page Society, a premier organization of Chief Communications Officers of major corporations, and co-led the task force that produced Page's "The Authentic Enterprise," a definitive report on the evolving role of the CCO. She is also a former board member of British American Business, Inc.; a member of PR Seminar and the Wisemen, and is past-president of Women Executives in Public Relations.

She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from New York University.