As a seasoned business and operations leader and manager, Valerie brings a mix of experience-based pragmatism and innovative design thinking to the table that is rare in this or any industry. At Method, Valerie serves as the General Manager for the San Francisco office. Her primary focus is to help the studio create sustainable client relationships and ensure client satisfaction through consistent delivery of award-winning, design-led, quality work. She oversees Method's multi-disciplinary teams and provides corporate direction and strategy as part of Method's executive management team. With a background in management at both large, multinational corporations and small aggressive start-ups, Valerie combines rigor, discipline and structure with flexibility, determination and energy.

Valerie was Co-Founder and VP, Operations at the legendary Bay Area boutique Fire Engine Red, where she ran all business operations and client management. As a leader of the company, she helped build the firm into a successful, profitable consulting firm. At Fire Engine Red Valerie managed client strategy for companies including Accel Partners, Sony, Bigstep.com, Homegrocer.com, Red Herring and Hitachi Data Systems.

After selling the company to Rare Medium, Valerie served as Vice President and Operations Manager for the Bay Area office of Rare Medium, and later as Vice President, Venture Strategy. In her first role, Valerie managed the successful integration of the multiple acquired companies which made up the Bay Area offerings. In this role, she achieved record results and helped to create an office with incredible, award winning delivery quality and an impressive roster of satisfied clients. As VP, Venture Strategy, she ran the Venture Strategy practice for Rare Medium, which provided Venture, Incubation, and M&A consulting to both external clients and to Rare's own practices.

Before she started Fire Engine Red, Valerie served as Project and Product Manager at the Mayfield-funded IDG spin-off N/Volve. Valerie was also one of the founders and the initial Board Chair of San Francisco Women on the Web - a highly influential non-profit women's technology networking organization. Prior to Method, Valerie was in management at well-known Portland interactive agency Pop Art. As Vice President of Client Services, Valerie managed a team of Account Managers, Project Managers and Media Planners and Buyers.

Few know that Valerie was the voice behind Netscape's "What's New" and "What's Cool" features, becoming a primary taste-maker in the early days of the internet through her selection of featured sites on what was at the time the homepage for 90% of the users of the web.

She is an internationally competitive athlete, and has been a member of the U.S. National Dragon Boat team at two World Championships (winning a silver medal and a bronze medal in 2006). She lives in San Francisco and paddles outrigger canoes on the Bay as often as she can.