Valerie Cooper is the President and CEO of Picture That, LLC, a full-service cultural fine art consulting company. Established in 2002, Picture That‘s mission is to help organizations promote cultural awareness and diversity through art. In addition to selling and leasing fine art, Picture That provides art advisory services, curates exhibitions and designs graphic art.

Picture That’s clients have included: Cartus (formerly Cendant Mobility), Credit Suisse, DIAGEO, Deloitte, General Electric, GENWORTH Financial, Goldman Sachs, IBM, The Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity & Inclusion Institute, Northeast Utilities, Pitney Bowes, Thompson Hospitality, Travelers and UBS. Picture That is a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) by the Connecticut Minority Supplier Development Council (CMSDC) and the State of Connecticut; and is the 2006 recipient of the Supplier of the Year Award which is given by the CMSDC to companies that have exceeded expectations in service delivery, product quality and overall value.

Prior to establishing her company, Valerie spent 15 years building an impressive career in counterparty risk management on Wall Street with Goldman Sachs. She led software development teams that implemented credit, market and reputational risk technology in the United States, Europe and Asia. Her final appointment at Goldman Sachs was Senior Vice President of Global Diversity. In this role, Valerie was responsible for recruiting, mentoring and career development programs as well as employee networks and diversity councils worldwide. She implemented measurement metrics to gauge the success of diversity initiatives for senior managing directors and coauthored a mentoring program with Professor David Thomas of Harvard Business School. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Valerie held software development positions with The Travelers in Hartford, CT and PepsiCo in Purchase, NY.

Valerie is a board member of The Norwalk Community College Foundation, A Better Chance (ABC) of Darien, CT and CTE, Inc. where she chairs the Technology Committee. She is a SCORE Counselor and provides small business coaching.  Valerie was the 1999 recipient of The Network Journal’s “25 Influential Black Women in Business” award and was selected as one of eight national experts to participate in Savoy Magazine’s 2001 Diversity in Technology Leadership Summit. She has been featured in national publications, including Columbia Business School’s Hermes Magazine and The Network Journal, where she was the featured cover story for their September 2005 edition.

Valerie is a native of Stamford, CT. Her education includes an MBA from Columbia University Business School and a Bachelor of Science from Morgan State University. She is a member of The National Black MBA Association where she chairs the Entrepreneur Committee, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Black Jewels Ladies Golf Association. Fine art-related memberships include: Appraisers Association of America (AAA), Amistad Foundation, Fine Art Collectors Club of Fairfield and Westchester Counties, Millennium Art Salon, New Canaan Society for the Arts, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Friends of the Brandywine Workshop and a Friend of the Studio Museum of Harlem.