Board

Valerie Van Galder is an accomplished, award winning and versatile executive with over 30 years of publicity, film marketing, producing, journalism, social media, and brand building experience. She currently serves as an independent marketing consultant with clients such as Amazon, Apple, Universal, Masterclass, Disney, Fox, Lion’s Gate, IMAX, and Facebook. She is also a passionate mental health advocate and the CEO of Depressed Cake Shop, a 501c3 that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and priceless awareness for mental health concerns. Van Galder began her career at Rogers & Cowan as a film publicist, leaving there to run marketing for the legendary Hard Rock Cafe chain. Returning to film she was a founding executive at Fox Searchlight Pictures where she conceived the awards campaign that garnered “The Full Monty” multiple nominations and wins and put the label on the map. Her work on “The Full Monty” led to a promotion, and she served as head of marketing until she left to launch the marketing department at Sony Screen Gems. While still running Screen Gems marketing she was tapped to add President of Tri Star Pictures to her title. During her tenure she made Ryan Murphy’s directorial debut “Running with Scissors,” (garnering Annette Bening a Golden Globe nomination), as well as “Premonition,” starring Sandra Bullock, and “Silent Hill. In 2006 she was named President of Marketing for Columbia Pictures, where she was responsible for 20 to 30 titles a year and record breaking box offices results. She served as President of Marketing at New Regency where she worked closely with Steve McQueen on Oscar winner “12 Years a Slave,” and was hired by Disney to run the marketing for “Pirates of the Caribbean; On Stranger Tides.” As interim President of Marketing at Focus Features she launched the inaugural slate under the label’s current leadership team. She has also served as an adjunct professor at USC, teaching film marketing to MFA candidates Van Galder was named Ad Age Marketer of the Year and the recipient numerous Clio awards.