Valerie L. Gerard

Co-CEO

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Valerie L. Gerard is co-Chief Executive Officer of The Alta Group and leads the Strategy & Competitive Alignment practice. She brings deep leadership and advising experience to Alta. In her work with clients, Valerie helps companies design and implement value-creating solutions. She partners with leadership teams on both strategic and tactical issues from growth strategies and business model optimization to multi-vendor customer financing programs and long-term capitalization.

Valerie is a recognized industry expert and national speaker. She also writes frequently on current industry trends. Recent publication topics include: creating a world-class multi-funder vendor/customer financing program, designing long-term capitalization strategies, implementing ESG strategies, understanding blockchain’s applications in the equipment finance industry, and working effectively with rating agencies and activist investors.

Valerie was named one of the “Top 50 Women in Equipment Leasing” in the inaugural class by The Monitor, a leading industry publication. She is a two-term member of the Board of Trustees for the Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation and an active member of its Research Committee and the Industry Future Council. In addition to serving on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Equipment Lease Financing, she is also a founding member of the Equipment Lease and Finance Association Women’s Council.

Prior to joining Alta, Valerie served as Chief Financial Officer for SmartMoney and chief investor relations officer for many S&P 500 and FTSE 100 firms including CIT, Dow Jones & Company and AT&T Capital. Earlier in her career, she ran the Finance and Leasing Company Ratings Group for Fitch where she published original research including the first risk-adjusted capitalization model for non-bank financial firms.

She completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Vassar College. Valerie now lives in British Columbia Canada where she enjoys hunter/jumper competitions, skiing, hiking and scuba diving. She is an avid adventure traveler having trekked with gorillas in Rwanda, climbed Mt Kilimanjaro and Machu Picchu, and mastered whitewater rafting on Grade IV & V rivers in Zambia and Australia.