Valerie Bounds

Valerie is the Chief Strategy & Creative Officer and Co-Founder of female-led creative experience agency, Aurora who help brands 'Glow Up' by harnessing their deep expertise in culture and zeitgeist, finding a unique space to play through their Stargazing philosophy. 

A veteran of the digital and advertising industry, Valerie delivers stratospheric thinking and kinetic creativity, imagining breakthrough ideas that transcend the everyday. Valerie started working in digital in the year Google launched and has been leading creative and digital strategy for global brands over the past 25 years. Following completing a pioneering MA in Digital at City University London, Valerie learnt her craft in UX and copywriting roles at Ogilvy and other WPP agencies. She won awards early on for her groundbreaking digital strategic work for MSN, AMEX, Nestle, Royal Mail, Deloitte and Ford. Valerie delivered the first iteration of the ASOS brand and website, and worked with The Who's Pete Townshend on his future focussed idea to harness digital to elevate new artists. She developed the first website for cult TV series, Red Dwarf, including 3D modeling their much loved Starbug spacecraft. Valerie has since led brand, creative and digital strategy at renowned agencies leading brand and digital transformation for global clients such as Universal Music, The British Council, MCFC, Canary Wharf Group, Primark and The Liverpool Philharmonic amongst many other brands. Her work has spanned private and public sector clients, as well as working in-house as Head of EMEA User Experience at Bank Of America. 

Mid-lockdown in 2021 Valerie co-founded Aurora with Dawn Paine, their ambition to build a global strategic creative experience company who harness culture & community to craft huge ideas that shape and change the World - an ethos they call #stargazing. This was most recently demonstrated by their self-initiated multi-award winning global movement #HelpUkraineSong, which used Eurovision 2023 to build an incredible platform of protest & unity with Ukraine through music & the arts - achieving an incredible international reach of over 450 million. In close collaboration with Dawn, Valerie delivers Creative Strategy at C-suite and Board level. Together they form a formidable duo who take brands to the next level of commercial success, always with a sprinkling of humour and fun. 

Aurora so far have amassed an impressive client roster including brands such as LEGO, Team17, The Official Charts Company, The University of Liverpool, Weightmans LLP and Kinguin. Profiled as one of The Drum's 'World's Most Creative Women', Valerie has been a judge for awards including the BIMAs and DADIs. She is a STEM ambassador and passionate advocate for supporting women and girls in creative and technology.