Valerie J. Graves is responsible for the overall direction of UniWorld's award-winning creative product. Clients include Ford Motor Company and Ford Division, Lincoln, AT&T and Burger King Corporation. Valerie has more than 25 years of creative experience developing campaigns for mainstream African American, urban and female consumer audiences.

She joined UniWorld in 1985 and during a 10-year tenure, progressed from Vice President, Associate Creative Director to Senior Vice President, Executive Creative Director.

Ms. Graves was most recently Creative Director at Nelson Communications, Inc., the health communications giant, where she created a multimedia program for World AIDS Day "99. Prior to that, she was Senior Vice President, Corporate Creative Services at Motown Records where she developed new business and corporate imagery campaigns. Additionally, she launched Valerie Graves Creative, an advertising and marketing company specializing in African American, urban and female consumer markets, whose clients included Clairol. As a creative consultant, Ms. Graves served on the national advertising team of the Clinton/Gore '92 campaign.

Ms. Graves began her career as a copywriter at the D'Arcy MacManus and Masius, BBDO and Ross Roy communications agencies in Detroit, and later moved to the East Coast to work at the J. Walter Thompson and Kenyon & Eckhardt agencies. She began her current stint at UniWorld in 1999.

Under Valerie's creative leadership, UniWorld has dominated the ANA Multicultural Excellence Awards, winning the African American category every year of its existence. Ms. Graves' numerous individual awards include honors from the Art Director's Club of New York, the Boston Ad Club and the Maine Ad Club. She is the recipient of a Creativity Magazine Award, the Chicago Radio Festival Award and is a 15-time winner of the Creative Excellence to Black Audiences (CEBA) Award. She also has been honored by Advertising Age as One of the 100 Best and Brightest, Who's Who in Advertising and Who's Who Among Black Americans. Ms. Graves attended Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and has studied screenwriting, directing and film production at New York University.