Valerie D'Costa

VALERIE D’COSTA is an executive leadership coach, meeting facilitator, trainer, attorney, and a strategy and organizational development consultant. She has become recognized for coaching senior leaders to succeed and thrive; and for facilitating dialogue and driving consensus within teams and organizations. Her wide ranging 38-year career has spanned practicing law and leading international efforts to use technology for economic and social development and sustainable growth.

 

Valerie specializes in training and coaching leaders around a core philosophy of values-based leadership. Through the confidential coaching relationship and in interactive training contexts, she coaches senior leaders to increase agility and resilience; develop an authentic leadership presence; be calm and effective in a dynamic work environment; elicit stronger team/Board performance; set and achieve ambitious work goals; demonstrate emotional intelligence; lead inter-generational teams effectively; communicate clearly and impactfully; manage conflict; maintain a work-life balance; and deepen confidence, mindfulness, awareness, and self esteem.

 

Valerie also supports organizations in strategy and action plan development, organizational development, and talent/leadership development. Using a warm and empathetic style, she facilitates tough conversations within organizations, through which leaders play a key role to inspire action and foster a workplace culture, and teams experience greater cohesion, shared goals, awareness, and mutual understanding. Her work includes facilitating Board and leadership team retreats/training; running cohort based training for leaders; and designing succession planning strategies. 

 

Valerie’s client base of leaders and organizations spans a wide variety of fields: corporate philanthropy; international conservation and environmental justice; public broadcast news media; music licensing; global health (including vaccine and microbicide distribution); biomedical research; civil rights (particularly for affordable housing and criminal justice reform); university research administrators; banking and finance; and law firms.

 

For several years, Valerie led programs at the World Bank, such as infoDev, which helped​ 150,000 technology entrepreneurs and startups in 55 countries gain access to capital, markets and business mentors, and a Women’s Economic Empowerment Program for women-led tech businesses. Valerie also held positions in the free knowledge Wikipedia movement, government, and private legal practice.

 

In 2016, she gave a TEDx talk entitled “Think Circles, Not Pyramids” on how international aid programs could have a greater impact on the poor and marginalized.

 

Valerie is certified by the International Coach Federation (PCC) via Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Certification Program. She is certified in EQi. She holds law degrees from the National University of Singapore and University College London; an Executive MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business; and a Certificate in Building Innovative Organizations from the UC Berkeley Center for Continuing Education.