Will Valentine

Will Valentine is a communications veteran with over 25 years of experience. He has been a Senior Advisor to Whiteboard Advisors since 2021. 

Will is the founder and principal of Valentine Advisors, a fractional Chief Communications Officer advisory firm based in the Bay Area. In 2019, Will was recognized as one of the most influential communicators in the world.

Will orchestrated Lyft’s emergence onto the national stage between 2017 and 2019, culminating in its IPO. During his leadership, the company became a household name known for its commitment to creating better cities and demonstrating a heartfelt care for drivers. As a sign of the company’s momentum during his tenure, Lyft was one of the youngest and smallest companies ever to land the cover of Fortune. 

Before that, Will led Communications and Policy during the heyday of Pandora Media. During that chapter, he delivered on a mandate to steer the company’s reputation away from long-standing tensions with the artist community, reorienting the company’s narrative toward a celebration of the power and potential of streaming music. 

He also spent 11 years at Visa in several roles, including their Head of Global Media Relations and Digital Communications, and a year and a half as the Chief of Staff for Visa’s IPO, which was the largest in US history at the time. 

In 2020, Will was asked to take on a short-term Head of Communications role in response to COVID-19, joining the founding team of Stop the Spread to help produce PPE and ventilators during the earliest stage of the crisis. 

He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Kenyon College, and lives in the Bay Area with his wife and their twins.