GEI Luncheon in honor of Ms. Valerie Salembier, Senior VP & Publisher of Harper’s Bazaar – New York, June 9, 2010 – Remarks by Lucio Caputo – President of GEI.
It is my great pleasure indeed to welcome to GEI Valerie Salembier who is the Senior VP and Publisher of Harper’s Bazaar.
As publisher of Harper’s Bazaar. Ms. Salembier travels to Italy frequently and runs the fashion campaign: If You Speak Fashion, You Speak Italian, with spectacular images taken in Rome featuring the “Made in Italy” fashion to reenergize the “Italian dream” for the benefit of American retailers and consumers.
Previously, Ms. Salembier was VPand Publisher of Esquire Magazine, Senior VP of the New York Times, President of the New York Post, Publisher of TV Guide Magazine and Senior VP at USA Today.
Ms. Salembier has been Chair of the NYC Police Foundation since 2003 and a member of the Executive Committee since 1990. She is a global leader and spokesperson for the fight against luxury product counterfeiting.
Since 2004, she created and has continued to host an annual Harper’s Bazaar Anticounterfeiting Summit, featuring keynote speakers such as Mayor Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Kelly and Juan Carlos Zarate, then Deputy Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing.
In 2007 Ms. Salembier introduced the Harper’s Bazaar Anticounterfeiting Alliance to educate consumers about the human cost of fakes and the criminal activity tied to counterfeiting. She also held the first international Harper’s Bazaar Anticounterfeiting Summit in London.
In 2008 the President of the European Union, Barroso, invited Ms. Salembier to speak at an Anticounterfeiting Summit held in Brussels.
Ms. Salembier has received numerous awards and honors, including the Women in Communication’s Matrix Award for Exceptional Achievement and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, presented to outstanding American citizens.
In 1993 Ms. Salembier was elected a member of the Committee of 200, an international organization of select leading businesswomen. She is also a member of the Women’s City Club, the Women’s Forum and Women in Communications.
A Manhattan resident, Ms. Salembier has been involved in several charitable and civic programs such as the NYC Sports Development Corporation, the NYC Sports Commission, the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations.
It is therefore with great personal pleasure that I present to Valerie Salembier with the GEI Friendship Award in recognition of her many accomplishments.
The luncheon was held on June 9, 2010 in the Stella Private Room of Le Cirque restaurant in New York City.