Valerie Combs

Valerie Combs oversees all communications for IAC, partnering closely with executive leadership to define and grow IAC’s corporate brand, as well as each of its portfolio companies. She came to IAC more than a decade ago as Vice President of Communications for IAC-owned search engine Ask.com, where she grew press coverage 30 percent year-over-year and served as Ask’s resident Consumer Search Expert, her search trend commentary appearing in USA Today, Huffington Post, MSNBC, Fox Business and more. Following this, Ms. Combs led PR and strategic communications across IAC’s digital media segment which grew to include About.com and its evolution to Dotdash Meredith, Dictionary.com, The Daily Beast, Urbanspoon and College Humor. Ms. Combs was promoted to Head of Communications for IAC in 2016 and has since led comms strategy for major transactions including IAC spin-offs of Match Group, Vimeo and Angi, and acquisitions of Care.com and Meredith, the largest acquisition in its history.

Prior to this, Ms. Combs ran communications and marketing for advertising tech, social and search start-ups based in San Francisco, including Ingenio (the Benchmark-backed former Keen.com, acquired by AT&T); BuzzLogic (social advertising platform backed by Adams Capital Management); and Tribe Networks (an early social network, founded by Mark Pincus). Prior to this she led go-to market strategy for VC-backed enterprise tech start-ups and Nokia’s network security division while at Omnicom’s InterActive PR (a boutique PR agency serving emerging tech). Ms. Combs was a regular contributor to the SF Weekly and holds a BA in Journalism and Theater Arts from CSU Chico.