Nicholas Valese in

Nicholas Valese

Trailblazer · DISC type DI
VP IT Infrastructure and Operations at Ashley Furniture Industries
📍 Scarborough, Maine, United States

Nicholas is a CIO-level technology executive with experience at major brands like Ashley Furniture Industries, LOréal, and Equinox. He specializes in transforming IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and operations to drive AI-first initiatives and business growth. A graduate of Rutgers University, he also holds CISA and CRISC certifications.

Outside of his executive roles, Nicholas identifies as a "#GirlDad, " indicating that his family is a core part of his life. He maintains an interest in the work of major technology companies like Google and Symantec.

He once built his own AI-driven job search engine that automatically sources and filters roles for him while he sleeps.

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Experience
9 Years
Current Role
VP IT Infrastructure and Operations
Job Level
Senior
Location
Scarborough, Maine, United States
Personality Overview

How Nicholas shows up

Friendly But Fast
Assertive
Achievement-Oriented

They are more likely to be open to unproven but exciting technologies. They respond better to a combination of speed and relationship. They do not mind taking risks and can make hard decisions, if necessary.

Priorities

Topics Nicholas cares about

AI-First Companies
His current role involves building the foundation to make Ashley Furniture an "AI-First company, " and he frequently discusses organizational readiness for AI.
IT Modernization
He focuses on transforming legacy systems into scalable, cloud-optimized platforms to accelerate speed-to-market and reduce operational overhead.
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Career

Work history

11-2025
VP IT Infrastructure and Operations
Ashley Furniture Industries
11-2024 - 8-2025
Program Executive, Digital, O+O Division
L'Oréal
4-2023 - 11-2024
Head of Innovation - Omnichannel Technology
L'Oréal
9-2020 - 3-2023
Head of Run, Omnichannel Technology
L'Oréal
10-2019 - 4-2020
Senior Vice President, Enterprise Technology, Data, and Security/Compliance
Douglas Elliman Real Estate
In the press

Media appearances

No media yetWe could not find public media appearances for this person.
Education
B.S.
Rutgers University
Social presence
in
Behavioral profile

DISC profile (public)

D

Dominance (D)

Dominance (D) reflects how goal and task oriented a person is, and their ability to accomplish results irrespective of how demanding the circumstances might be. Those scoring high tend to be motivated by winning, competition, and success.

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