Empowering Women in the Corporate World
Empowering Women in the Corporate World
UK
Award winning author and expert in personal branding, networking, progression of women in the workplace in business and technology.
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About Vanessa
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Vanessa is one of the UK’s most well-networked women and has provided keynotes on a variety of career related topics for over 600 companies and 40,000 women worldwide. Vanessa is one of the UK’s most prominent figures in gender equality and often provides guidance and consultancy to both government and corporate organisations who are seeking to attract, develop and retain their female talent. Vanessa was awarded her OBE from King Chrles in June 2018 for her services to women and the economy.
Vanessa is renowned for her groundbreaking work in championing gender equality and fostering female talent development. With over 25 years of experience in banking and finance, Vanessa brings a unique perspective to the table, one that resonates deeply with organizations striving to create inclusive and equitable workplaces. Her acclaimed initiatives, including WeAreTheCity and Gender Networks, have impacted thousands of women globally, providing them with the resources and support needed to thrive in their careers.
Vanessa is also the Pearly Queen of The City of London, a tradition that has been in her family for over 100 years. She is an avid charity worker and has sat on various boards, including Prostate UK and Cancer Research UK as one of its Women of Influence. Vanessa is currently a trustee for MS Together, a charity that supports 18-35 year old’s who have been diagnosed with MS.
When you book Vanessa Vallely for your event, you’re not just getting a keynote speaker; you’re investing in transformative change. Vanessa’s dynamic presentations inspire audiences to challenge the status quo, embrace diversity, and drive innovation. Her insightful talks leave a lasting impression, sparking meaningful conversations and catalyzing positive action within organizations.
See keynotes with Vanessa VallelyPersonal profile can be one of the most powerful elements in your business armoury, but you have to know what tools and techniques will help you build it and protect it in order to drive success. Culturally, many people are brought up not to “toot your own horn” or “shout about your success”, but in today’s highly competitive world if you don’t stand out, you’re likely to watch those with profile pass you by on their way to the top.
Throughout this interactive and practical session, Vanessa will share stories from her career about how she started in Banking in the City at 16, worked for nine different banks and rose to the C-suite. Vanessa will provide the top tips she’s picked up in corporates, as an entrepreneur and as a network leader and encourage your audience to become comfortable with raising their profile. This session works for both women and men at all levels of the organisation.
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Vanessa will provide guidance on a wide array of profile-raising opportunities that are easy to implement straight away. Through this talk Vanessa helps individuals to take the next steps towards raising their profile and attracting opportunities to progress in their careers and help others too. This session is ideal for organisations who want to encourage their staff to grow their own careers.
Success in your career isn’t just about the ability to do your day job and do it well. Success is often achieved by pushing your boundaries and learning/benefiting from the advice and experience of others. Mentoring is becoming an increasingly popular way of leveraging skills. However, if your mentoring relationships are not structured and there are no measurements for success, then these sessions are unlikely to reap rewards in the long-term. If you are interested in seeking mentors in the future and/or want to turn up the heat on an existing mentoring relationship, then this hands-on learning session is for you.
Throughout this interactive and practical session Vanessa will share her top tips – having mentored over 100 individuals during her 25 year career in Finance. She will also share her reflections of being a successful mentor for programmes such as Parligender, a House of Parliament Mentoring campaign and the hugely successful CRUK Women of Influence mentoring programme. Vanessa has also run mentoring programmes for Oracle, MUFG, Nationwide and Squire Paton Bogg.
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Speed mentoring is a great low admin way to for organisations to help people share skills, get tailored career advice to leaders at all levels and bring visibility to more sources of potential career support for individuals. This session matches participants during a series of short interactions to discuss the issues/opportunities they have as mentees and how they can support as mentors.
As part of this speed mentoring event, Vanessa will also give an overview of mentoring best practices and follow ups. This session works well to introduce emerging talent to senior leaders or where companies wish to form introductions for mentoring programmes.
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Speed networking , or matching participants on a one-on-one basis through a number of short interactions, has been one of the fastest-growing forms of networking over the last few years. During your speed networking event, Vanessa will facilitate the speed networking interactions and also top and tail the session by sharing networking tips and experiences that have enabled her to become one of the most well-networked women in the UK.
Participants will learn about the benefits of networking and how to network both internally and externally. They will also get top tips for creating impactful introductions and growing their networks through social media.
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By the end of the session, participants will have learned about the art of networking and had the opportunity to put those skills into practice. This interactive and energising event will enable your participants to meet new people, create opportunities and have a lot of fun!
The session is ideal for a client event or to help build better relationships between individuals/departments who need to collaborate.
How do you prepare for speaking engagements?
It depends on what keynote I am delivering, if it’s any one of my usual four, I tend to think about how I will make my content resonate with a particular audience. If I need to concentrate and prepare I will tend to take myself out of my normal working environment, invariably somewhere tranquil.
What is your main motivation for being a keynote speaker?
My speaking career evolved from my corporate and business experience. I have always enjoyed sharing tips and telling stories. I am extremely passionate about the key topics in my keynotes and I think that comes out when I am on stage. Passion is contagious. My only thought when I am speaking is how I can share my experience to help other individuals, again it is something that I live and breathe so it is something that I don’t have to think about consciously, it just comes out in me and invariably motivates and inspires my audiences.
How do you engage audiences while sharing your personal corporate experience?
I like to connect learning points with stories – people remember salient points that way. I have had a 25 year career, and I run two businesses therefore I have lots of stories. I present rhetorical questions to my audience and I keep them engaged with questions they might ask themselves. My talks are practical and contain direction and structure for individuals who want to enhance their career, I don’t do theory, instead I do: “Here are some tips, mix them up with what works for you, now let’s get up, focus and make it happen.”
Do you have some tips for females who aspire to conquer the corporate world?
I would advise anyone regardless of gender to focus on building relationships. People buy people and it’s not who you know, but who knows you! Networking is the key in terms of progression as well as nurturing the relationships created in that environment. It is not about just meeting them and never following up. I would also suggest seeking the help of mentors, never be afraid to ask someone to help you and on the flip side, offer your help in abundance.
I am a true believer that together we are stronger and that collaboration drives progress far quicker than what we try to achieve on our own. On a final point, I would add that there will be times that people doubt your capability or tell you that you won’t ever achieve your dreams – my advice is that, you, and only you are a true judge of your own capability, thank them for their opinion and carry on regardless!
Do you have a favorite experience from your speaking career?
I have many. As I write this I have just completed 2 keynotes in Mumbai. I was interested to see how the content from my signature talks, The Power of Profile and Heels of Steel would resonate overseas, however they did and the feedback has been excellent. I also love the follow ups I get after I have spoken, especially when someone emails to say they followed my advice and lead them to their own success – surely having the opportunity to play a part in the success of someone else’s future has to be the best job in the world!
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