Vanessa Vallely Speaker | Enterprise & Careers & Women

Vanessa Vallely

Girl Power! Making things happen by working together

Vanessa Vallely is a recognised expert in business networking, online branding and is a sought after international motivational speaker. She is regarded as one of the most well networked women in and out of the City and is passionate about sharing her know-how and experiences with others.

In 2008, Vanessa started her networking site as a vehicle to help other City women connect and grow both professionally and personally. WeAreTheCity experiences over 3 million hits per month and an average of 70,000 unique visitors.

Today, WATC has become the Little Black Book for London's female workforces. Its 15,000+ members rely on WATC for information ranging from professional to personal; to connect with others or to access interests that are central to working in the city. Vanessa also recently created a female niche job board aimed at raising visibility of the opportunities open to women in their careers.

Vanessa has worked tirelessly to further the Diversity Agenda. To this end, Women in Banking & Finance (WiBF), recognised her achievements with the "2011 Women's Champion Award". In 2009, Vanessa co-founded the citywide diversity forum, The Networks of Networks (TNON). The TNON includes the Diversity Heads and Heads of Women's Networks from 45 FTSE firms.

As testimony to the success of the knowledge she shares with others, Vanessa is on every watch list following top women in the City, such as: Financial News Top 100 Rising Stars across Europe, Africa and EMEA, Financial News Top 100 Women in Finance, The International Alliance for Women's Top 100 Women who are making a notable difference and most recently, she was awaded by Brummel's as one of their Top 30 Inspirational City Women & subsequently by leading US network, Womensphere with their UK Award for Inspirational Leadership.

She inspires girls to strive for the best and reach their full potential.

Testimonials from Teachers

"Vanessa Vallely pitched our talk at exactly the right level and provided lots of practical advice to our students."

– Miss M. Sorohan, Head of Business Studies

"Vanessa is passionate about the importance of developing skills to grow both personally and professionally. This awareness boosted self-confidence amongst students and they have been self-motivated in their career investigations and empowered through knowledge of reliable resources. We greatly appreciated Vanessa’s time, effort and skills to inspire students with the direction to make informed decisions, problem solve as part of a team, and maximise the benefits gained from organising such an event."

– Toni Rochowski, Teacher of ICT / Computer Science / i/c KS3 / Enterprise / Specialist Community Work

"Vanessa was our guest speaker at this year’s Founder’s Day. She pitched her talk so brilliantly that she grabbed the attention of all the pupils, who ranged in age from 11 to 18. She was honest and direct, and her talk was both practical and reflective. She made her address so lively and interesting that the girls kept her here for an extra hour, firing questions at her! She was really inspirational."

– Mrs Jo Heywood, Headmistress Heathfield School