Vanessa is the Chief Executive of University Alliance (UA) a mission group within the higher education sector representing world-leading professional and technical universities. Our members specialise in working with industry and employers. This means their students are career-ready, and their knowledge and research drive industry to innovate and thrive.

Vanessa joined University Alliance in March 2019 from UK Sport, the government’s elite sport body where she had been the Director of Commercial and Communications. During her 7 years at UK Sport, Vanessa worked on four Olympic and Paralympic, Summer and Winter Games including the Games hosted in London.

Vanessa began her career joining the Civil Service from university where she worked in various government agencies and central government departments including the Employment Service, Department for Education & Employment and latterly the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as a Senior Civil Servant responsible for all departmental Strategic Communications, Campaigns and Marketing.