Meet the team

Vanessa is a communications, engagement and relationship building specialist, with close to 20 years' experience, having worked across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.  

She has been employed by major organisations such as Toyota Australia, Monash University and the City of Melbourne and for the last decade Vanessa has specialised in working on high-value, high-risk projects, worth a combined total of over $30 billion Australian.  

Vanessa has a unique understanding of the Australian market, as her experience within government and the private world means she understands each area's nuanced challenges.  

She is a self-described "comms all-rounder", with corporate internal and external communications experience,  specialising in employee engagement, as well as strategising and executing small to large-scale public outreach campaigns. 

However it is her relationship building skills that bring clients knocking.

She is well known to build rapport and trust with difficult to reach, marginalised and outraged communities, especially in the mega-project space. 

Vanessa's capability to work with these groups comes from migrating from Asia to Australia as a child and she grew up learning how to fit-in and the intricacies of communicating in different styles for different audiences. 

She is a driven, passionate, results oriented, yet highly-empathetic individual, who brings an individualised approach to reaching audiences, as she takes the time to understand them. 

Vanessa was recently invited to speak at the 2023 National Community Engagement in Infrastructure Forum (NCEIF) on the importance of diversity and inclusion and drew on her experience as a person who is a migrant with a mixed cultural heritage. 

Don't hesitate to contact Vanessa to find out how she can best support your organisation to become a better storyteller, listener and doer. 

vanessa.williams@sassce.com.au