Vanessa Garrard

Chairs in Brisbane

Biography

Vanessa is an experienced Entrepreneur, Chair & Non-Executive Director.

She harnesses more than 30 years’ experience establishing, scaling and growing companies across Australia, United States, New Zealand, UK, Europe, China and Hong Kong and has lead teams across 8 countries.

Vanessa has founded 17 companies and understands the highs and lows attributed to establishing, scaling, raising capital, acquiring and exiting businesses.

She has broad experience across FMCG sector as well as fast growth Saas businesses.

Career Highlight

Successfully raising more than $200million in capital; and her companies representing over $1 billion in annual revenue; Vanessa has been bestowed accolades including the Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence Award, EY Australian Entrepreneur of the Year, Telstra Young Business Women of the Year, BRW GE Best Mid Market Business, AIM Management Excellence Award, Lord Mayors Innovation Awards and recognised in Top 30 Australian Female Entrepreneurs List 5 consecutive years, to name a few.

As of 2022;  Vanessa sits on 5 boards, of which she Chairs 4.

Why Coraggio?

With almost 3 decades experience building and scaling businesses, Vanessa understands what it takes to grow a global business and her passion includes assisting other Entrepreneurs scale and future-proof sustainable businesses.

“Supporting other entrepreneurs is something I am passionate about. It really doesn’t matter what the widget or service is that a business provides, the fundamental challenges a business faces are often very similar. As entrepreneurs and business leaders, let’s learn from one another and encourage each other as much as we possibly can to make the journey a little easier”.