Vanessa Wallace

You started at Strategy& early in your career, what drew you to Strategy&?
After completing my MBA in Switzerland, I found the only people interested in me were Investment banks, where I had already spent 4 years prior to my MBA, and something called a Consulting Firm. Having no idea what they did I loved the interview process at both McKinsey and Booz, especially the opportunity to discuss real business issues. The choice was an easy one as it was very clear to me that I had a connection with the people I met during the recruitment process in Paris, London and Singapore.

Maybe luckily, due to a major airline delay I didn’t get to visit the Sydney office at the time – I later found out it was in Double Bay above a lingerie shop and under a Chinese restaurant… not quite the “center or of the Corporate World” I was envisioning.

You spent 27 years working for Strategy&, how did you see financial services landscape change over this time? What challenges did this present during your time as Global Markets Financial Services Leader?
My first assignment in the financial services sector was supporting the CBA as they transitioned from being a Government entity into a commercial operation and then eventually privatised and listed on the ASX. David Murray was the CEO back then. In those days all the back-office operations were still located within the local branches, there were no call centers, no ATM’s, no mortgage brokers, everything happened in a branch. The IT systems were huge Hogan mainframe systems. Branch managers were king. Much of the business banking activities related to property, mining, agriculture and treasury was important as the banks were largely funded on global wholesale markets. The Australian dollar had only floated in 1983 and FX trading was in its infancy. One of the earlier projects we did for NAB was to triage their FX activities into risk buckets and separately monitor intra-day trading, inter-day trading and position taking.

At the most fundamental level – banking has not really changed at all. It still performs the same basic functions within society: protects savings and deposits and facilitates financial transactions within the economy; reallocates capital for productive use; manages the maturity mismatch; enables risk management; supports long term wealth creation and investment.

Whilst the fundamental purpose has not changed, we have seen periods when the core purpose has been as sharply in focus as it could have been. We have also tremendous innovation and development of the customer offer. In fact, I would argue that Australian banks are some of the best in the world.

How would you describe your time at Strategy&?
Very, very rich -- both socially and intellectually.

I have met a wide array or amazing people in Australia and around the world. Some of my best and longest friendships started at Booz – both with my colleagues and with clients and other people I met along the way.

Intellectually, I have always felt challenged, intensely curious and wanting more. I am not the smartest person by any stretch of the imagination – but I have learned to see the world with a broad and realistic perspective that has enabled me to add value in many circumstances (and this constantly surprises me).

What advice would you give a Graduate aspiring to work their way up to Partner level?
Don’t worry about the destination. Enjoy the journey – the destination will take care of itself. Take every opportunity that comes your way. Take the riskier, newer, less well trodden paths. In my experience they yield the greatest learnings and carry the highest option value.

Enjoy all the people you encounter along the way – especially your colleagues and your clients. They can all teach you something. Get to know the full person – not just the part that is on show in the project. The world is a very small place and 5, 10, 30 years on you will meet them again … and they will remember you and the fact that you remembered their wife’s or child’s name or their interest in cycling or photography. It matters.

You are the founding Chairman of Drop Bio which uses blood technology to help inform people of their health status. Can you tell us a bit more about Drop Bio and how you became involved?
My husband is an entrepreneur and for many years I was just in the background. After I retired, I started to get more involved in a company called Sangui Bio (latin for Blood). They had discovered something very exciting about red blood cells and at a team strategy session around our dining room table we come up with some ideas to commercial the discovery… one of these was to develop a direct to consumer offering to enable people to understand their health and get early warning on any deterioration in their underlying inflammatory status. Inflammation underlies lifestyle related disease and today this represents 90% of all disease in developed economies.

Drop Bio conveniently captures the information in blood protein and genetic biomarkers from a drop of blood and combines this with lifestyle context information and machine learning to enable health tracking, monitoring and risk early warning.

If you know of any amazing Software engineers or bioinformaticians that are passionate about health and wellbeing ... send them my way!!

What would you say is the highlight of your career to date?
Every day jumping out of bed looking forward to what the day beholds.

What is the most rewarding aspect of a Non-Executive Directors role?
Having an impact and helping to grow, nurture and guide businesses through complex times such that they can productively and sustainably employee 100,000’s of Australians and citizens of the world.

You are a Non-executive Director of SEEK, founded by fellow Strategy& Alumni, Andrew Bassat. What do you value most about the Strategy& Alumni network?
Like old friends, when we meet again we can pick up in a matter of minutes. There is a deep respect for the other person's capabilities. There is comfort that comes from knowing they have your back. There is always a strong desire to find a way to work together again.

What is your personal definition of good leadership, and how do you try to implement it?
My personal motto is Aspire, Care, Do.

People want to progress, create a better world for their kids and their kids kids. It is a human instinct. Painting a picture so people can see a path forward – whether than be a bold 10X or a more modest +10% step forward – is often all they need to take a risk and try something new or different.

Being authentic is a compelling equaliser and team builder. Silence and listening is often powerful when you want to be understood.
Being seeing to act, roll your sleeves up and get dirty is key to building followership … and to having fun.

What are your best tips for finding the right work:life balance?
Marry the right man!