Vanessa Harwood-Whitcher is the Chief Executive of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), the Chartered body for health and safety professionals. Previously to IOSH, she held executive positions as a Director, Chief Operating Officer and Interim CEO.

Vanessa’s career began leading learning and skills initiatives in disadvantaged communities in the UK. Her expertise and motivation lie in empowering adults to thrive in their careers, a specialism that she has focussed on for the last 20 years within the professional body sector.

Working with professions as diverse as teaching, finance, banking, procurement, leadership, IT and health and safety has taken Vanessa all over the globe. She’s designed and led commercial learning programmes for many of the world's biggest organisations, at one time working with around 80% of the FTSE 100. She’s set the occupational standards for several professions and has headed ground-breaking capacity building programmes with governments and NGOs across South Asia and Africa. She’s won accolades and from the Federation of Awarding Bodies, Association Excellence Awards and Memcom for her work in education and membership.

Having gained her first degree in Business Studies and German from Hull University, Vanessa was awarded distinction for her executive MBA from Loughborough University in 2000