Vanessa Hetherington, the 454th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is playing a role in making the construction industry a better, fairer place.

As a committee member of the National Association of Women In Construction, Vanessa is part of an association that aims to make construction more female-friendly, through things like closing the gender pay gap and reducing micro-aggressions.

In her day job, Vanessa works as a quantity surveyor – mainly with commercial buildings, but also niche spaces such as stadiums and horse stables – across a number of sectors, such as sports and leisure. 

Statistically, the odds of Vanessa becoming a quantity surveyor were remote, because she studied statistics and mathematics at university, rather than anything related to quantity surveying. When Vanessa finished uni, almost two decades ago, she was unsure what to do with her life, so she applied for an entry-level role in the construction industry as a stop-gap measure until she figured out which career path to pursue. 

That temporary job long ago turned into a fulfilling permanent career. Even better, it gave Vanessa the opportunity to meet her future husband, who also worked as a quantity surveyor at one of her earlier employers.

Vanessa was born and raised in London. In 2019, her husband was offered a job in Sydney, which is how they ended up in Australia.