vanessa

Vanessa Nomisaghan, strategic operations and project leadership

Strategic operations
& project leadership.

Bringing structure to ideas.
And people together.

Lagos, NigeriaIndependent mind. Collective impact.Selected work

My work starts where the moving parts meet. I bring people, plans, and priorities into focus. I build the structure that helps teams turn good ideas into real outcomes. Across operations, events, and communities, I make things happen.

People. Plans. Follow-through.That’s where I come in.
Vanessa Nomisaghan
The person behind the plans.

People MAKETHINGSHAPPEN.

A LITTLE INTRODUCTION

I help founders, startups, and communities turn scattered ideas into organized execution. From a live event to a growing product, I create the structure that helps good work happen.

My sweet spot? The intersection of operations, project leadership, and human experience.

More about my journey
25+Projects & initiatives
13+Events brought to life
20+Stakeholders coordinated
1stInnovation challenge winner

SELECTED WORK

WORK,
IN REAL LIFE.

Different challenges. One common thread:
turning ambition into something real.

The TEDxOgba organizing team on stage, with Vanessa front and center
The team behind TEDxOgba, Lagos.

From Where We Stand

Curator & Lead Project Coordinator

From the first speaker brief to the final curtain, I led the planning and delivery of a community-led TEDx event in one month, bringing speakers, volunteers, vendors, and the audience together.

Explore the story

TEDxOgba is an independently organized TED event that brought the global TEDx format to the Ogba community in Lagos. Under the theme “From Where We Stand,” the event gathered local voices to share ideas shaped by place, perspective, and purpose.

As Curator and Lead Project Coordinator, I owned the event end-to-end within a one-month timeline. This included curating and preparing speakers, recruiting and managing volunteers, negotiating with vendors, directing the media crew, and overseeing logistics and the full attendee experience.

Despite last-minute logistical constraints and vendor delays, the event was delivered on schedule through structured planning, clear ownership across every workstream, and tight cross-functional coordination from pre-event planning through live execution.

The outcome

  • Delivered event attended by 69 participants
  • Coordinated 9 speakers, 2 MCs, 2 performers, 11 volunteers, and 5 media crew members
  • Achieved 23 positive attendee feedback responses
  • Majority of attendees rated the experience 4/5–5/5
ExploreAfrica pitch deck showing the travel platform solution and brand story

ExploreAfrica

Winning cross-functional innovation project (1st place out of 10 teams).

Inside the project

Business & Project Lead

ExploreAfrica is a tourism-focused digital platform concept: a one-stop destination for travel and discovery, designed to showcase Africa’s diverse beauty and make exploring the continent easy, seamless, and secure for travelers while giving local businesses a marketplace for global visibility.

Leading an 11-member cross-functional team through a two-week innovation challenge, I owned business strategy, product direction, market analysis, the revenue model, and the investor pitch, while coordinating execution across business, product, and technical workstreams under strict time constraints.

The project took first place among ten competing teams with the highest overall competition score, and the team was recognized for leadership, execution, and strategic clarity.

  • 1st place among 10 competing teams
  • Led an 11-member multidisciplinary team
  • Achieved the highest overall competition score (75/90)
  • Secured approximately $600+ in prizes
  • Recognized for leadership, execution, and strategic thinking
Weekly Success Report prepared by Vanessa for the Yolat customer team

Yolat

Improving visibility, customer engagement, and operational execution for a growing fintech platform.

Inside the project

Customer Operations & Systems Improvement

Yolat is a growing fintech platform serving more than 10,000 users. I joined on the customer operations side with a clear mandate: improve visibility, customer engagement, and operational execution.

I redesigned the customer success reporting system and introduced structured frameworks that gave the team real visibility into user issues, escalations, retention opportunities, and operational performance, including a weekly success report that kept leadership aligned on what customers were experiencing.

The biggest shift was moving support from reactive to proactive: outbound customer calls introduced from a zero baseline, inactive users personally guided through KYC completion, and at-risk accounts saved through direct intervention.

  • Introduced 55+ outbound customer calls weekly
  • Supported 1,000+ users through customer channels
  • Guided 40+ inactive users through KYC completion
  • Prevented multiple account deletions through intervention
  • Re-engaged users who later completed $1,000+ in transactions
Dinner-event production coordinated end to end, including table styling, prints, and run of show

Kora & Hive Communications

Coordinating execution across multiple projects, stakeholders, and initiatives.

Inside the project

Operations & Project Coordinator

Kora & Hive Communications is a fast-paced communications agency running client projects, events, campaigns, and community initiatives, many of them simultaneously.

As Operations & Project Coordinator, I was the connective tissue across that portfolio: managing workflows, timelines, stakeholder communication, documentation, and accountability systems so that every project kept moving and nothing fell through the cracks.

I supported founders and clients with structured execution systems across marketing, branding, community, and experiential initiatives, from dinner-event productions to content shoots, improving delivery consistency through operational structure design.

  • Contributed to 24+ projects and initiatives
  • Managed up to 10 active projects simultaneously
  • Coordinated 20+ stakeholders, vendors, and collaborators
  • Supported execution of 13+ events and community initiatives
Beyond Transactions episode still: “Build for sustainability, build to last”

Beyond Transactions Podcast

Supporting production workflows and content execution for a retail technology-focused podcast series.

Inside the project

Operations & Content Coordinator

Beyond Transactions is a podcast series focused on retail technology, business, and innovation, with long-form conversations with industry leaders about building things that last.

I coordinated operations across the full content lifecycle: guest preparation, content planning, episode structuring, production support, and distribution. My job was making sure every episode moved from idea to published consistently, on a predictable cadence.

  • Supported production of Season One featuring 6 industry leaders
  • Maintained structured workflows across planning, production, and distribution

HOW I WORK

CLEAR THINKING.
REAL MOMENTUM.

Clarity Before Execution

I believe successful projects start with clarity before execution. Understanding the objective, stakeholders, constraints, and desired outcomes always comes before building solutions.

Structure Before Scale

Projects move faster when expectations are aligned early. I focus on creating shared understanding, clear ownership, and accountability across teams before execution begins.

Ownership Through Delivery

Ideas create momentum. Execution creates results. My role is often bridging the gap between planning and delivery by building systems, coordinating stakeholders, and ensuring things move forward.

BEYOND THE DAY-TO-DAY

ALWAYS
EXPLORING.

Vanessa at the Women in DeFi Summit

SheFi Scholar

Completed SheFi's global Web3 education program focused on blockchain, decentralized finance, ownership systems, digital identity, and emerging internet infrastructure.

Niva exhibition announcement for Beauty in the Motherland 2026

Niva

Building a beauty-tech product designed to help people express identity, share information, and create memorable connections through NFC-enabled wearable experiences.

“Products are not products; they are a sea of decisions, signals, and iteration”, one of Vanessa's published analyses

Product & Ecosystem Analysis

Published independent product and ecosystem analysis focused on user behavior, adoption, positioning, customer experience, product design, and emerging technology trends.