Vanessa Pillay

At BT Business, Vanessa leads the Customer Services team, ensuring over a million small and medium-sized businesses across the UK receive uninterrupted fixed and mobile services with exceptional customer experiences. Her leadership also extends to crisis management for vital services, including the UK's 999 emergency response and Relay UK for those with hearing or speech impairments.

Vanessa leads a large, multinational team of customer service representatives across the UK and India. Her strategic leadership ensures the smooth operation of services. Her global influence is further solidified by her board position at BT ROC, the Hungarian branch of BT, which was recently recognized as a top employer in Hungary.

Vanessa fosters a culture of inclusion and collaboration. She excels at uniting diverse teams, drawing on their strengths, and guiding them towards shared goals. Recognizing the power of allyship, Vanessa openly shares her experiences to empower others' growth and learning.

Under Vanessa’s leadership, BT's service operations have undergone a remarkable transformation, achieving remarkable milestones and securing significant revenue contribution to the organisation, including these top 5 outcomes:

Through a strategic optimization of BT's global service footprint between 2019 and 2021, Vanessa has achieved cost reduction while simultaneously boosting employee engagement and improving key leadership metrics.

In FY2324, Vanessa's service team spearheaded a remarkable achievement, generating staggering sales leads through their interactions – making them the top revenue generator in service. A key driver of this success was the "MoneyMatters" learning initiative that drove significant mindset shifts and was recognized as a finalist at the prestigious Learning Impact Awards 2024.

Dominated at the 2023 UK Contact Centre Awards, bringing home a sweep of gold, silver, and bronze accolades.

Tripled cost efficiencies in FY2324, consistently reducing the cost to serve year on year, whilst simultaneously driving business simplification and digital transformation, optimising processes and resources.

A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, Vanessa’s efforts are deeply rooted in her upbringing during apartheid in South Africa. She has spearheaded numerous DEI initiatives, including:

Spearheaded the creation of the Fearless Females group in Hungary, fostering a powerful network of support for women in the workplace.

As a Local Inclusion Champion at BT Birmingham, Vanessa has championed the growth of the Gender Equality network, now boasting over 100 members. Committed to fostering an inclusive environment the group meets weekly to promote gender equality and equal opportunities for people of all gender identities by raising awareness of workplace issues, encouraging engagement, and provide a supportive space for idea exchange and engagement.

Championed lesbian visibility during BT Tower's Lesbian Visibility Week, serving as a speaker and panellist, giving voice to the lesbian community.

Leading impactful reverse mentoring programs focused on racial awareness and inclusion within BT.