Vanessa is Senior Advisor - Competition at The European Consumer Organisation, BEUC. 

BEUC represents 46 independent national consumer associations from 32 European countries. The primary task of BEUC is to act as a strong consumer voice in Brussels and to ensure that consumer interests are given their proper weight in all EU policies. 

Within BEUC, Vanessa focusses on ensuring that consumer interests are taken into account in European competition policy and key enforcement cases, in particular in Digital Markets and Sustainability. Since September 2020 Vanessa also acts as a non-governmental advisor to the International Competition Network for the European Commission.

Prior to joining BEUC, Vanessa was a Partner in the Competition Practice of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy in Brussels (as well as in London and Düsseldorf). In between these roles, she was a Member of the Cabinet of the Commissioner for Competition Policy at the European Commission (responsible for mergers and antitrust cases and policy), Special Advisor to the US FTC in Washington DC, and General Counsel, Company Secretary and Executive Vice President at Visa Europe. 

Vanessa has a Law Degree from the University of Surrey, UK, a Masters in European Law from the Institut d’d'études européennes, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. She is a British and German qualified lawyer admitted to the bar in England and Wales, and Düsseldorf. Vanessa also holds a Master’s in psychology from the University of Sussex, UK and is a qualified Executive Coach.

President of the Spanish National Markets and Competition Commision

Graduated in Law with merit from the University of Zaragoza in 1986.

Special Degree in European Law for the Free University of Brussels in 1987, with Great Distinction.

In 1986 she was awarded with the NATO Fellowship Program. Between 1987 and February 2020, she worked as a lawyer in private practice specialized in EU and Competition Law. She also taught those topics at prestigious Spanish and foreign universities such as Toulouse School of Economics, McGeorge University of the Pacific, Carlos III University, Autonomous University of Barcelona and Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, among others. From 1993 to 1997 she was référendaire at the Court of Justice of the European Union. She was the first woman to be appointed as a Co-Chair of the Antitrust Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA). In addition, she held the position of Vice-chair of the Economics Committee of the Antitrust Section at the American Bar Association (ABA), Officer of the International Cartel Task Force of the ABA Antitrust Section, and member of the IBA LPD Council. She was also a Non Governmental Advisor (NGA) of the EU Commission and the National Commission for Markets and Competition before the International Competition Network (ICN).

Among her many distinctions awarded for her professional practice stands out her recognition as one of the 30 best specialists in Competition/Antitrust worldwide in the Best of the Best category of the Expert Guides year after year; her recognition as one of the "100 Women in Antitrust Worldwide" by Global Competition Review (GCR). In 2018 and 2019 Chambers named her "Star Individual" in her specialty in Spain. She is the first woman to obtain the “Outstanding Contribution to the Legal Profession” award by Chambers. In 2020 she was appointed President of the Spanish National Commission for Markets and Competition. Since January 2021 she is member of the OECD Competition Committee Bureau.

Additionally, she is the author of numerous publications in the area of Competition and EU Law, and a regular speaker on these matters