MANAGING DIRECTOR OF TECH, MEDIA, AND TELECOMS, GOOGLE
In this inspiring episode of Life in Charms, jewellery designer Annoushka Dukas sits down with publishing powerhouse turned tech leader Vanessa Kingori to chart her remarkable journey - told through seven that celebrate the defining moments of her life.
Vanessa begins by reflecting on her early childhood in St. Kitts, shaped by her wise and wonderfully creative grandmother. Their long walks under the island’s almond trees, gathering ingredients and swapping stories, sparked Vanessa’s love of storytelling and seeded her leadership style. Annoushka captures this memory in a delicate almond : textured on the outside, carved ebony within, and tiny glinting along the cracked shell.
Aged seven, Vanessa arrived in London, her first taste of culture shock, drizzle, and Catholic school uniforms. But she quickly found her footing, bringing with her the entrepreneurial flair she’d inherited from home. Her first business? Decorating discarded tin cans with hand-drawn designs tailored to her classmates’ tastes, an early sign of her , beauty, and business. That spirit lives on in the charm she chooses to represent her life: a hinged tin can has been engraved with her name and a tiny gold star - modest, playful, and full of promise.
Her rise through the world of publishing was meteoric. At Condé Nast, she broke barriers as the first woman and first person of colour to lead British Vogue commercially. A sleek gold Vogue locket captures that era, elegant and trailblazing, just like the magazine’s transformation under her and Edward Enninful’s leadership. All the while, Vanessa was navigating her most personal ambition: becoming a mother. After a long and complex fertility journey, her son Charles was born, an experience she honours with a sculptural gold figure of a pregnant woman, polished smooth, with a tiny representing new life.
Now at Google, Vanessa is once again pushing boundaries, helping shape how AI can empower creativity, amplify small voices, and make business more human. Her final charm, a spinning gold coin studded with coloured stones in Google’s iconic hues captures both the excitement and velocity of this new chapter.
Vanessa’s story is one of vision, resilience, and reinvention. Whether she’s walking barefoot in the Caribbean, launching a magazine event in Mayfair, or rethinking digital innovation, she brings heart, intellect, and originality to everything she touches. As she says, sometimes the smallest charm holds the biggest story.
