Meet the founders
Vanessa Liu
CEO and Co-Founder
Vanessa has over 25 years of experience and a proven track record of value creation as a serial founder, operator, strategist and investor. She was most recently Vice President of SAP.iO North America, SAP’s early-stage venture arm, where she recruited and accelerated 87 enterprise software startups. Prior to SAP, Vanessa was Chief Operating Officer at Trigger Media Group, a digital media venture studio, and co-founded Trigger’s portfolio companies: InsideHook and Fevo. She began her career at McKinsey & Company in their Amsterdam, London and New York offices.
Vanessa currently serves as a Non-Executive director of Appen Ltd. (ASX: APX) and Goodman Group (ASX: GMG).
Vanessa graduated with an AB in psychology from Harvard College and with a JD from Harvard Law School. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Universiteit Utrecht in the Netherlands. She serves as a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and as Past President Director of the Harvard Alumni Association.
Judith Williams
Co-Founder
Judith is an internationally recognized people leader. As a metrics-driven human resources strategist, Judith is known for focusing on cross functional outcomes across the organizations she leads and advises. With more than twenty years global human resources and cross-cultural diversity experience, she has developed deep expertise in building and developing diverse talent pipelines, creating inclusive cultures, and building leadership accountability for all talent outcomes.
Prior to Sugarwork, Judith served as Senior Vice President, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, and Global Head of People Sustainability, and at SAP SE where she was responsible for building and maintaining a healthy and inclusive culture for SAP’s more than 100,000 global employees. She led both the Global Health and Wellbeing Team and Global Diversity and Inclusion Office.
Judith serves as a Board Director for Siteimprove, Inc. She also serves as a Special Advisor for Brighton Park Capital. In addition, Judith serves as a member of the international Advisory Board of ESSEC, a French business school that educates business leaders on all levels - undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral, as well as providing executive education programs, and is an executive sponsor for its Generation Africa Executive Certificate.
Judith holds an A.B. from Harvard College, an MA and PhD from Stanford University. Judith has served as a College Director for the Harvard Alumni Association, and is currently both an Elected Director of the Harvard Alumni Association and a member of the Radcliffe Dean’s Advisory Committee.