Work Smart · Live Well
Vanessa Aradia is an accountant, speaker, consultant and author helping people and organisations work smarter and live better. Thirty years across the accounting and tax industry, now exploring AI, leadership, sustainability and lifelong learning.
Accountant·TEDx Speaker·Head of L&D, ICB·30 Years in Accounting & Tax
00Speaker · Author · Community Activist
Vanessa's work spans organisational learning, change management and future skills development, with a deep focus on ensuring AI deployment strengthens human judgement, ethical reasoning and wellbeing.
She works across education and professional services organisations, helping them rethink how they develop people, structure work and build cultures where both innovation and sustainability matter. Her background spans learning design, leadership development, payroll and accountancy.
Vanessa is Head of L&D at the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers, founder of TCW Accounting Solutions, and speaks regularly at UK and international conferences on AI, future skills and human-centred change.
30
Years of Accounting & Tax Industry Experience
ICB
Head of Global L&D
TEDx
Speaker
Published Author
01Speaking
From TEDx stages to Accountex London, Vanessa speaks on AI, future skills and human-centred change. Complex ideas, made human.
What automation and augmentation really mean for professional value, and why the age of the machine resolves into the age of the human.
The capabilities that matter most in a world of AI and automation, and why every one of them is human. As heard at Accountex London.
How global advances in AI become meaningful in everyday life, and why community capability determines whether technology strengthens human agency. Her TEDx talk.
A framework for leading change that actually lasts, combining leadership, learning and human-centred design.
On stage in 2026
Sep 23Panel Assessment in a Changing WorldTPAC Oct 17TEDx Talk · Confirmed Community Capability: The Missing Layer Between AI and HumanityTEDx Doncaster Women Nov 16Keynote Adding Value to BusinessThe Bookkeepers Summit ListenKeynote · May The Six Human Skills That CountAccountex London · Podcast“I thought I was hiring an exceptional learning professional — what I actually hired was a force. Almost every conversation with her ends in a genuine mic-drop moment.”
“Vanessa has the ability to speak on issues in a way that not only informs but also inspires her audience. She is able to take difficult and complex ideas and express them in a way that people can easily understand.”
“She doesn't just think about how to do things better—she thinks about entirely new ways to create value. Her work on the AI Academy is a perfect example of innovation that actually serves people.”
“Her sessions brought together real practical value, plain English insight, and a genuine willingness to help people think differently about their work, their organisations, and the opportunities in front of them.”
02Projects
Community data, national movements, global policy. Everything grows from the same root: technology in service of human flourishing.
National Movement · Founded by Vanessa Aradia
“You plant the seed, AI helps it grow.”
A national movement and digital platform helping communities grow food, restore nature and build resilience from the ground up. A Work Smart, Live Well CIC initiative.
Hands-on AI capability programmes for accountants and bookkeepers. Ethical, practical, human-centred.
View course → Interactive ToolHow resilient is your home? A free six-minute assessment across food, water, energy, money, climate and preparedness, with your Home Resilience Score and five priority actions.
Take the free assessment → Capability ProgrammeA six-month national challenge where participants build and evidence future-ready skills through real community action.
Visit futureskillschallenge.com →Contributing to the UN Working Group on People-Centred Smart Cities in the AI Era, following the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva.
A community-focused exploration of AI's role in human flourishing. Stories, frameworks and practical wisdom.
Discover →Co-founding data literacy and citizen science initiatives that put data power back in community hands.
Grassroots environmental policy, sustainability planning and community-led change in Doncaster.
Shaping how AI literacy is embedded into professional learning and development frameworks across the sector.
Working with communities and organisations to end gender-based violence and build safer, more equitable societies.
Get involved →03The Change Model
Change has become the backdrop of our lives. LETGO™ is a practical five-step model that helps individuals and teams unlearn old patterns and grow new ones that stick.
Leadership · Teams · Personal Development
Explore the model at letgomoves.com →04Writing & Resources
The Book
A field guide for a future that is fast, complex, and extraordinary.
A practical guide to smarter working and sustainable living, bringing the professional and the personal together in one integrated framework for modern life.
Buy the bookWhite Paper · New This Month
Skills, assessment reform and the pursuit of vocational parity in professional education.
White Paper
Scarcity, capability and professional value when machine intelligence becomes universal.
Free Guide
Eight practical chapters, eight tools you keep, and one 90-day plan.
Every Saturday
A short dose of inspiration on work, wellbeing and the human side of AI.
Latest Issue
Ripening, readiness and what we should refuse to accelerate: the four speeds of good work in an AI-enabled life.
Watch
Read & Listen
05Contact
Speaking enquiries, consulting projects, or a chat about change, AI and sustainability. Every message gets read.
Substack
Work Smart, Live Well Weekly