Life Coach

Dr. Vanessa Harding is a visionary leader in science-driven body-brain coaching, empowering high achieving individuals to unlock peak performance. With a cutting-edge approach rooted in neuroscience and body physiology, she helps clients build resilience, overcome mental barriers, optimise body energy distribution, and rewire habitual mindsets for success, personally and professionally.

With a distinguished career in material science and engineering, Vanessa has led global teams to deliver groundbreaking solutions in quality, performance, and sustainability. Her corporate experience gives her a deep understanding of high-performance demands, where cognitive agility, emotional intelligence, and innovative thinking are critical to success.

Holding a PhD in material science and executive leadership certifications from INSEAD and IMD, Vanessa combines elite-level expertise with advanced neurophysiological coaching techniques. She specialises in aligning the body’s autonomic nervous system with cognitive performance, guiding clients to harness their full potential. As a certified yoga instructor and certified brain and autonomic nervous system performance coach she integrates mind-body awareness strategies to enhance healthy stress resilience, with balanced focus, creativity and logical reasoning backed with emotional wisdom.

Vanessa’s approach is a powerful fusion of science, strategy, and human potential—helping professionals and entrepreneurs break through limits, amplify their impact, and thrive in fast-paced environments.

Experience

Ayla Life Performance Coaching

Owner – Current

VELUX

Technical Team Lead R & D

2017 – 2023

In the time spent at VELUX in Denmark from 2017 to 2023, Vanessa led technical teams of material, design and simulation specialists to develop new sash and frame technology that met a set of criteria in line with new business goals for roof windows.

• Delivered new coextrusion technology, approved by VELUX. This technology fulfilled part of the strategic vision and allowed the transformation of VELUX into new markets, satisfying sustainability goals for the future.
• Secured good working relations with external partners to support technical development with an external pilot line and production scale up.
• Steered new technical business development in VELUX skylight products worldwide and supporting existing plastic products and manufacturing processes. Material include all polymer resins and composites for use in window sash and frame construction and accessories together with the manufacturing processes such as profile extrusion and injection moulding.
• Led technical team to successfully build and implement an FEA simulation tool to calculate complex glass loads and stress predictions. This replaced the old calculation method that was too simple and less visual.
• Built the first new business strategy to promote stakeholder buy in and maturing engineering simulation software, finite element analysis (FEA). Part of the strategy included coordinating two teams of specialists with limited knowledge on FEA on two case studies. VELUX engineering resulted in investing in advanced ANSYS FEA software in 2021.
• Delivered a long‑term solution to the existing extrusion technology to provide necessary protection of roof windows in service. Running successfully in production providing minimised risk of failure in service and maintaining the reputation of a prestigious brand.

Trelleborg Offshore Ltd

Senior Material Specialist, Innovation

2013 – 2017

Managed the development of new composite products used for protection of offshore equipment. Materials include syntactic foam composites, epoxy, phenolic and polyurethane thermoset and styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) and s‑Polystyrene thermoplastic. Products included buoyancy and cable protection structures that aid in positioning risers and cables subsea and protecting from large dynamic stresses and thermal differences.

∙ Led a new manufacturing technology development to change from existing technology in the UK & US offshore business to optimise quality and reduce waste. Managed to build first off non injection moulding tool with minimal waste, reduced by 20%

∙ Led development of a new innovative technical concept in collaboration with a resin supplier. This concept, a non‑conventional thermoset injection moulding method enabled a further significant process waste reduction by 10%

Randers Osteopati, Denmark

Yoga Teacher

2021 – 2023

Taught flow and yin type yoga (PARTTIME) for clients in an Osteopath Clinic, Denmark

R-TEK / KASAI UK LTD

Materials Engineer

2005 – 2013

R-TEK LTD, SUNDERLAND, UK. Materials Development Engineer, Automotive industry 2005 – 2013. Managed all material and part test validation and process capability for all new vehicle developments, cost activity and supporting quality with production concerns. Close working relationship with customer Nissan, supporting design, materials and manufacturing in development and problem solving. Devised and managed large scale material programmes from small scale to part process and assembly trials. Included prioritising work for two allocated production process engineers, from injection moulding and assembly and working in collaboration with customer design – manufacturing for vehicle part assembly and assessment.

Education History

Polymer Science

Qualifications

• Certified Oxygen Advantage Advanced Instructor, with Oxygen Advantage OA, Patrick McKeown, Currently training Jan 2025
• CertifiedBrain Coaching with Brain Academy, Sept 2024
• Certiified Performance Coaching with the Autonomic Nervous System, The Play Zone, a Neurophysiological Approach to Our Highest Performance with Michael Allison & The Polyvagal Institute, June 2024
• Advanced Level 2 Yin Yoga Teacher Training, with Angela Jervis-Read, April 2021
• Trauma Informed Yoga, with Angela Jervis-Read, April 2022
• Yoga Teacher Training (200hr, Vinyasa flow), with Yoga Hero & Angela Jervis-Read, July 2021