Meet Ness Perez

Vanessa Machin Perez is a community builder—well-connected in the business, non-profit, entrepreneur, academic, government, municipality, military, and STEM space in Utah. She recently transitioned from her high-tech career with Texas Instruments and is diving head-first into Utah’s exciting start-up eco-system. Vanessa launched her (Utah) career in the semiconductor industry in 2018 when
she joined the IM Flash team as a Senior Recruiter in Lehi Utah. Soon after the fab transitioned to Micron in 2019, she was promoted as a Program Manager with the Talent Branding team. In 2020, Vanessa was appointed to Micron’s senior leadership team in Lehi as the External Relations Manager—serving as the liaison for community, academic and government relations.

The Lehi Fab was acquired by Texas Instruments in October 2021 and Vanessa was appointed as the Community Relations Manager. She set about building the TI brand and reputation in Utah and within months, TI was nominated for the Silicon Slopes Hall of Fame and TI was awarded the Business of the year by the Point of the Mountain Chamber of Commerce.

Vanessa built an active community involvement team with more than 100 active employees and within 9 months, the impact was felt in the community with more than 80 volunteer events and employee engagement in Utah reaching a whopping 140%. She was instrumental in managing and supporting over $10,000,000 in philanthropic giving—including $300,000 to United Way to kick-off a community center in American Fork. Vanessa is also very proud of the strong bond she built with Navajo Nation and facilitated the donation of 3,000 TI computers—enough for every student in San Juan School District to have one.

Prior to moving to Utah, Vanessa lived in Hawaii for almost 10 years—she was an innovator and created two small businesses: Henry Hats of Hawaii—inventing, designing and manufacturing a unique, expanding ‘one-size’ flat cap, bowties, lapels and she designed products for her own ‘Posh Pets’ brand for dogs. She later created S3 Career Consulting to bridge the gap between Military to Civilian Career transition and coached, trained and consulted for more than 3,000 personnel and clients.

Vanessa has a genuine passion for meeting people and connecting them to accomplish remarkable things. She’s natural at engaging with and influencing audiences and brings four-decades of unique expertise in recruiting, career consulting, entrepreneurial ventures, innovative product design, film production, and executive leadership in the long-distance passenger rail industry. She is also a published author—and has produced four military history books (authored one while deployed!).

Vanessa served 23 years with the Australian Defence Force—more than 19 years within Special Operations Command—her primary expertise was Civil Affairs, Instructional Design, History & Museum Practices, Logistics & Recruiting. She is married to retired US Marine William Perez & they live in Lehi with their son Henry, now 14. She is always ready to share her career readiness and professional branding expertise as a give back to her community—especially for transitioning military and military spouses.

Vanessa serves on multiple boards and committees within Utah communities, including Board of Trustees, Mountainland Technical College (Governor appointed); Ivory Ridge HOA Master Board (Elected); Board of Trustees, Intermountain Health UV Philanthropic; Board of Directors, United Way of Utah County; Board of Directors, Point of the Mountain Chamber; Board of Directors, STEM Action Center Foundation; Courage Reins Fundraising Committee.

She has previously served on: Board of Directors, Utah Valley Chamber; Board of Directors, Women Tech Council; Board of Directors, Women of the World; University of Utah Industry Advisory Board; Utah Valley University Engineering Building Board; Lehi City Sustainability Committee; Lehi Serves Committee; Lehi Cares Coalition; EDCU Executive DEI Drop-In.

Away from work, Vanessa loves quality time with her family and being outdoors: hiking, trail running, snowshoeing, swimming, kayaking, gym-going. She loves gourmet cooking, painting, gardening, writing, networking, and interior design. She’s a daydreamer, innovator and inventor and when left to her own devices she daydreams of solutions to major problems on-the-daily! She is currently bringing an invention to life called ‘Flash Drive’ (watch this space!).

The cheeky Aussie loves to share her culture with her friends and enjoys Aussie slang challenges and vegemite tastings. She is fascinated by graphology. She spent her 20s parachuting and jumping off cliffs, bridges and buildings. She got her driver’s license in the Army when she was 25. She completed her first marathon (Honolulu) at 49 with zero training. There is a 3-mile crater on Mars named after her and the first time she flew, the 707 aircraft was hijacked!