VENTURING OUT WITH VERONICA

From her early days interning at New York’s most coveted magazines to now running her own global communications consultancy and strategic advisory agency, there’s nothing but stars in Veronica Speck’s future

- ESTELLE ZENTIL

Picture this: you’re in your early twenties, interning at Vogue magazine in the Special Events Department. You’re assisting in the planning of the American Woman Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and you’re attending the most coveted event in the world: The Met Gala. You’re wearing a couture gown that you hand-picked up off the rack by Giambattista Valli. And as you’re walking the red carpet, Valli himself walks by with Rosario Dawson and says, “Oh, darling, you look beautiful in that dress.” Just a few years later, at 25, you’re sitting next to Leo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire at the opening of Faena, with Argentinian hotelier Alan Faena and South America’s best-known Michelin-starred chef, Francis Mallmann, to kick off Art Basel. “I have a lot of stories like that. I just don’t understand how ‘little me’ ended up there. That’s what happens when you say ‘Yes’ to things and figure it out later,” says Veronica Speck, founder of VHS Ventures, a global communications consultancy and strategic advisory agency with a diverse portfolio of international clients in the luxury and lifestyle sector.

Speck, who’s originally from San Diego, can pinpoint exactly when she knew she would design her life around New York City. “It was my eighth grade trip at 13 years old. My mother took me to a Broadway show, and we went to The Met. I kind of put moves in motion to work toward ending up there. I went to do my undergrad and graduate school in New York and during that time I immediately started applying to internships.”