The office – where she works from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm every day – is located on the 25th floor of an elegant historical building on Collins Street.
The executive’s determination and hard work have been the key to her success, particularly in a male-dominated sector such as finance.
After working in marketing for international organisations in Australia, England and Hong Kong, Nesci has grown alongside La Trobe Financial over the past decade.
She was happily settled in Hong Kong, where she had also reached an intermediate level in her Mandarin studies, when her boss asked her to return to Australia to take on a new role.
“Initially I refused as I’d worked really hard on what I was doing,” she says.
“I accepted a trial period of 12 months and I’ve now been here for 10 years!
“It’s been a wonderful journey building the brand; in my role I’ve helped build international partnerships and the environmental, social and governance capabilities (ESG) for the company.
“When I started, we were a company with 80 people and a market value of $2.4 billion; today there are 400 of us with a market value of $12 billion.
“We have an office in Sydney that’s growing every day, and offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
“Since I like to dream, I hope to have an office in Milan one day.”
Nesci’s great-grandfather was originally from the Lombard capital and married a Calabrian woman.
“I’m lucky because I have relatives both in Milan and Calabria, and I try to go to Italy every year,” she says.
“My parents both migrated to Australia from Vibo Valentia and met and married here.
“After the wedding they left for a six-month honeymoon in Italy; from my calculations, I think I was a honeymoon baby.”
Nesci grew up in Essendon and was raised on strong Italian values.
“My parents taught me how to work hard and taught me the value of money,” she says.
“My father found me a job in a supermarket when I was 17 years old and insisted that my siblings and I invested our savings in property instead of buying, for example, an expensive car.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today without them, I know that for a fact.”
Those values, passed down through the generations, shaped Nesci into the successful and confident woman she is today.
“My father was a strict and domineering man, and that helped me,” Nesci says.
“When I told him I wanted to go to university he questioned my abilities.
“And, of course, I proved him wrong.
“It was his cultural way of toughening me up for the situations I would be confronted with.”
Nesci emphasises that success always comes at a cost, especially for women, who are often forced to choose between their career and family.
“I chose my career and for many years my parents were very sad,” she says.
“All of my friends were married with children but I was happy because I was building my dreams.
“It takes courage and I’ve been very lucky that people have helped me to make my dreams come true.
“I can say that today my family is very proud of me and happy that I did what I wanted to because I’m very happy and I don’t pretend to be anybody else.”
