Using work email for personal purpose

I am employee but now will start working part time as independent as well, with the agreement of my employer. I will be sending out dozens of emails to potential clients. If I send from a yahoo or gmail address many recipients will delete my emails immediately because they won't recognize my name. If I send from my work email (which will be recognized and respected) it will certainly be read. There has never been a problem sending individual personal emails from work, and spam is defined as being unsolicited and indiscriminate. I will be sending emails to specific individuals who work in the same field and who in some ways may be considered colleagues, though they work elsewhere. I asked a junior fellow in IT about using my work email and he said that while there is nothing wrong with what I'm doing, and that at the worst it is in the grey area of spam, he does not think that the boss will approve in order not to set a precedent.
So that leaves me the choice between using the much more effective email and gambling for some trouble, or using a dud email address. I have been vacillating from one day to the next, and I will appreciate some opinions on how to proceed.