Nicki has held successful senior leadership roles at Amnesty International, Alzheimer’s Society and Plan International, as well as being independent FD for a number of small organisations. Over her 30-year career, starting at PwC where she progressed to audit manager, she lived and worked in Australia, Asia and Africa before returning to the UK and taking up financial, IT, project management and general management roles, moving to Amnesty as International Finance Director in 2013.

While at Amnesty, Nicki

• worked with the International Board and staff union to design and implement a financial turnaround plan, re-balancing the organisation after a sudden unforeseen income drop of £10m. Sensitivity was essential as the plan had to be implemented in the midst of significant senior leadership transition and public accusations of a ‘toxic’ culture
• implemented and embedded global risk management
• introduced integrated monitoring of performance, finance and risk
  

Nicki is an experienced non-executive director. She was Non-Executive Chair of a membership organisation comprising 1,400 member charities that collectively manage £22bn of funds, and currently serves on the Sustainability Committee of the ICAEW. She regularly speaks at conferences and universities and is visiting lecturer on the Inspiring Financial Leadership course at CASS Business School.

Driving excellence and strong leadership has been a theme throughout Nicki’s career. At Amnesty her department ranked second of 50 teams in the latest staff engagement survey, having previously won Third Sector Finance
Team of the Year award 2017, and Sayer Vincent’s financial excellence award 2015.

Nicki earned a leadership coach certification with the International Coach Federation in 2016. In 2018 she initiated a successful cross-charity mentoring scheme.

She is rated highly as a coach and mentor, and some of the areas she has focused on with former colleagues and external clients include: –

• How to visualise the future and achieve your personal and professional goals
• How to address challenging relationships with your manager and direct reports
• How to maximise personal wellbeing and drive during a stressful time.
  

Nicki is a full member of the Association of Business Mentors.