Nicola Green
Inclusion programmes have stalled. Many organisations have policies, training and statements of intent, but the day-to-day behaviour of senior leaders has not shifted in step. The gap between stated values and lived culture is where credibility is now lost, and where allyship has to become a practice rather than a label.
Nicola Green is a British artist and social historian whose work with global political and religious leaders gives organisations a different way to think about allyship, identity and inclusive leadership.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Nicola Green
- She brings firsthand observation of how power, identity and leadership operate at the highest level, drawn from sustained artistic access to Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and Jonathan Sacks.
- Her work is held in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Library of Congress and the Obama Presidential Center, which gives any inclusion conversation she leads an authority that consultancy-led sessions cannot match.
- She treats allyship as a discipline with daily behaviours, not as a values statement, which lands with senior leaders who are tired of slogans and want something they can act on.
- She founded the Khadija Saye Arts Programme and co-founded the Diaspora Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale, so the institution-building she talks about is institution-building she has actually done.
Biography highlights
- Co-founder and director, Diaspora Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale (2017), with David A. Bailey, David Lammy and Peter Clayton.
- In Seven Days…, her artistic record of the 2008 Obama campaign, is held by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Library of Congress, the Obama Presidential Center and the UK Government Art Collection.
- Encounters, a fifty-portrait series with Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, Justin Welby, Jonathan Sacks, Ali Gomaa and Desmond Tutu, exhibited at St Martin-in-the-Fields; book published by Brepols.
- Founder, Khadija Saye Arts Programme at IntoUniversity, addressing underrepresentation of Black and minority ethnic communities in the creative industries.
- Principal Artist on The World Reimagined, a UK-wide public art project on racial justice and the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade.
- Co-founder and Chair, Sophia Point Rainforest Research Centre, Guyana.
Biography
Allyship has become one of the most used and least understood words in the workplace. Many leaders have signed up to it in principle while still being unsure what it asks of them in practice. Green’s work begins in that gap. Drawing on a decade of direct access to the figures who define modern leadership and faith, she treats allyship as something senior leaders do, not something they declare.
Her portrait series In Seven Days… documented Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign from the Democratic Convention through to the inauguration. Sets are held by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Library of Congress and the Obama Presidential Center. A second body of work, Encounters, sat her across the table from Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Justin Welby and Jonathan Sacks. The accompanying book, Encounters: The Art of Interfaith Dialogue, was published by Brepols.
Beyond the studio, Green has built institutions for the conversation she leads on stage. She co-founded the Diaspora Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale, featuring twenty-two artists from culturally diverse backgrounds, and founded the Khadija Saye Arts Programme at IntoUniversity in memory of her mentee, the artist Khadija Saye, who died in the Grenfell Tower fire. As Principal Artist on The World Reimagined, she created public work confronting the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade across the UK.
For senior teams, the value is that Green has spent twenty years studying how leaders actually behave around questions of identity, power and faith. She does not arrive with a framework borrowed from elsewhere. She arrives with primary observation, recorded in works that now sit inside the national collections of two countries.
Key speaking topics
- Allyship as leadership practice
- Identity, race and power in organisations
- Inclusive leadership
- Visual storytelling and narrative change
- Diversity in the creative industries
- Representation and institution-building
- Interfaith dialogue and leadership
Ideal for
- Chief executives, CHROs and DEI leads rebuilding inclusion strategy after the post-2020 backlash.
- Boards and executive committees setting tone on identity, representation and culture.
- Senior leadership conferences in financial services, professional services, media and the public sector.
- Cultural institutions, universities and faith-based organisations working on representation and access.
Audience outcomes
- A clearer working definition of allyship, expressed as behaviours leaders can hold each other to.
- A direct view of how high-stakes leaders, political and religious, handle identity and power in practice.
- A sharper sense of how visual culture and representation shape what an organisation looks like from the outside.
- Practical reference points for inclusion work that has stalled or lost credibility internally.
Talks
A talk on closing the gap between stated commitment to inclusion and the daily behaviour of senior leaders.
Key takeaways:
- Why inclusion programmes lose traction when allyship is treated as identity rather than action.
- How sustained allyship shows up in the behaviour of leaders Green has worked alongside.
- What senior leaders can do this quarter, not next year, to make allyship operational.
A talk on the structures, often invisible to those inside them, that shape who gets seen, heard and promoted.
Key takeaways:
- How visual culture reinforces or dismantles assumptions about identity and authority.
- Where organisations mistake representation for inclusion, and what the difference looks like.
- How honest internal conversation on race becomes possible without performance.
A talk on visual storytelling as a tool for narrative change inside organisations.
Key takeaways:
- Why representation in imagery shapes what people believe about belonging.
- How mentorship and visibility compound over time to shift institutional culture.
- What leaders can borrow from the arts about the discipline of seeing people accurately.
Videos
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Asia Pacific | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Europe | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Middle East & Africa | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| South America | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| United Kingdom | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| US East Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US West Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Virtual | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |