Hi, my name is Nikita Gicanda Vervelde.
Welcome to my site!
I am a London based facilitator, programme designer, coach, consultant, speaker and more. With a mission to address structural inequality, I am passionate about enabling entrepreneurs, supporting purpose-led organisations and building inclusive approaches to innovation.
What my clients have to say:
When it comes to making concrete, actionable and meaningful contributions to how small businesses operate, Nikita is second to none. Her insights will improve how you will attract and retain the best and most appropriate talent to how you get your business the right type of funding when you need it, and of course, how to grow and cope with relentless change. Nikita is such a strong (and good) force for betterment and change.
Louis Howell
Director, Revolution Hive
Nikita is an exceptional Education and Leadership Facilitator. Between in-person and virtual workshop delivery, Nikita has far surpassed our expectations and been able to make incredible impact on the participants from schools that we work with. Nikita’s ability to receive, comprehend and then deliver long and comprehensive session plans has been what stood out most. Only someone with the skills and experience that Nikita has could fill us with the confidence that a top-class workshop or programme can be delivered when turnaround times are short. We are super grateful to work with her.
Ahmed Mire
Software Engineer, Splyt
Nikita is an extraordinary mentor. She is the sole reason why I became a better performing team member. We worked on client communication and project management. I felt that I could communicate openly with Nikita which was truly amazing. Nikita's approach is brilliant. She is the type of person, present her with a problem, her recommended solution always is great. She works with us at Buzzbar. She did an amazing job of helping the team improve communicating and working together more efficiently. I could not recommend her enough, if you want to improve your team efficiency and communication, she is your person.
I had the great pleasure to start working with Nikita at the beginning of 2020 as the UK was going into Lockdown and Civic was in the midst of trying to get a neighbourhood project off the ground in Custom House. The circumstances could not have been more challenging but Nikita was unflappable, adapting to an ever changing situation. Her clear thinking, great skills with people, desire to learn and push things forward and her amazing work ethic have been the motor that’s propelled the project forward. From humble and urgent beginnings, it’s gone from strength to strength. Nikita has brought a number of new ideas into the mix and been unafraid to test them out and learn on the fly. This has created the beginnings of a dynamic, community-based project that has the potential to create long term lasting change. She’s consolidated relationships in the community and has worked exceptionally well with other members of the Civic team to develop an ambitious project in Custom House. A pleasure to work with and great at what she does.
Joanna Davies
Sew Social C.I.C
A year ago I set up a local sewing group with support from Nikita at Civic. She helped us to secure the space and facilities we needed for our meet ups, checked in regularly and talked through my ideas. With Nikita’s continued support, the group is growing and welcoming new people every month. I don’t think the group would exist without her.
Nikita has been playing a vital part in the development of our company. Through one-on-ones with every team member and in-depth analyses, her unique combination of skills allowed her to improve our company structure, redefine our hiring processes, and optimise our onboarding procedures, all of which has had a positive impact in the quality of our service and ultimately profitability. Nikita is simultaneously our friend, therapist, and business guru
The session with Nikita on organisational development was invaluable - highly actionable and necessary and I appreciated the candidness. The follow up email has most certainly gone towards our hiring and wider HR approach and is beyond valuable as a starting point for any business
Nikita is an innovator, entrepreneur, and investor that embraces innovation and new ways of thinking to create market opportunities and uncover new sources of competitive advantage for her clients.
Nikita has an exceptional network of investors and industry leaders to tap into, and is herself a charismatic and engaging business leader. Her mind-set of identifying opportunities where others see hurdles, her intellectual curiosity and strong emotional intelligence allows her to have a high tolerance for ambiguity.
These qualities prove an asset to any entrepreneur or company seeking support in their early stage business development. Her knowledge and expertise in team culture, recruiting both technical and operational staff, as well as delivery on organisational development and team management strategies, enable her scale-up clients to grow effectively and sustainably. It was a pleasure working with Nikita and regular discussing industry trends and cutting edge technologies.
Nikita is a passionate and expert cross-pollinator, using her exceptional network of professionals to find the right people to join you on your entrepreneurial journey, AND help you grow as an entrepreneur. Nikita goes above and beyond her role and I'm indebted to her for helping me lay the foundations for my own network as a first-time founder. I'm delighted to have been caught in her fantastic web of creatives, technologists, experts and innovators whose shared values of collaboration, inclusivity and sustainability allow for especially meaningful
long-term connections ”
Working with people isn't always easy as people are very different. Nikita Vervelde is one person that makes work seem to be such an easy task. Her knowledge of business has personally helped me breaking a few barriers that were at the time impossible to overcome. Not only that, but up until recently her ability to network has enabled my business idea to take a different shape and I cannot be grateful enough to have someone that knows what needs to be done and when it needs to be done. Wonderful person to be on your side”