Nikola Ilic

CEO and Professor

Nikola is an activist, leadership development professional, social entrepreneur, and professor of leadership. He has been an activist since the age of 15 when he joined the Serbian anti-dictatorship movement Otpor. In 2009 he co-founded the community organizing NGO Serbia on the Move and has participated in many grass-roots campaigns: anti-corruption, health justice, civil rights, and democratization. Today he is involved in the work of the largest Serbian grass-roots NGO Kreni-Promeni (Board member), and he is co-leading the Leadership Development program of the pan-European movement Volt Europa.

Nikola is also a founder of ChangeLab Global (named top 10 emerging change management organizations in the US), aiming to make leadership development accessible to millions, regardless of their socio-economic status. Besides various private sector, government, NGO and multinational partners (Obama Foundation, UNICEF, US Gov – Presidential Management Fellows, CitiesRise movement), Nikola is part of World Liberty Congress and many other organizations worldwide to support their fight for liberty and democracy.

He has taught leadership and community organizing in various capacities with Harvard Prof. Marshall Ganz since 2010. Currently, Nikola is teaching two classes at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service: Ethics in International Affairs (Spring); and Becoming a Democratic Leader (Fall). His pedagogy is focused on learning by doing and action-learning, and he is combining four foundational: Community Organizing, Adaptive Leadership, Systems Thinking, and Adult Development.

He holds a master's degree from Harvard University and a leadership coaching certificate from Georgetown University. He lives today in Washington, DC, with his wife and two daughters.