Nicola Jones-Crossley is the Founding Director of AKIN ASIA - a community organisation that promotes and celebrates female leadership. In this role Nicola leads a small team coordinating a global network and facilitating women-led panel discussions, networking events and professional development workshops. 

Recently she lead the initiative to partner with UNESCO Asia Pacific on a local project Women Make The News - Thailand. Part of a global campaign to feature more female voices in the news, Women Make The News - Thailand is an online database of Thai female experts created as a tool for journalists to quickly and easily find sources for their reports. As a partner, AKIN ASIA assisted UNESCO with the development, design and implementation of the campaign along with promoting and marketing the database for wider influence.

As a Master Trainer from the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM), Nicola continues to facilitate and deliver trainings in leadership, communication for impact and negotiation skills. She has worked with teams across various industries throughout Southeast Asia to develop and leverage professional skill sets for increased impact.

Nicola has served as Guest Lecturer at the Asian Univeristy for Women in Chittagong, Bangladesh where she designed and facilitated professional development curriculum for a diverse range of students. With students from 13 different countries represented, the learning had great impact.

She has also worked extensively with AccorHotels to facilitate leadership and communication training for the brand's leading female executives across Southeast Asia. Held in Bangkok, the training focussed on building confidence, managing conflict and communicating effectively.

Prior to founding AKIN ASIA and living in Bangkok, Thailand, Nicola worked in non-profit management in Australia, specifically focussing on youth work working with underprivileged youth. She worked as part of a team that ran recreation activities, certified alternative education programs and outreach assistance initiatives for young people in Sydney’s inner suburbs.

In addition to the her qualifications from ILM, Nicola holds a Diploma of Youth Work from TAFE Institute of Western Sydney and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame Australia.