Nikola Ilić

Growing up in a war-torn society in Yugoslavia in the 90s drove me to become an activist. At 15, I joined Otpor (a Resistance movement) to end the dictatorship in my country. The societal collapse that I witnessed as a teen was driven by individuals with absolute power, abusing it and failing to see diversity as an asset. This experience kicked off my quest to understand the relationship between power, authority, leadership, politics, and change? How does power affect people? And how do communities and organizations empower or disenfranchise people? The leadership failure that led to the demise of my community is why my career is fueled by a desire to unravel how we develop new democratic leaders and help people grow, collaborate, work together by leveraging diversity as an asset.