Nicola Stevens never envisaged that her initial professional experience of child development and psychology would form the basis for a second career working with organisations to resolve paradoxes of leadership management. In 1991 Nicola took a career break to fulfil a desire to study a History of Art degree, specialising in drawing and printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts, London. Her dissertation focused on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century business models in portraiture, which led to her discovery of the van Aken brothers and subsequent obsession to uncover their story.
Returning to work in 2000, Nicola started her own company to offer facilitation and executive coaching to enhance twenty-first-century workplace relationships. She has lectured widely on topics such as investor behaviour and the human element of commerce and industry. She is also part of an ongoing consultation group for ENTO, to review UK education and practice standards in coaching and mentoring. Nicola has written a number of business books, including Learning to Coach, Mentoring: a Powerful Tool for Women, Learn to Coach and Making Management Simple.
Nicola’s Story
In The van Aken Brothers: The Business of Art, Nicola Stevens uncovers the forgotten history of the van Aken brothers, who travelled from Antwerp to London in 1720 in search of greater fame and fortune. Well-known minor artists, contemporaries of Thomas Hudson and William Hogarth, how did their story, even their names, become lost to history?
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