About

Nicola is the EMEA Lead for Total Workplace. She specialises in the relationship between design, people, behaviour and the built environment. An architect and author, she is lead author of ‘Future Office’, the RIBA book.  

Nicola is widely recognised within the industry as a leading authority on workplace strategy, design and behaviour change management. Based in London, Nicola draws from 25 years’ experience delivering workplace strategy and innovation internationally. 

Nicola is an author and regular conference speaker. Recent publications include: 

• N Gillen, ‘Future of work’, Poly event, Oct 2021 
• N Gillen, ‘Future of work and workplace’, UK CFO Network, Sept 2021 
• N Gillen, ‘Hybrid work_What the office could look like now’, BBC Worklife, August 2021 
• N Gillen, Healthy post-pandemic workplace, speaker, Henley Business School, May 2021 
• N Gillen, Future of Legal Workplace, WORKTECH Academy, BVN, C&W, panel and report publication, April 2021 
• N Gillen, co author, ‘ReThink Design Guide for a Post Pandemic world’, RIBA publishing, Jan 2021 
• N Gillen, RSAW RIBA Annual Conference, lecture, Nov 2020 
• Co Chair Workplace Trends Annual Research conference, October 2020 
• ‘COVID19 ‘Reimagine How and Where the World will Work’, CRE Journal, September 2020.  
• The Times, April 2020 
• COVID19 Recovery Readiness Blog Series;
  • Future of Work and Place
  • Road to Recovery
• Podcast Series ‘Rebalancing the work/life experience’ 
• N Gillen, lead author, ‘Future Office’, RIBA Publications, March 2019 

Awards & Recognition

• Bisnow 51 Women who survived and thrived in 2020 and 2021
• Visiting lecturer, Masters Course, IE School of Architecture and Design, Madrid, Spain

My Team

Nicola leads the Total Workplace team for EMEA. The purpose of Total Workplace is to orchestrate alignment, consistency and thought leadership globally and scale our capabilities to deliver value for our clients.  

Nicola also leads the EMEA Workplace, Location and Portfolio strategic consultancy team. The team leads consultancy and thought leadership around workplace, location and portfolio for Cushman & Wakefield across EMEA.  

Assignments

25 years of project work globally for occupiers and developers, including; workplace strategy, strategic briefing for cities, universities and cultural centres, organisational modelling (work patterns, culture), communications and change management, global workplace and design guidelines, experience design, space planning, feasibility studies and building appraisal.