Nicole Simona

Nicole brings over 20 years of HR experience across New Zealand, Australia, and global markets. Her career spans technology, engineering, manufacturing, retail, travel, aviation, and education, working with organisations from 100 to 40,000 employees. She has led both generalist HR and specialist organisational development roles, including senior positions at MYOB, Afterpay, Envato, Civil Aviation Authority, University of Auckland, Country Road, Fisher & Paykel, and as Chief People Officer at APT Travel Group. Her remit has included global teams across the UK, Germany, Cyprus, the US, Australia, and New Zealand.

Nicole is recognised for creating clarity in complex environments, distilling information into pragmatic, fit-for-purpose solutions. She is highly adaptable, never off-the-shelf in her approach, and always focused on measurable outcomes. Colleagues describe her as calm, fearless in the right way, low-ego, and fun to work with. She’s a straight-shooter who balances strategic insight with human warmth.

One of Nicole’s proudest achievements has been transforming the perception of HR from a transactional function to a trusted, strategic partner. By designing employee experiences with both people and business needs in mind, building trust through clear communication, and bringing new capability into HR teams, she has helped shift organisations toward seeing HR as integral to strategy and execution. She is also proud of leading transformation at APT Travel Group in the wake of COVID. She redesigned the organisation to bring product and customer operations together, aligning structure with strategy and ensuring the right people were in the right roles. The result: lower operating costs, stronger customer satisfaction, and a major lift in employee engagement.

Nicole believes people spend too much of their lives at work for it not to be enjoyable. She is motivated by enabling others, helping leaders, teams, and businesses succeed without seeking the spotlight herself. For her, the win-win is when people thrive and the business grows stronger as a result.

Straightforward and pragmatic, Nicole is calm under pressure and unafraid to name the hard truths. She builds clarity, momentum, and connection across teams and geographies, with a style that is low-fuss, commercially grounded, and human-centred. She thrives in fast-paced, progressive, high-growth organisations, particularly tech and transformation-focused businesses, and brings deep expertise in organisational design, culture, engagement, leadership development, and scaling capability globally.