Nicky Perfect

Nicky worked on the elite New Scotland Yard Hostage and Crisis Negotiation Unit (HCNU).

She spent many years as the Director of UK Training of the National Hostage and Crisis Negotiation Course, the first female posted to this role and was responsible for designing and training officers across the UK to deal with suicide intervention and crime in action (kidnaps).

Nicky joined the HCNU in 2012 at the same time ISIS were taking control of Syria and many western journalists were being kidnapped and killed. Her unit was responsible for supporting the families of many of these victims and she has a wealth of experience of having difficult conversations in extremely challenging circumstances.

Being deployed across the world on international kidnaps, Nicky has experience of negotiating with global government officials, managing negotiations internally and externally and providing strategies for negotiation teams in the most extreme circumstances.

Nicky spent 30 years as a Metropolitan Police officer including working on the firearms unit, one of only seven women on a team of 650 people at the time. She was also the first woman Inspector in the UK to be employed by the firearms unit in the role of Trojan One, the call sign for the Inspector on the Armed Response Units, with no previous firearms experience.

When she left policing Nicky bought her local village garage and converted the car showroom into a community coffee shop, community hub and kept the workshop becoming the owner of three businesses on one site overnight. She found she was using the same skills from her world of hostage and crisis negotiation in the world of leadership with her teams, customers and family. She created a system to help other businesses have difficult conversations and manage conflict and shares this system in her teaching and consultancy business. Nicky has shared this strategy and her skills with over 2,000 people since leaving the police.

Nicky is the author of the best-selling book “Crisis – true stories of my life as a hostage and crisis negotiator”, published by HQ at HarperCollins.

She has been featured in the Daily Mail, Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Weekly and interviewed on several BBC Radio programmes including Woman’s Hour.

In 2022, Nicky received a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s New Years honours list for meritorious work to her community during the pandemic.

Nicky continues to develop and practice her negotiation skills as a volunteer for a crisis helpline, dealing with suicide intervention and crisis management.

Nicky now focuses her time teaching organisations and individuals the lessons she learnt as a negotiator to help them become better communicators and enhance their confidence and relationships.

Nicky has recently been featured in Innovator Magazine as one of the Top Innovators and Thought Leaders from around the globe.

She lives with her wife, stepdaughter, 8 goats, 2 pigs and 4 dogs and in her own words, life is never boring.

To book Keynote Speaker Nicky Perfect, contact The Speakers Agency on +44(0)1332 810481 or email enquiries@thespeakersagency.com