Nicky goulder MBE, Founding CEO
Create was born in July 2003, following the vision Nicky had a year earlier of a charity that would use the creative arts to empower lives and enhance wellbeing. She is motivated by her longing for a fair, caring, inclusive, sustainable society in which every individual can fulfil their potential. Previously, Nicky was Chief Executive of the Orchestra of St John’s. She has extensive experience in creative arts management, before which she was a Marketing Executive at KPMG.
Nicky was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours List 2025 in recognition of “services to Disadvantaged People and to Charity” including her tireless work to expand access to the creative arts for the most vulnerable people in our society.
Nicky has won a number of awards, including Clarins Most Dynamisante Woman of the Year (which brought with it a £30,000 prize for Create) and Arts Innovator in the Women&Home Amazing Women Awards 2023. Under her leadership, Create was crowned Charity of the Year by Charity Times in 2020.
As a volunteer, Nicky is a Trustee of both Carers’ Hub Lambeth and Wales Millennium Centre; and a Childline Counsellor. She became a Climate Reality Leader in 2021. She was a Samaritan (2002-2022); a Trustee of MYTIME Young Carers (2021-2024); a Trustee/Vice Chair of the Queen’s Nursing Institute (2009-2019); advisor to the Pro Youth Philharmonia (2017-2020); a YouthXpress leader at Southwark Cathedral, where she worked with young people aged 11-18 (2007-2017); and a Childline Counsellor (1993-1998).
Nicky has a First Class BSc (Hons) in Marketing (with arts) and the Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma. In 2013, she completed a Certificate in History of Art at Birkbeck College, University of London, for which she was awarded Distinction.
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About Create
Find out more about Create’s work – including projects, impact and participant stories