Nicola read Jurisprudence at Balliol College, Oxford. In 1983, she joined S.G. Warburg as a graduate trainee. She worked with Leonard Licht, one of the leading fund managers in the City during the 1980s, and together, they built up the Specialist Equity team of what became Mercury Asset Management. Nicola was appointed a director of Mercury in 1989.
In 1991, Nicola moved to Morgan Grenfell Asset Management and she was appointed Managing Director of the UK business in 1992. Over the following five years, funds under management increased from £4 billion to £22 billion and Morgan Grenfell became recognised as one of the leading managers of UK pension funds.
In 1997, Nicola left Morgan Grenfell and set up SG Asset Management for the French bank, Société Générale. The initial target for funds under management was £5 billion in five years. This target was reached after two years and within three years, funds under management had reached £7 billion.
In 2004, Nicola set up Bramdean Asset Management LLP with Sir Derek Higgs and the business was launched at the beginning of 2005. Bramdean ran a number of alternative investment mandates before selling the bulk of its business to Aberdeen Asset Management at the end of 2009. In 2011, Nicola became one of the founding partners and Chairman of Rockpool Investments LLP, a private equity business. She remained as Chairman until early 2015.
In 2010, Nicola set up Derby Street Films and there are now three Derby Street vehicles, which fund the development of feature films. Nicola is also the Chairman of Glentham Capital Limited, which is currently raising a film finance fund.
Nicola is the CEO of Money&Co, a person-to-business lending platform, which connects people looking for a better rate of interest on their cash with businesses seeking finance to grow. Money&Co. is experiencing rapid growth as many companies are still finding it difficult to borrow money from banks.