NICHOLAS VERGINIS, CEO, SENVIC
Nick is the SENVIC CEO responsible for realising the SENVIC Strategic Plan 2019-2020 and building a thriving social enterprise community in Victoria. He is an innovative, energetic and strategic executive with a proven record of successfully leading and managing dynamic and diverse workforces across the public, private and community sector in Victoria and the United Kingdom. Nick thrives in cross-sector collaborations and brings over 20 years experience in the independent arts sector, not-for-profits and small social enterprises. He is currently Chair of Melbourne Fringe that delivers the city’s most vibrant and culturally democratic 2.5 weeks of the year and recently launched ‘Common Rooms’, the new venue at Trades Hall in Carlton that uses social enterprise to provide a space where uncommon people belong. He holds a Master in Public Policy and Management and Bachelors of Law and Arts from the University of Melbourne, and in 2018 completed the Executive Fellow Program with the Australia and New Zealand School of Government.
Nick has small business in his blood. Each of his grandparents ran small cafes, restaurants and grocers in Melbourne and Sydney, sponsoring the immigration of extended family and providing employment opportunities and community for new arrivals. His first job was as child labour in his mother’s pharmacy in Lalor in Melbourne’s north. Like all good Greek boys, he is a Carlton Football Club tragic and loves to dance.