Celebrating Nicki Bone's contribution as ITI Chair

As Nicki Bone steps down as ITI Chair, we pay tribute to her achievements.

May 1st marks the start of a new financial year for ITI and the conclusion of Nicki Bone’s term as Chair of the Board.

Nicki joined the ITI Board in 2019, and quickly made her mark, taking on the key role of liaising with our 40+ Networks and rapidly building a strong relationship between the Board and our Network volunteers.
In 2020, Nicki was appointed Vice Chair, and then in May 2022 she became ITI's Chair. As such she has been a key member of an all-female leadership team (CEO, Chair and two Vice Chairs), something of a rarity in the professional membership sector.

During her term, Nicki has led the Board through some challenging times, the pandemic and subsequent recovery period, as well as the cost-of-living crisis, ensuring ITI remained financially stable throughout. She has a strong vision and has been crucial in guiding and supporting the rest of the Board to think and act strategically.

In 2022 Nicki played a key role in the development and delivery of a freelance rates research project that helped ITI and other stakeholders to investigate current practices regarding rates, working hours, attitudes and the future prospects of translators. The findings showed that translators are generally better off when they are members of professional organisations, such as ITI.

Nicki has been a highly visible but approachable leader and is well known to ITI members as a tireless advocate for the profession and for professionalism. She was instrumental in the creation of ITI’s Ambassadors scheme, a wide-ranging project aimed at improving ITI’s outreach to businesses and raising the profile of the translation and interpreting professions. The scheme has already seen the launch of ITI’s Slow Translation Manifesto and the first in a planned series of sector-specific guides. Recruitment of Ambassadors is now underway and Nicki plans to stay actively involved as the project develops.  

In recognition of her leadership, Nicki was highly commended in the 2024 Memcom Excellence Awards in the category of Best President or Chair; a fitting tribute to her contribution to both ITI and the wider profession.

Nicki is succeeded as Chair by Fiona Gray who said “Nicki has been an exceptional leader, combining clarity of vision with a deep commitment to our profession. It has been a privilege to serve alongside her as Vice Chair and to learn from her leadership. She leaves a strong legacy and I’m honoured to follow in her footsteps.”