About me

My name is Ornella Nicolacci, and I am the founder of Living Ayni. I’m a strategist, systems thinker, and coach devoted to helping people live meaningful lives and restore balance. My path has crossed boardrooms, forests, and frontlines of change: from global climate and sustainability initiatives to leadership programs that reconnect people to purpose.

Across all of it, one truth has remained consistent: we lead best when we lead in reciprocity. That belief became Living Ayni, a space where ancient Andean wisdom meets modern science to transform how we live, work, and lead.

My work is shaped by over two decades inside global corporate, nonprofit, and multilateral systems, where leadership decisions carry real human and ecological consequences. Living Ayni draws from Andean principles that come from my lineage and lived relationship, and from my training in neuroscience, relational intelligence, and systems-level change, reflecting how people and organizations actually change and flourish.

My philosophy

Much of what isn’t working in our world today stems from disconnection from ourselves, from each other, from the human collective, and from the living systems that sustain us. For the people and organizations I work with, this often shows up as exhaustion, misalignment, or a sense that something just isn’t right.

Living Ayni was built to reconnect us: to restore reciprocity as the norm, one individual, one organization, and one system at a time. My work is grounded in the understanding that that we don’t rise alone; we rise together.

I am guided by a few simple commitments:

  • Integrity: truth spoken with kindness

  • Reciprocity: shared responsibility and growth

  • Coherence: alignment between values, decisions, and impact

  • Compassion: honoring the human experience within complexity

  • Purpose: acting in service of people, the Earth, and the future we shape together

Living Ayni is also an homage to my ancestors and to the Original Peoples of the world, whose wisdom continues to guide what balance, responsibility, and shared flourishing truly mean.