Nicole Petrie, Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer at Proskauer
In this episode of Leaders with Ambition, host Nicky Acuña Ocaña is joined by Nicole Petrie, Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer at Proskauer, one of the world's leading international law firms.
Nicole shares her remarkable global career journey, from growing up between Canada and Australia to becoming a senior executive leading marketing, business development, client growth, and transformation across some of the world's most respected professional services organisations. Beginning her career as a CPA with Ernst & Young before progressing through senior leadership positions at KPMG, Nicole reflects on the experiences that shaped her leadership philosophy and approach to leadership.
Throughout the conversation, Nicole discusses the importance of embracing change, navigating career pivots, and intentionally creating opportunities for growth. She shares how moving countries, industries, and functions throughout her career helped her develop resilience, adaptability, and a deep understanding of transformation. Her story highlights that careers are rarely linear and that confidence is built through action rather than waiting until you feel fully prepared.
Nicole also explores the critical role of sponsorship, mentorship, and continuous learning. Drawing on her experience as a certified executive coach, she explains how coaching skills have enhanced her leadership capabilities and enabled her to develop high-performing teams that thrive in periods of change and ambiguity.
The discussion looks at Nicole's transition from the Big Four into the legal sector, where she has successfully brought best practices from professional services into global law firms. She explains how the role of marketing and business development leaders has evolved significantly, with today's CMBDOs responsible for growth strategy, client experience, technology adoption, communications, data, reputation management, and transformation.
Nicole also shares her perspectives on building cultures of trust, creating psychological safety, fostering future leaders, and maintaining sustainable peak performance. She discusses the realities of stress and burnout in high-profile leadership roles and why leaders must be intentional about energy management, wellbeing, and setting the right example for their teams.
The episode also explores the future of legal marketing and business development, the opportunities presented by AI, the importance of commercial leadership within law firms, and why human relationships remain at the centre of professional success regardless of technological change.
This is an insightful and inspiring conversation for anyone interested in leadership, business development, legal marketing, transformation, coaching, sponsorship, career development, and building high-performing teams.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
Building a career through change
How embracing career transitions and adapting to new environments can create unexpected opportunities for growth and success.
The importance of sponsorship
Why advocates who champion your achievements behind closed doors can have a transformative impact on your career.
Developing confidence through action
Why you often need to take on challenges before you feel fully ready and how confidence develops through experience.
Leading successful transformation
How changing mindsets, skillsets, and behaviours helps organisations embrace lasting change.
The value of executive coaching
How coaching skills can strengthen leadership effectiveness, communication, and team development.
Building high-performing teams
The importance of trust, clarity, empowerment, and recognising individual strengths within teams.
Creating meaningful professional relationships
Why relationship building matters more than transactional networking and how strong networks create lasting opportunities.
Managing stress and preventing burnout
How leaders can create sustainable peak performance for themselves and their teams.
The evolving role of legal marketing leaders
Why CMBDOs play an increasingly strategic role in driving growth, innovation, and firm performance.
Preparing for an AI-enabled future
How legal professionals can embrace technology while maintaining the human relationships that drive business success.
Key Takeaways
Careers rarely follow a straight line
Many of the most rewarding opportunities arise from embracing change and exploring new directions.
Sponsorship accelerates growth
Advocates who actively support your progression can be instrumental in opening doors and creating opportunities.
Confidence comes from doing
You do not need to feel fully prepared before stepping into a new challenge.
Relationships build careers
Long-term professional success is built on trust, curiosity, and genuine human connection.
Leadership is about asking better questions
Great leaders coach rather than direct and empower others to find their own solutions.
Trust creates high-performing teams
Psychological safety enables people to challenge ideas, learn from mistakes, and perform at their best.
Transformation starts with mindset
Successful change begins with helping people think differently before expecting new behaviours.
Burnout is not high performance
Sustainable success requires boundaries, recovery, and intentional energy management.
Commercial leadership is essential
Modern marketing and business development leaders must understand business strategy and create measurable value.
Dream big and take action
Success often comes from having a clear vision, embracing discomfort, and being willing to take calculated risks.
Key Quotes
• "One of my greatest strengths when I look back is adapting to change."
• "You always have to feel a little bit uncomfortable if you really want to change."
• "Sponsorship is such a cornerstone to success."
• "Leadership is a privilege and you have responsibility for other people's careers."
• "Earlier in my career, I thought leadership meant having all the answers. Today I think leadership is about asking better questions."
• "The strongest relationships are built when you're genuinely curious about people."
• "The highest-performing teams I've worked in are the ones where people have psychological safety."
• "We've confused high performance a little bit with exhaustion. Real high performance is sustainable."
• "You don't get a seat at the table. You create value and earn the opportunity."
• "Dream big, don't wait until you feel ready, and invest in relationships long before you need them."
About Nicole Petrie
Nicole Petrie is Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer at Proskauer, a leading international law firm.
Nicole began her career as a CPA with Ernst & Young before progressing through senior leadership positions at KPMG, where she spent many years leading global business development, client strategy, sales transformation, and capability-building initiatives. Her work included developing and rolling out major business development programmes across multiple countries and helping drive organisational transformation and growth.
Following her success in the Big Four, Nicole transitioned into the legal sector, bringing extensive expertise in transformation, leadership, client growth, coaching, and organisational change. Today, she leads Proskauer's global marketing and business development function and is recognised for her ability to build high-performing teams, develop future leaders, and drive strategic growth.
A certified executive coach with a Master's degree in Executive Coaching, Nicole is passionate about helping individuals and organisations reach their full potential. She is also an active member of the Legal Marketing Association and a strong advocate for sponsorship, continuous learning, and authentic leadership.
About Nicky Acuña Ocaña
With over 25 years of experience leading high-performing recruitment teams, Nicky Acuña Ocaña is a dynamic leader in the recruitment industry. As President, Americas, UK and Europe at Ambition, she oversees specialist teams connecting top talent with professional services firms.
Her US division focuses on Legal Marketing and Business Development recruitment, while the UK and Europe teams specialise in Business Services roles across Legal, Practice and Consultancy.
A passionate advocate for Allyship, Belonging and Inclusion, Nicky is a sought-after keynote speaker and regular contributor to industry conversations on leadership, hiring, retention, and inclusive cultures.
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