Nicholas Marchesi

In October 2014, Nicholas Marchesi co-founded Orange Sky alongside his best mate Lucas Patchett. Together, they built the first van Sudsy and Orange Sky was born. From small beginnings over the past eight years Orange Sky has grown to 38 services and thousands of people experiencing homelessness (friends) helped and they're not ready to slow things down anytime soon.

Awarded Young Australian of the Year in 2016 and a 2020 Order of Australia medal, Nic has a passion and commitment to supporting people doing it tough. Nic has been instrumental in the significant growth of Orange Sky and is passionate about leading Orange Sky to deliver on its five year strategy of supporting 40,000 friends by 2025.

Nic pioneered the integration of technology into Orange Sky’s operations and helped lead the development of the Orange Sky Portal and App. This in-house built technology provides Orange Sky with meaningful insights on how the organisation is performing and allows staff to make more informed decisions and was the foundation for the Volaby project for which Google awarded Orange Sky $1 million dollars to commercialise the software. Volaby supports other not-for-profits track their operations, engage volunteers, and amplify their impact.

Nic was selected as one of 200 Leaders from 33 countries and territories to attend the 2019 Obama Foundation Leaders Program in Kuala Lumpur, meeting with Former President & First Lady Barack & Michelle Obama to discuss a variety of issues, ranging from education, to environment to entrepreneurship. Nic was also the lucky recipient of the 2020 Stanford Australia Foundation Scholarship taking him to Stanford Graduate School of Business in the United States.

Nic previously worked as a camera operator and editor for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and for the Seven Network. In these roles, Nic developed a passion for sharing people’s stories in a meaningful way to foster connection. As a result of Nic’s influence, storytelling is central to Orange Sky’s culture and is the cornerstone of the organisation’s brand, audience engagement and creative content.Nic has played a critical role in the strategic direction of Orange Sky. He fosters a culture of creativity, connection and hard work. The framework underpinning the internal culture at Orange Sky mirrors many of the attributes and characteristics he lives by.