Nikola Ilić is a professor, entrepreneur, and activist. His activism began at 15 when he joined the Serbian anti-dictatorship movement. In 2009, he co-founded “Serbia on the Move,” a pro-democracy social movement. In 2020, he founded ChangeLab to democratize access to leadership and social change tools, regardless of socio-economic status. He developed the Democratic Leadership Framework, the first framework to codify what it means to lead democratically, which he teaches at Georgetown University through an action-learning approach rooted in simulations and real-world experiences rather than traditional lectures. To scale this work, he co-founded LeadUp AI, a startup using artificial intelligence to dramatically accelerate personal and organizational leadership development rooted in the Democratic Leadership Framework. He facilitates leadership programs with UNICEF, the Obama Foundation, and many other organizations, while serving as a strategy and movement-building advisor to Volt Europa and the World Liberty Congress. He supports pro-democracy activists worldwide in building and scaling their movements. In 2025, he became a founding member of the Serbian Diaspora Assembly, supporting pro-democratic protests in Serbia. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two daughters.