Nick Atkins FBDO(Hons)CL FBCLA is an optician who has gained business acumen and expertise in sales and marketing during 40 years in the optical industry. This includes 10 years at Bausch & Lomb UK, where he rose to Marketing Director and as General Manager of Advance VisionCare, an independent laser eye surgery clinic.

Prior to launching Positive Impact with Maxine Green, Nick has established a number of companies involved in various aspects of optics. He ran his own consultancy business, specialising in providing marketing and professional services consultancy to the ophthalmic industry, for 12 years until 2015. In the summer of 2002, he acted on a long-standing idea to set up a training and education company and, along with two fellow opticians, set up Proven Track Record (PTR). PTR is the force behind ‘Independents Day’, a business symposium dedicated to the independent practitioner and its popularity with both practitioners and industry means it is now an established annual event on the optical calendar. Nick is an accomplished public speaker and key opinion leader in the UK and has lectured extensively on clinical and business related subjects throughout the Europe, the UK and Ireland.

He is a past member of the Ciba Vision Faculty, inputting into its Academy for Eyecare Excellence, and Visiting Tutor at the Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Institute. He has been involved in and coordinated a number of clinical trials, co-authored posters and continues to write clinical papers and articles, both generic and product specific. He coordinated the landmark EASE (Enhancing the Approach to Selecting Eyewear) study, which showed that spectacle sales can increase 32% and contact lens fits by 17% by simply using contact lenses in the spectacle dispensing process.

Nick’s long standing passion for, and work on behalf of, the British Contact Lens Association (BCLA) saw him become President of what is the world’s largest multidisciplinary contact lens society in 2007; he is also an inaugural Fellow of the BCLA. He is formerly a director of the board and contact lens practical examiner for the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO).