NICOELLA is a network of bilingual creative professionals from the US and Mexico.  Collectively, we have backgrounds in design, event planning, production, architecture, interior design and business.  We’ve been described by many as "salt of the earth" people.  We appreciate quality design, good company, delicious food and drinks and organic beauty.

Meet the Team

  • Lauren Toker - OWNER, EVENT PLANNER & DESIGNER

    Lauren Toker appreciates the polarities of life. She loves finding vintage treasures but can just as easily admire modern design. She enjoys getting lost in the crowds of New York City and has also been know to spend days exploring rural wilderness. Lauren's design influences derive from her experience living in diverse settings across the world such as Mexico, Cuba, Brazil and India. Though originally from Oakland, California, Lauren has lived in Mexico since 2014 splitting her time in between the tropical jungle of Sayulita, Mexico and the vibrancy of Mexico City.

    As a college student, Lauren studied Social Justice at UC-Santa Cruz where she started producing events for various activist causes. Lauren produced events for 10 years before starting to work professionally as an event designer and prop stylist in 2012. She founded Nicoella in 2013 in the San Francisco Bay Area and opened up offices in Sayulita, Mexico in 2014 and Mexico City in 2019. When she is not designing and producing events, Lauren enjoys doing art projects with her son Mateo.

  • Niki Bhattacharya - BUSINESS & EVENTS MANAGER

    Niki Bhattacharya joined Nicoella in 2016 after many years of working in the documentary film industry in New York City as a producer. Her love of media, art and people is a natural fit with the events and production industry.

    Prior to Nicoella, Niki worked at the Director of the Documentary Film MFA program at the School of Visual Arts. During her tenure at SVA Niki produced numerous events, film festivals, and speaker series. Niki also taught undergraduate television production at The City University of New York for six years.

    Before SVA Niki worked at the NY based non fiction production company Show of Force. Show of Force produces award-winning documentaries screened on HBO, PBS, Discovery, National Geographic and major film festivals worldwide. Niki received her Bachelors and Masters of Fine Arts degrees in Television and Film Production. Niki divides her time between fabulous events and her two boys, husband and dog.

  • Ale Galvan - BAHIA DE BANDERAS EVENTS PRODUCER

    Ale Galvan spent her childhood in Mexico City and Cuernavaca. She is a licensed architect with a specialty in interior design. She studied at both Universidad La Salle in Cuernavaca and Institute St. Luc. Tournai in Belgium. Ale has designed the exteriors and interiors of homes, hotels, retail spaces and restaurants.

    Ale moved to Sayulita in 2014 with family to pursue a simpler life. Little did she know her keen eye and attention to detail would make her in high demand. In her free time, Ale runs a Mexican cooking program, children's art classes and does a lot of craft projects.

  • Jimena Fernández del Busto - MEXICO CITY EVENTS DESIGNER

    Jimena Fernández del Busto is a licensed interior designer born and raised in Cuernavaca, Morelos. As a child she also lived in Manchester, England. Jimena currently lives in Mexico City where she is the creative director of Neon Mood by Jimena, a multidisciplinary studio that focuses on film and festival art direction, the development of art installations, industrial design and architectural interior design. She loves collaborating with Mexican artisans to make creations with a mystical and fantastic touch. Jimena has a great eye for detail. She loves nature, art, film, music and design. In her spare time, Jimena spends time exploring nature and making ceramics.

  • Erika Claitte - CDMX CLIENT RELATIONS & DESIGNER

    Erika grew up in an artistic East Coast household, where her eye for art & design blossomed at an early age. After completing a fine arts degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she moved to the south of France where she spent four years curating custom experiences for the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Lions Advertising Festival, and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (to name a few). In 2015, she relocated to Los Angeles and further immersed herself in the design world,  producing events for clients including Twitter, Nickelodeon, and NBC Universal.

    In 2020 Erika decided it was time for a change once again and landed herself in Mexico. When she's not creating a work of art, you can find her scouring the farmers market for local veggies & fresh-cut flowers, entertaining friends with a glass of orange wine in hand, or traveling to her next foodie destination.

  • Arturo Galvan Portugal – MEXICO CITY EVENTS PRODUCER

    Arturo Galvan also spent his childhood in Mexico City and Cuernavaca. He studied business and marketing at the Tecnologico de Monterrey in Cuernavaca. He has produced events for over 20 years. He is the master at designing specialty experiences for our Mexico City clients – namely the Xochimilico experience – a catered meal on the canals of Xochimilco. In his free time, he spends time with his son, plays soccer and reads.

  • Nick Challed - BAHIA DE BANDERAS DJ & SOUND DESIGNER

    Nick Challed has a picture of himself at age 3 wearing headphones plugged into his parents’ stereo. His first concert was Stevie Wonder at age 8. Nick attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington where he started spinning music in 1998 as a hip-hop DJ for a community radio station.

    For the past two decades, Nick has packed the dance floor at events, weddings, house parties and clubs across the San Francisco Bay Area in California and Bahia de Banderas in Mexico. Nick owns an extensive vinyl collection that he has purchased along his international travels. Besides working as a professional sound designer and DJ, Nick is a passionate advocate of social justice initiatives and works as a remote grant writer for non-profits. Nick finishes most days with a living room dance party with his son.