Nicholas Latifi
- Programme: MBA
- Nationality: Canadian
- Job Pre-programme: Driver, Williams Racing
- Job Post-programme: Co-Founder, Leve Agave Spirit
Nicholas dedicated his teens and much of his twenties to his career as a racecar driver, eventually reaching the summit of the sport: Formula One. After three years at the top of his game with Williams Racing, Nicholas reinvented his career at London Business School, founding an innovative spirits brand, Leve, alongside two of his peers. Read on to find more about how the MBA helped this confident founder to shift gears and speed out of his comfort zone.
What did your career journey look like before business school?
As a former professional racecar driver, I’d say I had a fairly unconventional path into an MBA. I started karting at 13 in Canada and quickly became completely immersed in the sport. It was all I thought about throughout my teenage years! What began as a passion gradually turned into a career, as I worked my way up through the ranks from Formula Three to Formula Two, and ultimately to Formula One, the pinnacle of motor racing.
I spent three seasons with Williams Racing, which was the realisation of a lifelong dream. For a long time, racing was all-consuming. I even completed the final year and a half of high school online, as I had already begun travelling extensively across Europe to compete.
“The biggest opportunity, and probably the biggest surprise, was meeting my co-founders and developing what has now become our business.”
What first sparked your interest in the MBA programme?
Even while I was racing, I always had an interest in business, largely inspired by my dad, who’s been building a very successful food manufacturing company over the past 30 years. When I parted ways with Williams in 2022, I was faced with a major decision, and that’s when I started thinking more seriously about what might come next.
I began researching different study options, particularly as someone without an undergraduate degree or traditional work experience. I spoke to a number of people and looked into different programmes, but London Business School stood out as the strongest fit. It offered the opportunity to build a solid grounding in business fundamentals, while also being open to candidates from non-traditional backgrounds like mine.
I also saw the MBA as a transition period. It gave me the time and space to step back, explore different paths, and figure out what I wanted to do next.
How did your London Business School experience shape what you’re working on today?
The biggest opportunity, and probably the biggest surprise, was meeting my co-founders and developing what has now become our business. It all started through an entrepreneurship course at the School, New Venture Development, taught by Rupert Merson.
The product is a mid-strength agave spirit produced in Jalisco, Mexico. It came from our shared preference for tequila and the flavour of agave, but wanting something lighter. There has been a significant rise in non-alcoholic options in recent years, but we felt there wasn’t an authentic, premium product that sat in between. That’s the space we’re trying to occupy, by both disrupting an existing category and building a new one at the same time.
What began as a class project quickly became something we took very seriously. We put a lot of effort into it, received strong feedback, and decided to pursue it after graduating in 2025. Today, the product is available online and stocked in a number of bars and restaurants across London.
How has the London Business School network influenced your career journey since graduating?
Something that stood out very quickly was how willing alumni are to help. Whether from my year, my cohort, or the wider community, there’s a genuine openness. I’ve experienced that in very practical ways, from people making introductions to venues for us, to others taking the time to give honest, constructive feedback on our product.
Across hospitality, consumer goods, and even people who have worked directly in spirits, there are so many alumni with relevant experience who have been generous with their time and insights. It really is an incredibly diverse and international network, and one that’s been invaluable as we’ve started building the business.
“I’m now much more confident with big transitions or making decisions as I go, even when I don’t have all the information or a clearly defined path.”
What’s your favourite memory from your time at LBS?
It’s very difficult to narrow it down to just one. The two years were filled with so many new experiences, not least because it was my first time in a university environment.
As a racing driver, you sacrifice a lot of your social life from a young age, so that sense of community was something I hadn’t really experienced before. Being part of a programme where the social side is such an important element turned out to be more meaningful than I had expected. I formed a number of close friendships and relationships that have lasted well beyond the programme.
And of course, London itself becomes part of that experience. Having the city as your campus was pretty unique!
What are your aspirations for the future, and how did London Business School help set you up for them?
My main focus right now is on building Leve into something meaningful and long-lasting. Over the longer term, I’m not ruling out getting involved in my family business. One of my priorities during the MBA was developing a strong foundation in core business fundamentals, particularly finance as I was starting from scratch in that area. It felt like an essential building block for running any business, which is why I chose many of my electives with that focus in mind.
Alongside academics, it’s really the broader experience that has made the difference. I’m now much more confident with big transitions or making decisions as I go, even when I don’t have all the information or a clearly defined path, rather than waiting for everything to feel perfectly in place. It’s made me more comfortable with uncertainty, which is a big part of building something from the ground up.
If you had to describe your overall London Business School experience in three words, what would they be?
Diverse. Rewarding. Transformative.
Diverse, because of the people. It’s not just how international the cohort is, but the range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives that come with it.
Rewarding, because it pushed me outside of my comfort zone. At the start, I definitely felt some imposter syndrome coming from a non-traditional background, but working through that and becoming comfortable in the environment was a big part of the experience, and ultimately helped me step into entrepreneurship more confidently.
And transformative, because it marked a real shift in both my life and my career. Racing was a very structured, performance-driven environment, whereas what I’m doing now is far less defined. London Business School helped me become more comfortable with testing, learning and adapting, and with operating without a set roadmap, which has been essential in building a startup.
