Cytochrome P450s and Galactose Oxidases exploit redox active ligands to form reactive high valent intermediates for oxidation reactions. This strategy works well the late 3d metals where accessing states is rather challenging. Herein, we report of NiII(salen) (salen=N,N′-bis(3,5-di-tert-butyl-salicylidene)-1,2-cyclohexane-(1R,2R)-diamine) with mCPBA (meta-chloroperoxybenzoic acid) a fleeting Ni...