I'm using Microsoft code to create a new Organisation in the User Profile Server, as per <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms545122.aspx>. 

Every time I call **CreateOrganizationProfile** I get the following:

```
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.OrganizationProfile.set_Parent(ProfileBase value)

```

The exact code I'm using is: 

```
    [WebMethod]
    public void CreateOrganisation(string OrganisationName)
    {
       SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
       {
            using (SPSite site = new SPSite(_serverName))
            {
                // Removing this will cause the error "Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object".
                HttpContext.Current = null;

                SPServiceContext context = SPServiceContext.GetContext(site);

                ProfileSubtypeManager psm = ProfileSubtypeManager.Get(context);

                // choose default organization profile subtype as the subtype
                string subtypeName = ProfileSubtypeManager.GetDefaultProfileName(ProfileType.Organization);
                ProfileSubtype subType = psm.GetProfileSubtype(subtypeName);

                OrganizationProfileManager opm = new OrganizationProfileManager(context);

                // choose Root Organization as the parent
                OrganizationProfile parentOrg = opm.RootOrganization;

                // create an organization profile and set its display name
                OrganizationProfile profile = opm.CreateOrganizationProfile(subType, parentOrg);
                profile.DisplayName = "Test Org1";

                // commit to save changes
                profile.Commit();

            }
        });

        return;
    }

```

Curiously, somebody else ran into the exact problem here <http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010programming/thread/7b5101fd-0ea6-4716-82b1-ac4609b9973c/>, but it was never resolved.

I've confirmed the User Profile Service is running and responding. Also, parentOrg and subtypeName are not null when calling CreateOrganizationProfile.

Does anybody have anything I can try, or can anybody spot what might be the problem? 

Very grateful!