Advisory

Executive operating leadership, without a permanent appointment.

Executive and non-executive leadership, bought for a defined piece of work rather than a permanent seat. In the executive form, that is a fractional or interim chief operating or technology officer, a transformation office, or the operational side of a transaction. In the non-executive form, it is a board seat, or the reporting and early warning a board needs to act on. We enter with a named outcome, a measurement period and an agreed hand-back point.

Advisory and board services

How a mandate works

What gets measured

A mandate begins with the business outcome, not a list of activities.

01A named outcome

What the mandate is for, agreed in writing at the start.

02A baseline

Set before anything changes, so improvement can be attributed rather than asserted.

03An attribution method

How we show which intervention moved which number.

04A measurement period

How long the result is tracked, including after the hand-back.

How we engage

We are here to leave management stronger, not to become permanently embedded.

01Advise

Frame the decision and what it means operationally.

02Mobilise

Establish the team, the plan, the governance and the measures.

03Operate

Take direct responsibility for execution where the mandate requires it.

04Transfer

Hand back to management with the capability, controls and evidence in place.

Fractional and interim CxO

Senior accountability in the seat, for a defined outcome and an agreed period.

Roles we take6

Fractional or interim Chief Operating Officer
Fractional or interim Chief Technology Officer
Chief Transformation Officer mandates
Operating partner alongside management
Transformation office and programme recovery
A defined outcome, a measurement period and a hand-back

Turnaround and stabilisation6

Turnaround and stabilisation under lender or board pressure
Liquidity protection and operating control
Regulated operating remediation and supervisory engagement
Consent order and enforcement remediation, including regulator engagement
Control environment design and assurance
Risk taxonomy and first and second line separation

Transformation and programme delivery

A transformation office, honest status reporting, and recovery where a programme is already in trouble.

Operating model and decision rights5

Operating model reset and decision rights
Organisational design, spans and layers
Management cadence, KPI architecture and board reporting
Change portfolio intake, prioritisation and stage gates
Benefits realisation and delivery assurance

Shared services and offshoring6

Shared services consolidation and migration
Global capability centre design, build and transfer
Sourcing strategy and location economics
Outsourcing, insourcing and vendor transition
Works councils, employee consultation and transfer obligations
Retention and knowledge transfer through a move

Programme delivery and recovery5

Programme and delivery leadership for replacements that have to work
Stage gates, assurance and honest status reporting
Recovery of a programme that is already in trouble
Data migration, cutover and parallel running
Adoption: training, support and making people use it

Rolling out what works4

Enterprise replication and operating standards
Common platform rollout
Post-merger standardisation
Multi-site and multi-country rollout

Capability centres and migration6

Shared operating model and services
Global capability centre design, build, expansion and site selection
Service migration, knowledge transfer and run-book handover
Capability transfer and training
Sourcing strategy and location economics
Works councils, consultation and transfer obligations through a move

Technology, data and AI

The estate, the platforms, the automation and the decision systems that sit under all of it.

Technology cost and technical debt7

Technology baseline, cost and risk review
Technical debt assessment and remediation plan
Technology cost reduction without weakening control
Enterprise architecture and platform standardisation
Migration and legacy retirement, with the old system switched off
Vendor and licence management: contracts, renewals and what is paid for but not used
Supplier consolidation across the technology estate

Core platform replacement and integration6

Core platform and ERP replacement
Data foundation, integration and management information
Acquisition integration and platform consolidation
Separation and standalone technology build
Application and data migration, including what is left behind
Integration and interface architecture across a fragmented estate

Security and operational resilience4

Identity and access management
Security operations and vulnerability management
Incident response, forensics and recovery testing
Data residency, sovereignty and retention

Automation business cases6

Automation opportunity map
AI workflow redesign
Industrial automation business case
Vendor and integrator governance
Independent review of a business case already written
Technology selection independent of any vendor relationship

Robotics and industrial automation5

Robotics, cobots and production line automation
Machine vision and quality automation
Intralogistics and warehouse automation
Deployment, ramp and multi-site replication
Integration with existing systems, so the line reports itself

Field force and infrastructure rollout4

National field force and installation programmes
Metering, device and asset rollout at scale
Engineer scheduling, routing and productivity
Depot, stock and spares operations

Forecasting and decision systems7

Executive decision support and forecast architecture
Scenario planning and stress testing
Management information and board decision support
Demand, supply and inventory planning
Predictive and condition-based maintenance
Customer, churn and lifetime value analytics
Pricing and margin analytics

Data ownership and master data4

Data ownership, with a name against each domain
Reconciliation across finance, sales and operations
Master data: customers, products, suppliers and sites
Integration, so the forecast is not rebuilt by hand each cycle

Risk, resilience and regulatory

Remediation under scrutiny, and the control environment that keeps it fixed.

AI and automation governance4

Responsible AI controls, model governance and human review
EU AI Act and operational resilience obligations
Workforce impact, redeployment and skills planning
Model oversight where automation affects customers, pricing or employment

Model risk and validation7

Model development and validation gates
Back-testing, out-of-sample discipline and challenge
Statistical governance and evidence standards
Data quality controls in model pipelines
Model risk and independent challenge
Algorithmic trading and pricing model oversight
What happens when a model is wrong: escalation and human override

Early warning and risk intelligence4

Emerging risk and threat monitoring feeding executive decisions
Machine learning applied to market, credit and fraud signals
Concentration and thematic risk across suppliers and counterparties
Portfolio review discipline: watch, worry and monitor

Commercial and cash performance

Price, margin, customers and cash, across a cost base of scale without breaking service.

Pricing, margin and customers4

Pricing and margin management
Customer profitability and segmentation
Sales productivity and revenue operations
Retention and account development

Working capital and procurement4

Procurement and third-party cost
Working capital and cash conversion
Cost to serve and network design
Technology cost reduction

Management information and reporting5

Management information and KPI architecture
Budgeting, forecasting and financial close acceleration
Board and lender reporting
Benefits realisation and benefit tracking
Attribution: proving which intervention moved which number

Payments and service operations4

Payment operations, card data security and resilience
Contact centre and service operations economics
Cost to serve and cost per contact
Product and new-product approval cycle time

M&A execution

The operational and technology side of a transaction. We are not a broker and we do not run auctions.

Diligence and target operating model4

Operational and technology due diligence
Target operating model for the combined business
Integration and separation cost and risk assessment
Independent review of a plan the buyer has already written

Day One and integration4

Day One readiness and cutover
Merger integration across systems, data and processes
Synergy delivery and benefit tracking
Bolt-on integration onto a platform

Carve-out and separation5

Carve-out execution and standalone build
Transition service agreement design, pricing and exit
Data separation, ring-fencing and supplier separation
People and operating-model transition
Stranded cost removal

Regulated and cross-border deals7

Licence continuity and regulatory approvals through a change of control
Market entry: translating sovereign and localisation requirements into licensing, authorisation and market access
Technology, operations and risk build-out for a newly licensed entity, from a standing start
Regulated platform detachment, where a business leaves a group’s infrastructure
Data residency, sovereign data and in-country hosting obligations
Competitor data segregation and ring-fencing under competition commitments
Supervisory engagement through a transaction

Exit readiness and vendor diligence5

Vendor diligence support and exit readiness
Operating narrative evidenced by measured outcomes
Preparing the data room and the operating evidence pack
Independent challenge to the equity story before a buyer tests it
Separation readiness where part of the business is being sold

Independent challenge for buyers5

Operational and commercial diligence
Technology and AI diligence
Management and capability review
Carve-out feasibility and standalone cost modelling
Independent challenge to a plan the buyer has already written

Value creation planning4

Full-potential assessment
Value-creation plan and initiative registry
Day One readiness and cutover planning
Integration cost, risk and timeline assessment

International operations5

International network and service operations
Service management, incident and problem discipline
Capacity, performance and availability management
Market entry and regulatory readiness
Data residency and sovereign requirements by market

Non-executive director

A seat at the table, with the statutory duty that comes with it. This is the one part of the firm held by a person rather than delivered by the firm.

Appointments we take5

Non-executive director appointments
Subsidiary and joint venture board oversight
Risk committee membership or chairmanship
Audit committee engagement
Advisory board seats for private-equity-backed and founder-led businesses

What the seat covers5

Technology, data and AI oversight at board level
Operational resilience and third-party risk oversight
Capital, scaling and key appointments
Accounts, related-party arrangements and regulatory filings
Board effectiveness and the quality of what the board is given

Two things worth stating plainly. Where a company is regulated, a non-executive appointment usually requires regulatory approval, which is a personal process rather than a firm one. And board appointments are taken selectively and in small number, because the seat is only worth holding if there is time to do it properly.

Board intelligence

What the board is told, how often and whether it can act on it. Delivered by the firm, and available whether or not there is a seat.

Reporting a board can act on5

Reporting built around decisions rather than around available data
One version of the numbers, reconciled across finance, sales and operations
Scenarios and sensitivity, so a board can see the downside
Attribution: which intervention moved which number
Papers a board can read in the time it has

Emerging risk and early warning4

Emerging risk and threat monitoring feeding board decisions
Machine learning applied to market, credit and fraud signals
Concentration and thematic risk across suppliers and counterparties
Portfolio review discipline: watch, worry and monitor

Independent challenge before a decision4

Challenge to a plan before the decision, not after it
Model risk and the evidence behind a forecast
Assurance that the control environment does what it claims
A second opinion on a transaction, a programme or a technology case

Examples of experience behind the mandate side

Enterprise operating, technology, risk and transaction leadership across 60+ markets, including M&A and divestiture workstreams approaching $80bn, in earlier roles and businesses. Open an industry to see what that meant in practice.

Global insurance9$275bn revenue, 185 million customer relationships, 30+ countries

Drove the technology, operations and risk workstreams on mergers, acquisitions and divestitures approaching $80bn, from integration and transition services to sovereign data requirements
Integrated technology and risk across a $67bn acquisition serving 80 million members, ring-fencing competitor data to meet the deal’s competition commitments
Separated $6.3bn and $5.36bn businesses across six Asia-Pacific markets, standing each up on its own systems and exiting transitional services three months early
Built global capability centres in India, Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong, moving 1,200 roles, cutting run costs 21% and accelerating digital product time to market 11%
Rebuilt the claims, customer operations and service platform for 1.1 million customers in India, switching off the old platform within the regulator’s cost limits in a business growing 28% a year
Delivered the technology, operations and risk readiness that met Saudi Arabia’s regulatory and localisation requirements, taking the business in as the first international insurer licensed to operate there through a branch
Scaled an API-first platform to 250,000 customers across Asia, the Gulf and 16 African markets, keeping local market costs low and opening a new stream of claims processing fee income
Set AI and cloud governance across 30+ markets as Chair of the Ethical AI and Cloud Centres of Excellence, covering data residency, cybersecurity, model and third-party risk ahead of the EU AI Act and DORA
Governed technology risk across joint ventures in nine countries, and held a statutory board seat at a data and AI centre of excellence, setting control standards and challenging risk and capital allocation through rapid growth

Investment and wholesale banking10$50bn+ revenue, 40 million customers, 60+ countries

Restructured 1,100 roles into a Basel-aligned three lines of defence model, separating first-line control ownership from second-line oversight and cutting headcount 29%
Directed the operational and technology risk taxonomy across 60 markets under a consent order, working with regulators and executive committees to cut risk exposure 17%
Advised board risk and audit committees globally, cutting high-risk exposure 26% and audit findings 15%
Automated production controls and assurance across more than 50 tier one suppliers, exposing thematic and concentration risk and cutting run costs 35%
Halved the new product approval cycle from twelve weeks to six by building compliance and architecture standards into product control
Cut technology control costs 22% across banking and capital markets by consolidating control functions into a shared, standards-led service hub
Sustained 98% uptime across fixed income trading platforms and cut priority one incidents 31%
Led the remediation programme under supervisory oversight, applying the central bank’s testing framework across the investment bank and engaging regulators in the US, Hong Kong and Singapore
Built a machine-learning intelligence function that sharpened early warning on cyber, geopolitical and fraud threats, then extended the function from the investment bank across 30+ markets
Chaired credit committees governing wholesale lending under $20m delegated authority, supporting 4% business growth

Energy trading and utilities5$43bn revenue, 28 million customers, UK, Ireland and North America

Established an enterprise risk management framework giving the group a single view of risk, unlocking $15m of capital for reinvestment and cutting risk exposure 34%
Merged the trading, retail and wholesale technology and operations models into shared services, cutting expenditure 24%
Migrated mission-critical trading platforms to hybrid cloud, retiring $22m of legacy run costs
Protected £2bn of card payments by implementing the payment card security standard, sustaining £1.2bn of public sector contracts
Shaped the national smart metering security standards with the energy department, ahead of the national rollout

Consulting and professional services5$31bn revenue, 150+ countries

Built the firm’s technology risk function from inception to 150 staff on a $40m cost base
Directed client-facing technology, operations and risk transformation across investment banks, exchanges and industrials
Contributed 8 to 12% of annual consulting revenue through client engagements
Led post-merger rationalisation after a major acquisition, delivering a 14% cost efficiency gain
Advised on government and national infrastructure mandates, and delivered a national data protection programme across banking clients

Global telecommunications3$39bn revenue, 20 million customers, 65+ countries

Led network and application standardisation, acquisition integration and assurance across more than 65 countries
Cut costs 18% and increased network capacity 19% through the company’s most demanding period
Delivered lawful intercept capability and ran a threat intelligence exchange with government, within critical national infrastructure

Businesses owned and run by the principals

Food and drink manufacturing5UK, selling to supermarkets, retailers, wholesalers and direct to consumers online

Acquired an established food and drink manufacturer as owner and led its move to AI-enabled operations
Automated 80% of the production line with robotics and process automation, cutting costs 50% and accelerating time to market 30%
Rebuilt planning, finance and data with predictive intelligence, improving inventory planning precision by 90%
Drove e-commerce and digital growth, selling direct to consumers online alongside supermarkets, retailers and wholesalers
Set the AI strategy, operating model, governance and risk controls for the business

Convenience retail and hospitality525+ years of multi-site ownership across UK retail and hospitality

Acquired underperforming sites and converted them into stronger convenience formats, holding them for the long term
Rebuilt a former hardware shop as a full-format convenience store, traded it for 14 years and realised the value through a sale
Operated a multi-store portfolio under the UK’s leading symbol-group brands
Built long-standing commercial relationships with the country’s largest food, retail and wholesale suppliers
Founded and ran a 140-cover restaurant for 14 years, built from the ground up, directing fresh supply chains, kitchen operations and service standards

Wholesale, merchandising and production3Japan, Hong Kong, India, the UK, mainland Europe and the US

Built and ran a wholesale and distribution business end to end, owning the profit and loss, balance sheet, staff and premises
Produced branded merchandise and promotional goods in-house for customers including a luxury car maker, a global motor manufacturer, a luxury fashion house and a consumer electronics group
Sourced and imported luxury goods from Asia, running distribution and merchandising for customers

Foreign exchange trading and research3Proprietary trading, then independent research

Founded and ran a proprietary foreign exchange venture, owning portfolio strategy, risk, P&L and the balance sheet
Traded major currency pairs through periods of high market volatility, delivering 6% annual returns while managing liquidity and market exposure
Relaunched the name as an independent research programme applying statistical methods to forecasting

How a mandate is priced

Against a defined outcome and an agreed period, not by the hour.

01Fractional roles

A monthly fee for named days, so the business knows what it is getting and when.

02Interim roles

A day rate for a defined period, with an agreed end rather than an open-ended engagement.

03Programme mandates

A fixed fee against a stated scope, with a change process if the scope moves.

04Outcome-linked fees

Where a mandate has a measurable financial outcome, part of the fee can be tied to it, on a baseline and an attribution method agreed before the work starts.

Scope, fee and duration are agreed in writing before the work starts. Where the fee is linked to an outcome, so is the measurement.

Discuss an executive operating mandate