Built on practice, not on theory
I spent much of my early career as a systems engineer in financial services. Over the next twenty years I built digital and technology capability inside some of the most complex public sector institutions in the UK, working alongside boards through post merger integration, periods of rapid scale, and the decisions that ultimately define what an organisation is capable of. That range, from hands on technical work to executive advisory, is where I do my best thinking.
I know what it looks like when a board has been told what it wants to hear. I can usually see when a technology programme is about to go wrong, often before the people running it do. I have watched institutional memory leave with someone's notice letter. I have seen operating models buckle under growth, and senior leaders left carrying accountability for technical decisions they were never given the information to make. These patterns repeat. Recognising them early is most of what I bring.
I write about the things I keep turning over: what AI actually requires of organisations, how power and trust operate inside human systems, why institutional memory matters more than most leaders admit, and what it looks like to lead quietly but decisively. Not as someone with fixed answers, but as someone testing ideas against real work and refining them as I go.
I cofounded Brainwave Labs to deliver the broader digital and technology work that organisations need but often struggle to commission well. From that, we created LEAP to address a specific gap we kept seeing: most capability programmes produce certificates, not confidence. At the senior advisory level, I work as an individual rather than through a firm. The work is shaped entirely by what each situation actually demands.