CEO and board AI advisory · $20–250M companies
AI strategy from someone who has run a company, and answered for it in the boardroom.
I help mid-market CEOs and their boards build AI strategy without the hype. Not an implementation firm. Not a vendor. A former CEO who can help you decide what is worth doing and what is not.
The problem
Your AI vendor has a product to sell. Your consultants have an implementation to bill. Who is telling you the truth?
Mid-market CEOs are caught between two bad options: the AI vendor who will sell a deployment whether or not it fits, and the strategy firm that builds a roadmap and hands it to an implementation team that bills for it. Neither has usually run a company, owned a technology decision that blew up a quarter, or walked away from an AI initiative because the economics did not work.
The question I help CEOs answer is not “how do we implement AI?” It is the harder one before that: should we, where, and what does it actually change about our competitive position? The answer is usually specific, bounded, and means saying no to several things your team is excited about.
What I do
Strategic clarity. Not another technology project.
Strategic sessions
Working sessions on the AI decisions you are actually facing: vendor proposals, team recommendations, competitive moves, and the questions your board is asking. I bring a prepared analysis each time.
Board education
A structured working session for directors: how AI creates and destroys value, what the board’s oversight role should be, and the questions to put to management. Not a keynote.
Board preparation
Independent review of management’s AI proposals, with a risk view ahead of relevant votes or capital allocations, presented to the board where that helps.
Bounded project work
Discrete questions answered with evidence: an AI opportunity assessment with an ROI model, a vendor evaluation, or an AI hiring strategy. Scoped and agreed separately.
How it starts
A paid workshop first. Advisory only if it fits.
A paid, board-level working session that comes before any retainer: an AI readiness view of the business, a prioritised roadmap, and a risk register framed against the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
AI strategy workshop
$5,000–12,000
Fixed fee, agreed before the workshop.
Then, if we continue
Scoped after the workshop
Monthly advisory after a workshop, scoped to the decisions in front of you. Agreed in writing and subject to capacity.
What makes it different
The advisor who will tell you when not to use AI.
- 01
Operator to operator
I have been the CEO answering to a board. That changes the advice: it is built for the person who owns the outcome.
- 02
Tested, not assumed
When I say your data cannot support a proposal, I have looked at the data. I test what a research lab can test, and I tell you plainly what it cannot.
- 03
I’ll tell you when not to use AI
For many companies, the most valuable conversation is about where AI will not change the business. It saves more money than any deployment I could recommend.
Who this is for
You’ve built something that works. Now AI is on the table and you’re not sure what’s real.
- Profile
- A $20–250M revenue business with a proven model, where AI is a growth opportunity, a competitive threat, or both, and no one has had time to work out which. Larger companies are considered by arrangement.
- Mindset
- Skeptical but not dismissive. You have sat through enough vendor pitches to know most are oversold, and you want a straight read.
- What you need
- Strategic judgment rather than implementation. You have or can hire the people who execute. You need someone to evaluate AI with the rigour you would apply to a capital allocation decision.
- Typical sectors
- Healthcare
- Manufacturing
- Logistics
- Professional services
- Regional financial services
- Technology
Capacity
A small number of clients, by design.
I work with a small number of clients at a time. That is a deliberate constraint: if I advise more companies than I can track properly, the quality drops. Availability is confirmed after a fit conversation and a conflict check.
Is this a fractional chief AI officer?
No. It is outside strategic counsel. I do not take an operating role, sell implementation, or promise full-time availability.
Why a workshop before a retainer?
It lets us test the fit on a bounded piece of work and gives you a roadmap and risk register whether or not we continue.
Do you advise on a sale process?
I do not act as an investment banker, run a sale process, value the business, or negotiate. I can prepare a company to go to market by assessing its AI and technology readiness. See the diligence page.