The practice
One senior adviser across the work boards most often need held together — engaged as counsel, as interim leadership, or as independent assurance. Each discipline is offered on its own or as part of a wider engagement.
Strategy is only as good as the change it produces. I help boards turn technology and business ambition into a defined target operating model and a delivery path that survives contact with reality — then lead or assure that change through to adoption.
When a programme is large, contested or in trouble, it needs senior grip. I provide it — mobilising new programmes, recovering ones that have drifted, and installing the portfolio and PMO discipline that keeps a leadership team honest about where delivery actually stands.
Boards carry the accountability; they deserve to see the true position. I design proportionate governance, sharpen risk and controls, and provide the independent assurance that lets directors take — and defend — difficult decisions under pressure.
Between strategy and delivery sits the hard work of choices: what to do, in what order, and how to fund and measure it. I help boards and executives frame the options, build defensible business cases, and translate intent into operating decisions that hold.
Engagement
The need sets the shape — a few days of counsel, a fixed-term interim role, or an independent review. Engagements are scoped to the decision in front of you.
A trusted adviser to the chair, board or executive — a sounding board, critical friend and independent voice on the decisions that carry the most weight.
Hands-on senior delivery — programme director, interim SRO or portfolio lead — owning the outcome through a defined, intensive period of change.
An objective read on whether a programme, business case or governance position will stand up — to the board, the regulator and the audit.
Pro-bono & trusteeship
Sound governance shouldn’t be the preserve of those who can pay for it. Alongside client work, Tom takes on charity trustee roles and gives a share of his time pro-bono — bringing governance, programme and digital expertise to charities, social enterprises and community organisations that rarely have it in the room.
This has included board-level trusteeship and governance support, and pro-bono website and digital delivery for not-for-profits in Northern Ireland.
Contact
Tell me where the line needs holding — a transformation, a programme, a governance question, or a board that simply needs an independent, senior view.