Interim MD and Fractional CPTO/CPO/CTO for telco turnarounds, scale-ups, and PE-backed portfolios. 23+ years converting telco complexity into commercial results - from founding-team startup to part of the team through two acquisitions.
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Two examples from different stages of my career - demonstrating I can parachute in and deliver, or build something from scratch over time.
6 Months | Interim MD
Took over as MD of a struggling IoT connectivity platform. Platform was missing SLAs, customer relationship was fractured, and contract renewal was at risk.
9 Years | Board Director
Joined as employee #2 at a telco clearing startup. Built the engineering function, product suite, and commercial capability from a blank sheet.
Experience delivering for
30-minute conversation to understand your situation. No pitch - just honest questions about what's working, what isn't, and what success would look like.
A structured assessment of your technology, team, and commercial position. Stakeholder interviews, system architecture review, delivery pipeline audit. You get a written report with prioritised recommendations - whether or not we work together after that.
In the first 2–4 weeks I'm looking for the things that are causing disproportionate pain. Usually it's process gaps, communication breakdowns, or decisions that nobody has been empowered to make.
Weekly stakeholder updates, clear milestones, measurable outcomes. I work in the open - no mystery about what's happening or why.
Platform in crisis. Customer relationship damaged. Contract at risk. Team underperforming.
Product-market fit achieved. Now need experienced leadership to scale team, process, and commercial.
Investor-backed telco software company needs operating expertise or due diligence support.
MD, CTO, CPO or CTPO on an interim or fractional basis. Hands-on leadership for turnarounds, scale-ups, or bridge periods. Full P&L capability.
IT due diligence for PE/VC investments. Technology strategy and roadmap development. AI readiness assessment. Market positioning for telecoms and connectivity businesses.
Not sure what you need yet? Start here. From £3,000 delivering a focused assessment of your technology, team, and commercial position. You get a written report with prioritised recommendations and a clear picture of what's working, what isn't, and what to do about it. No obligation to engage further.
For the right long-term fit, fractional engagements can evolve into embedded senior roles.
I've lived the full company lifecycle. Early in my career at United Clearing, I was part of the team through two acquisitions (United Clearing → BSG → Syniverse) - giving me first-hand experience of what acquirers look for in technology assets and how to prepare for due diligence.
At Nextgen, I joined as employee #2 and helped scale it from 3 to 200+ staff across multiple countries. Built the Mobile Roaming Financial Clearing and IoT Discount Management platforms from a blank sheet. Central to securing Tier-1 MNO clients globally.
Most recently as Managing Director of Nextgen SIMplify, I had full P&L ownership, defined the 3-year strategy, and integrated AI-driven analytics with eSIM/5G-SA support. I present quarterly to boards and work fluently with investor-style forecasting and governance.
I also spent 4 years on MoD contracts (SC Cleared), building Oracle APEX systems for defence - giving me deep understanding of government hosting, engineering standards, and orchestration requirements.
Most telco AI initiatives stall in the same places: poor data quality from decades of legacy BSS/OSS, integration complexity that vendors downplay, and a gap between impressive PoC demos and production systems that actually handle edge cases at scale. I've seen this first-hand - and it's what I build around.
Building and deploying agentic AI prototypes for telco use cases - billing dispute resolution, customer journey automation, call centre triage. The hard part isn't the LLM. It's the system integration, the error handling, and earning trust from operations teams who've been burned by automation before.
AI systems that provide auditable, explainable recommendations for complex commercial decisions - traffic steering, pricing optimisation, risk assessment. In regulated telco environments, a black-box recommendation is worse than no recommendation at all.
Architected real-time analytics (Apache Pinot, Superset) powering automated billing reconciliation for 300K+ managed SIMs. Getting value from AI starts with getting your data house in order - most operators aren't there yet.
Led architecture of an IoT CMP with full programmatic control. Without clean APIs, you can't integrate AI/ML into operations - you just end up with another dashboard nobody looks at.
The best conversations start with context. Drop me a line and tell me what you're dealing with - a platform that's struggling, a team that needs leadership, a technology asset you're evaluating, or something else entirely. No pitch, no pressure. If I can help, I'll tell you how. If I can't, I'll tell you that too.
I operate through Stratus Systems Ltd, a UK limited company. Professional indemnity and public liability insurance in place. I work with a trusted network of specialist associates when engagements require it.