What I bring
Independent scrutiny grounded in engineering practice, AI ethics research, international standards, and experience explaining difficult trade-offs to technical and non-technical decision-makers.
Board and advisory work
AI advisory boards and Non-Executive Director roles
I take selected Non-Executive Director (NED) and Advisory Board roles where advanced AI creates material strategic, ethical, safety, or governance questions. I help boards see around corners, challenge assumptions constructively, and turn responsible intent into decisions that can survive contact with reality.
Where I fit
Technology companies, regulated organisations, public-interest institutions, investors, and mission-led ventures whose use of AI has consequences beyond a single product team.
How I work
With candour, curiosity, and a bias towards usable governance. The goal is a board that can ask better questions, recognise weak signals, and make clear decisions under uncertainty.
Board value
From broad principles to board-level grip
Strategic foresight
Map how agentic AI, autonomy, synthetic media, machine welfare, and emerging regulation may alter the organisation’s opportunities, dependencies, and risk envelope.
Governance architecture
Clarify accountability, escalation routes, decision rights, assurance evidence, and the conditions under which a system should pause or stop.
Constructive challenge
Interrogate optimistic assumptions without smothering useful innovation. Surface the questions that can disappear between model teams, executives, legal counsel, and the board.
Trust and legitimacy
Help organisations earn confidence through intelligible commitments, measurable safeguards, and honest communication about uncertainty.
Relevant foundations
Experience that crosses the technical and human boundary
My work spans hands-on machine learning engineering, authorship of Taming the Machine and Safer Agentic AI, leadership in international AI standards, and research into AI governance, agentic AI safety, machine welfare, and bilateral alignment. I am President of the European Responsible AI Office and chair IEEE standards work on transparency, responsible AI practice, and the behaviour of autonomous systems.
Engagement formats
- Non-Executive Director: formal governance, fiduciary oversight, committee work, and sustained independent challenge.
- Advisory Board Member: recurring strategic counsel without a statutory board appointment.
- Board adviser: focused support through a transition, investment, policy decision, or AI governance programme.
- Board and executive briefings: concentrated sessions that build shared understanding before an important decision.