Fractional & Interim Operations Leadership
Senior operational capability, sized to what you actually need.
The two shapes this takes
Fractional — one to three days a week, ongoing
I hold the Operations Director function on a part-time basis. You get a senior operator in the room for board meetings, someone who owns the risk register rather than chasing it, and steady progress on the structural work that never quite reaches the top of the CEO’s list.
Best when you’re too big to run on goodwill and spreadsheets, and too small to fund a full-time director. Typically three to twelve months, often longer.
Interim — full-time cover, fixed term
I step into the role and hold it. Growth, restructure, a departure, an incident, a funder asking for assurance you can’t currently give. Whatever the trigger, the job gets done properly while you resolve the underlying situation.
Best when there’s a gap that can’t sit empty, or a change programme that needs a dedicated pair of hands. Typically six to twelve months.
How an engagement usually starts
The first few weeks are mostly listening. I sit with the work as it’s actually done, talk to people at every level, and get a clear picture of where the effort is going and where it’s being lost. People are generally relieved to be asked, and it’s usually where the most useful information comes from.
Out of that comes a short, honest assessment and a prioritised plan we agree together. I’ll bring a strong view – that’s what you’re paying for – but it’s a proposal, not a verdict, and it improves every time someone in your team pushes back on it.
Then we get on with it, and I stay to lead it through rather than handing you a document and leaving.
What I take on
Operations
Delivery systems, process design, supplier and partner management, operational planning, business systems, and the unglamorous work of making an organisation run predictably.
Governance and compliance
Board reporting that’s genuinely useful. Policy frameworks that get used rather than filed. Legal and regulatory oversight. Charitable purpose alignment. Funder and accreditation readiness.
Risk
Risk identification, assessment and oversight built on ISO 31000, proportionate to your organisation rather than copied from a template. Crisis and incident planning, escalation routes, and the pre-agreed decisions that stop good people improvising badly under pressure.
Safeguarding and duty of care
Frameworks that hold up to scrutiny, including for remote, international and high-risk delivery. Participant, staff and volunteer welfare. Reporting and response routes people will actually use, because they trust them.
People and culture
Recruitment and onboarding, HR structure, performance and development, wellbeing and mental health provision. Building high-trust teams at pace, and developing the people already in them.
Reporting
Straight into the CEO and board, in language a trustee can act on.
What I bring to it
Twenty years of operational leadership, most of it in places where the plan had to survive contact with reality.
- Five years as Operations Director for a specialist risk-management business delivering high-risk expeditions and TV productions in remote locations worldwide, acting as Chief of Staff to the Managing Director
- General Manager turnaround for a global expedition start-up, covering governance, compliance, legal and financial oversight across international operations
- Eleven years as an RAF Logistics Officer, leading and training teams from four to forty-plus in complex operational environments, with a commendation from the Air Officer Commanding
- Live emergency response practice as an on-call firefighter, plus wilderness emergency medical and immediate care qualifications, so the crisis-leadership side of this isn’t theoretical
- A developmental habit. I’d rather grow the capability that’s already in your team than create a dependency on me. The best outcome is systems and people that keep working long after the engagement ends.
Practicalities
- Guide day rate: from £800, scoped to engagement length and complexity
- Cadence: one to three days a week for fractional; full-time for interim
- Duration: three to twelve months typically for fractional, six to twelve for interim
- Location: based in Bath, working UK-wide and internationally. Remote, hybrid or on-site
- Availability: currently taking on new engagements