Hire Board Advisor — independent counsel for the board

A NED has legal duties, votes, and liability; an advisor has none of these — which allows more frequent, more candid, and more flexible engagement. Advisors complement a board's formal structure; they do not replace its legal responsibilities.

Yes — board packs, strategy documents, and executive sessions as agreed. This requires explicit confidentiality undertakings, which are put in place before any material is shared. Trust is contractual as well as personal.

Typically around board cycles: pre-read review, session attendance, and follow-up — plus availability to the chair between meetings. The cadence follows your governance rhythm rather than imposing a new one.

With clear boundaries, yes — and it often strengthens both roles. What is said in CEO counsel stays there unless the CEO chooses to bring it to the board; the separation is explicit and respected.

A fraction of a NED's total package, structured as a retainer — reflecting that the commitment is counsel, not governance liability. The value case is straightforward: one avoided mistake pays for years of counsel.

For an ongoing board advisory mandate I work on a fixed quarterly or annual retainer tied to the number of board and committee sessions, plus agreed availability to the chair and CEO between them. That keeps the incentive on judgement rather than clocked hours. When a board only needs me for a specific decision, such as technology diligence, a CTO succession, or a post-incident review, I scope that as a defined piece of work instead. Tell me what you need and I will propose the structure that fits.

I can usually attend your next scheduled board meeting if the papers reach me about a week beforehand. The sensible first step is a short mandate conversation, then one immersion fortnight where I read recent minutes, the risk register, and the current strategy and technology plans, and meet the chair, CEO, and CTO. If a decision is imminent, a fundraise, an incident, or a major contract, I can compress that and come in for the specific question first, then settle into the ongoing rhythm.

Most run on an annual mandate reviewed each year, which suits the governance cadence of a board. Either side can end it with reasonable notice; I would never want a chair keeping an advisor on out of inertia, and independence means being willing to walk if my counsel is routinely ignored. Shorter engagements are fine when the need is a single event, such as a diligence process or a succession. I will tell you honestly at the first review whether the seat is still earning its place.

It is the opposite of a conflict, as long as the roles stay separate. When you hire a board advisor you are hiring my independence, so I will not also run your technology function or take equity that gives me a management stake, because that would compromise the challenge you are paying for. The fractional CTO experience is precisely what lets me read an engineering organisation quickly from the board seat. For any one client I do one role or the other, never both at the same time.

Yes. I am based in Dubai and regularly work with boards across the UAE, UK, US, Canada, Pakistan, and Malaysia, so scheduling around time zones is routine. I read board packs and send written memos asynchronously, which means the real work does not depend on everyone being awake at once, and I join sessions by video or in person where it matters, typically the strategy offsite, a crisis, or the annual review. Most boards find a hybrid rhythm works better than insisting on a seat in the room every time.

A consultancy is hired by management to deliver a project, and it tends to tell the people paying the invoice what advances that project. When you hire a board advisor you get someone accountable to the board, with no deliverable to protect and no team to keep billing. I sit on your side of the table, carry the institutional memory between meetings, and give one considered view rather than a deck assembled by juniors. For specific build work a consultancy may still be right, but not for independent oversight of it.