OUR FOUNDER
& CHIEF EXECUTIVETim Lai
Tim’s distinctive background and wide-ranging experience is the product of a career spanning defence, central government and private enterprise. At the coal face and in positions of oversight, he’s been involved in all the UK’s recent military campaigns, working with allies, shaping coalitions and operating at the most senior levels. His time in central Government coincided with BREXIT, COVID, the accelerated development of business technology and an imperative to evolve ways of working to be more effective more quickly.
Each of his varied roles has underlined for him the invariable importance of objective clarity, sound planning, empathetic cooperation, unity of effort and focused efficiency; also, of being alert to changing circumstances, steady under pressure, open-minded and adaptable.
Whether as the UK’s Attaché in Washington, the UN’s military advisor in Afghanistan, strategy director for a US combatant command and principal coordinator for their global military coalition to defeat ISIS, Deputy Commanding General of a warfighting corps, NED for a major brownfield land remediation project, CIO of a central government department or data transformation lead for one of Europe’s largest data controllers, his many experiences have honed his natural strategic, organisational and leadership instincts, which he uses to support private-sector clients in their quest for purpose, opportunity and method.
CLIENTS, PARTNERS, ASSOCIATES & FRIENDS
Tim was the UK’s Attaché to the United States in Washington DC, working with the Chief of Staff of the United States Army and the UK’s Chief of the General Staff to recalibrate cooperation in the light of changing circumstances and conclude an unprecedented bilateral agreement.
Tim’s political acumen and stakeholder management skills were essential to him as senior military advisor to the United Nations Special Representative in Afghanistan. He worked closely with the International Security Assistance Force commander, NATO’s senior civilian representative, Afghan government ministers and international community Ambassadors to cohere civil and military plans and activities in challenging circumstances.
Tim was appointed to coordinate the international military coalition against ISIS at a campaign level. He worked with senior national representatives and their governments, and with the US Departments of Defense and State, to align the disparate aims and objectives of coalition members in common cause, accommodate their political, diplomatic and capability constraints, negotiate and plan national contributions, and optimise the synchronised composition of a deployed force for tactical commanders to use on the ground.
As Deputy Commanding General of III (US) Corps, Tim helped resuscitate the support functions of this 100,000-strong warfighting formation when it reverted to large-scale armoured manoeuvre, following a decade of counter-insurgency operations. Under his leadership, soldier unavailability-for-deployment was reduced by over 5%, equivalent to an entire brigade, and equipment serviceability was restored to the exacting levels required in US Army units, of over 90% fully mission capable.
As a Non-Executive Director on the board of the South Tees Site Company, Tim brought external perspective and challenge, and personal experience of government procurement. STSC’s purpose was to keep safe the 2,500-acre brownfield site of SSI’s former works and decontaminate the land, as part of the UK’s largest regional redevelopment scheme – Teesworks.
Tim was Digital Data and Technology Director at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy soon after it was created by a reorganisation of the Machinery of Government. He faced all the hallmarks of a post-merger organisation in need of integration. He took charge of several major high-risk change programmes and steered them back on track, to provide the enabling digital capabilities for organisational transformation.
Tim’s appointment as HM Revenue & Custom’s data transformation director was the first time such a role had been positioned on the ‘business side’ of the organisation, rather than on the ‘technical side’, an acknowledgement that data is the lifeblood of a data-dependent organisation and that it took more than just the application of technology to become ‘data-driven’. The resulting strategy, roadmap and whole-of-business change implementation – which continues – reflected the pan-organisational buy-in he imbued.