Adopa A private advisory · London Enquire
Adopa · Founded London, 2017 Adopa

Considered expertise
on artificial intelligence
and digital transformation.

A private advisory for boards and executive committees navigating the most consequential shifts in enterprise technology. Founded in 2017, led by a practitioner with more than twenty-six years across global banks, insurers and the firms that serve them.

Founder experience
More than twenty-six years of expertise across global banks and fintech.
Remit
AI and digital transformation, and the governance they demand.
Engagement
By introduction. Small number of mandates at any time.
Founded
2017 · London
Founder exp.
26+ yrs
Remit
AI · Digital Transformation · New Technology Adoption
Domicile
United Kingdom
§ II

A narrow practice, by design.

Adopa is a knowledge and advisory practice. We lead the thinking, the strategy and the programmes of work that make measurable changes in your organisation.

Our remit sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and the governance both demand of regulated institutions - with a deliberately small number of mandates at any one time.

01 / 07

AI strategy & advisory

Board-level expertise on where artificial intelligence can, and cannot, be trusted inside regulated businesses. We set the thesis, the guard-rails, and the measures of success. Automation and optimisation of systems and empowerment of people.

- Advisory
02 / 07

Digital transformation strategy

Independent direction-setting for enterprise-wide programmes: the case for change, the target operating model, and the sequencing that makes the ambition deliverable.

- Strategy
03 / 07

Web 3+

Coherent plan for strategically transformational technologies and their underpinnings (data, identity, tokenisation, blockchain where relevant) that sit beneath them. What is material, what is hype, how to position for the future.

- Advisory
04 / 07

Programme assurance & oversight

Independent oversight of material programmes on behalf of sponsors, executive committees and boards - read-outs in plain English, with the artefacts your risk function expects.

- Assurance
05 / 07

Data & identity frameworks

Policy and decision frameworks for the management of Identity and Access. Authorisation and Verification pathways that ensure you know who is doing what across your infrastructure.

- Structuring
06 / 07

Risk, compliance & governance

Policies, committees and controls that satisfy regulators and internal audit across AI and digital transformation programmes - written to survive examination.

- Governance
07 / 07

Digital adoption

The human side of the brief: operating-model change, executive enablement, and the behavioural work that determines whether the investment earns its return.

- Change
§ III
How we work
A posture of restraint,
applied to the most
restless categories in
enterprise technology.
i.

We set the thesis first.

Before any programme of work begins, we set out - in writing - the commercial case, the risks, and the measures of success. Engagements that cannot pass this test do not proceed.

ii.

Small teams, senior people.

Every mandate is led by a practitioner with two decades or more in the room. We do not staff with juniors and brief from afar; the seniority you meet is the seniority that does the thinking.

iii.

Institutional standard, always.

Our default is the scrutiny of a FTSE risk committee: documented controls, defensible decisions, and artefacts that survive examination - regulatory, audit, or otherwise.

iv.

Vendor-neutral, by policy.

We hold no reseller agreements and take no referral fees. Our recommendations reflect what is right for the client, stated plainly and, where necessary, unwelcomely.

v.

Discretion, as standard.

Our client list is not published. References are furnished privately, on request, and with the consent of those giving them.

§ IV

Where our work sits.

We work with institutions for whom the cost of getting these decisions wrong is not measured in quarters but in decades. The sectors below are where our founder's twenty-six-plus years of expertise are most concentrated.

01
Banking
Tier-one retail, commercial and investment banks, including institutions in the UK's top five. Systems, Processes, Technology and Operational changes to meet demanding standards.
- Primary
02
Asset & wealth management
Institutional asset managers and private wealth houses considering major transformation work.
- Primary
03
Fintech
Venture-backed operators and scale-ups requiring the governance expected by their enterprise customers. Agile enough to meet the needs of a fast growing business, robust enough for transition into highly regulated environments.
- Selected
04
Technology
A coherent plan, best practices and systems to take advantage of industry transformation - with the governance to make it stick.
- Selected
05
Security
Ensuring systems and processes that keep firms from being exploited, keeping commercial and customer information strictly private.
- Selected
06
Regulatory
Identifying and remediating issues and findings before they become financial or reputational damage, or putting right the issues found by auditors.
- Selected
§ V
By introduction

If this is the kind of expertise
you are looking for, write.

Adopa takes on a small number of mandates each year. If you are a board member, executive sponsor, or trusted adviser weighing a material decision in artificial intelligence or digital transformation, we are happy to have an exploratory conversation - in confidence, and without obligation.

Begin a conversation
Correspondence
hello@adopa.co.uk
Office
London, United Kingdom
Hours
By appointment, Monday - Friday
Privacy
Correspondence is treated in confidence. Client names are not published and references are furnished privately, with consent and anonymised if requested.